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Godolphin spent fortunes on yearlings by Sea The Stars last month and Sheikh Mohammed's racing operation continued that trend at Goffs on Wednesday when paying €1 million for a colt foal by Sea The Stars.
Consigned by Baroda Stud on behalf of owner-breeder Zhang Yuesheng, the brown colt is a full-brother to Teona, winner of the Group 1 Prix Vermeille. Their dam Ambivalent (a Group 1 winner herself by Authorized) was sold at Goffs last year for €925,000 carrying today's top lot.
After outbidding Juddmonte for the top lot, Godolphin representative Anthony Stroud said: "He was a very nice individual, walked very well and had a lot of presence. He's out of a Group 1 mare who has produced a Group 1 filly, so all the stars were aligned. The pedigree and conformation matched together, and he seems to have a wonderful temperament."
David Cox of Baroda Stud commented: "When I saw who was vetting him this week I kind of thought we could get there. One team in particular were looking at him, and also looking at what the top prices for Goffs at foals had been in the past, so I thought ‘right, we could be getting into that bracket’.
“When you have a mare like that, who’s a Group 1 winner and bred a Group 1 winner, and then she turns up with a foal who looks like that and he also X-rays clear and has a brilliant mind every show, you know you’ve got something special. I’m delighted for Mr Zhang and the team. This is the second seven-figure lot we’ve sold for him this year.
“He was always a class horse, and always stood out. Vin Cox [Yulong] came up in the summer and saw him, and said ‘let’s see if we can get a few quid back for the mare’, who they paid a bit of money for at Goffs last year. She’s paid for herself now. It’s great for the team at home, everyone does such a brilliant job.”
Wednesday's session included more blacktype pedigrees than the other three days of the Foal Sale, and so big prices were expected, but trade turned out to be considerably stronger than most people expected. The day saw the highest ever figures recorded for turnover, average and median in a single session of this sale.
In all, €18,246,500 was spent on Wednesday, an increase of 47% from last year's corresponding session. The average price surged by 61% to €115,485 and the median rocketed by 64% to €82,000.
The clearance rate was an excellent 88%, with 158 of the 180 lots who were offered changing hands.
Night Of Thunder
Scandinavian couple Alice Weiste and John Christensen secured a Night Of Thunder colt for €550,000 from the Castlebridge Consignment. The colt's dam Assurance, a winning half-sister to Group 1 scorer Gear Up, has a very good two-year-old filly in Japan this year named Pretty Diva and her Mehmas yearling filly sold for 420,000gns at Tattersalls last month.
Goffs' Scandinavian agent Filip Zwicky, who acted on behalf of the Christensens, said: "He has been bought as a pinhook and will come back to the Orby Sale next year."
The Christensens have horses in training with Karl Burke and others in France and Dubai, as well as in Scandinavia. Previously they bought a Footstepsinthesand half-brother to Lucky Vega at Goffs for €300,000 and resold him at the Orby Sale for €630,000.
Night Of Thunder was responsible for three more of the 11 top-priced yearlings on Wednesday. Pinhooker Phillip Stauffenberg paid €440,000 for one of his colts from Des Leadon and Marianne Klay's Swordlestown Little. The colt is the first foal out of a winning sister to Group 2 winner Lilbourne Lad.
Stauffenberg said: "We’re punching high again with this pinhook but the sire can’t do anything wrong; I really think he’s an exceptional sire, and this was an exceptional colt by him.
"I just hope he will be lucky for us in the sales ring and, most importantly, will be good later on the racecourse. It’s difficult to buy, but then we all expected it would be on the back of the yearling sales being so strong. We had to expect that we would have to stretch more than we would like to. For this one, it was stretching quite a lot more; whether it was worth it or not, we will find out."
Swordlestown Little also sold another Night Of Thunder colt, this one out of Miss Finland, a winning Invincible Spirit half-sister to Terebellum, on behalf of a client to Longview Stud for €290,000.
Grassick delight
Owner-breeder Nurlan Bizakov bought a Night Of Thunder colt from the Grassick family's Newtown Stud for €340,000. This foal is out of an unraced full-sister to Group 2 winner Knight To Behold.
A delighted Cathy Grassick, also chairperson of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association, said: "We were selling on behalf of the breeder, Neil Jones, who passed away this year. He was a great breeder and great supporter of ours, and it was lovely for his family to see their father's breeding come to fruition."
The colt's dam M'Lady Nicole (by Sea The Stars) sells at Goffs later this week, in foal to Night Of Thunder.
On the strength of this week's sale, Grassick added: "I am wearing many hats here this week - I bought foals, sold foals and I am supporting breeders here as well. So many people have had success this week and it is great to see a thriving sale."
Bizakov's Sumbe operation, represented by agent Tony Fry, also bought a Blue Point colt for €320,000 from Adam Morgan's Greenville House Stud in Co Kilkenny.
A few minutes earlier Greenville House sold a Lope De Vega filly to Maurice Regan's Newtown Anner Stud for €450,000. The filly is a half-sister to Group 2 winner Living In The Past and this year's listed winner Jungle Drums, both of those by Bungle Inthejungle.
Greenville House had a third six-figure sale when a Mehmas colt related to Charyn was sold for €100,000. All three foals were sold by Greenville House on behalf of clients.
Deja vu for Carrick Hill
A year ago Aaron Langan and Ger Hickey of Carrick Hill Stud sold a Sea The Stars colt foal here for €310,000 which they described as "life-changing". They had bought the mare, Celeste De La Mer, for €19,000. Today they sold a Blue Point half-brother to that foal for €360,000 to Denis Brosnan's Epona Bloodstock.
Langan said: "This was every bit as good if not better than last year. We took a chance on Blue Point and he had a great year. Ger any myself are ordinary lads who are passionate about racing and breeding. We are having fun and proving that you don't have to be a big operation to succeed at this game."
M.V. Magnier paid €420,000 for a Camelot half-brother to classic winner Mother Earth. The colt was consigned by the Mansergh-Wallace family's Grenane House Stud in Tipperary.
Magnier said: "In fairness to Adrian and Mark [Wallace], they’ve been big supporters of ours [Coolmore] for a long time. They send a lot of their mares to us, and we’re just delighted to be able to support them in return. It’s a great result for them.”
Magnier was impressed by the briskness of business at Goffs all week. “It’s fantastic how it’s gone, the market’s been strong the whole way through, from Monday to now, and the best thing about it all is the amount of young people around here. It’s a great sign, it shows there’s a lot of new people coming into the business.
"In fairness to Goffs, they’ve done a great job in encouraging these young lads and girls to buy horses. It can’t be all about us auld lads forever!”
The Foal Sale concludes on Thursday and is followed by the Breeding Stock Sale on Friday and Saturday.
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