Royal Ascot Winner Features Among Jam-Packed Tattersalls July Sale Offering

[Wandering Eyes]

If you're looking for a single word to sum up the catalogue for the Tattersalls July Sale, chances are that 'mammoth' will do the trick. 

In what other week would you find a recent Royal Ascot winner among the 17 horses who boast Timeform ratings in excess of 100, along with a list of mares as long as your arm that hail from deep Godolphin, Juddmonte and Shadwell families. 

Don't forget Baroda Stud offering the first mare in foal to champion racehorse City Of Troy. Put simply, there is something for everyone among the over 900 horses set to sell between Tuesday [sale gets underway at 9.30am] and Thursday at Park Paddocks. 

Andrew Balding will doubtless be one of the busiest trainers this week. As well as managing a typically-strong assault at the Newmarket July meeting, which includes leading July Cup hope Flora Of Bermuda, Balding will be overseeing a draft of 25 horses. Among them is Golden Gates Stakes winner Quai De Bethune, successful at the royal meeting on just his sixth start and one of the hottest properties on the sale ground. But he is not alone in the Kingsclere corner of the Highflyer Paddock, with fellow three-year-olds Humam (Kodiac) and Gallant (Hello Youmzain) boasting similarly-attractive profiles and ratings.

Balding commented, “Obviously Quai De Bethune has been an improver and has been very consistent in his races. I thought that was a very good performance at Ascot and he's being sold to dissolve a partnership. I'm sure there are more miles on the clock so I hope he sells well.”

As far as British-based trainers are concerned, few hit the yearling sales quite like Balding, who does a lot of the heavy lifting himself on behalf of a wide variety of clients. Many of those owners need to cut their cloth to measure, which means the wheels need to turn. Hence, here we are. 

“Exactly,” Balding agreed. “And when you sell at this time of the year, it tends to give you a little more ammunition when it comes to the yearling sales. Plenty of our owners need to keep the wheel turning. We are selling a lot of horses this week and, while I don't know the exact number, a lot of them have won their latest start. I'd like to think we have a really good consignment this week.”

Some of the breeding stock on offer this week would not look out of place here in December. Within the 48 lots that powerhouse operation Godolphin will offer, there are sisters to champion older horse Ghaiyyath [lot 244], Sea Silk Road [265] and the Derby winner Masar [852] to name just a few. But if it's a novelty factor that you're after, look no further than Miaharris (Zoustar) [180], the only mare to be sold in foal to City Of Troy. A classy filly on the track, Miaharris reached a rating of 99 and landed a Listed success over the minimum trip at Newbury. 

She will be sold this week by Baroda Stud, whose owner David Cox said, “She was a very good racemare and there is definitely a bit of a novelty factor involved with her given she is in foal to a champion in City Of Troy. There are three well-related maiden mares – Hala Be Zain (Zoffany) [66], Queen Of Mercia (Golden Horn) [142] and Heavenly Fire (Harry Angel) [145] – who are all in foal to Shaquille and are going down well as well so it is shaping up to be an interesting sale. But, definitely, there is a bit of a novelty factor with Miaharris with her covering.”

Marconi: a bloodstock agent on the rise| Tattersalls

One man who can be expected to get in on the action for the highly-rated racing prospects is bloodstock agent Alessandro Marconi. The Italian native, best known for unearthing last year's French 2,000 Guineas winner Metropolitan, has been a growing force at the major breeze-up, online and horses-in-training sales in recent times. Being in demand brings its own challenges with Marconi ruing the fact he didn't get in on the action at Arqana last week in order to help lighten his load ahead of the July Sale. 

He explained, “There was an article with Mr Stuart [Boman, bloodstock agent] in one of the papers the other day and he was very right in what he said – it is easy to split horses for America, Australia, the Middle East or wherever. Where it becomes tricky is when you have multiple clients from the same region, which I have, because they all want the same horses. 

“I can give directions and coordinate the traffic on the roundabout but the main issue is, for example, if you take Dubai, it will be the same three or four trainers who have the clients that I have. So, how are you going to solve the equation? You just need to do your best to fill the orders but you need to buy the right ones. The majority of the horses that I am buying are for Middle Eastern clients.”

Explaining his upsurge in popularity and approach to this week's sale, the former assistant trainer to Dubai trainer Ahmad Bin Harmash, said, “The horses I bought two years ago started winning and are doing better and better. So the clients that I lost started coming back. That's the way it is. The Marconi horses are winning. I want to get the job done properly and the most important thing for that is buying the right horse. There were five horses in Arqana last week that we tried to buy and now I am regretting not buying at least one. But we must be hopeful of being active this week.”

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