WITH an early press deadline it is always difficult to keep up to the minute with happenings in the ring at Newmarket during the best day of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale, the concentration of quality appearing as night falls on Park Paddocks.

Just as we went to press the full-sister to classic winner Chaldean was sold by breeders Whitsbury Manor Stud to Amo Racing for 2.5 million guineas, outbidding Paddy Twomey.

The price matched the European record price for a foal.

Bidding narrowed down to Twomey standing by the back exit and on the phone, and Kia Joorabchian of Amo Racing in the bidders. For a longtime it looked as though Twomey was successful at 2.4 million guineas but, after a protracted time and a phone call made by Joorabchian, the Amo Racing boss signalled his 2.5 million guineas bid and that sealed the deal.

Audarya colt

Much anticipation also surrounded the appearance in the ring of a Frankel colt, the second offspring of the Wootton Bassett mare Audarya. She won the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet on the way to claiming victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. Offered from the Swinburn’s Genesis Green Stud, he sold to Amo Racing for 850,000gns.

Amo Racing also bought a Frankel filly from Hazelwood Bloodstock for the same price of 850,000gns.

An outstanding trio of foals from Genesis Green Stud entered the ring just after 5.30pm, starting with a Too Darn Hot half-sister to Group 2 winner and Group 1 runner-up I Can Fly. She sold for 480,000gns to Yulong Investment’s Willingham.

Million guineas

The trio ended with a Sea The Stars colt, the first foal of a Dark Angel half-sister to I Can Fly. He was the subject of a duel between an online participant and bidders in the ring, and Alastair Pim’s gavel finally fell, after a prolonged and intense competition for 1,000,000gns to M.V. Magnier.

Amanda Skiffington was acting for Hampstead Holdings when she paid 700,000gns for a Frankel half-sister to Group 3 Pride Stakes winner Ville De Grace, out of an unraced full-sister by Arch to the Grade 1 winner Prince Arch, and a half-sister to the Group 1 National Stakes winner Kingsfort.

Offered by Norris Bloodstock, she comes from the same vendor who realised 2,000,000gns for Ville De Grace in the same ring two years ago.

Matching that price was a Sea The Stars close relation to the Group 1 German Derby winner Fantastic Moon.

That dual Group 1 winner, due to take up stud duties in 2025, is by Sea The Stars’s son Sea The Moon. Juddmonte struck for the colt at 700,000gns.

Ed Player’s Whatton Manor Stud sold a Night of Thunder half-sister to the Group 3 Royal Ascot-placed Exoplanet for 350,000gnd to Sumbe.

The dam is a Shamardal half-sister to the classic winner and three-time Group 1 winner Legatissimo. Delta Stables, bidding online, spent 325,000gns for Baroda Stud’s Lope De Vega full-brother to the group-placed Up And Under, and his stakes-placed Galileo dam is an own-sister to Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup winner Line Of Duty.

First batch of Baaeed foals fetch strong prices from Yulong team

THREE of the first Baaeed foals of the week through the ring sold for 280,000gns, 270,000gns and 260,000gns. The first, a colt from Genesis Green Stud, was purchased by Katsumi Yoshida, the second was Norelands’ son of the multiple Group 3 winner Realtra who sold to Yeomanstown Stud, while a filly, again from the outstanding West Blagdon consignment of James and Anita Wigan, was snapped up by Willingham, for Yulong Investments.

The first colt is heading to Japan after the docket was signed by Shingo Hashimoto on behalf of Katsumi Yoshida. “We liked his conformation, he is a very strong and good-looking colt,” the agent said. “We will take him back to Japan and we are really excited because Baaeed was such a great racehorse. We bought a draft here last year, and they have gone on really well.”

The colt is out of the Galileo mare Tranquil Star, and she is the dam of the Listed Lingfield Oaks Trial and Upavon Stakes third Makinmedoit. The grandam We Can Say It Now, by Starcraft, was a talented runner in New Zealand, winner of the Group 1 Levin Turf Classic and the Group 2 Captain Cook Stakes. She is dam of the French Group 3 winner Sky Kingdom.

The Baaeed filly bought by Willingham is the second foal out of the stakes winner Cloudy Dawn, and it was the dam’s half-sister by Frankel who sold, as part of the West Blagdon draft, for 800,000gns to Coolmore. This filly’s yearling half-brother by Sea The Stars was also purchased by Yulong’s Willingham as a yearling for 375,000gns.

WITHIN minutes of each other, West Blagdon Stud sold a daughter of Frankel for 800,000gns to M.V. Magnier, and that was after receiving 650,000gns from Godolphin for a son of Camelot.

The filly is a half-sister to five winners, two of whom were successful in stakes races. Cloudy Dawn, a daughter of Kodiac, won the Group 3 Prix de Lieurey at Deauville, while Dansili’s daughter Iromea won a listed race at Vichy. Their dam is the Pivotal mare In The Mist, a winning half-sister to Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp winner Grey Lilas, and she has gone on to breed the dual French classic-winning filly Golden Lilac.

Bids emanated from all sides for the filly, with Juddmonte’s Simon Mockridge and Ed Sackville just two of those involved, but it was Magnier, standing in the entrance, who had just one bid and was successful at 800,000gns.

He said: “She is a very lovely filly. She is out of a Pivotal mare who has crossed well with Frankel. James and Anita Wigan, they have been incredible supporters of ours for a long time; Dad always says they go way back. It is a great result for them. They are very good breeders, and they have raised a lot of good horses in the past.

“We have had a great year with Frankel on the track, he speaks for himself. The likes of Lake Victoria, she is an exceptional filly. If this filly is anywhere near as good as her, we will be okay.”

The Camelot colt is the first produce of the winning Kingman mare Queenlet, and the bidding was conducted as usual by Anthony Stroud. The colt’s third dam was the Group 3 winner Theann, and she bred the dual Grade 1 winning mare Photo Call, and the Group 2 Richmond Stakes winner Land Force. Theann is a daughter of the King’s Stand Stakes winner and exceptional broodmare Cassandra Go, the dam of Halfway To Heaven and Tickled Pink, and grandam of Magical, Rhododendron and Victoria Road. She is also the third dam of Auguste Rodin.

“He is by a very good sire in Camelot, who has had a very good year,” said Stroud. “West Blagdon always produces very good foals, he is a lovely individual, and he will add to our crop of homebred foals.”

GIVEN the exceptional year he has enjoyed with his first Irish-conceived crop of two-year-olds, it is hardly a surprise that his foals this week are in huge demand at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale.

This strong desire by everyone to gain ownership of a Wootton Bassett was music to the ears of the team at Awbeg Stud, who sold consecutive lots on Friday for a total of 880,000gns. This few minutes of magic in the ring was capped by the second of their two entries, a daughter of Wootton Bassett.

She is the winning Orpen mare Accolade, herself a half-sister to a smart son of Wootton Bassett in The Summit. He was a Group 3 winner in France and was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, and the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas.

Last year Awbeg sold a colt foal, a full-brother to this filly, for 200,000gns, and he resold in October for 350,000gns. Both those figures were well surpassed this time when the gavel fell in favour of Hugo Lascelles at 580,000gns.

“We loved her, she is a very close relation to The Summit,” said Lascelles. “She is a beautiful mover, has a big square hip, the yearling full-brother I believe is going to Ballydoyle [bought by M.V. Magnier and White Birch Farm], while the Sergei Prokofiev two-year-old finished second in an October maiden and has been sold to the US, so there is a bit happening on the page.

“I hope she will turn into a lovely two-year-old. It was a bit more than we were planning on spending, but there are a lot of end users buying today. She will to the farm from here and has been bought as a racing prospect.”

The filly followed a daughter of Blackbeard into the ring, also from Awbeg Stud. From the first crop by the dual juvenile Group 1-winning son of No Nay Never, and a half-sister to three winners, the dam’s only previous foals, the filly sold to Liam Norris for 300,000gns.

Norris said: “She has been bought for Ben Speers and we did okay with pinhooks last year – we had a Kameko and a Too Darn Hot who made 200,000gns profit at the yearling sales between them.

“She is a beautiful. I know it is risky buying from a first-crop sire, but she has lots of scope. She is out of a nice young mare, and has bred two who are rated 104 and 95, with one in Hong Kong. It is a nice family and there is a bit happening, can’t really go too wrong. I like buying foals, it is my thing. I look at everything, I like to buy the individuals.”

Awbeg’s Paddy Fleming, brother James and his wife Deirdre were in a state of shock after what they had witnessed. “That was not a bad few minutes!” said Paddy. “We knew the Wootton Bassett was going well, but not to that level, not anything to that level.” James added: “It is not a bad result for a 32,000gns mare! Jamie Moriarty found Accolade for us here at the December Mares Sale in 2021 and said that she was nailed on for Wootton Bassett, due to The Summit. We bought her in foal to Sergei Prokofiev – and, hopefully, he will go on to do things in the US now. He looked very promising on his first run, and Wootton Bassett has had such an amazing year.”

Speaking about their first lot, Paddy added: “Blackbeard seems to be on fire today. The mare has come from nothing and has done so well to produce what she has. The filly was sold for a client.”

McCracken jackpot

McCracken Farms has a reputation second to none for producing sales horses and winners, and they were among the many to benefit from the demand for stock by Wootton Bassett. Howson and Houldsworth Bloodstock, acting for Flintstone Bloodstock, spent 410,000gns for their half-brother to Group 1 Dubai Turf winner Facteur Cheval. This was their biggest success in the sale ring.

The filly’s pedigree received a further boost when her half-sister Queen Of The Mud, a daughter of Kodiac, won a listed race at Santa Anita recently, becoming the Shamardal mare Jawlaat’s second stakes winner. Craig McCracken said: “She has always been a lovely filly and just everything was very right – all the ducks were in the pond and we got them all lined up!

“We had the right sire in Wootton Bassett, Facteur Cheval has come good for me, Queen Of The Mud has come good for me, it is a brilliant family and everyone kept telling me this all week. We always hoped she would be in the 300,000gns to 400,000gns bracket and we have just done a little better. The mare is back in-foal to Mehmas.”

The first lot on Friday to make 300,000gns or more was a daughter of Wootton Bassett who sold for 310,000gns, bought by Yulong’s Willingham from Kirsten Rausing’s St Simon Stud who sold her for the breeder Michael Perlman.

The February-born filly is second foal out of the Farhh mare Bighearted, and she won three races and was placed five times, including three times in listed races in England and France. The filly’s yearling half-brother by Sea The Stars was bought in October by Godolphin for 875,000gns.

Bighearted is a daughter of the champion Irish juvenile filly Bianca Nera, winner of the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, and from the family of the Group 1 winners Postponed, God Given, Simply Perfect and Proud And Regal.

The same purchasers spent 270,000gns on Altenbach Bloodstock’s Lope De Vega colt out of the group-placed Gleneagles mare Barina, and gave 200,000gns for Kenilworth House Stud’s Mehmas colt out of the Marju mare Magenta, The latter is a half-brother to three winners, including the French stakes winner By All Means.

THE Motherways’ Drumlin and Yellowford sold the first two foals out of the unplaced Sea The Stars mare Stella D’Italia for 13,000gns and 110,000gns. The first is a winner and the second has been placed at two. Now they hit the jackpot with the mare’s third offspring, getting 400,000gns from Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock for a colt by Too Darn Hot.

Stella D’Italia is a half-sister to a pair of group-placed winners, and her dam Ragsah, who was placed in a Group 3 at two, is a Shamardal half-sister to the great Dubai Millennium. This is one of the greatest female families of the last century, and the colt’s fourth dam was the influential Fall Aspen. Winner of the Grade 1 Matron Stakes in the USA, she bred four Group/Grade 1 winners, notably the Preakness Stakes hero Timber Country and the July Cup winner Hamas.

Earlier in the day Glashare House Stud sold a son of Too Darn Hot, coincidentally also out of a Sea The Stars mare, to JC Bloodstock for 270,000gns. He is a half-brother to a winner, the first foal of the dam. Two lots later, and Houghton Bloodstock’s Too Darn Hot son of a winner-producing Oasis Dream mare was yet another on the shopping list of the prolific purchasers Willingham.

Mehmas filly

Ahead of a blank day to allow potential purchasers have plenty of time to view the best lots of the week, a daughter of Mehmas led the way on a strong second of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale. She sold from Michael O’Leary’s Plantation Stud for 200,000gns. On the day, and following recent trends, there were increases at every benchmark. Seventeen lots sold for 100,000gns or more.

The top lot is the first living produce of the Listed Rose Bowel Stakes-winning two-year-old Natalie’s Joy, a daughter of Lope De Vega. She was purchased by Daniel Creighton on behalf of professional footballer, racehorse owner and breeder Ryan Kent, and was signed for on the purchase sheet as Creighton Schwartz Bloodstock, alongside Kent’s partner Kirsty Spence.

Creighton said: “Mehmas is flying this year, she is out of a Lope de Vega mare, a similar cross to Persian Force and to Gubbass. The dam is a lovely blacktype mare, the filly is a lovely physical, nice and well-grown, and it made a lot of sense. It was probably what we thought we’d have to pay - you would expect to pay that for a filly who is by such a proven a stallion and out of a blacktype mare. If I had a foal like this, I would be disappointed if it did not reach those sorts of heights.”

Kent, who most recently played for Fenerbahce in the Turkish league, was at the sale and involved in the selection process. Creighton added: “Ryan loves pedigrees and he is quite involved when he can be, looking at pictures and videos of stock.” Natalie’s Joy was trained by Mark Johnston and her grandam was the champion European juvenile filly Blue Duster, winner of the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes. Natalie’s Joy cost Plantation Stud 300,000gns at the 2021 Tattersalls December Mares Sale.

Yeomanstown spend

The O’Callaghan’s Yeomanstown Stud too home two of the top four lots sold on Wednesday. A Blue Point colt, the first foal of an unraced Raven’s Pass mare, cost 175,000gns, but the team had to go to 180,000gns for Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Havana Grey colt, the second offspring of the stakes-placed Gregorian mare Fairy Dust.

Robert O’Callaghan commented: “The sire speaks for himself and we sold a couple of good ones by him in the autumn. This colt is one of our top picks of today; he is out of a good fast mare, by a good fast stallion, and will come back next year.” The Havana Grey yearlings sold by Yeomanstown at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale were colts, one out of Radio Gaga who was bought for 210,000gns and fetched 450,000gns, and one out of Lady Sparkles, bought for 90,000gns and sold 300,000gns.