IF you are perusing the catalogue for the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, you might well be marking Lot 120 for a viewing, given that she is a filly by Caravaggio (Scat Daddy).

That Ashford Stud stallion, who spent his first three season at Coolmore, has sired seven stakes winners in his first crop, now three-year-olds, and five of that septet are fillies. They are dual Group 1 winner Tenebrism, Group 2 winner and Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes runner-up Agartha, and the stakes winners Dizzy Bizu, Her World and Galleria Borghese. Half of his group- and stakes-placed runners are also fillies.

That is one attraction for the yearling on sale, offered from Luke Barry’s Manister House Stud in Croom where she was bred in partnership with Grange Stud. The second attraction, not immediately obvious from the catalogue page, is that she is now a half-sister to a two-year-old winner, the Michael Dods-trained Pol Roger. Listed in the catalogue as unraced, he has since started twice, was a promising runner-up at Redcar on his debut, and went one better at Haydock in the past week.

Pol Roger is the first foal from the unraced Passegiata (Mastercraftsman), and she was purchased carrying him for 42,000gns. No doubt it was somewhat disappointing when Pol Roger sold for just 15,000gns as a yearling, but great credit to the buyers, bloodstock agent Barry Lynch and the colt’s trainer.

This is a solid female line, and should the cleverly-named Pol Roger go on to climb the ladder to group success, it would be in keeping with his family’s history, and no doubt lead to some champagne corks popping. Passegiata was the only one of the first five foals out of Souter’s Sister (Desert Style) not to race, and the others all won.

Foley’s purchase

Born two years before Passegiata, Mia Tesoro (Danehill Dancer) won five times, notably a listed race at three, and she was runner-up in the Group 2 Balanchine Stakes at Meydan. She sold to Joe Foley, on behalf of Steve Parkin, for 100,000gns, and she is the dam of a yearling colt by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) and a filly foal by Ghaiyyath (Dubawi).

Little wonder then that the shrewd Ballyhane Stud owner Foley was on the ball last December at Newmarket when Mia Tesoro’s dam Souter’s Sister was offered for sale.

Listed as being in foal to Showcasing, she was subsequently found not to be, leading to many crossing her off their list. Foley was not put off, and snapped up a real bargain when he signed for the Group 3 winner at 1,500gns.

Though a 16-year-old, Souter’s Sister had only failed to go in foal twice, and no doubt Joe Foley is looking forward to the spring of 2023 when she is due a foal by his champion two-year-old Soldier’s Call (Showcasing). Souter’s Sister is not the only group-winning juvenile in the family.

Her dam is out of a half-sister to Kahir Almaydan (Distinctly North), winner of the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes by six lengths and the Listed Champion 2YO Trophy by nine. He was third to Royal Applause in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes.