THE Harper family’s Whitsbury Manor Stud emerged as big winners over the two days of this week’s Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale, taking the leading consignor honours ahead of Tally-Ho Stud, selling the highest-priced lot of the week, and yearlings traded by their stallions Havana Grey (12 sold for 566,000gns) and Sergei Prokofiev (15 sold for 503,000gns) put them in first and third positions on the sire table by aggregate.

Following a series of yearly increases in the sale’s statistics, the Somerville auction was extended to two days this year. This, combined with market conditions, led to the clearance rate dropping from 90% to 78% and the median price falling back to 22,000gns from 27,000gns.

The sale’s leading spender was bloodstock agent Alex Elliott, who purchased the top lot of the week, spending 140,000gns for a daughter of Havana Grey on behalf of Amo Racing.

She was one of just three lots to realise a six-figure sum. Elliott signed for three of the top four lots this week, one bought in partnership.

The sale-topper is out of a three-parts sister to Stepper Point, winner of the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes and twice runner-up at Group 1 level.

“She was the stand-out filly for me over the two days,” Elliott noted. “She could have been offered later in Book 2, but Ed [Harper] does an outstanding job and brought her here to stand out. She just has loads of quality and I loved her when I first saw her. We had to take breeze-up men out for a long way; it was nice to buy for an end-user.”

Elliott was also acting on behalf of Amo Racing earlier when going to 90,000gns for Chasemore Farm’s homebred Sergei Prokofiev half-brother to the 96-rated juvenile Regal Gem, and from the immediate family of the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp winner The Platinum Queen. Sergei Prokofiev is responsible for Amo Racing’s Group 3 winner Arizona Blaze.

Another Whitsbury Manor standout sale was that of their son of resident sire Showcasing for 75,000gns. The Big Evs and Big Mojo team of trainer Mick Appleby and agent Conor Quirke were with owner Jeremy Young, and signed under the J & A Young (Leicester) and Quirke Bloodstock buying partnership.

“I love Showcasing,” said Appleby. “He is very much a favourite sire. We have waited for this horse; we all picked him out. His full-sister looks to have ability and he comes from a great farm.” That sibling, the juvenile Fondest Dream, a graduate of this sale last year, won her only start and is being aimed at the £150,000 Tattersalls Auction Stakes on October 4th.

WITH the vast majority of the yearling sales yet to be staged, and vendors making nervous final preparations for some of the biggest editions of the year at Tattersalls in Ireland and Newmarket, and at Goffs in Kildare, it is far too early to make judgements, or predictions, about the likely outcomes of these important paydays in the lives of breeders and pinhookers.

With eyes wide open, participants are naturally realistic about market conditions, recognising a softening in demand, and vendors, depending on their particular circumstances, will adjust their expectations accordingly. Market conditions which are currently prevailing, influenced by conditions within and outside racing circles, also present opportunities, and agents report new clients are availing of the value that can be had.

Sales companies are often in a no-win situation, with vendors demanding the opportunity to sell their stock, but this is a double-edged sword too, with more lots on offer than there is sometimes a marketplace for on the day. The decision by Tattersalls to extend their Somerville Sale to two days was in part due to the success of previous editions. The larger numbers resulted in a predicable fall in the sales’ metrics.

On face value, the percentage of horses sold this week, including an unusually significant number of private sales, was 78%, down from a comparative 90% last year. This will almost inevitably happen when the sale base, and especially at the level that the Somerville Sale is pitched, is expanded. On a more positive note, and again including private sales, 58 more yearlings sold over the two days. How this will play out as the season progresses is anyone’s guess.

All yearling sales, in good and not so good years, have winners and losers. This year is, and will be, no different. For some years there was no market for horses to Italy, where racing was on its last legs, but this week bloodstock agent Marco Bozzi purchased 10 lots, double his takeout from last year’s renewal.

Again, until the sale season ends, it is impossible to extrapolate from this week’s figures what will happen over the coming weeks.

While sales company executives will pick out the best parts of any sale, and highlight them, it is also right that they address any concerns or worries that exist on the sales grounds. Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony did so on Tuesday evening in his statement. He said: “The demand for places, and the conscious decision to reduce overall numbers in the two weeks of the forthcoming Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, has resulted in a two-day Somerville Yearling Sale for the first time, and a very significant increase in numbers, all of which has contributed to a clearance rate which has fallen some way short of where we would like it to be.

“Certain sectors of the market have held up well, with a wide-margin record number of lots selling for 50,000gns or more [59 compared to 44 in a smaller catalogue], but the evident softening of the market at the lower levels, which has been a consistent theme this year, also reflects prevailing economic realities which we are all aware of. As with every sale at Tattersalls we will assess all the factors at play with a view to establishing the optimum format for the Somerville Yearling Sale going forward.”

JUST as they were at the Goffs UK Premier Sale, yearlings by Starman are getting plenty of attention, and the Tally-Ho stallion had 17 of his first crop sell for an average of 31,882gns, and he ranked second on the sire table behind Havana Grey.

The Group 1-winning sprinter’s star of the sale was offered from the O’Callaghan’s Co Westmeath farm, and topped the first session of the auction.

With his stock making up to £220,000 a week earlier, perhaps Richard Ryan bought value when paying 100,000gns for a half-sister to Group 3 Palace House Stakes victor Seven Question. The February-born filly is actually from the family of Starman’s sire, Dutch Art.

“She is a lovely filly,” Ryan commented, before revealing that his purchase would go into training with Karl Burke. “She is out of a proven mare, is a half-sister to a Palace House winner, she has a great mind, and a lot to like with a fabulous walk. I like the sire and I quite like them as a bunch, and think he has got every chance.”

It was a son of another Tally-Ho stallion who made up the trio of six-figure lots, Alex Elliott combining with Billy Jackson-Stops to secure a Cotai Glory golt for 100,000gns on behalf of Valmont and Michael Blencowe.

George Scott will train the chesnut, who was offered by Houghton Bloodstock. “We are delighted to get him,” Elliott commented. “He has a very fast pedigree and comes from a very good farm. He looks like a type of horse we can really get on with.”

The colt is out of the unraced dam Millvina, a daughter of Dutch Art and a half-sister to the Group 2 Temple Stakes winner Priceless. Elliott said: “Dutch Art is a broodmare sire I like, and Cotai Glory consistently punches above his weight and this is a very exciting horse. We will aim to buy six together and two will go to George Scott, two to Andrew Balding and two to Ralph Beckett.

“For George we have focused on getting some fast type of two-year-old sorts, he has excelled with that sort of horse, while for Andrew and Ralph we will probably get later-developing types.”

FIRST up, best dressed.

Paddy and Helena Burns will be aware of that saying as they offered the first lot in the ring at this year’s Tattersalls Somerville Sale, and got the trade off to a positive start.

The colt by Acclamation, out of the stakes-placed Zoffany mare Adelante from their Loughtown Stud in Donadea, Co Kildare, was bought by Oliver St Lawrence Bloodstock for 75,000gns. The buyer was delighted, saying: “He is a nice horse from good vendors in the Burns family. He is a nice, honest colt by Acclamation, he ticks the boxes, and is for Fawzi Nass.”

Bloodstock agent Kevin Ross was on the mark for Ballyhimikin Stud’s son of Palace Pier, the first foal of a twice-raced daughter of Dubawi. From an outstanding distaff family, the colt cost the agent 75,000gns.

Powerstown Stud’s Tom Whitehead went the extra furlong, spending 72,000gns on a Havana Grey colt, the first foal out of the Footstepsinthesand mare Deep Impression and offered by Pier House Stud. “He is from a fast family and has been bought to breeze,” said Whitehead. “I have not had any to breeze by Havana Grey so far, but have bred to him and he has been lucky for me.”

The dual winner Deep Impression is a half-sister to the nine-time winner and South African Group 2 winner Gorongosa, and that daughter of Montjeu has also bred two blacktype winners.

THE 15-year-old Ruairi Kilmartin’s incredible pinhook of a Dark Angel filly was surely the story of the week.

Bought for €7,000 last year, she was resold by his father Dermot’s Kildallan Farm to Paul Corrigan for 70,000gns.

“It is unbelievable,” said the young student, who skipped school to see his first pinhook sold. “When I bought her as foal, I thought I might be able to double my money; I never thought she would make that today. I am over the moon.”

His father was back the following day with their only other offering of the week, a colt by Inns Of Court. The half-brother to the fast filly Believing, who finished second last time out in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, having won the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes in July, was sold for 75,000gns, bought by Highflyer Bloodstock, Eve Johnson Houghton and Middleham Park. Tom Palin was on hand to discuss the purchase.

“I thought he was one of the standouts of the sale. He walks for fun and the page is there for all to see as he is a half-brother to a fantastic horse,” he said, before quipping: “Seeing is Believing! We have a big love affair with Inns Of Court with Ziggy’s Dream and The Strikin Viking – for us the sire can do no wrong. I think this colt is good value, and he could look cheap, and could look expensive, in 12 months’ time!

“He goes to Eve who can ready horses and is an exceptional trainer. We have one horse with her, but she is a trainer we had on our radar for a long time and we have wanted to get the right horses to her.”

OFF to a fine start with his first runners, it was no surprise to see a son of Sands Of Mali among the week’s leading lots. Clive Cox added him to his list of purchases on Monday.

“I liked him when I saw him, and I liked him even more when he came into the ring; he showed himself off really well,” the trainer said of the Barton Stud-consigned bay. There is plenty of stock around, and it is being able to pick and buy the ones you are pleased to take home, and this fella certainly fits the bill.” The colt realised 85,000gns.

Another first-crop sire catching the buyers’ eyes is Darley’s Space Blues, and a colt by him was bought for Newmarket-based trainer Michael Bell by his son Nick, who signed for the purchase at 82,000gns. Sold by Clearwater Stud, the February-born colt is out of the three-year-old winner Stay Forever, and from the family of the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes winner Plea Bargain. It is the top-class family of Time Charter, the champion older mare of 1983.

“I am a big fan of Space Blues. I think this horse is very athletic and he goes back to a really top-class family,” said Michael Bell. “Space Blues was a very tough and consistent horse, and as he was a speedy son of Dubawi he has every chance of making it.

“This fellow looks very uncomplicated. I am hoping he is for an existing client, but I need to make a couple of calls!”