AN overall satisfying edition of the 2021 BBAG Yearling Sale was overshadowed a little when the top three lots through the sale ring were buybacks.

They were the Soldier Hollow full-sister to Dschingis Secret (€700,000), a Sea The Stars half-sister to German Derby winners Windstoss and Weltstar (€680,000), and a Frankel son of the Pivotal Group 3 winning mare Calyxa (€475,000).

Another daughter of Sea The Stars, an own-sister to last year’s German Oaks winner Miss Yoda, was unsold at €280,000, though reports later suggested that this was more of a valuation process and the dissolution of a foal share. Buyers did not feel that the valuations placed on them by their breeders were warranted, though on paper all might have been expected to sell very well.

Instead it was another son of Frankel who claimed the top slot, Anthony Stroud, on behalf of Godolphin, paying €350,000 for the colt who is a half-brother to the aforementioned Calyxa. That filly was also placed second in the Group 2 German 1000 Guineas and in a couple of Group 1 races in Italy. No decision on training plans were forthcoming from the agent. The colt was sold by Janet Ostermann’s Gestüt Haus Ittlingen.

Successful farms

Three other lots realised €200,000 or more, and all were from Germany’s most successful farms. Gestüt Karlshof received €240,000 for a son of Australia, a half-brother to the Group 1 Preis von Europa winner Donjah. Agent Holger Faust was acting for Darius Racing, owners of this year’s German Derby winner Sisfahan, as he signed for the colt.

The first six-figure sale in the ring was for a Reliable Man filly from Gestüt Röttgen. She cost trainer Friederike Schloms, acting for owner Jürgen Sartori, €220,000 and she is a half-sister to this year’s stakes-winning three-year-old Wirko, by Kingman. That colt topped this sale two years ago when selling for €700,000.

She was sold after a daughter of Lope De Vega out of the dual Group 3 winner Quaduna was unsold in the ring, though a private deal was done for €200,000. Cologne trainer Andreas Suborics, also acting for Jürgen Sartori, secured the best of the draft from Gestüt Fährhof.

Saxon Warrior filly attracts great interest and makes an Impact

FILLIES were very much to the fore during the sale and among the best of them was Gestüt Park Wiedingen’s daughter of Saxon Warrior, from that Deep Impact sire’s first crop.

She is a granddaughter of the German Oaks winner Flamingo Road, and Panorama Bloodstock paid €160,000 for the filly from the draft of Gestüt Park Wiedingen. The agency’s Peter Brauer was acting for Stall Mandarin.

Ronald Rauscher acted as agent for the sale of an Acclamation filly, the first foal of a half-sister to German Derby winner Waldpark, and he also signed for the filly when bidding reached €140,000. This is one of the best German female lines of recent times. Waldpark’s half-sister bred the 2011 St Leger winner Masked Marvel, and she is also the grandam of the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Waldgeist.

Rauscher also sold a son of the Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist for €100,000 to Brendan Holland of Grove Stud. He is out of a half-sister to the 2016 German Derby winner Isfahan. The Corkman revealed that he had purchased the colt in partnership with Roger Marley and that he would likely reappear in the Arqana Breeze Up Sale next year.

From a family of top-class racehorses and sires, including the 2021 Derby winner Adayar, National Defense, Helmet and Epaulette, Gestüt Brümmerhof received €120,000 for a Lord Of England colt out of the stakes-placed Monsun mare Anna Mia. Stall Hanse were listed as the purchasers,

Blandford Bloodstock’s Tom Goff was attracted to a daughter of Sea The Moon from Gestüt Görlsdorf on two fronts, her Lanwades Stud-based sire, and the fact that her dam is a stakes-placed daughter of Iffraaj. The filly will be trained in Newmarket.

Meridian pair

Ghislain Bozo of Meridian International signed for a pair of lots at €100,000, and both were from the consignment of Gestüt Brümmerhof.

First was a colt by Siyouni out of the German 1000 Guineas winner Akua’da, a daughter of Shamardal. He will be trained by Fabrice Chappet in Chantilly. For the same price Bozo got a Sea The Stars half-sister to the German champion sprinter Julio, and she comes from the family of the Melbourne Cup winner Rekindling.

The week had got off to an ominous start when the hotel that housed many of the agents and trainers in attendance at the sale went on fire, forcing guests to leave in a hurry, many left on the street in their underwear and, in one case, minus their teeth! One other British visitor was only woken when he was doused by the sprinkler system.