BOOMING trade on day two of the Goffs Orby Book 1 Sale saw total spending over the two-day auction surge to €53 million, the highest since 2007.

The average price of €124,000 has only been bettered once (in 2018) and the median price of €85,000 was just shy of last year’s record median of €87,000.

A clearance rate of 86.5% was down slightly on last year’s 89% but the catalogue was 5.8% bigger this year.

Goffs CEO Henry Beeby said: "We have seen a two-day trade of real strength across the board. As is sometimes the case, it seems that there was a greater concentration of the stand-outs on the second day this year which has led to statistics that have almost completely flipped from last year. However, we judge the sale in totality and have been pleased to return figures that that have improved on last year’s superb sale which grew by 24% following a remarkable recovery in 2021."

There were just three yearlings by Frankel in Book 1 and one of them topped the sale when fetching €1.85 million on Wednesday evening. The filly was consigned by the Hyde family’s Camas Park Stud and was bought by Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier, who outbid Kieran Lalor of Al Shira'aa Farms.

The filly is a half-sister to Tilsit, a Group 2 winner for Juddmonte and trainer Charlie Hills two years ago. Tilsit was bred by Juddmonte but they sold the dam Multilingual - a half-sister to Kingman - for $525,000 to breeder Ben Sangster before Tilsit made his debut.

“We have a long history with the Sangster family and in recent years we’ve been very lucky buying off Ben, including with Luxembourg,” said Magnier. “I’m delighted for Ben and all the guys who brought her to the sale. She's a very nice filly, her sire Frankel is doing exceptionally well and she’s very well bred. She really has everything, so let’s hope she turns out to be a good one.”

Last year Camas Park consigned a No Nay Never yearling filly out of the mare for 780,000gns at Tattersalls. Named Multiple Choice, she made a pleasing debut when fifth at Saint-Cloud earlier this month.

Earlier in the day Al Shira'aa again played the role of underbidder when a full-sister to dual Group 1 winner Saffron Beach sold for €1.65 million.

Consigned by Ballylinch Stud on behalf of breeders China Horse Club, the yearling filly was bought by bloodstock agent Amanda Skiffington on behalf of owner Fiona Carmichael, whose colours have been carried to Group 1 success by Intellogent in recent years.

Intriguingly, exactly one year ago Skiffington paid €425,000 at Goffs for a full-brother to Saffron Beach. That colt, named Granger Bay, is also owned by Carmichael and is in training with Jane Chapple-Hyam but is unraced.

Today’s purchase represents the biggest price Carmichael has ever paid for a horse and she said: “I saw her yesterday and straight away I knew I really liked her. I put a price limit on it but the last bid pushed me out of my comfort zone. I am delighted to get her, I think she’s lovely and she will be an asset to me in the long run.”

Asked about the unraced full-brother, Skiffington said: “We’ve always been told he’s special.” Carmichael added: “We know we’ve got something nice.”

Based on the island of Jersey, Carmichael has only been in racing for 12 years. She bought her first racehorse following the death of her husband, Mark, in 2008.

Her first big success on the track came in 2012 when she was the joint-owner of unbeaten juvenile Toronado, who was sold privately to Sheikh Joaan Al Thani before finishing fourth in the 2000 Guineas.

She has recently got into breeding as well and has acquired a fine future broodmare prospect with her latest purchase.

A couple of hours earlier another New Bay filly was turning heads when selling for €480,000 to agent Hubie de Burgh and owner Craig Bernick.

Bred and sold by Joe Banahan’s Moortown House Stud outside Navan, the filly is a half-sister to You Send Me, a Group 3 runner-up this year for trainer Fozzy Stack and who races in the Bernick colours.

Bernick said: “She was our top choice today. She’s a beautiful filly, not as big and rangy as You Send Me, who is going to improve with age. This filly looks like she can run at two and be a miler at three. We’re excited to get her.”

Aspen Grove won a Grade 1 race for Bernick and Stack in Belmont this summer and is being aimed at a Grade 1 race in Canada soon.

The fancied Les Pavots (Francois-Henri Graffard) will represent Bernick in the Prix Marcel Boussac on Sunday.

Vendor Joe Banahan, who is better known as the senior race starter in Irish racing, said: "It's incredible. You spend a lifetime trying to achieve these results and we have hit the board eventually. We only have three or four mares and my wife Edel does all the work while I am racing. Breeding thoroughbreds has been in my family for three generations. My late father Percy bred the good sprinter Almaty and Hong Kong star Military Attack."

The Banahans acquired this filly’s dam Coco Rouge – a winning Shamardal half-sister to 1000 Guineas first past the post Jacqueline Quest – for a bargain price just over a decade ago.

“I just thought she was a nice, big Shamardal mare who walked very well, and Jacqueline Quest had recently entered stud so I thought the page might take off,” said Banahan. “Luckily, it did, and Jacqueline Quest became a winner machine, with the likes of Line Of Duty and Onassis in the past, and Jackie Oh..

“We made a few mistakes with sires early in Coco Rouge’s career, she was a little quiet but through no fault of her own, and then we sent her to Starspangledbanner and the result was You Send Me, who’s got her breeding record up and running.

“It was a handicapper friend of mine who put me onto New Bay. He told me after his first season he was getting phenomenal strike-rates of horses rated 90 or more. It shouldn’t have been possible, what he was doing, so I asked John O’Connor at Ballylinch Stud for a nomination and luckily he agreed. The sire has been on an upward spiral ever since.”

Having spent over €1.2 million on three lots here on Tuesday, Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin team spent roughly the same amount on another three yearlings on Wednesday.

Top of their list on day two was a €650,000 Kingman half-brother to champion two-year-old Skitter Scatter. The colt was consigned by pinhooker Philip Stauffenberg who bought the horse for €550,000 from breeders Airlie Stud at Goffs last November.

American bloodstock agent Kim Valerio bought four horses this week, including several for owner Leonard Green who has horses with Donnacha O’Brien. Valerio’s most expensive Goffs purchase came on Wednesday when she paid €500,000 for a Wootton Bassett colt from Ciaran Conroy’s Glenvale Stud.

The colt is the first foal out of an unraced full-sister to Group 1 winners Hermosa, Hydrangea and The United States. He was bought on behalf of Commonwealth, a sports investment company which owned 25% of this year’s Kentucky Derby winner Mage.

Commonwealth’s Chase Chamberlin said: “He’s the second horse Kim has got for us in Europe so we’re really excited about him. He’s just beautiful and he’s got a massive pedigree. We said we weren’t going to buy a horse unless one begged us to take them home, and this one did. He’ll head to Donnacha O’Brien now. He was pretty crucial in this part of the purchasing process.”

That €500,000 price was matched when the Hong Kong Jockey Club acquired a Mehmas colt from Dermot and Catherine Dwan’s Kellsgrange Stud in Callan, Co Kilkenny.

This colt is a full-brother to Quattroelle, a five-year-old mare who has won at Grade 2 level in the US this year and been placed in Grade 1 company. She was bought privately to go to America after making one start for Kevin Coleman as a juvenile.

Mick Kinane, who bought four horses at the Orby Sale for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said of the Mehmas colt: “He’s a nice, lovely balanced horse, and his sister is a very good horse. If he’s half as good as her he should be fine.

“Mehmas is new on the scene in Hong Kong, and there’s only one or two I know of over there, so he’s in his infancy. But I see no reason why he shouldn't work."

Forenaghts Stud achieved its best sales result under the stewardship of manager Caoimhe Doherty, with a Frankel half-sister to listed winner Magical Touch out of the multiple graded-winning Machiavellian mare Criticism selling to BBA Ireland for €400,000.

“She’s a beautiful filly with great size, a great walk and the most wonderful temperament,” said Doherty. “She did everything perfectly from the day she arrived at Goffs. She had plenty of people on her. There was a lot of footfall for her and she did a huge amount of showing, and she’s gone to a really good owner. I hope that she’s a superstar for them.”

Doherty added: "The dam is back in foal to Ghaiyyath, so we’re going back to the Dubawi cross that produced Magical Touch, and we retained her Night Of Thunder two-year-old even though he’s a colt. He’s called Chicago Critic and he finished a close third to Jessica Harrington’s good Blue Point filly Bluedrum on debut recently, so maybe we’ll keep hold of the family in another way.”

Book 2 of the Orby Sale takes place on Thursday and Friday.