Havana Grey Colt Headlines Fierce Trade During Second Session at Tattersalls at 260,000gns

[Wandering Eyes]

If Tuesday's opening session of the December Foal Sale at Tattersalls was all about Dragon Symbol, then Wednesday was the day that the young upstart received a sharp warning should he wish to assume the throne as Whitsbury Manor Stud kingpin, with the present incumbent, Havana Grey, taking his turn to play the starring role on a day of fierce trade at Park Paddocks.

By the close of play, Havana Grey accounted for five of the day's top 18 lots, headlined by lot 650 from the Whitsbury Manor draft. The colt out of the Italian Listed winner Avengers Queen (Brazen Beau), from the family of the Group-winning sprinters Diligent Harry (Due Diligence) and El Caballo (Havana Grey), was knocked down to Charlie Vigors of Hillwood Bloodstock for 260,000gns.

“Havana Grey needs no introduction,” Vigors said of the sire-of-the-moment. “He's been pretty good to us and pretty good to everybody who has been involved with him. As the better mares are coming through, I think his profile is only going to keep increasing.”

On what the future holds for this colt, he added, “We'll get him home and make a plan from there, but he could well be coming back next year. He obviously has the pedigree, I liked the physical, and I liked the page, so everything added up. We were delighted to get him – we were at our limit, I'd say.”

Of the 10 Havana Grey weanlings offered across the first two days, nine have sold for a total of 1,009,000gns, putting him third on the overall sires' list behind first-crop sensations Shaquille and Dragon Symbol.

His average of 112,111gns was further boosted by the sale of lot 576, also from the Whitsbury Manor draft and belonging to the same family as the day's headliner. Bred on the cross which produced the Hampshire farm's newest stallion recruit, Elite Status, the colt is out of the winning Swiss Spirit mare Amoreena, a half-sister to the aforementioned Diligent Harry (Due Diligence), as well as the Listed Prix Kistena scorer Harry Three (Adaay). Tally-Ho Stud struck the winning bid at 165,000gns.

“He's a good-moving horse, by a good stallion,” said Tally-Ho's Tony O'Callaghan, who also signed for lot 557, by the same stallion, at 105,000gns. “We've had bits and bobs by the stallion before. We've bought two by him today, but we just worry about the model. We had 150 [thousand] in mind going in there if we wanted to give ourselves any chance of getting him.”

Completing the trio of Havana Grey colts occupying a spot among the top 15 was lot 468, this one bred on the same cross as the dual Group 1-winning juvenile Vandeek. He is out of the winning Exceed And Excel mare Excesso Velocidad, a half-sister to the Italian black-type winners Fast Spirit (Make Believe) and Bright Filly (Ten Sovereigns). Also consigned by Whitsbury Manor, he was purchased by Mimi Wadham of WH Bloodstock for 110,000gns.

“He's a lovely colt. He looks fast and it's a proven cross that has worked,” said Wadham. “The sire can do no wrong and we were really happy to get him – and surprised, to be honest. We had to push but we felt it was slowing up, so we thought we had a squeak.”

She added, “The plan will be to bring him back for Book 2. We sold a filly [by Havana Grey] that we bred in Book 2 this year for 160,000gns. This colt would stack up very well against her, so fingers crossed.”

'The Standout Of All The Foals We Saw'

Michael Swinburn of Genesis Green Stud joked that he “nearly fell off his chair” when he saw 51 foals by Shaquille catalogued in this week's sale, but he soon struck a more sombre note when telling the backstory of lot 618, the colt who became the most expensive weanling by the first-crop sire to date when going the way of Ace Stud for 180,000gns.

“I bought the mare barren and, of course, she had to die this year of cancer, so he was reared on a foster mare,” Swinburn began. “It was touch and go whether she was going to make the foaling. Literally, two weeks after the foal was born, we had to put her down. She was just getting lighter and lighter and I was giving out to the lads saying, 'Guys, are you sure you're feeding this filly?'”

Described by Swinburn as “a great mare”, the late Sunset Avenue (Street Cry) was a 6,500gns purchase at the 2023 December Mares Sale, having already produced two black-type performers in the GIII Robert J. Frankel Stakes runner-up Excellent Sunset (Exceed And Excel) and the Listed King Richard III Stakes second Path Of Thunder (Night Of Thunder).

“I'll be honest with you, I wasn't going to breed to Shaquille,” Swinburn added of the mating which produced one of Wednesday's star turns. “I'm not a great man for first-season sires, but I went to see him and Sunset Avenue, being a Street Cry, they [her progeny] can be fairly plain. So, I thought, 'I've got a mare for you,' and that was her.

“I thought I was going to be very clever by putting a nice one [by Shaquille] in this sale. But I was very surprised, when I saw the pedigrees of the Shaquilles in the book, how good the mares were. He has to have a great chance with the mares that he's had and they're going down a storm. All of the proper people are buying them.”

The dual Group 1-winning sprinter Shaquille has now had 21 weanlings sold, from 25 offered, across the first two sessions here at Park Paddocks. That group have achieved a total of 1,138,000gns and an average of 54,190gns, with two others also changing hands for a six-figure sum on Wednesday. They included lot 622, New England Stud's half-brother to the multiple Group 3 hero Rocchigiani (Time Test) – later named Flaming Rabbit when continuing his career in Hong Kong – who sold to Camas Park Stud for 125,000gns.

“As the markets been suggesting today already, they're well liked, the whole lot of them,” added Paul Curran of Ace Stud, the Newmarket farm which the son of Charm Spirit calls home. “They've done a very good job of getting some nice ones here and there's a huge number of them. The first thing we wanted to see is that he's stamping his stock and he seems to be doing that which is great.

“This one is going to be retained and will race in our colours. We went around and looked at about 100-120 [foals] for Wednesday and I actually thought he was the standout of all the foals we saw. We came in for the week thinking we wanted to buy the standout one. I think we got that and he was in and around the price we thought he was going to be.”

Subplots

Figures – Of the 256 lots offered, 219 sold at a healthy clearance rate of 87%, up from 85% last year. The 10,416,000gns turnover climbed by 15%, while the 47,425gns average was up by 8% and the 35,000gns median by 3%.

Ghaiyyath – Havana Grey aside, Ghaiyyath was the star of the more established sires on Wednesday, with the Kildangan Stud resident laying claim to two of the top 10 lots, including a colt from Starfield Stud who sold to Harry Sweeney's Japan-based Paca Paca Farm for 160,000gns.

“He was a very popular foal and a lot of very shrewd judges were on him,” Starfield's Micheál Orlandi said of lot 628. “A lot of them were pinhookers and they have to buy at what they think is value, but we are very thankful to all of them who bid. I think that Paul McCartan was underbidder. It is tough on the pinhooker to come up against Harry, but it is a great result. Thankfully, the stars aligned this evening and it has been like that for the stallion this week.”

Ghaiyyath is a perfect six for six so far this week, with all of his weanlings finding a buyer. That sextet has sold for an aggregate sum of 505,000gns and at an average of 84,167gns.

Sales schedule – Tony O'Callaghan didn't mince his words when asked whether he looks forward to this hectic time of year.

“No, not really,” replied the deadpan patriarch of the Tally-Ho dynasty, before providing a bit of food for thought with his opinion on how the sales schedule could be improved.

“The sales are too compact and all together,” he continued. “This sale should be a week later. You've the same again all next week, then France. For the lads working, they're here at five o'clock in the morning and they're still here at 10 o'clock at night. All December is free for them and they should use a bit of it. I've been saying this for a few years, but they don't do anything about it. December is idle, so why can't we run up until later in the month?”

Farhh – The progeny of Farhh always possess a bit of scarcity value given his well-documented fertility issues but, even so, it was good to see his name up there on the leaderboard amidst a slew of first-crop stallions.

Lot 487 from Brook Stud, a colt out of an unraced half-sister to the black-type winners Dan's Dream (Cityscape) and Caernarfon (Cityscape), was the one flying the flag for the Darley sire on Wednesday when bought by Two Turn Investments for 98,000gns.

The proven sire of Group 1 winners such as King Of Change and Tribalist, Farhh continues to produce the results from limited numbers, as evidenced at Goffs last week when his sole weanling catalogued sold to Apricot Bloodstock for €155,000.

Can Lightning Strike Twice With Lush Lips Sibling?

Bloodstock agent Mark McStay and American owner Steve Weston stuck to a winning formula when swooping for another of the day's early pacesetters in lot 470, a full-brother to their high-class filly Lush Lips who, subsequent to her victory in last month's GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes, changed hands at Keeneland for $3.7 million.

Needless to say, this colt's price tag didn't make it into quite such rarefied air but, at 150,000gns, it was a result which delighted Nick Pocock of Stringston Farm. McStay, too, expressed his satisfaction at being able to continue his association with the family, having first purchased Lush Lips for £82,000 at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale.

“He's a beautiful horse and I'm delighted to get him,” said the Avenue Bloodstock agent. “He was well presented by Stringston and the Pococks who are great breeders. When you breed a Grade I winner like Lush Lips, you're entitled to get paid.”

Outlining future plans for the colt, he added, “I've purchased him on behalf of Steve Weston's Parkland Thoroughbreds. He's been a really good client in recent years with Porta Fortuna, Balantina and Lush Lips, amongst others.

“He'll probably go back to Luke Barry at Manister House Stud in Ireland and we'll make our plans in the spring with him then. Whether we reoffer him or race, I don't know, but it's a nice problem to have.

“I thought, as an individual, this was a really nice horse. I wasn't just buying the relation to a horse that had done me well. She [Lush Lips] was an outstanding physical and this foal was a really good type as well.”

Lush Lips and recent Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf heroine Balantina feature among three individual top-level winners for former Coolmore stallion Ten Sovereigns, who relocated to Turkey for the latest breeding season. With that in mind, Pocock was tempering his expectations when this colt went through the ring, whilst hoping that the recent exploits of Lush Lips might give proceedings a gentle nudge in the right direction.

He said, “We're delighted with that price. We didn't know what we were going to make coming up here, with him being by Ten Sovereigns who has obviously moved to Turkey. It made it difficult to value the horse, but Ten Sovereigns has had a very good year in America, which we've been part of.

“It's lovely having the update and for it to come so close to the sales is always a help. He was a lovely colt who never put a foot wrong and he's been very busy. It was nice for him to be sold back to Mark McStay after he bought Lush Lips.”

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