Sea The Stars Filly Sets New BBAG Record

[Wandering Eyes]

BADEN-BADEN, Germany—A new record price for a yearling at BBAG was set when Gestut Brummerhof broke its own previous high through the sale of a Sea The Stars (Ire) filly from one of the country’s best families for €820,000.

Sheikh Mohammed is the new owner of lot 44, the daughter of Anna Mia (Ger), whose sire Monsun (Ger) was responsible for the 12-year record-holder, North Star (Ger), a graduate of the 2007 auction at €710,000. Since those days nothing has come close, and a pair of yearlings sold for €280,000 took the top honours in a sale which returned a depleted set of figures last year.

Twelve months on and the story is a little different. The top-priced colt of the sale, the only yearling by the extremely popular Kingman (GB) catalogued, also joined the Godolphin fold at €700,000. International support, significantly from Australia, where German-breds have such a good record in cup races, was pronounced and several of the top lots will be heading for the UK, while others are bound for France, Ireland, Hong Kong and Sweden.

A total of 21 six-figure lots from the 143 yearlings sold on the day gave trade a significant boost, with the aggregate increasing by 35% from last year at €8,175,000, while the average of €57,167was also up, by 49%. The clearance rate was 73%.

Blues Hit The News
The Godolphin team has regularly cherry-picked select offerings in Baden-Baden and agent Matt Coleman was made to dig deep on the sheikh’s behalf to secure the record-breaking filly from Gregor and Julia Baum’s Gestut Brummerhof following a sustained attempt from underbidder Suzanne Roberts, who was acting on behalf of John Clarke for Sea The Stars’s owner-breeder Ling Tsui.

“Anthony Stroud and David Loder were here yesterday to look at the horses and they felt that she was one of the stars of the sale,” said Coleman. “Obviously she’s by Sea The Stars, who is such a good stallion, and she comes from a very good farm.”

That farm is of course responsible for the Arc winner Danedream (Ger) (Lomitas {GB}), woefully overlooked when offered by Brummerhof and sold as a 2-year-old for €9,000 back in 2010.

“We already held the record and we felt that this filly had a chance of being the top price but we didn’t believe she would break our own record,” said Julia Baum.

In a sense, the filly is returning to the fold, as her grandam Queen’s Hall (GB) (Singspiel {GB}) was bred by Darley from Anna Matrushka (GB) (Mill Reef), and Sheikh Mohammed has had much success with various relatives worldwide, including Helmet (Aus) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), who is now standing at stud in Germany. And that is where the family has its strong roots, with the sheikh having bought the yearling’s fourth dam Anna Paola (Ger) (Prince Ippi {Ger}) from breeder Gestut Rottgen.

Coleman had another fierce bidding war on his hands when it came to securing the Kingman colt (lot 174) for the same owner. Sold by his breeder Gestut Rottgen—the champion owner and breeder in Germany in 2017 and 2018—the first foal of treble listed winner Weltmacht (GB) (Mount Nelson {GB}) was also on the wish list of Tom Goff, Hong Kong Jockey Club and Alex Elliott, and it was the latter who pushed Coleman all the way to €700,000.

Dr Guenter Paul, president of the Rottgen Foundation, was on hand to thank Coleman for his part in the stud achieving its highest ever price for a yearling and said, “This is a wonderful result for a family which has done well for Rottgen. He is closely related to Wild Coco, who won a Group 2 for us in England with Henry Cecil. That was a very proud moment for us.”

The stud’s advisor Jocelyn de Moubray added, “We knew that [the colt] was very popular and this just shows that it is possible to sell horses as well here as anywhere in the world. This is the only time we have used Kingman—we would rarely spend that much on a stud fee.”

Coleman’s work was far from over. Five lots later (179) he was back in action, going to €360,000 for a Lope De Vega (Ire) three-parts-sister to G2 German 1000 Guineas winner Aku’ada (Ger) (Shamardal), also from Gestut Brummerhof—in fact, stabled in the box next door to the top lot. The Godolphin quartet of purchases was completed by lot 144, a colt from Gestut Gorlsdorf and by their stallion Sea The Moon (Ger). The strapping chestnut is a full-brother to Man On The Moon (Ger), the winner of the BBAG Auktionrennen who is also Group 3-placed.

Stars For Salzburg
Not all the horse wagons leaving BBAG will be heading overseas. Harald Schneider of Stall Salzburg bought a pair of colts to send to trainer Sarah Steinberg. Lot 93, by Wootton Bassett (GB) and a grandson of Gestut Fahrhof’s champion racemare Quebrada (Ire) (Devil’s Bag), was signed for at €150,000 following the earlier purchase of lot 63 at €140,000. The colt by Sea The Stars, and also from Gestut Fahrhof, is out of the listed winner Goiania (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). With the Black Sam Bellamy (Ire) mare Goathemala (Ger) as his second dam, the colt’s inbreeding to Urban Sea was off particular appeal, Schneider noted.

Sea The Stars was also on the list for agent Jack de Jong, who signed for his daughter out of Saldenehre (Ger) (Highest Honor), already the dam of three black-type winners including champion 3-year-old Serienholde (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}), at €190,000. The grey filly (lot 162) will head to France for Jean-Pierre Dubois.

Australian Demand Increasing
There was a small but determined Australian contingent present in Baden-Baden and they will not be going home empty-handed.

Justin Bahen is a regular visitor to BBAG and in company with Brad Spicer he was active early on in pursuit of a colt by Sea The Moon (Ger) (lot 48). The duo was delighted to be able to sign for the colt from Stauffenberg Bloodstock out of Aspen Royal (Ger) (Royal Applause {GB}) at €120,000.

“This is my first trip to Germany,” Spicer said. “I went to Tattersalls last year and bought a Sea The Moon and a Sea The Stars, both colts, and the Sea The Moon colt just had his first bit of fast work this morning and got rave reviews. We’re really happy with the colt so far and this one we just bought was a target colt for us. We had earmarked him and we were always going to go pretty hard on him so it was lovely to secure him. We were watching some of the results and the sale was getting quite hot.”

Spicer outlined his long-term plans for his European purchases. “We’re particularly looking for staying blood that we can’t get in Australia. The pedigrees up here in Germany and Europe are miles in front of the Australians. We are paying a lot of money for these tried horses so I am going to try to buy yearlings up here over the next few years to see if it works. It’s a three-year project and we’ll buy two or three colts a year, take them home, get them broken in straight away and they will go into the system. They will tell us when they are ready.”

He added, “I love Sea The Stars and we’ve had a few of his horses in Australia who have gone pretty well. Justin and I are mates but I didn’t really know he was going to get involved in the horse until we walked in the ring but he said he’d go halves with me. We have quite a few buyers who are keen to get involved in what we are doing so hopefully in a couple of years’ time we will have a nice Derby or Cups horse.”

Bahen also went to €120,000 for lot 61, a Mastercraftsman (Ire) half-sister to German champion 2-year-old Diamond Dove (Ger) (Dr Fong) from Gestut Westerberg.

Meanwhile, Jamie Lovett and the Australian Bloodstock team made their presence felt through the purchase of the sole yearling from the first crop of Derby winner Harzand (Ire) in the sale. Lot 59, a colt out of the champion filly Djumama (Ire) (Aussie Rules {GB}), was bought for €58,000 and will go to the stable of David Menuisier, who trains the syndicate’s Cox Plate hopeful Danceteria (Fr) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}). Australian Bloodstock signed for another three yearlings, including a Sea The Moon filly (lot 170) at €110,000 and a first-crop daughter of their Melbourne Cup-winning stallion Protectionist (Ger) (lot 90) at €50,000.

Joseph O’Brien will take charge of a pair of Protectionist yearlings, including the most expensive of the sire’s offerings in the sale (lot 36), the first foal of the unraced Zippity Do Da (Ire) (Makfi {GB}) from the family of Cheveley Park Stud stallion Garswood (GB), who was bought by agent Jurgen Albrecht for €95,000.

Ciaron Maher was also represented at the sale by Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock, who signed for Gestut Auenquelle’s Camelot (GB) colt named Albert Hammond (Ger) (lot 40) in the trainer’s name at €64,000.

 

 

 

 

 

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