TWO weeks of selling at Tattersalls got off to a flying start with a single session of yearlings on Monday.

Irish vendors figured prominently, but there was one headline act. James Cloney of Clara Stud in Co Kilkenny sold a filly for a record price of 900,000gns.

The daughter of Dark Angel is a half-sister to the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Camille Pissarro, sold last year to M.V. Magnier and White Birch Farm for 1.25 million guineas. What a revelation their Pivotal dam Entreat has been since she was acquired by Cloney for just 14,000gns. Half of her eight winners are stakes winners, and she is also dam of Group 1 winner and sire Golden Horde.

The purchaser, bloodstock agent Henry Lascelles, spoke about his purchase afterwards, but did not identify the new owner. Speculation was that she would, after a racing career, join the stellar broodmare band belonging to Lady Bamford. Lascelles said: “She has got an amazing pedigree, two of her siblings will be stallions, and there is a lot of Pivotal coming through.

“She is not going to be an early type; she will be a broodmare of the future and has been bought for a British owner-breeder. She will be trained in England, but plans have yet to be made. She is a big girl and will take a bit of time, but the mare is an amazing producer. We thought with that pedigree, we would have to get to that sort of price.”

Fillies of such quality are a rarity in the December Sale, and Cloney explained her entry. “She was due to sell in October Book 1 but, typically, just as you get the update, you get a setback. She got cast in her box two days before her sale date. These things happen, but it is great for Tattersalls to put on today and deliver this result.”

”Emotional rollercoaster”

He was fulsome in his admiration for the 18-year-old Entreat, whom he purchased carrying Golden Horde, and just after her first foal had provided a timely update as a four-year-old by becoming the mare’s first winner. “She’s some mare, she just pours pure class into her stock. It’s an emotional rollercoaster with her, but when she does it, she does it so well.

“As breeders, we’re all dreamers and you do kind of dream for this to happen. It’s unbelievable that it just keeps happening with this mare. It’s kind of exciting, especially because Entreat has travelled to Justify, so we’re expecting a nice foal by him in early January. She’s back with me now, she came back home in May, so she’ll be getting an extra scoop of nuts this evening!

“With her, I feel she’s so unique. Sometimes you get mares who produce good racehorses, but they don’t perform at the sales. But in my eyes, and I think in a lot of peoples’ eyes, she ticks every box because she’s able to throw the stock and then they go and back it up. There are not too many mares with two Group 1 winners under their belt, or four stakes winners, especially all by different stallions.

“She stamps her stock no matter what stallion she goes to. This is a big strong filly and I’d draw a lot of comparisons with Camille Pissarro. I know I might sound biased, but I actually thought she might be that little bit stronger at the same stage.”

Dark Angel had another top-10 lot, and two of the 15 yearlings to bring a six-figure sum, when agent Alex Elliott spent 145,000gns on Ballyvolane Stud’s full-brother to the Group 3 Desmond Stakes winner Mutasarref.

WHILE the sale-topping Dark Angel filly was a distance ahead of the rest, she was followed by three yearlings by Sea The Stars. The best pair of these, along with the top lot, are three of the five highest prices realised in the history of the December Yearling Sale. They all happened on a day when the sale turnover, average and median all set new benchmarks, and were wide margin percentages better than last year.

Bloodstock agent Jamie McCalmont spent 400,000gns on a Sea The Stars own-sister to classic hope Seacruiser, winner of a maiden at Newmarket in September for trainer Ralph Beckett. McCalmont headed off a challenge from Anthony Stroud for the Norelands Stud-consigned filly.

“She has been bought for Marc Chan,” the agent revealed. “He has the brother Seacruiser, who we hope will be a really nice horse for next year. We bought Sir Dinadan [2024 juvenile winner for Chan and Beckett] from Norelands last year and Seacruiser, and Green Impact [2024 Group 2 juvenile winner for Chan and Jessica Harrington] was raised there. It was a farm that was founded by Harry [McCalmont] and my grandfather, so there is a lot of sentiment. But more importantly, it seems to be working.

“She is a lot more short-coupled than her brother; he looks like a real mile and a half horse. Marc wants to start breeding horses and Sea The Stars is a great broodmare sire and, if the brother ends up really good, it will be really nice to have a sister. Marc is really happy; he really wanted this filly.”

Yulong invests

A son of Sea The Stars became the fifth-highest price in the history of the sale, when selling for 375,000gns to Zhang Yuesheng with his general manager Vin Cox signing as Willingham, the local stud farm purchased by Yulong recently.

Cox said: “We felt he is a very likeable horse, by a stallion who is doing a particularly good job and he is out of a group-winning racemare. He fits the plans we are trying to put together to get a good batch of horses to go to the races. We will break him in and we will worry about a trainer further down the line. We will start him off in the UK. Obviously, we have an enterprise in Australia and if he fits the bill further down the line, that is a possibility, but the short and medium term is in Europe.”

The Barton Stud-consigned colt was a significant pinhooking triumph, having been purchased for 100,000gns at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale.

Haggas buys

The fourth lot to realise 300,000gns or more was another daughter of Sea The Stars. This filly is out of the Street Cry mare My Timing, consigned by the Castlebridge Consignment on behalf of the Tsui family’s Sunderland Holding, and was bought by William Haggas for 360,000gns.

“She is for one of my owner-breeders,” said Haggas, adding: “I know the family well, all of them have been more than useful, the first [Sea On Time] was the best. This is a nice, straightforward but backward filly and it will be three or four before she comes good.”

My Timing’s first three foals were all fillies by Sea The Stars, all have won and two, Truthful and Sea Just In Time, are catalogued in the Tattersalls December Mares Sale this week, offered with Timeform ratings of 95 and 98 respectively. They are descended from the four-time Group 1 winner Time Charter.