A NUMBER of notable transactions late in the sale on Friday were led by a daughter of New Approach from Jim Bolger’s Redmondstown Stud that sold to Dermot Farrington for €450,000. A half-sister to three Group 1 performers by Galileo, she is out of a Danehill daughter of Smaoineamh.

John Ferguson made three significant purchases as the sale drew to a close. A son of Dawn Approach and the stakes-placed Lil’s Boy mare Simonetta caught the eye and realised €300,000. His dam was bought a year before carrying this foal for just €50,000 from Redmondstown Stud. Simonetta is a half-sister to the dam if Dewhurst Stakes winner Intense Focus. Esker Lodge Stud consigned the colt.

Another €300,000 buy by Ferguson was the Dark Angel colt out of Vanishing Grey and the Springfort Park Stud offering was sold three lots from the end of the sale. His stakes-placed dam is a half-sister to the dual Group 1 winning sprinter Kingsgate Native.

Oghill House Stud sold a son of Invincible Spirit to Ferguson for €280,000. The dam Sanna Bay did not run but her first three foals have and all are winners. They are headed by the stakes-winning Shamardal filly Dusky Queen. Joe Osborne did the bidding for Ferguson when acquiring a Cape Cross colt offered from Swordlestown Little. He sold for €140,000.

Just two lots later and it took a bid of €145,000 from Kilmoney Cottage Stud to buy Grennanstown Stud’s Dark Angel own-sister to the group-placed Midnite Angel.

Two sons from the first crop of Lethal Force did well. A half-brother to Gathering Power sold from Tara Stud to Yeomanstown Stud for €135,000, while Middlelane Farm’s first foal from a placed half-sister to Cheveley Park Stakes runner-up Rimth was bought by Shadwell for €120,000.

At the end of five days of selling foals Henry Beeby commented: “I nearly don’t need to say it but we are, of course, delighted to have smashed a foal record for the second year in succession as the €1.1 million paid by John Ferguson for the Dubawi colt out of Nightime is an Irish record for a colt foal, comfortably eclipsing the €850,000 we achieved for the colt from the first crop of Sea The Stars in 2011.

“The Dubawi was the highlight of another superb Goffs Foal Sale that has enjoyed a trade of depth, consistency and real fireworks especially for those that appealed the most. That we were entrusted to offer the only Galileo colt foal of the year anywhere is also a wonderful endorsement of the Goffs service and it was fitting that he was the second highest price of the sale.

first choice

“Whilst we have not quite kept pace with the records set last year when the sale was topped by the record breaking €1.8 million Frankel filly, and when the average and median were up by 41% and 29%, the statistics are the second best on record which is the cause for some celebration, although it must be noted that the clearance rate is less than 2014 which mirrors the trends seen throughout the autumn at the yearling sales to an extent. However, this is very much the first choice for the cream of the Irish foal crop every year at a sale at which pinhookers, end-users and international buyers choose to invest, and it is revealing that today’s median price actually rose by 6% and the clearance rate was an impressive 84%.

“Indeed, this is another Goffs sale that has truly outperformed the market over the last five years so it was no surprise that we were inundated with entries leading to an additional day at the start of the week which may have been another factor in the reduction of the week’s clearance rate.

“Whilst some of those foals may not have been the most commercial we enjoyed huge interest on every day of the sale and the five days has consolidated the amazing growth of recent years and this sale’s market leading position.”