Early Opportunities at Tatts Ascot

[Wandering Eyes]

With some 6,000 yearlings to sift through at the major European yearling sales alone, buyers will on Tuesday have the opportunity to zero in on a boutique offering in an important segment of the market at the Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale at Ascot Racecourse.

The rising popularity in recent years of jump-and-run type horses has been well documented, and Tattersalls Ascot offers 167 yearlings handpicked for precocity that are eligible for the £150,000 Tattersalls October Auction S.

“This sale has been built on identifying precocious 2-year-olds; we can forgive pedigree, but we go for the individual because we’re aiming to attract trainers, agents and breeze-up pinhookers that are looking for a type at an affordable price,” said Matt Prior, Head of Tattersalls Ascot and Cheltenham Sales.

What has been built has been done over the past three years, with the sale’s inaugural edition having taken place in 2017. That first go-round resulted in 85 yearlings-from 126 catalogued and 114 offered-sold for an average of £9,265 and a median of £7,000. Last year’s sale consolidated those figures from a larger offering: 163 were catalogued, 153 offered and 111 sold for an average of £9,874 and a median of again £7,000.

A more telling indicator of success, of course, is results on the track, and the Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale has supplied those in abundance this year. The sale produced seven Royal Ascot 2-year-olds this year including Ventura Rebel (GB) (Pastoral Pursuits {GB}), a £28,000 yearling who was second in the G2 Norfolk S. The sale has four stakes-winning 2-year-olds thus far this year: £10,000 purchase Flippa The Strippa (Ire) (Outstrip {GB}) won Sandown’s Listed National S.; Shadn (Ire) (No Nay Never), the highest-priced filly last year at £42,000, took Newbury’s Listed Rose Bowl S.; Flaming Princess (Ire) (Hot Streak {Ire})-a £20,000 yearling pinhooked for £60,000 at the Tattersalls Ascot Breeze-Up Sale-won Deauville’s Listed Prix Cavalassur; and Liberty Beach (GB) (Cable Bay {Ire}), while unsold at £16,000, was up for grabs and has since gone on to win four races this year-including the Listed Dragon S. and G3 Molecomb S.-for her breeder Philip Wilkins.

“The sale is now in its third year and starting to demonstrate that the selection process works,” Prior said. “We’ve just had another winner today and we’re now at 21 winners in total [of 33 races] and four black-type winners for the 2018 sale. For the quantity on offer the sale has punched well above its weight.”

Prior pointed out that all four stakes-winning graduates of 2018 are fillies, which have sometimes met lukewarm reception in parts of the market.

“In a market that can be selective on fillies it shows that it shouldn’t be so,” Prior said. “They were all offered for sale, and the opportunities are there for these types of horses to be bought at a relatively affordable price. And we’ve had the likes of Ventura Rebel, who was a good second in the Norfolk S. and had he had a better run things might have been different. The results are very good for a sale that’s in its infancy and there is plenty to be positive about.”

While those aforementioned stakes winners have provided a welcome boost to the sale, the poster child is probably Betty’s Hope (GB) (Anjaal {GB}). The £3,000 yearling has already made seven starts at two this year, won three of them and been worse than second just once. She won the £250,000 Weatherbys Super Sprint on July 20, with Ventura Rebel back in fourth, pushing her earnings to £144,209.

“Betty’s Hope won the Weatherbys Super Sprint this year, and she’s one of those fairytale stories,” Prior said. “She was bought for £3,000 from Llety Farms, she’s been tough and game and she’s run throughout the year. The Weatherbys Super Sprint was the perfect advert for the sale, which is to go buy yourself a runner and win a big prize on the main stage. Those kinds of incentives are massive.”

Bearstone Stud and Jamie Railton, which sold Ventura Rebel and Shadn, respectively, bring the largest consignments this year with 10 apiece, followed by Trickledown Stud with nine. Trickledown’s offering includes a filly by hot 2-year-old sire of the Ebor meeting Footstepsinthesand (GB) (lot 19) who is the first foal out of a daughter of G1 Yorkshire Oaks winner Quiff (GB) (Sadler’s Wells), and a Swiss Spirit (GB) colt out of stakes winner Hucking Hot (GB) (Desert Prince) (lot 73). Others that catch the eye on paper include lot 34, a Free Eagle (Ire) half-sister to Flippa The Strippa and lot 13, a colt by Flippa The Strippa’s sire Outstrip from the family of multiple champion Divine Proportions and Group 1 winner and sire Whipper. G1 Irish 2000 Guineas winner Awtaad (Ire) has his first yearlings this year and he has lot 39, a half-brother to the stakes-placed Banana Split (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}) and two others winners from the family of the high-class Bonfire (GB) (Manduro {Ger}) and Joviality (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}).

Cable Bay has made a very favourable first impression with his initial crop of runners this year and his four catalogued include lot 46, a filly whose third dam is Razyana, dam of the great Danehill. The ever-popular Dark Angel (Ire) has a single yearling catalogued, lot 91, a filly who is the first foal out of the listed-placed Loaves and Fishes (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). The reliable Equiano (Fr) has a colt (lot 125) who is the third foal out of a stakes-producing half-sister to Grade I winner Blond Me (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}). First-season sire Mehmas (Ire), whose yearlings were popular at Goffs UK, has lot 148, a half-sister to G3 Acomb S. winner Treaty of Paris (Ire) (Haatef) and out of a mare with a perfect five winners from five runners.

“It’s a sale that has really identified itself with vendors,” Prior said. “It’s a standalone day and it will always be limited to around 170 horses because that is the Ascot Racecourse stable limit. I think that appeals to people because it means these types of horses have their own day and they have the weight of the Tattersalls Ascot team behind them promoting the sale. When we were selecting the yearlings, you could see vendors were really catching on and realizing it’s getting the results on the track and subsequently they’re supporting the sale with a nice bunch of horses.”

Selling begins at 11 a.m. on Tuesday.

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