It was a case of 'Blue Monday' at Tattersalls Ireland when a son of red-hot stallion Blue Bresil topped proceedings when selling to Cathal Mariga of Cork based Coolmara Stables for €97,000. There was a definite uptick in business compared to the opening session on Sunday with 16 foals selling for €50,000 or more and a clearance rate of 72% contributing to an aggregate of €3,464,200. The average of €20,258 and median of €16,000 represented significant gains on the opening day.

The session topper from Ballykineally Stables was offered out of the Presenting mare Beautiful War whose first runner Tinklers Hill showed promise when second in a bumper for Paul Nicholls in the spring. Further back the pedigree features high class operators Glamorgan Duke and Harbour Pilot.

“He is a great sire, we have a good few mares in foal to him and we sell a filly foal by him tomorrow that is out of a sister to Big Bucks,” Cathal Mariga said. “They are all able to move and have a bit of size and presence.

"This was a neighbour's foal and we saw him in the summer. He is one of the best foals here. He is for resale to come back hopefully to the Derby Sale,” he added.

The colt’s vendor Maurice Barry was delighted with the result and said: “He is out of Beautiful War who was well-named as she is beautiful. She is the loveliest mare and this foal was like a lamb. He was the quietest foal. We have supported Blue Bresil all the way through since he stood in Cork and Beautiful War is back in foal to him.”

Barry’s son John echoed these thoughts and said, ”We’re over the moon, it’s a big family operation, my wife Karen and everyone is involved. We are delighted he has been bought by the Mariga family who are neighbours of ours and they are top class at their job. I wish them the best of luck with him as he’s just a lovely foal.”

"Plenty of quality"

The gold rush for Blue Bresil’s progeny continued when Clontenty Farm’s colt out of Dreamers Daughter sold to Paul and Alana Cowley of Vanquish Bloodstock for €80,000. The colt's dam is an unraced sister to two smart types in Highway One O Two and Doctor Harper and the successful purchaser Paul Cowley said: “He is a good, correct foal with a nice action and plenty of quality. We have bought him for resale. We usually try and buy around four each year and so we’ve made a start. There are some nice foals here.”

The Cowleys added another colt by the Glenview Stud sire when purchasing the foal from Yellowford & Drumlin for €55,000. This April-born foal is out of dual hurdles winner May Dullea who is a half-sister to Irish Gold Cup winner Conflated.

It wasn’t just Blue Bresil colts that were sought after as Joey Logan went to €60,000 to acquire a filly by that sire from Mountain View Stud. This foal is the first produce out of the unraced Flemensfirth mare Minella Elite, herself a half-sister to the Grade 1 placed Paloma Blue.

Santiago foals

The first crop of foals by Irish Derby winner Santiago came to the market this week and the Coolmore son of Authorized was well represented. His colt offered by Kilbarry Lodge Stud was bought by Charles Shanahan and Ciaran Conroy’s Glenvale Stud for €65,000.

Out of Alighting, a former Gigginstown-owned listed placed half-sister to Don Poli, the mare is also a full-sister to Debece and a half to another smart mare in Politesse. Explaining how he came to acquire the dam, vendor Con O’Keeffe, who stands Diamond Boy, Harzand, Success Days and Pillar Coral at his Waterford stud said: "Alighting had caught my eye when she came to Kilbarry to be covered by Diamond Boy and we bought her afterwards. She is a lovely, big scopey mare and has a great pedigree. We always send a few of our mares to outside stallions and we decided on Santiago as a new stallion for that year.”

Walk In The Park

Late in the sale Charles Shanahan, son of Coolmore’s Paul Shanahan, then teamed up with another Coolmore employee Gerry Aherne to purchase a colt by Walk In The Park for €80,000. Apart from his illustrious sire the colt’s credentials were furthered by being a half-brother to the very smart Glory And Fortune from the family of Ballyadam.

Rising 22 years of age Coolmore’s eminent jumps stallion had another good result when AMG Bloodstock gave €65,000 for Ballincurrig House Stud’s half-brother to the high-class hurdler Zanahiyr.

The first foal to fetch over €50,000 on Monday was a brown son of Walk In The Park knocked down to Norman Williamson’s Oak Tree Farm for €55,000. Out of the winning King’s Theatre mare Theatre Dreams the colt from the Motherway family’s Yellowford & Drumlin is related to some high-class performers such as Conflated and Aye Right.

Williamson returned to the Yellowford draft later in day to sign for another son of Walk In The Park, this time for €50,000. The colt out of the German-bred Soldier Hollow mare Koffi Cherie will no doubt form part of the Oak Tree Farm draft at the 2026 store sales.

On a day very much dominated by a select number of stallions yet another Walk In The Park colt, this one out of the listed bumper winner Vegas Blue, went the way of the Murphy family of Redpender Stud for €50,000. After signing for the Coolmara Stables consigned colt, brothers Brian and Eoghan Murphy said: “It’s the first we have bought this week. We like the sire and we had to go a bit further than we had planned but you need to to buy the good ones, they are hard to buy. He is a lovely foal.”

It was a busy period for pinhookers as Mark Dwyer then struck for a son of Blue Bresil from Thistletown Stud for €55,000. The foal’s dam A Media Luz was group placed on the flat in France. Dwyer said: “He’s coming back home to the UK. He is a lovely, good-walking sort. Hopefully he will come back here as a three-year-old.”

A colt by Golden Horn also proved popular on Monday morning when selling to Timmy Hillman for €46,000. From Mill House Stud, the colt is out of Protektrice, a winning half-sister to dual Grade 1 winning chaser Protektorat. The five-day sale continues on Tuesday with another day of foals.