Tattersalls Set For Strong Finale

[Wandering Eyes]

Record turnover in 2017 saw the entire Tattersalls December Sale exceed the 100-million gns mark for only the third time in its history. While last year’s figures represented a small reduction, trade was still incredibly solid with a second-highest average of 65,381gns following the previous year’s bonanza.

This year’s mare and foal catalogues have each been trimmed in size, with the 1,020 mares on offer being the smallest number for 10 years. Similarly, at 1,125, there are 50 fewer foals in the book than last year, while the single yearling session remains at 200.

Hard on the heels of the Goffs November Sale, Tattersalls kicks off its two-week run with the yearlings on Monday, Nov. 25 with colts by Dubawi (Ire) and Galileo (Ire) likely to be of interest. The Dubawi colt out of G1 Irish St Leger winner Voleuse De Coeurs (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) (lot 35) represents the top consignor of this year’s October Book 1, Hazelwood Bloodstock. Like a number of those in the catalogue, he missed his initial sales date in October, the sale in which last year his full-sister, the mare’s first foal, sold for 500,000gns to Godlphin and she is now named Late Romance (GB).

Just four lots in to the start of play comes the Galileo colt from New England Stud (lot 4). His dam Sent From Heaven (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) won the G3 Prestige S. and she has produced a black-type earner with her first foal, Almania (Ire) (Australia {GB}).

Continuing their first season as yearling vendors in their own name, Luca and Sara Cumani will offer a homebred Frankel (GB) colt out of the G2 Park Hill S. winner Silk Sari (GB) (Dalakhani {Ire}) through their Fittocks Stud as lot 10.

Late in the session comes an Invincible Spirit (Ire) filly from the Castlebridge Consignment (lot 193). A full-sister to listed winner Emmaus (Ire), who was herself a €580,000 Goffs Orby yearling, the bay is out of Kilcarn Stud’s G3 Athasi S. winner Prima Luce (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) from the family of Cassandra Go (Ire), Halfway To Heaven (Ire) and Magical (Ire).

“The numbers are down very slightly this year but it’s the quality that’s important and it’s a really good mares’ catalogue and foals’ catalogue. The 200 yearlings that kick everything off are a really good bunch, too,” says Tattersalls’ marketing director Jimmy George. “They key is that there’s something to suit pretty much every requirement. The catalogues seem to have been well received from buyers throughout the world.”

Group 1 Graduates

One blank day on the Tuesday leads into four straight days of the foal sale. This section has been gifted four particularly high-profile graduates this season. In 2014, Kate and Matthew Sigsworth pinhooked a Shamardal foal for 110,000gns and then sold him on to Godolphin at the following year’s Book 1 for 200,000gns. That son of Scarlett Rose (GB) (Royal Applause {GB}) became known as Blue Point (Ire) and is about to stand his first season at Kildangan Stud following a final season in training in which he won the two major sprint contests at Royal Ascot within a week.

This followed on from the Classic successes of Phoenix Of Spain (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire})–a 78,000gns foal purchase in 2016 by Mick Fitzpatrick–in the Irish 2000 Guineas as well as his counterpart in the English version, Magna Grecia (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), who was bought for 340,000gns by Coolmore.

Just as with Golden Horn, breeder Anthony Oppenheimer will have been glad that he decided to retain Star Catcher (Ire) after offering her at the sale three years ago. The daughter of Sea The Stars (Ire) went on to win three Group 1 races this year, including the Irish Oaks.

George says, “Everybody associates the Tattersalls December Foal Sale with pinhookers and pinhooking successes but it is actually a fantastic source of top-class, Group 1-winning horses, and this year is a very strong case in point with Blue Point, Magna Grecia, Phoenix Of Spain and Star Catcher. It’s a hard quartet to better.”

Classic winners are also represented in this year’s catalogue, with one of the most interesting lots being the sole Galileo weanling (lot 971), a half-brother to G1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches winner Precieuse (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}), bred by Brendan and Anne Marie Hayes of Knocktoran Stud.

Among six Kingman (GB) foals, Germany’s Gestut Etzean brings a colt (lot 972) out of the former German champion 2-year-old Monami (Ger) (Sholokhov {Ire}) whose daughter Miss Yoda (Ger) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) topped last year’s BBAG Yearling Sale and has subsequently won and been runner-up in the G3 Zetland S. for John Gosden.

Plenty of freshman sires will be put to an important first test in the sale ring, and among the 25 with first foals catalogued, the best represented numerically is Overbury Stud’s Ardad (Ire) with 40 weanlings in the book including a half-sister to the G2 Coventry S. runner-up and listed winner Headway ( lot 714) from Ladyswood Stud.

The National Stud duo of Aclaim (Ire) and Time Test (GB) have 37 and 30 foals catalogued; Darley’s Profitable (Ire) has 25 and Ribchester (Ire) 21, while the Coolmore duo of Caravaggio and Highland Reel (Ire) have 22 and 20, respectively.

G1 Flying Five S. winner Havana Grey (GB) will have his first foals on the ground in 2020 but in the meantime his half-sister by Teofilo (Ire) will be offered from the Mickley Stud draft as lot 1049.

Moments of Pure Theatre

The famous Tattersalls auditorium is seen at its best on the Tuesday evening of the four-day mares’ sale, which starts on Dec. 2. As darkness falls, people jostle for position in the packed arena to watch some of the select lots go through, with a recent highlight being the Group 1-winning sprinter Marsha (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) selling for 6-million gns to MV Magnier.

Another very fast lady coming straight off the track is bound to draw plenty of interest this year. Mabs Cross (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}), trained by Michael Dods to win seven races including the G1 Prix de l’Abbaye, will be offered as lot 1818 for her owner-breeders David and Emma Armstrong. The 5-year-old mare is a daughter of the listed-winning juvenile Miss Meggy (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) who has also produced the GIII Senorita S. winner Charlie Em (GB) (Kheleyf).

“The mares’ sale produces dams of top-class performers year after year and that’s why people keep coming back,” says George. “This year’s Japan Derby winner Roger Barows (Jpn) is out of a mare sold here for 230,000gns carrying her first foal, and the French Oaks winner Channel (Fr) was bought in utero back in 2015. Iridessa (Ire)’s dam was bought for 14,000gns, and the dam of Japan (GB), the pretty well incomparable Shastye (GB), at the other end of the spectrum was bought for 625,000gns. That’s the key to the sale really, that you find in every sector of the market so many families that are really deep.”

Few British breeders of the modern era have been more adept at nurturing deep families than the late Bob McCreery. His skills in this field were all too evident in the year following his death when Billesdon Brook (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) won the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket for the Stowell Hill Partners, and she notched another big-race victory at the same course this year in the G1 Sun Chariot S. Her 10-year-old dam Coplow (GB) (Manduro {Ger}) will be offered by Jeanette McCreery’s Stowell Hill Stud as lot 1834.

George continues, “It’s great to have a mare of the calibre of the dam of Billesdon Brook. It’s rare to have the dam of a Classic winner selling at her age.

“We also have Part I of the Waddesdon Stud Dispersal with some very high-quality fillies and mares selling on the first day of the sale. They are a great tribute to Lady Rothschild’s enthusiasm for the sport and hopefully the families she has nurtured will go on to flourish for other breeders.”

The 16-strong draft of fillies and mares from Waddesdon Stud dispersal will be offered on the Monday of the sale through the Castlebridge Consignment. They include the 11-year-old former G1 Pretty Polly S. winner Thistle Bird (GB) (Selkirk) who will sell as lot 1515 with a May 20 cover to Kingman. The mare’s 3-year-old gelding Thorn (GB) (Dansili {GB}) is already a winner, and her 2-year-old colt Bullfinch (GB) (Kodiac {GB}) has won impressively since the catalogue was printed.

A unique and poignant feature of this year’s sale is the group of eight mares in foal to Roaring Lion, who died in New Zealand in August after covering for just one season at Tweenhills. They include the 4-year-old Stream Song (GB), a winning daughter of Mastercraftsman (Ire) and Group 1 winner Montare (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}), who is offered as lot 1454 by West Blagdon Stud.

Another of note is Highbank Stud’s Follow A Star (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). The 6-year-old (lot 1646), in foal to Roaring Lion on a Feb. 28 cover, is a three-parts sister to treble Oaks winner Alexandrova (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells) and half-sister to former Tattersalls December Sale record-holder Magical Romance (Ire) (Barathea {Ire}) from a family which includes this year’s G1 Prix de Diane winner Channel (Ire) (Nathaniel {Ire}). She has already produced a winner with her first foal, the 2-year-old Big Reaction (GB) (Zoffany {Ire}).

“The December Mares’ Sale is a great way to bring down the curtain on the Tattersalls sales year. It’s a fixture which is hugely important to breeders, owners and everybody immersed in the bloodstock world,” says George.

“There are the mini dispersals every year from the likes of Juddmonte and Shadwell. People turn up especially for those consignments. If a breeder like John Gunther turns up every year to look at the Juddmonte mares you know you should be thinking in the same way. There’s hardly a breeder who has done better than he has in recent years.

“I think we will see a very strong international presence at the sale, as you would expect, both from the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres.”

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