Dubawi filly justifies her wild card entry

WHILE it fell short of last year’s returns, this year’s Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale produced a solid set of figures. Turnover, average and median were back between eight or nine percentage points.

Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony commented: “For Book 2 to produce returns which, although falling short of last year, compare favourably with all bar two renewals of Europe’s largest yearling sale, gives some perspective.

“This year’s sale has achieved an average in excess of 80,000gns, a median second only to last year’s runaway record, and a clearance rate of 85%. The outstanding Dubawi filly who topped the sale was the second highest-priced filly ever sold at this sale.”

Slotted to sell in the first hour of Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale was a daughter of Dubawi and the Galileo mare Park Bloom. Circumstances meant instead that she was instead the sole wild card entry in Book 2, again offered within an hour of the start, and she traded from Lodge Park Stud to Godolphin for 725,000gns.

The proved to be, by some margin, the best price of this week’s three-day Book 2 collection, and she is from the Burns family’s top female line. Park Bloom is a daughter of Alluring Park, dam of the Oaks winner Was, and a granddaughter of Park Express, the dam of New Approach. The sale-topper is the second produce of Park Bloom, after Supreme Beauty (No Nay Never), a 375,000gns yearling who made a promising debut recently and was placed.

Damien Burns of Lodge Park Stud explained the change of plan, and said: “She got on the lorry and was doing a little bit of jumping round, nothing unusual for a yearling. The video from the next door stall, and our best guess, suggest that her head-collar got caught and she cut her jaw. It happened as they were going down the driveway! She came off the lorry and went back to her stable; she was fine but had a laceration on her jaw.

“We took her down to Fethard. They stitched her up, kept her overnight and she ate up fine. She got back home, and was back out in her paddock. Friday before Book 1 we got in touch with Tattersalls and the transporters and said, ‘Look we think this filly will be ok.’ The wheels were set in motion to come here for today. A lot of thanks goes to the guys at home. She arrived on Wednesday morning and was showing by Wednesday lunchtime.”

He added: “Thanks also to Tattersalls for accommodating this. We discussed everything, and waiting for the December Sale was the original thought. It might have also meant us putting a saddle on her, but usually we don’t keep them out of young mares; we are a commercial stud so we let them start paying their way.

“The family has been very good to us. The Night Of Thunder [in Book 1] who sold for 400,000gns is from another branch. We have Park Bloom, Stellar Glow and a Dark Angel four-year-old Express Way who won her sole start. She is in foal to Night Of Thunder, and Park Bloom has a Wootton Bassett on the ground and is in foal to Baaeed.”

After taking Godolphin’s spend on a fifth Dubawi this year in Tattersalls to 3,400,000gns, Anthony Stroud said: “She’s a very nice filly out of a Galileo mare. She moved very well and has a good outlook. She’s bred on a good cross and comes from a very good farm, so we’re very lucky to receive her. She compares very favourably with the stock on offer at Book 1; she’s a lovely filly, very classy.”

Kilminfoyle’s pinhooking masterclass

THERE were ups and downs for pinhookers this week, but one of the best results was that achieved for a son of Havana Grey out of the multiple-winning Swiss Spirit mare Dotted Swiss.

Bred by Whitsbury Manor Stud, the colt was purchased at the December Sale last year by JC Bloodstock for 82,000gns and sold on Tuesday by Kilminfoyle Bloodstock for 425,000gns to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock. The second foal of his dam, he is an own-brother to one of this year’s leading juveniles Elite Status, winner of the Group 3 Prix de Cabourg and Listed National Stakes, and placed in the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes.

Elite Status was also pinhooked by JC Bloodstock for 56,000gns, and sold by Kilminfoyle to Karl and Kelly Burke for 325,000gns in last year’s October Book 2 Sale. Kilminfoyle’s Michael Fitzpatrick said: “I bought this colt as a foal solely on the full-brother; I sold him last year and loved him. Whitsbury Manor is a great breeder and this horse is pleasure to do anything with.

“My thanks go to Anthony Stroud, and I wish the new owners the very best of luck. I also can’t thank my staff enough, Pamela, Hannah and Santos.”

Buyer Anthony Stroud, who purchased Havana Grey’s Group 1-winning son Vandeek, said: “He’s a very well balanced horse who moves very well. With Vandeek we were lucky enough to see him breeze, but this colt has the credentials to be a very, very nice horse. He’s got the pedigree and he’s by a stallion who’s done very well and is really on the up. He’s been bought for Sheikh Nasser and will go to Simon Crisford.”

Havana Grey was also responsible on Wednesday for another who was bought by Stroud. The agent outbid Alex Elliott at 320,000gns for a colt who was bred and sold by Whitsbury Manor Stud. “He is a lovely horse, very easy moving and he has great flow. He goes to Simon [Crisford] who has done well with Havana Grey,” said Stroud. “I did not think he’d make that much, to be honest.”

Whitsbury Manor’s Ed Harper said: “It is always difficult when your nicest horse in the sale is the last horse in your draft and sells on the last day; you are waiting and waiting. I really appreciate Anthony Stroud and Simon Crisford being so keen to get the sire’s stock.”

Speaking about Havana Grey’s success, Harper said: “He is a phenomenon. He loves life, he loved being a racehorse, now he loves being a stallion. He is the happiest horse on the planet, except when he is disturbed from his feed bowl! His yearlings and foals are the same. They are very easy horses to train. I also think that they are born to race.”

The dozen lots sold in Book 2 by Havana Grey averaged 160,583gns.

Norelands among Irish trio to excel

THE top three lots in Book 2 were all from Irish consignors, and Norelands Stud sold the joint second-best of the week, and Wednesday’s top lot, a colt by Sea The Stars out of a half-sister to the sire’s Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan-winning son Mekhtaal. He sold for 425,000gns to Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock.

Brown said: “I think a lot of credit has got to go to our spotters. It is very hard to get around the numbers this week, and Sam Goyette, who works for Juddmonte, said very early on to me that he’d found a very special horse. I raised my eyebrows and said, ‘Yes, of course!’, but when I went down I was, ‘Wow, this is very serious horse’.

“I knew that he’d be hard to buy. He is by one of the great stallions around and he has one of the proper back pages. Luckily, I had a client willing to stretch to have a proper go. I can’t name the client, but the horse will stay in Europe and won’t be allocated a trainer for a number of weeks. Buying a horse who looks like this by Sea The Stars gives you a chance of having a top Group 1 horse.”

Of the market this week, Brown said: “I did not buy as many as last week, and I have tried on plenty. It is not completely smooth sailing and buoyant, but I think overall I’d say you’d have to have a positive take away. There are a lot of people bidding 200,000gns plus on horses; a totally new crowd has turned up after Book 1. I thought this week would be tricky, and I would be able to buy what I wanted. Absolutely not!” The colt was bred by Sunderland Holding.

Norelands sold a daughter of Gilltown’s Sea The Stars to Hugo Merry Bloodstock for 310,000gns. She is the third produce of an Exceed And Excel half-sister to five-time Group 2 winner Enhibaar.

Hascombe’s colt is Too Darn Hot

LAST week, Anthony Oppenheimer’s Hascombe & Valiant Stud sold the six colts they offered in Book 1 for prices ranging from the sale-topping 2,000,000gns Frankel colt to 100,000gns, and this week they sold five more, adding 960,000gns to the coffers.

Best of this week’s group was a son of Too Darn Hot out of the Group 3-winning Nathaniel mare Precious Ramotswe. The colt’s third dam was the Group 1 Coronation Stakes winner Rebecca Sharp. He was bought by Anthony Stroud for 350,000gns and is going to John Gosden, who trained Too Darn Hot.

James Frank, Hascombe’s stud manager, said: “You prep these horses and you think they are going to make some money, and when they make such an amount of money the hard work is rewarded.”

Too Darn Hot, off to a sensational start at stud, was responsible for 26 lots this week who sold for an average of 107,000gns. Stroud Coleman also purchased Ballyphilip Stud’s half-brother to a couple of winners out of an Invincible Spirit mare for 240,000gns, and this was a great result for Paul and Marie McCartan who purchased him for €67,000 as a foal.

Another star performance by a son of Too Darn Hot was recorded when Whatton Manor Stud sold the second foal of the winning Australia mare I Remember You to Highclere Agency for 320,000gns. “He was bred by Nigel and Nicola Welby. They breed under Kingsmead Bloodstock and are based at Yokehurst Farm; they have done all the work,” said Ed Player of Whatton Manor. “We had him for eight or nine weeks and he has been a superstar all along. He was one of those that when he walked off the horse box at ours I knew that we’d be in good shape. I am delighted for Nigel and Nicola, they are such nice people.”

Jake Warren said: “He is a magnificent colt, really powerful with a strong good head. He really looks like what you’d expect a good Too Darn Hot would look like. He has been bought by Sheikh Isa.”

Whatton Manor did even better, by 5,000gns, when they sold a son of Gleneagles, a half-brother to two winners, to Dermot Farrington and SackvilleDonald for 325,000gns. They were acting for owner Jim Hay.

Fellowes left shaking by Wootton Bassett purchase

THE sale of the last of 15 yearlings traded in Book 2 by Wootton Bassett took his aggregate to over two million guineas, and they averaged 143,357gns. Four of them sold for 240,000gns or more.

“I am a little bit shaky!” said Charlie Fellowes after buying, with Will Douglass of Charlie Gordon Watson Bloodstock, a colt by Wootton Bassett for 350,000gns. It is the most expensive public purchase made by Fellowes. The colt is out of the Galileo mare Beluga, a three-parts sister to the Derby winner Pour Moi. He was bred by Westerberg and sold by WH Bloodstock.

“I am delighted to have got him, we loved him the first time we saw him,” added Fellowes. “He will be running for Paul Hickman, I bought a Frankel colt for him last week. He lives in Singapore. He has had horses for a long time, and had horses with Sir Henry Cecil.” The colt was consigned by Mimi Wadham and Violet Hesketh of WH Bloodstock.

A Wootton Bassett filly out of the Group 3-placed Danehill Dancer mare Hint Of Tint was sold by Islanmore Stud to Najd Stud for 300,000gns. Purchaser Saud Al Qahtani said: “She was one of the best fillies I saw this morning; she is very nice. This is the first by the sire we have purchased, and I hope, Inshallah, she is good for His Royal Highness Prince Faisal and will be a leading filly next year.

“She will be trained in Newmarket. Prince Faisal is looking to increase his numbers in training in the UK with good quality horses, but some of this week’s purchases will also be going to Saudi. If she wins a big race, she will stay here as a broodmare. We have Saffron Beach in foal to Frankel here.”

Nick Pocock’s Springston Farm sold a Wootton Bassett half-brother to Melo Melo, winner of the Group 2 Prix de Pomone and runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille after publication of the catalogue, to BBA Ireland for 260,000gns. Baroda Stud’s Wootton Bassett filly out of Il Palazzo realised 240,000gns and sold to Jake Warren’s Highclere Agency. The half-sister to listed winner Still Standing also benefited from her three-year-old half-sister Mistressofillusion winning twice this year.

First-crop sires are neck and neck on average

DARLEY stallions Pinatubo and Earthlight are represented this year by their first yearlings, and both made a splash in Book 2, averaging 135,667gns (for 21 sold) and 135,000gns (nine sold) respectively.

Two yearlings, a filly and colt, by Pinatubo each realised 325,000gns. First to the mark was Corduff Stud’s half-sister to stakes winners Platinum Star and Tifosa, and she was acquired by Justin Casse for Joseph O’Brien. The filly is out of Toquette, bred by Corduff and the Corcoran family’s Farmleigh Bloodstock Ltd.

“We bred her, we bred her mother,” said David Egan. “Pinatubo is a beautiful horse and I give him a big shout. He is a good-looking Shamardal, as is Blue Point; hopefully Pinatubo will do as well as him. We really like this filly.”

Casse said: “Everybody has Royal Ascot dreams. Her pedigree suggests that there is some precocity. The Pinatubo’s are lovely horses, I looked at a lot of them and was impressed with what I saw.”

Also making 325,000gns was Ballyhimikin Stud’s Pinatubo half-brother to San Donato, a listed-winning son of Lope De Vega who was placed in the French 2000 Guineas. Said by James Hanly to be one of the nicest colts he has bred, the gavel fell in favour of Ben McElroy, who signed the docket in his own name and that of Hamish Macauley and Robson Aguiar. He was bought for Amo Racing.

Najd Stud bought 11 lots in Book 2 for an average of 101,455gns, and they included Cheveley Park Stud’s Pinatubo half-brother to the group-placed Recovery Run for 300,000gns. Two hours later and Mountain View Stud’s daughter of the winning Sea The Stars mare Seagull, herself a half-sister to the classic-winning dam of Ghaiyyath, was purchased by SackvilleDonald for 280,000gns.

Redpender Stud pinhooked a son of Earthlight who was bought by Ben McElroy for Amo Racing. Jimmy Murphy was delighted with the result, having bought the colt for 78,000gns and selling him for 325,000gns. The colt’s half-sister Selenaia won a Grade 3 in the USA this year. Murphy said: This colt is from a very good dam line. We were lucky that Selenaia came up in the first dam, and then Lake Forest out of the second dam won the Gimcrack. He is very much a precocious type; hopefully we will see him at Ascot.”

Ben McElroy has been very active this week, and his other purchases included a daughter of Showcasing from Carmel Stud for 325,000gns. The filly was bought for Stonestreet Stables.