Zoffany Filly Leads Book 3 Closing Day

[Wandering Eyes]

NEWMARKET, UK—We’re in the home straight. Around 100 yearlings will go under the hammer this morning at Tattersalls when the repositioned Book 4 brings the curtain down on the October Sale. The fortnight started in the stratosphere with another record-breaking Book 1, but in the last few days the trade has been brought back down to a more earthly level.

Book 3 ended its two-day run on Friday, each of the sessions graded, meaning that the second lengthy stint at Park Paddocks didn’t quite match the pace set on Thursday. The October Sale figures have held up well to this point and even despite the distinctly lower prince range of Friday, an overall clearance rate of 80% meant that the Book 3 accounts were still largely on par with events of 12 months ago. Reassuring though that may be to some, it will be cold comfort for the breeders or pinhookers selling yearlings at or below the median mark of 10,000gns (-9%) and average of 16,082gns (-3%). There is little profit to be found at this level but the 472 horses sold in the last two days have added 7,590,800gns to October’s running tally of 162,552,300gns.

James Hanly has successfully targeted Book 3 in the past and had another good sale this time around, his five yearlings selling for an average of 60,000gns, while the Castlebridge Consignment led the vendors’ table by aggregate, selling 30 yearlings for 376,800gns. Rabbah Bloodstock was the largest buyer, signing for 17 yearlings.

A Zoffany To Breeze
A Zoffany (Ire) filly who offers plenty of residual value once her racing days are behind her was a fitting leading lady for Friday’s session at 60,000gns through Voute Sales. The daughter of the Fittocks Stud mare Cosmodrome (Bahri) (lot 1841) may find herself back in a breeze-up sale next spring, according to her purchaser, Richard Fitzsimons of BBA Ireland, and a fast breeze would only enhance the recommendations already available on the page.

Her dam won the listed Height Of Fashion S. for breeders Luca and Sara Cumani and the mare’s half-sister Splashdown (GB) (Falbrav {Ire}) was also a listed winner who has produced the G3 Solario S. victor Aktabantay (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). Cosmodrome’s two winners to date are Lovell (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and 3-year-old Snax (GB) (High Chaparral {Ire}).

“She’s a big strong filly and there’s a lot going on in the family,” said Fitzsimons. “There are Dubawis and Kingmans coming through under the second dam.”

Piermill’s Pinhooking Delight
Ling Tsui has been resolute in her support of her family’s stallion Sea The Stars (Ire) and she hasn’t turned her back on his half-brother Born To Sea (Ire) either. The son of Invincible Spirit (Ire) will next year move from Gilltown Stud to France to stand at Alain Chopard’s Haras des Faunes but in the meantime he was responsible for another of the day’s top-priced fillies (1806), bought by the Tsuis’ Sunderland Holdings for 56,000gns. As ever, their representative John Clarke was on hand to do the bidding, confirming that the filly will be trained in France.

Out of the listed-placed King’s Best mare Best Side (Ire), the half-sister to G3 Dee S. winner Azmeel (GB) (Azamour {Ire}) and German listed winner Baisse (GB) was pinhooked last December by Troy Steve for 16,000gns on behalf of Piermill Bloodstock, a local operation run by Bill and Amber Dash.

“We do it all ourselves and just have three or four foals each year,” said Bill Dash, who explained that he and his wife had started up several years ago. “Troy has been really helpful buying the horses and drops in to make sure we are heading in the right direction. We have had some sell well and others not so successfully but we are delighted with this result.”

European Combo Strikes For Kingman
One of this season’s leading freshman sires, Kingman (GB), made a huge impression at Books 1 and 2 and his daughter out of a sister to treble Group 1 winner and South African-based sire Twice Over (GB) (Observatory) found a willing buyer in Federico Barberini, who signed for lot 1865 at 55,000gns.

The Italian agent was acting on behalf of leading French breeze-up consignor Paul Basquin of Haras de Saubouas and said, “We also bought a No Nay Never last night. They are both by popular sires and ideal to go to the breeze-ups.”

The filly is a daughter of Dupe (GB), bought from the Juddmonte draft back in December 2013 for 37,000gns by Faisal Meshref Al-Kahtani. Her daughter by Frankel (GB) fetched 200,000gns at Book 1 last year and this is a family which also includes the Group 1 winner Timepiece (GB) (Zamindar) and Passage Of Time (GB) (Dansili {GB}).

Barberini also went to 48,000gns for a speedily-bred son of Sepoy (Aus) (1921) out of a winning daughter of the G2 Temple S.-placed Firenze (GB) (Efisio {GB}), a sister to G1 July Cup winner Frizzante (GB).

His co-breeder Jan Hopper, who bred the colt with Mike and Michelle Morris and has been involved with three generations of the family, said, “He has always been a lovely type. The mares board at the National Stud and Tim [Lane] and his team have done a fabulous job getting him ready for this sale.”

Dods Plays Leading Role
Three years ago Emma Foley and Damian Flynn’s Redgate Bloodstock topped Book 3 and the team produced one of the final day’s leading lights this time around in lot 1661, a Mayson (GB) colt who will be trained by Michael Dods.

The half-brother to the multiple winners Dark Defender (GB) (Pastoral Pursuits {GB}) and Oh It’s Saucepot (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}), who brought the hammer down at 47,000gns, will eventually join this year’s G1 Qatar Prix de l’Abbaye winner Mabs Cross (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) at Dods’s Country Durham yard. The trainer was one of the leading buyers during Book 3, signing for 10 yearlings.

Elkingon Stud is another consignor which has fared well in Book 3 of late, selling last year’s third-top price, a son of Mukhadram (GB) for 90,000gns. During the final session, Jane Keir’s Oxfordshire farm was responsible for lot 1706, a first-crop daughter of Ivawood (Ire) out of the Pivotal (GB) mare Romp (GB). This is the first foal of the 7-year-old mare, herself a winner at four and from the family of dual Group 2 winner Whitewater Affair (GB) (Machiavellian), later the dam of Japanese Group 1 winners Asakusa Den’en (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}) and Victoire Pisa (JPN) (Neo Universe {JPN}). Romp as bought from the July Sale of 2015 by Liam Norris and William Huntingdon for 14,000gns.

Joe Foley signed for the bay filly at 40,000gns and said, “She’ll come back to Ballyhane to be pre-trained and come the spring, we’ll decide where she’ll go to be trained. She’s a smashing filly out of a Pivotal mare who is herself out of a Singspiel mare, and she’s from that very good John Greetham family.”

Foley later went to the same price for lot 1882, a Dragon Pulse filly out of the unraced Fillothewisp (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), a grand-daughter of Ireland’s champion stayer Eurobird (GB) (Ela-Mana-Mou {GB}).

Park Paddocks falls quiet tonight after Book 4 as the yearling action switches to Arqana’s October Sale in Deauville from Tuesday, but will return to the spotlight on Oct. 29 with the start of the four-day Horses-in-Training Sale.

 

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