TEN stakes winners among his first Coolmore-consigned crop of two-year-olds this year, including Group 1 hero Camille Pissarro, was enough to ensure that Wootton Bassett’s yearlings would be in strong demand again, and so it proved.

On the final day of Book 1 on Thursday, a son of the sire sold for 4,300,000gns, the highest price for a yearling colt in the world in 2024 and a new European record for a yearling colt. Consigned by the Burns family’s Lodge Park Stud, the colt, out of the Galileo mare Park Bloom, was the talk of Park Paddocks before he entered the ring, and he did not disappoint. Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing outbid Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier.

Park Bloom’s sister Al Naamah set a European record at this sale 11 years ago when selling for 5,000,000gns. The pair are sisters to the Group 1 Oaks winner Was. The latest sale means that the Burns family and Lodge Park hold the records for the highest-priced yearling colt and filly ever sold at auction in Europe, both at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

Jamie Burns led up the colt and, later accompanied by his mother Patricia, said: “He is a beautiful horse and the family has always done us well. Hopefully, he will be the next one to enhance the pedigree. I was not really thinking when it went over four million - emotion took over; it was surreal. We have bred four generations on this colt’s page, and we also had Park Appeal, who is in Wootton Bassett’s pedigree, too.”

Alex Elliott was thrilled to get the colt, and said: “If you were going to paint a racehorse, he is as close to perfection as you can get. From the top to the bottom, from the farm he came from, the amount of time and money and love that the Burns family has put into that page, it just does not take any explaining to anyone. To get a physical like that, that is a lifetime achievement for anyone.

“I said, ‘Kia you have been second in two Derbys; this is the horse who could take you one place better.’ If he can run how he looks, he’ll have a spot in a stallion shed one day. Coolmore was never going to let that horse out of its sight - they are the best in the game.”

Karl Burke will train the colt for Amo Racing.

Top-class fillies

Amo Racing spent the week sourcing well-bred fillies, and they added another on the final day when securing the Camelot three-parts sister to multiple Group 1 winner Luxembourg. The daughter of the group-placed Sense Of Style was offered by Camas Park Stud on behalf of breeder Ben Sangster.

Asked if he was tempted to race her, Sangster said: “Very! I have a young man who is training [Ollie Sangster], but we will look for something for him next week. It is a strong market and she is a beautiful filly, and when you get two to tango, well I am just the lucky recipient! I hope she goes to a good home and lives up to expectations.

“Everything that has happened this week has exceeded expectations. I have been lucky, and Camelot has had a great year and his daughter winning the Arc has just put him right up there.”

COLTS with the potential to become stallions were high on the Godolphin shopping list this week, and it wasn’t a son of Dubawi who cost the most. That honour fell to a son of No Nay Never out of the listed-winning High Chaparral mare Bella Estrella from Ballylinch Stud at 2,200,000gns.

“He is one of the nicest horses we have ever brought to a sale,” said Ballylinch’s John O’Connor of the half-brother to the Group 2 Champagne Stakes winner Iberian, “and possibly the nicest. Ronan Wade, our yearling manager at Castlemartin, gave him the highest mark he has ever for a horse.

“We are delighted Sheikh Mohammed has bought the colt and we wish him every success.”

He added: “He is just the perfect yearling, and I hope he will make the perfect racehorse. He has a beautiful action and is the perfect mover, and vetted very well. Sheikh Mohammed is having some success with our stallions, let’s hope this horse goes on well too.

“It is an original pedigree from when the McCalmont family was based at Ballylinch. I bought [the dam] here at the December Sale, and most of that blacktype on the page has been bred by us - it is a very active family.”

Really wanted

Anthony Stroud said: “He is a lovely horse, a very good-looking horse, we all really liked him a lot. He has a wonderful pedigree, is from a very good stud farm, and was the one horse we really wanted today.”

Three seven-figure colts by Dubawi were purchased by Godolphin, most significantly the first foal out of the Group 1 Nassau Stakes winner Lady Bowthorpe for 2,000,000gns, Sheikh Mohammed’s team outbidding Amo. The colt was consigned by Luca and Sara Cumani’s Fittocks Stud on behalf of Emma Banks, who was at Tattersalls to watch the sale.

“I am very happy he has gone to a great owner and a great establishment,” Banks said. “He is a special horse. There are so many things going on in the world, and I have just sold a horse for two million! I am just so proud of Lady Bowthorpe. The fact that she has had such a gorgeous, attractive and well put together horse makes me so proud. He has a lovely full-brother. I might be able to afford to keep him now, and she is in foal to Too Darn Hot.”

Croom House

Godolphin purchased two yearlings from Denis Brosnan’s Croom House Stud at Goffs, and were back to the same source on Wednesday. This time it was for a Too Darn Hot colt out of the Galileo mare Knocknagree, knocked down to Anthony Stroud for 1,500,000gns. The colt received a timely update when his three-parts sister Idea Generation, purchased at this sale for 340,000gns, won the Grade 2 Flower Bowl Stakes at Saratoga.

Croom House Stud’s manager Joe Hartigan said: “We are absolutely over the moon; it is a great price and we are delighted. He has always been a belter of a colt, and when John O’Kelly came to see him in the spring, he held him in high regard, but you never know what is going to happen in the ring.”

At the same price, Stroud signed for a Dubawi colt out of the Lomitas mare Molly Malone. He saw off Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown and an online bidder. “I am delighted - fair play to Tweenhills for using us to consign him, he is a lovely horse,” said consignor David Cox of Baroda Stud. “Trade has been very strong. I was not expecting trade to be as strong as this.” Molly Malone won the Group 1 Prix du Cadran and has produced a Group 2 winner.

GODOLPHIN took centre-stage on Tuesday, buying the session’s top lot when paying 2,900,000gns for Grangemore Stud’s Dark Angel sibling to Charyn. The full-sister to this year’s dual Group 1 winner was another whose pedigree stood out as one of the potential stars of the sale.

It was a dream result for Grangemore Stud’s Guy and Serena O’Callaghan, the farm’s previous best at Tattersalls being the 850,000gns given by Sumbe for her year-older full-sister last year. Sumbe was again involved, this time into seven figures, but Nurlan Bizakov’s operation dropped out and bidding developed into a match between Anthony Stroud with Sheikh Mohammed, and Amo Racing.

“It is the stuff of dreams, and as a breeder it is what you always hope could happen,” smiled Guy O’Callaghan. “She has been flat out since she got here, but she has never turned a hair and showed exactly the same every time. It takes a very special horse to do that. I am doing cartwheels inside! I was not at Royal Ascot when Charyn won, but it is so very difficult for a horse to win there, it takes a great performance and that was a special day - and days like this can’t happen without that first.”

Grangemore Stud purchased the dam Futoon at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale for 100,000gns. O’Callaghan revealed that she has a Dark Angel colt at foot and is in foal to Blue Point.

Kildaragh coup

Another standout filly purchased by Godolphin was Kildaragh Stud’s Sea The Stars own-sister to the Group 1 winner Sea Silk Road, for 1,600,000gns. An emotional Peter Kavanagh said: “We have sold horses for over a million for clients, but never for ourselves. It is just amazing, and the culmination of a lot of work by a very good team at home. This will probably only happen once in a lifetime.

“It is lovely to have access to a stallion such as Sea The Stars, who was such a champion and is becoming so important. He gets good colts and fillies and he is kicking in as a super broodmare sire. He is going to have an influence comparable to Galileo. We have to thank Mrs Tsui for letting us use him.”