ALMOST 18 million guineas was spent on foals at Tattersalls on Friday but there was further evidence of a correction in the market, as the day's aggregate (-11%), median (-9%) and average price (-13%) were all significantly back on last year's numbers.

The well-named Group 1 Oaks winner Talent is already the dam of Group 2 winner and Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet runner-up Ambition, and the new owners of the mare’s St Mark’s Basilica filly foal, purchased on Friday, will have to find an equally appropriate name for their purchase, who sold for 575,000gns and was bought by Jill Lamb Bloodstock on behalf of Newsells Park Stud.

“She is beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. I fell in love with her as soon as I saw her,” said Lamb. “She is very athletic and has a wonderful page. She has been bought to race and to come back to Newsells Park Stud.

“She has two half-sisters by Dubawi and she ticked all the boxes for us. We are delighted to get her. St Mark’s Basilica is the unknown quantity, but she is the nicest I have seen by him.”

Georgina Whales, Ashbrittle’s stud manager, admitted she had a mix of emotion seeing the filly go. She said: “We have Ambition back on the farm. She had a Frankel foal this year and is in foal to Palace Pier, and Talent is in foal to New Bay. The filly speaks for herself and she has been so well behaved here. She has been really busy and had 10 vets.”

Vandeek’s brother

The fairytale story that is Vandeek, unbeaten winner of the Group 1 Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes, continued yesterday when, just before 5pm, his half-brother by Starspangledbanner, sold for 450,000gns to M.V. Magnier, almost unrecognisable to auctioneer Simon Kerins in the darkness of the bidding cage. This was a remarkable success for breeder Kelly Thomas of Maywood Stud.

While Vandeek has given the family a huge boost in this particular branch, it is a female line littered with Group 1 winners. Vandeek’s grandam is a half-sister to Group 1 Prix Robert Pain winner Balbonella, and she is the dam of the champion racehorse and successful sire Anabaa, and classic winner Always Loyal.

Kelly Thomas was pleased, and said: “We kinda thought that was the figure we could get. I wish we could replay it all again. It is a bit overwhelming. In fact the whole year has been a bit overwhelming, there is almost more to worry about now. We had this colt at home and we’d wake up each morning and hope that he is one piece and that we are going to be able to bring and present him for sale.”

As this report was going to press, Norelands Stud sold a son of Sea The Stars out of the stakes-winning No Nay Never mare Tango to Frannie Woods’ Abbeylands Farm for 330,000gns. The colt was bred by Barronstown Stud.

WITH a keen eye on the future, Team Juddmonte has been active at the sale, and they landed the first of their purchases on Friday when spending 350,000gns on a son of one of their star stallions, Kingman.

The colt, the first produce of the unraced Galileo mare Golden Pelican, was bred by Sun Bloodstock, and the mare herself, in foal to Lope De Vega, is due to come under the hammer this week, again part of the Hazelwood Bloodstock consignment. Golden Pelican is an own-sister to stakes winners Ernest Hemingway and South Sea Pearl, and a three-parts sister to Group 3 winner Toulifaut.

Shortly after that the team was back for more, this time the object of their attention was Langton Stud’s Wootton Bassett colt out of the Group 3 winner Poet’s Vanity. This time the price was 425,000gns and Juddmonte has put their belief in the dam, as they bought Poet’s Vanity’s yearling filly by Lope De Vega last year for 500,000gns.

Poet’s Vanity of one of a trio of stakes winners from the Thatching mare Vanity, and both of the others have gone on to become stakes producers. The better of them is Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed Lesson In Humility, and she is the dam of Group 1 Irish Derby and Melbourne Cup runner-up Tiger Moth, and grandam of this season’s pattern-winning juvenile Persian Dreamer.

Simon Mockridge, Juddmonte Farms’ general manager, outlined the reasons behind the purchase of the pair. “The Kingman was very well presented. This foal has size and scope which is just what we need, and has a great page. The cross is unbelievable [Kingman on Galileo mares] and has produced 15% stakes winners-to-runners.”

Speaking of the Wootton Basset, he said: “We bought the Lope De Vega half-sister here last year and we think she is one of our nicest at home. This is a nice horse, a bit later as a May foal but very well balanced, compact, and a great walker. Wootton Bassett has had a very good year and this made a lot of sense to us.”

Later in the day Juddmonte spent 240,000gns on Whitsbury Manor’s Kingman colt out of the stakes-placed Showcasing mare Heartwarming.

WHITSBURY Manor Stud is never far from the limelight these days, and they had another good sale with their Kingman colt out of the winning Arcano mare Arcamist. He sold to Alex Elliott on behalf of Amo Racing for 360,000gns.

That mare, bred at Whitsbury Manor and sold as a yearling, is the dam of two winners with her first two foals, and her son Dragon Symbol failed to win a stakes race but was runner-up in the Group 1 July Cup and Group 1 Commonwealth Cup, and placed in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes. He is set to be a Whitsbury Manor stallion. Last year Arcamist’s Havana Grey colt foal sold at 250,000gns, and resold this year from Stauffenberg Bloodstock to Godolphin for a profitable 600,000gns.

As night fell Whitsbury Manor sold the Showcasing half-brother to classic winner Chaldean for 260,000gns to bloodstock agent Alex Elliott.

Limerick-bred

Shane Molan’s Wootton Bassett half-sister to the multiple Group 1 Hong Kong star Waikuku had no shortage of admirers and the gavel fell when bidding hit 250,000gns, in favour of SackvilleDonald.

Michael O’Leary’s Plantation Stud sold a pair of high-priced lots. A Wootton Bassett first foal out of an unraced Galileo half-sister to Group 2 Richmond Stakes winner Ivawood realised 300,000gns to Sumbe, and he was preceded into the ring by a daughter of Pinatubo, a half-sister to this year’s Group 2 Coventry Stakes runner-up Army Ethos. She was one of many purchases by JS Bloodstock.

The only one of the five foals by Frankel in the catalogue to be offered for sale was the first foal out of the Group 3 winner Liberty Beach. That mare was placed a couple of times at Group 1 level and her filly foal was bred by Philip Wilkins, who also bred and raced the dam, and sold by Mickley Stud for 260,000gns to Norris/Huntingdon.

ALWAYS eagerly anticipated, James Wigan’s West Blagdon Stud had a good result when selling a New Bay full-brother to Group 1 Champion Stakes winner Bay Bridge for 375,000gns. Stroud Coleman Bloodstock signed for the star of the draft on behalf of Godolphin.

Bay Bridge ended Baaeed’s unbeaten run at Ascot and was raced by Wigan until Ballylinch Stud bought into the colt. This was one of the col’s seven wins, and he has also placed at the highest level in the Tattersalls Gold Cup, Prince of Wales’s Stakes and Prix Ganay.

Wigan commented: “I am glad where he has gone. This colt is a little bit similar in some ways to Bay Bridge. This horse is very light footed and a very good mover. He has never been a moment’s trouble and is a very straightforward horse. He will be a lovely colt.” Wigan revealed that a deal was being finalised for Bay Bridge, who is set to begin a career as a stallion.

Wigan sold a Kingman colt, the second offspring of the placed Galileo mare Dusk, for 240,000gns to Sheikha Hissa’s Shadwell Estate. Dusk’s half-sister Doom gave the pedigree a boost when she won a listed race in France last weekend (see Breeding Insights), and they are daughters of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf winner Dank.

Ringfort Stud

The unraced Rocana, a daughter of Fastnet Rock who sold as a yearling for 320,000gns, has well rewarded Derek and Gay Veitch’s Ringfort Stud since her purchase as a three-year-old for 60,000gns. She gave the couple another highlight when her filly foal by Ghaiyyath sold for 350,000gns to Godolphin, represented by Anthony Stroud.

This was the second purchase of the week by Godolphin, and followed their acquisition of another by Ghaiyyath, a half-brother to Group 3 winner Fancy Me and this year’s stakes-placed juvenile filly See You Around.

A half-sister to the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes winner Blaine, Rocana has produced three winners with her first three offspring, two of them stakes winners. Youth Spirit won the Group 3 Chester Vase, while Canberra Legend landed this year’s Listed Feilden Stakes at Newmarket and was group-placed.

A final report on Friday night’s and Saturday’s sale will be published next week.