SEA The Stars is a sire on fire on the racecourse and in the sales ring. Having enjoyed success with his daughter Taghrooda this year, it was no surprise to find Shadwell stockpiling some more of his progeny at Newmarket this week.

Friday

Soon after 4pm yesterday afternoon last year’s top price was matched when Shadwell’s Angus Gold bid 450,000gns for Oghill House Stud’s home-bred son of Sea The Stars out of the Danehill Dancer mare Chiosina, the dam of four winners including the stakes winner Mixed Intention.

Earlier in the day Tullogher House Stud’s half-brother to the Falmouth Stakes winner Rajeem was sold through Eclipse Bloodstock for 250,000gns and he was also put on the Shadwell account.

John Ferguson muscled in on the Sea The Stars progeny when he gave 230,000gns for Yellowford Farm’s half-brother to five winners, the best of which was the Group 3 winner Raymi Coya.

The first lot through the ring by Dubawi caused an understandable stir and John Ferguson was forced to 375,000gns to secure the half-brother to a stakes-placed runner from Windmill Farm. The dam Silca Chiave was placed in both the Moyglare Stud Stakes and the Cheveley Park Stakes and is a half-sister to the Prix Morny winner Silca’s Sister.

DREAM FOALS

Ferguson looked like cornering the market in progeny by Oasis Dream when he bought the first three foals by the sire presented this week. All sold for six-figure sums. He was denied, however, for the fourth through the ring when the son of the French stakes-winner Toi Et Moi, by Galileo, sold to Tom Goff of Blandford Bloodstock for 350,000gns, with Ferguson unusually occupying the runner-up spot. Sold through the Cumani’s Fittocks Stud, the colt is the second foal of his dam.

This was the second foal by Oasis Dream sold through Fittocks Stud, the first foal out of the Medicean stakes-winner Blue Maiden. He realised 220,000gns and this was to John Ferguson’s bid. Minutes earlier Ferguson outlaid 280,000gns for Langton Stud’s daughter of the Cherry Hinton Stakes winner Please Sing. Her first foal is the three-time 2014 juvenile winner Four Seasons.

Ferguson was not finished with the stallion and another focus for his attention was Kirsten Rausing’s St Simon Stud offering by Oasis Dream, a colt out of the stakes-placed Selkirk mare Albaraka. He is the first progeny of a daughter of the dual Champion Stakes winner Alborada. It took a bid of 205,000gns to secure the January born foal.

Ferguson wasn’t getting his own way on all the progeny of Oasis Dream. Shadwell Estate’s Angus Gold went to 300,000gns for Clairmont Stud’s son of the Galileo mare Shaleela. She was unraced but comes from one of the most successful Aga Khan female lines. The colt’s third dam bred Shergar.

Two daughters of the Gilltown Stud resident Sea The Stars realised 160,000gns each. Britton House Stud’s daughter of the German stakes-winner Persefona was bought by Jeremy Brummitt for that amount, while shortly afterwards the Mark Gittins-bred daughter of dual Group 3 winner Lady Springbank made the same price when purchased by BBA Ireland. Gittins operates from Castlefarm Stud and the farm was agent for the sale of an Invincible Spirit colt out of Razika, sold to John Ferguson for 150,000gns.

RED CADEAUX RELATION

Last year James Waldron’s Drumachon Stud near Naas sold a Teofilo half-brother to Red Cadeaux for 220,000gns in this ring, Charlie Gordon-Watson signing for the foal on behalf of Ronald Arculli. This time around a full-brother to that colt sold for exactly the same amount, but with John Ferguson signing the docket on this occasion. Red Cadeaux was recently runner-up in the Melbourne Cup for a third time.

Ferguson was easily the day’s most prominent purchaser and he gave 160,000gns for a Shamardal half-sister to five winners, three of them stakes horses, offered from the Joerg and Diana Vasicek’s Kenilworth House Stud.

Dutch Art had a pair of colts sell for 155,000gns and 150,000gns. The bigger price was given for Gazeley Stud’s colt out of Triskel, who beat Mad About You to land her only success in a listed race for juvenile fillies at Leopardstown seven years ago. Five Star Bloodstock was listed as the purchaser. Brendan and Vanessa Holland’s Grove Stud paid 150,000gns for a half-brother to stakes winner Master Of War offered from Whitsbury Manor Stud.

The first foal of the unraced Galileo mare Snowgal, a half-sister to the Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Preseli, is a filly by Elusive Quality and she was claimed by Stauffenberg Bloodstock Services for 150,000gns from the Airlie Stud draft.

THURSDAY

Trade on the second day of the foal sale marked time with last year, the comparative figures for average and median showing a 3% growth and 4% decrease respectively. With 27 more lots offered and a better clearance rate, the turnover advanced by 21% and the top-priced lot at 300,000gns was double the next best price.

A year ago Newsells Park Stud sold a filly foal by Sea The Stars out of the dam of Group 1 winner Spinning Queen for 320,000gns and that filly almost doubled in value as a yearling this autumn. The year the Nathaniel filly out of the same mare came close to emulating her sibling, realising 300,000gns to the bid of Charlie Gordon-Watson. The filly was purchased for Tom Wilson and will not be re-offered for sale. She is from the first crop of the Eclipse and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner.

It is hard to keep Lope De Vega out of the limelight and his Meadowlands Stud-consigned son of an unraced Dubai Destination mare caught the eye of many and was one of a trio of foals to sell for 150,000gns. Bred by Brian and Anne Marie Kennedy, his dam Purple Tigress was sold privately at last year’s December Sale carrying her first foal for just 19,000gns. Since then Lope De Vega’s star has been in the ascendency and the colt has been bought to race, probably from Jim Bolger’s yard, rather than resell.

Shortly afterwards that price was matched by a son of Invincible Spirit, another first foal of his dam, the winning Dansili mare Light Shine. Sold through Charlie Mason’s Silfield Bloodstock, the colt’s third dam is My Emma and this young family offers lots of potential. The colt was bought by Frannie and Niamh Woods and will winter at their Abbeylands Farm in Cork. He will be for sale again next autumn.

Towards the end of the session Paddy Kelly’s Ballybin Stud sent a daughter of Cape Cross through the ring. Bred by Ken Lynch she proved popular and will be heading to Piedmont in Italy. Agent Federico Barberini did the bidding for this half-sister to German Group 2 winner Cherry Danon.

Whitsbury Manor Stud has every reason to be pleased with their resident stallion Showcasing and the farm offered a home-bred son of the Gimcrack Stakes winner for 120,000gns to Jim McCartan’s MC Bloodstock. The half-brother to a triple juvenile winner is from the family of Averti and McCartan revealed that he was bought in partnership with his brother Paul in Ballyphilip Stud.

WEDNESDAY

The four-day foal sale kicked off on Wednesday with a set of solid increases across the board. A slightly improved clearance rate from the opening day last year contributed to an increase in turnover of 17%, while the average and median advanced by 11% and 32% respectively. Four lots realised 50,000gns or more, while last year only one did and that was a record first day sale price of 160,000gns.

This year set a new record aggregate for the opening day and trade was headed by a colt from the first crop of Juddmonte Farms’ Bated Breath. The colt was sold by the Welsh-based Maywood Stud and is a son of the Pivotal mare Frabjous, a half-sister to the Group 1 winner May Ball. He cost Ger and Brendan Morrin’s Pier House Stud 65,000gns.

The Ger Lyons-trained Cappella Sansevero is one of the best of Showcasing’s first runners and the sire was responsible for a pair of foals to sell for 55,000gns. The first of these was Elusive Bloodstock’s filly, the first foal of an unraced Tiger Hill mare whose siblings include the Group 3 winner Danadana. She is heading to Ireland following her purchase by Michael Carty of Kilmoney Cottage Stud and he intends to reoffer her in the same ring next year. The dam was bought back last year in the same ring for just 9,000gns.

Later in the day Keith Harte acted as agent for the sale of a colt by Showcasing, a half-brother to three winners, which was signed for by agent Mick Flanagan on behalf of Baroda & Colbinstown Studs. They too indicated that he will go back to Newmarket as a yearling.

Peter Nolan Bloodstock sold the Ballybrennan Stud-bred Dragon Pulse colt out of the Street Cry mare Belle Watling for 50,000gns to Jamie Railton. The second foal of his dam, he is a half-brother to a juvenile winner this year. He is from the first crop of his sire who stands at the Irish National Stud.