Goffs Hoping To Storm To Success

[Wandering Eyes]

KILDARE, Ireland—Hurricane Lorenzo is set to hit Ireland on Thursday but even ahead of the incoming storm, vendors and potential buyers at Goffs had rough conditions to contend with on the final viewing day ahead of the start of the two-day Orby Sale.

As people took shelter from the rain, the TV screens showed the latest advertisement for last year’s sale as Surrey Pride (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) won on his second start at Bath for Joe Tuite and Surrey Racing. The colt was bred by Vimal and Gillian Khosla and, as a €50,000 yearling, he was not only some way below the €80,000 median for the 2018 sale but also a long way off the top lot, also bred by the Khoslas. That honour, at €3.2 million, went to the Galileo (Ire) filly out of the couple’s blue hen Green Room (Theatrical), who is already the dam of Oaks winner Forever Together (Ire) and G1 Fillies’ Mile victrix Together Forever (Ire)—both also daughters of the champion sire—while the mare’s other top-flight winner is Lord Shanakill (Speightstown), in turn the sire of G1 Prince of Wales’s S. winner My Dream Boat (Ire).

Last year’s leading lady is now named Do You Love Me (Ire) and is in training in Yorkshire with Karl Burke for Phoenix Thoroughbreds. Yet another full-sister graces the pages of the Orby catalogue in the Ballylinch Stud draft this year (lot 262) and her appearance in the ring roughly an hour after the start of the sale on Wednesday morning will doubtless ensure a packed auditorium. With Green Room’s offspring having already sold for €1.1 million, €900,000 and €680,000, as well as last year’s record-breaking sum, expectations are high that she can play a similarly major role in proceedings in Kildare this week.

“Green Room has been an extraordinary mare who has been so consistent in terms of what she produces and this is another really nice one,” said Ballylinch Stud manager John O’Connor at Goffs on Monday.

“The filly is well up there with the standards of the previous horses and she’s probably one of the most exceptional movers I have seen for a long time. She is so light on her feet and very athletic. People are really liking her and I’m not surprised at that. We know the cross works and we know the mare can breed a Group 1 winner.”

At this time of year, nothing is more timely than a black-type update for a yearling about to sell, and for Paddy and Peter Kelly of Ballybin Stud, prayers were answered not far down the road at the Curragh on Sunday when New York Girl (Ire) (New Approach {GB}) won the G3 Weld Park S. for owner Mark Dobbin.

When the catalogue was printed, billing her Awtaad (Ire) half-sister as lot 137, the Joseph O’Brien-trained juvenile was still unraced, but New York Girl made her debut on Sept. 1 when fourth in a Cork maiden and took her step up in grade in fine style when beating her stable-mate A New Dawn (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}). She also provided a memorable weekend for jockey Shane Crosse who, having won the G3 Renaissance S. aboard Speak In Colours (Ire) (Excelebration {Ire}) the previous afternoon, rode the first two group winners of his career within 24 hours of each other.

Ballybin Stud offers only two yearlings in the Orby Sale with the second, to sell on Wednesday, being a colt from the first northern hemisphere crop of Pride Of Dubai (Aus) (lot 337) out of Livia Galilei (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). This family too has had a good boost this season courtesy of the dam’s half-brother Mohican Heights (Ire), who is unbeaten in two starts including the listed Stonehenge S. at Salisbury. A €100,000 purchase at this sale last year by Deuce Greathouse, the son of Australia (GB) subsequently topped the Goffs London Sale when selling for €520,000 to Qatar Bloodstock and Sun Racing.

By mid-afternoon at Goffs on Monday, as viewing had been cut short in the increasingly heavy rain, Henry Beeby announced a delayed start to Tuesday’s session to 11am.

“We’ll see how things are in the morning and we may have to start even later,” he said.

But the Goffs Group Chief Executive is not one to allow mere precipitation to dampen his enthusiasm and Beeby was looking forward to welcoming a throng of overseas visitors to the traditional eve-of-Orby reception at the K Club.

He said, “We took on both Hayley O’Connor and Tom Taaffe last year on the basis that if we are asking people to send us more and better horses, then we need to get the word out to an ever-widening audience. So it has been a major focus of ours and we have spent more time in the United States this year, which has resulted in more buyers from America than we’ve ever had. Hopefully they will like what they see.”

He added, “There’s a huge number of overseas buyers here. We are mindful of the fact that, given the uncertainties in Britain at the moment for various reasons, it is important that we get our message out as widely as possible. We have very good horses and a bugger buyer base than we’ve ever had, so we are hopeful.”

 

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