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ASTONISHING, incredible.
In spite of having the smallest number of horses offered since 2007, Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale produced a set of results that were simply astounding.
For the first time in this sale, a yearling colt realised a million guineas, the sale’s turnover was well ahead of the previous best set in 2022, the median matched the previous record which was also set two years ago, and the average of 108,413gns was the first time that it has been in six-figure territory.
A clearance rate of 91% was more than highly commendable in the current climate.
With 10 yearlings selling for 500,000gns or more, and 42 making or beating the 300,000gns mark, it was no surprise that many vendors achieved personal bests in the Park Paddocks sale ring, and there was no shortage of emotional interviews in their aftermath. Hardened professionals such as David Redvers, who sold the Kameko own-brother to Grade 1 winner New Century for Sheikh Fahad, was among those with a lump in their throat.
Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony issues his post-sale statement in writing, but no doubt he too would have exuded happiness had he done so in person. Given the outstanding trade at Book 1 last week, he and the Tattersalls team had reason for optimism heading into the three-day Book 2 sale, but the outcome surprised them also.
“The results from Book 1 last week were pretty remarkable, and certainly instilled some confidence leading into Book 2, but yet again the level of trade has outstripped the most optimistic of pre-sale expectations,” Mahony said.
“The extraordinary success of Book 1 has been well and truly replicated in Book 2, and again it is the outstanding quality of the yearlings, and the sale’s reputation for consistently producing racehorses of the very highest calibre, which have brought the buyers to Tattersalls in overwhelming numbers.
“It is the clearance rate above 90%, and the sheer volume of horses selling for 200,000gns or more, that have been truly incredible. The demand for quality yearlings from buyers throughout the world, most notably America, Australia, Hong Kong and throughout the Gulf region, has resulted in 93 yearlings selling for 200,000gns or more; a number far in excess of any other European yearling sale except October Book 1, and a huge increase on the previous October Book 2 record of 58.”
THE first one million guineas yearling colt in the history of Book 2 provided a fitting climax on the third day of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. This was for a Kameko full-brother to the recent Canadian Grade 1 Summer Stakes winner New Century, sold to Anthony Stroud on behalf of Godolphin.
Consigned by David Redvers’ Tweenhills Farm & Stud, the colt is out of the Street Cry mare Potent Embrace, herself a daughter of the Group 3 winner and Group 1 Coronation Stakes runner-up Karen’s Caper. He is also a half-brother to the Group 3 Glorious Stakes winner and Group 1-placed Passion And Glory.
Trained by Andrew Balding, New Century is set to run in next month’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar.
Redvers said: “It is the old cliché - he was on everybody’s list! I am sad to see him go, but thrilled that he has been bought by Godolphin. Anthony [Stroud] loved the horse from the first time he saw him. I am sad for Andrew [Balding] that he won’t get to train him, as he has done such an outstanding job with the brother.
“This colt has spent most of his life at Spring Lodge in Ireland, and only came to us in the spring, so it is credit to Peter Molony and the job he did. I am so pleased, as this is the first year we are selling under our own name again, and the Tweenhills team has done an absolutely stunning job - Ivo, Scott, Pieter, Tallulah, and all of them.”
Scopier sort
Asked if the colt was like his talented brother, Redvers said: “He is actually more like his dad than his brother. His brother is strong and looks a proper two-year-old, and is a machine. I can see this horse being a scopier sort than New Century. The thing that is common with all by the sire is they have this incredible head. It is why New Century was able to go across to Canada and come back and go across to the US.
“When he got back from Canada, he was so fresh having taken it all so well that he nearly bucked off Maddy who was riding him. Both colts have got that good temperament in their favour.”
Buyer Anthony Stroud said: “I think he’s a very nice horse and he’s a full-brother to a Grade 1 winner. Kameko has had a very good start. This is a beautiful, quality horse and he’ll go to Moulton Paddocks. It’s great to have him, although the valuation was on the higher side of what we’d thought.”
The price paid came very close to the sale record of 1.05 million guineas for a daughter of Dark Angel, set in 2019. Named Tarhib, she won four races for Shadwell and gained blacktype.
JUST as they had done so the previous week, Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin made its presence felt at Book 2.
Their outlay on six lots totalled 3,560,000gns, placing them second on the buyers’ list behind Stroud Coleman Bloodstock. The latter agency, of which Anthony Stroud is a principal, signed for 37 yearlings that cost just over eight million guineas.
The Godolphin half-dozen included four colts by Sea The Stars. One of them realised the second highest-priced lot at the Book 2 sale, a Staffordstown Stud-consigned son of Bighearted who headed the first day’s trading. The colt is the first foal of that three-time winning Farhh mare who was second in a couple of listed races. Anthony Stroud’s 875,000gns bid secured him.
The February-born colt was bred by Michael E. Perlman and Sunderland Holding, and his dam is a daughter of the Irish champion two-year-old filly of 1996, Bianca Nera.
“The mare is actually catalogued in the December Sale and that will freshen things up,” said Staffordstown Stud representative Richard Frisby. “This colt was accepted for Book 1, but we felt that dropping him in here he would be a standout, and I think that is what has happened. Obviously, he is a horse who will need a bit of time, but he has been bred to be a classic horse. I bought Bianca Nera as a yearling; it is a family who has been very kind to us.”
Appleby to train
Stroud said: “He’s a very strong, well-made horse. It’s a wonderful family and he’ll be a nice staying horse for the future. He fitted the bill as a nice horse for Godolphin, so he’ll go to Charlie Appleby, as will the other Sea The Stars. I thought he was a very nice horse from Norelands, he’s very athletic. I thought they were the two standout horses.”
The other Sea The Stars referred to by Stroud was his 475,000gns purchase of a son of the winning Dark Angel mare Angel Fairy, bred by the Tsui family’s Sunderland Holding.
On the middle day of the sale, Godolphin struck for another son of Sea The Stars, paying 550,000gns for the second foal of Kitcarina, a winning daughter of Shamardal. That mare’s first foal, also by the Gilltown stallion, sold for 800,000gns as a yearling.
The son of Kitcarina was consigned by Folland-Bowen Bloodstock and is the team’s biggest result at Tattersalls. He was bred in partnership with Sunderland Holding, and Fiona Marner was present to see him sell. “I bought [the dam] in training from André Fabre and sent her to Andrew Balding and she did win a race,” reported Marner. “We sent her to Sea The Stars for her first cover, a foal share kindly arranged by the late John Clarke, and went back to the sire again and produced this colt.
Shell-shocked
Natalie Folland and Matt Bowen were shell-shocked by the result: “It is our biggest sale ring result,” said Bowen.
“I didn’t think he’d go to that sort of level but, as the week went on, we thought we’d be okay. We are very thankful for Fiona sending him to us. We have had him for 10 weeks and it is all credit to Fiona’s team, we just had to finish him up.”
Anthony Stroud said: “Sea The Stars speaks for himself and this is a powerful, strong horse. It’s so important to try and get these horses that can stay a mile and a half. We could do with more of that type, and he fitted the criteria. Sea The Stars was a top-class racehorse and is a top-class stallion.”
A TERRITORIES own-brother to the multiple group-placed juvenile Masseto was a stunning pinhook win when he was bought by Nurlan Bizakov’s Sumbe operation for 750,000gns, having been purchased last year for 65,000gns. He was consigned by Mark Dwyer’s Oaks Farm Stables.
Bizakov is best known as owner of Charyn, who is favourite for today’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, but he also bred and owns Lazzat, a Group 1 winner for Jerome Reynier this year and also by Territories.
Sumbe’s stud director Tony Fry said: “Lazzat is in Australia now [ahead of the Golden Eagle on November 2nd]. This is a similar type of horse and whether lightning will strike twice, I don’t know! He is a nice horse and we can make a case for him, it is a lot of money – we should have bought him as a foal! It is nice that Nurlan [Bizakov] has put faith in us, and I imagine the colt will go into training with Jerome Reynier.”
Mark Dwyer commented: “We are thrilled. We have sold horses for clients who have fetched similar sums, but this is the biggest result for a pinhook that we own, and I have been doing this since I packed in riding in 1996! It is the stuff of dreams. Willie Browne and Jim McCartan also owned him. Look, you pay your money and you take your chance, and, thankfully, it has worked out here.”
THE last lot into the ring on Tuesday equalled the session-topping price of 600,000gns when knocked down to Jane Mangan on behalf of the Thoroughbred Corporation. The Cork woman saw off a determined effort from American agent David Ingordo.
By Sea The Stars, the filly is out of the Siyouni mare Monaawara and was consigned by Philipp Stauffenberg on behalf of Meadow Farm Stud.
A delighted Mangan said: “The stallion is alright, isn’t he? We have been trying to buy the right type of filly and we got two last week. This filly stood out; I thought she was the best filly in this book. She comes from a great farm, she is just very easy on the eye.
“We want to win classics, middle-distance classics. She fits that bill. She is by the right horse, she has a great damsire, she has got the scope to hopefully be good.”
The Thoroughbred Corporation is connected to the Saudi royal family and is best known as the owners of 1999 Derby winner Oath.
Select quartet
Four of the 10 lots to realise 500,000gns or more were sired by Sea The Stars, and the 14 yearlings sold by him grossed more than four million guineas, averaging out at 288,214gns.
The select quartet also included another filly, this one out of the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks runner-up Makawee. She gave her consignor Harry Dutfield his biggest result in the sale ring, and the filly bred by the Turnbull family’s Elwick Stud and Sunderland Holding sold for 525,000gns.
“Wow!” said Dutfield. “She had 200 shows, and she has been absolutely superb all the way through. She showed with the utmost grace and decorum, is really feminine, really light on her feet, walked huge, and has a really sweet disposition. I didn’t expect that as I am used to 5,000gns pinhooks in Book 3, not Sea The Stars fillies in Book 2! Oh yeah, this is my biggest result by a country mile!”
The filly was bought by Jason Kelly Bloodstock, and he said: “She goes to Ireland and to trainer Paddy Twomey; she is for an existing client of his. I am delighted to have got her; she is a stunning filly with a lot of class.”
AL SHAQAB and Amo Racing are proving to be a potent force in the market for well-bred fillies, and they purchased two that cost 600,000gns each. First to that mark was a daughter of St Mark’s Basilica out of the Dark Angel mare Angelic Light.
Bloodstock agent Alex Elliott was taking instructions over the telephone. He said: “She is an exceptional physical out of a fast Dark Angel mare, who has bred two decent horses. St Mark’s Basilica is obviously an unknown but you like to think he has got every chance. It was the physical that was attractive, you like to think she could be a Royal Ascot filly.
“She is an early foal, she is very together, she was giving us all ‘Fairy Godmother’ vibes. Let’s hope we can replicate that.
“We need to keep adding horses if we think they are the right ones, but this market has got very, very strong, which is fantastic for everyone. It is making it very hard to buy horses, everyone hones in on the best ones; it is just who is going to bid last.”
The sale of a Too Darn Hot filly out of Lola Paige for 600,000gns to Al Shaqab and Amo reduced Robert ‘Choc’ Thornton, stud manager at Paul Dunkley’s Appletree Stud, to tears. It is the highest price achieved to date by the farm.
“Paul puts so much into the stud,” said Thornton. “She is a queen. I thought she’d get 200,000gns or so, and then thought maybe 400,000gns, but to do that!”
Buyer Alex Elliott said: “Both sides (Amo Racing and Al Shaqab) gave her top marks. She is by Too Darn Hot, who is a global stallion now, and she is out of a Galileo mare. She was always going to cost a lot of money.”
“CAMELOT has had an exceptional year, the lads liked the filly a lot and, in fairness to Ballylinch, the farm is a very good breeder. They sent a good mare to Camelot and were rewarded with a nice filly and we are happy to have bought her,” said M.V. Magnier after spending 500,000gns on a daughter of the stallion and out of the Lope De Vega listed winner and group-placed mare Fort Del Oro.
She was bred and sold by Ballylinch Stud, and John O’Connor commented: “We are very happy with that price; we were confident she would sell well. She is a beautiful filly with the best combination of Camelot and Lope De Vega.
“The mare was very quick, she has already bred a good one, so the pedigree is stacking up for everyone. Then her physical, her temperament and her ability to show is just exceptional, pretty well most of the big operations were interested.
“It is interesting, we have done some statistics that indicates that Camelot does well with fast mares, which was not something I expected. Camelot is a very solid sire, I like him, he brings a lot of quality and class, and if you get the right individual, you can be in business. We were tempted to keep her; I would have quite liked her to walk around the paddocks at home!”
Matching that 500,000gns sale price was Rathbarry Stud’s son of Acclamation, the second produce of an unraced Sea The Stars mare. The dam is a half-sister to a smart son of Acclamation, Oh This Is Us, and his 17 career wins included the Group 3 Diomed Stakes at Epsom. This is also the family of the speedy Group 1 winner Pipalong. Billy Jackson-Stops and trainer George Scott signed for the colt.
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