IN the late afternoon yesterday a new top price emerged at the Arqana Breeze Up Sale in the form of Grove Stud’s son of More Than Ready. The first foal of a Candy Ride mare, from a solid blacktype female line that includes the multiple Grade 1 winner Housebuster among its best performers, the colt was bought in Keeneland by Brendan Holland for $90,000, about €75,000.

Michael Donohue of BBA Ireland made the winning bid of €450,000, some six times the colt’s yearling valuation, and described his purchase as a “smashing colt, very intelligent and he did a fantastic breeze. Plans are presently undecided, but he could race on turf or dirt and could end up in the Middle East”.

The sale still had a number of hours to run before its completion, but the numbers at the time of writing show that it was running behind last year.

Few colts had a pedigree as smart as that of the son of No Nay Never out of Seeking Solace. Sold from Willie Browne’s Mocklershill, and visiting a sale ring for the first time, he is an own-brother to Coolmore Stud’s Ten Sovereigns, winner of the Group 1 July Cup at three, a year after landing the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes. Ross Doyle won the battle to secure the colt.

A little earlier Mocklershill sold a well-connected daughter of Expert Eye, off the mark with his first runners, to Federico Barberini and Apple Tree Stud for €240,000. Born in mid-May, the filly was sold at the Tattersalls December Sale for 85,000gns, or the equivalent of €100,000. She will ultimately have great appeal at stud too, her dam being an Oasis Dream half-sister to the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Queen’s Trust.

Sea’s sons make a splash

THIS year’s sale was only minutes old when a son of Sea The Stars out of La Mortola, a Dubawi half-sister to three Group 1 winners, strode into the ring.

The second lot on offer, he was consigned by Church Farm & Horse Park Stud and was bred by Newsells Park Stud’s owner Graham Smith-Bernal. Sold as a foal to Oneliner Stables for 170,000gns, he made a modest paper profit as a yearling when listed as sold to Kevin Philippart De Foy for 200,000gns. His third appearance in a sale ring saw him acquired by Stroud Coleman Bloodstock for €300,000

Two hours later and Thomond O’Mara’s Knockanglass Stables had a profitable pinhook when selling another son of the Gilltown Stud-based stallion for €220,000. This colt, out of a daughter of Fastnet Rock, was bred by the Tsui’s Sunderland Holding, and had sold for €50,000 last year at the Goffs Sportsman’s Sale. Mark McStay’s Avenue Bloodstock signed for the colt who comes from the family of the 1000 Guineas winner Miss France.

Second strike

This was a second strike for O’Mara. Among the early lots he offered a daughter of Wootton Basset who had been purchased for €70,000 at Arqana last October. On her return to the same ring she tripled in value to €210,000 and was signed for by YOHEA, the trading name for bloodstock agent Anne-Sophie Yoh. This half-sister to a couple of winners is from the immediate family of Group/Grade 1 winners Lethal Force, G Force and Flotilla.

Having failed to sell for 44,000gns at Tattersalls last October, a son of Candy Ride out of the Grade 3 winner and Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes runner-up Queen Of The Sand reappeared this week, another in an excellent Knockanglass consignment, and Satish Seemar was stretched to €150,000 to buy him.

Radcliffe and Bozzi hoping for some Magic

BLOODSTOCK agent Kerri Radcliffe struck within the first hour of the sale for a filly by Good Magic, the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winning son of Curlin who the following season added the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational. He was runner-up in the Kentucky Derby.

Robson Aguiar spent $145,000 to buy the half-sister to two winners as a yearling, and his bravery was rewarded when she more than doubled in value and sold for €280,000. Radcliffe was acting for Amo Racing. The team were back in buying action when paying €150,000 for Tally Ho Stud’s Kodiac son, the first foal of a placed half-sister to Group 2 Blandford Stakes winner Shamreen. The O’Callaghans had retained the colt at 55,000gns last autumn.

Later in the evening the only other juvenile by Good Magic was offered, this time from Tom Whitehead’s Powerstown Stud, and he also sold for €280,000. Marco Bozzi was the buyer listed for the second offspring of the stakes-winning Street Hero mare Vieja Luna. Whitehead sourced the colt for $60,000 (€50,000) last September in Keeneland.

Joanna Morgan invested 36,000gns in a daughter of Sioux Nation out of a half-sister to Group 1 winner Marbye last year. Offered through her daughter Katie McGivern’s Derryconnor Stud, and the subject of rave reviews after breezing, the filly was bought by Marco Bozzi for €230,000, nearly six times her yearling value. Sioux Nation has made a great start at stud, and this also helped to boost the filly’s resale price.

Derryconnor brought a second filly to the sale, Siyouni’s daughter of the winning Sea The Stars mare Stars So Bright. She cost Katie McGivern €68,000 at the Goffs Sportsman’s Sale, and sold to Mandore International Agency for €160,000.

Only Shamardal

The sole Shamardal in the sale was Powerstown Stud’s son of Group 3 winner and Group 1 runner-up Thawaany, a half-sister to Kew Gardens, and this 92,000gns yearling buy advanced to become a €280,000 sale to Colm Sharkey. He sold two lots after Stephen Hillen and Kevin Ryan gave €250,000 for Norman Williamson’s Oak Tree Farm offering of a Kingman colt that cost the Co Meath-based vendor €80,000 last year at the same venue.

In between that pair, Mick Murphy’s Longways Stables received €210,000 for a colt by Ribchester, the first foal of a group-placed juvenile daughter of Lilbourne Lad. The colt was returned unsold for €47,000 at Arqana as a yearling.

The only lot by the US Triple Crown winner Justify in the sale was Gaybrook Lodge’s half-brother to three winners out of a six-time winning half-sister to Grade 1 winner Spring Quality. He sold for €200,000 to Satish Seemar.