A STUNNING edition of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale concluded with results that set records in every category, and fuelled confidence ahead of the packed weeks of yearling sales to come.
Relocated again to Park Paddocks, the sale bears direct comparison with the 2017 renewal when the numbers catalogued, offered and sold almost precisely mirrored this year. The key figures are all up on that year’s returns, with the turnover and average both increasing by 11%.
Understandably, Tattersalls Ireland chief executive Simon Kerins was thrilled with the outcome, and he confirmed that the sale would, in 2022, return to Fairyhouse.
At the conclusion of trade on Wednesday he said: “Today has capped off a fantastic two days of selling; it’s great to see such strong demand for yearlings and a sale to be held in ‘normal’ circumstances. The highlight of the sale has been the depth to the trade from start to finish. We have had 62 lots sell for £50,000 or more and buyers from throughout Britain and Ireland have been competing with a strong overseas contingent, most notably from Italy.
“We had no choice but to relocate last year’s September Yearling Sale to Park Paddocks. We faced the difficult decision this year to stage the sale where it belongs in Ireland or relocate once again to Newmarket. We feel fully vindicated for having the sale at Park Paddocks and it is important to say at this time that we are delighted and relieved that the sale will return to the Tattersalls Ireland complex at Fairyhouse in 2022.
Extensive renovation
“Our sales complex at Fairyhouse is currently undergoing extensive renovation and we are working on improving both the vendor and purchaser experience. We are excited to unveil the new look at our November National Hunt Sale. We are very grateful to everyone who have been so accommodating and helped to make the last two days such a huge success.”
Given the uncertainty surrounding the planning for this sale back in the spring time, it is a massive relief for all of the industry that demand for horses remains buoyant. A 90% clearance rate and a great spread of buyers for horses at this level hopefully bodes well for the upcoming sales.
Filly leads the way as Castlehyde doubles up
EXCEED and excel. That she certainly did, and in the process set a record price for a yearling filly sold at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale.
Bred by Andriy Milovanov and sold through Castlehyde Stud, this Exceed And Excel half-sister to Zain Claudette had everything you could want on the catalogue page, and she lived up to expectations in the ring when this sibling to the Group 2 Lowther Stakes winner sold for £200,000.
Ismali Mohammed, who will saddle Zain Claudette in this weekend’s Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, signed the purchase docket as Rabbah Bloodstock.
Mohammed revealed that she was bought for Zain Claudette’s owner Saeed H Al Tayer. He said: “I was on the phone to the owner; he was keen to buy her. There are some similarities between the two horses.”
The filly’s breeder was present at the sale before going on to see the Ukranian show jumping team compete in Belgium. Milovanov is president of the Ukraine Equestrian Federation.
Speaking through an interpreter he said: “I am very happy with the sale. Her dam was covered by Ten Sovereigns, and maybe next year we will go back to No Nay Never [sire of Zain Claudette]. I have about 16 mares and they are at Coolmore and the Irish National Stud.
“There was a temptation to keep this filly to race, but she has gone to good hands.”
Castlehyde Stud had a double during the week. In addition to selling the highest-priced filly, they also claimed the same honour among the colts. This was achieved by a homebred son of No Nay Never who sold to Global Equine Group for £130,000.
“We brought him here to stand out,” said Castlehyde Stud manager Paddy Fleming. “He is a very straightforward horse; he vetted well. He was born and raised on limestone land, and he has grown into a grand yearling. Numerous people viewed him, and he was an east sell really.” A half-brother to a winner, and to the promising juvenile Sarsons Risk, the colt is out of a winning Galileo full-sister to Group 3 winner Say, herself dam of a Grade 1 winner in Canada.
Churchill
This was the second of two purchases made by Global Equine Group. They secured the first six-figure yearling of the week when splashing out £110,000 on a son of Churchill, a half-brother to the group-placed juvenile Internationaldream. This was a super result for the colt’s breeders, Grange Hill Stud’s Mark Hanly and his mother Stephanie. They bought the dam, a winning daughter of Kodiac, for 9,000gns six years ago.
Mark Hanly said: “He is a very taking individual, and I thought to myself that he’d be a standout at this sale.” The purchaser, Adam Driver, added: “I loved this horse. We have two Churchills in training with Tom Clover, both of which are really nice.”
CHARLIE Johnston, son of trainer Mark, had to overcome a strong challenge to secure a colt from the first crop of Scat Daddy’s Grade 3 winning son Smooth Daddy, who stands at Micheál Orlandi’s Starfield Stud in Mullingar. The colt sold for £120,000.
Orlandi revealed that the stallion covered 74 mares in his first season, but he is hoping that this sale, among other factors, will build momentum and that the sire will become more and more popular in time.
He said: “Smooth Daddy is a super individual and walks well. A lot of the breeders who used him in the first year came back, so what they have they like.”
The colt, from the immediate family of the triple Group 1-winning juvenile Air Force Blue, was consigned by Dermot Kilmartin of Kildallen Stud. He commented: “He belongs to a local Mullingar man, Christopher Johnston. This is an absolutely super result; I can’t believe it to be honest. Christopher was watching online and is over the moon – I am a man of few words at the moment.”
Cracking individual
The successful purchaser was impressed with his buy. “He’s a cracking individual. Obviously that was a lot more than I thought he would make, but he was a real standout,” said Johnston.
Nearing the end of Part 1 of the two-day sale, the sixth and final lot to realise six figures emerged. This was another with a Mullingar connection, being the best of the 19 lots sold by the O’Callaghan’s Tally-Ho Stud.
JS Bloodstock and George Scott Racing paid £105,000 for a Mehmas colt whose dam Drifting Spirit won twice at two. This is the family of the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes and Group 3 Lowther Stakes winner Nahoodh. That filly, like the yearling colt’s dam, is a daughter of Clodovil.
THE two days of selling provided a number of notable stories of pinhookers hitting the jackpot. Two in particular took centre stage.
Firs up was the sale of Ard Erin Stud’s son of Make Believe, a half-brother to a couple of winners out of a daughter of Tamayuz. He cost brothers Tom (29) and Davy (22) Brickley just €8,000 as a foal, bought from Brendan Hayes of Knocktoran Stud. The very first pinhook for the brothers, he proved popular at the sale and was knocked down to Richard Hughes for £85,000.
Hughes said of his new acquisition, his most expensive buy of the week: “I loved him from the minute I set eyes on him. He’s a beautiful, loose-walking horse. I thought I’d get him for £60,000, but a nice horse like him is quite obvious, and so you have to stick your neck on the line.” The trainer hopes to find a buyer quickly for the colt who will go to Tony McCoy to be broken.
Tom Brickley was always keen on the colt, and he commented: “We’ve loved him the whole way through; he has been a champion. We are delighted to get so well paid; we were dreaming about it, but never thought it would happen.” He brother Davy added: “We were hoping when we bought him that Mishriff would kick on and do something, and look what happened. We were always confident coming here that he’d go well, but just didn’t think he would go that well.”
The Brickleys’ feat was eclipsed by a colt who was purchased online by Leon Carrick, who admitted to being in bed when he did so. He had returned from night duty when he was watching the foal sale in Newmarket online.
He takes up the story. “It was online shopping! I came in after work, loved him when I saw him on the video – how he walked, how he showed himself off.
Lucky enough
“So I got a friend of mine to check him out; lucky enough he got him for 7,500gns. Never in our wildest dreams did we expect to get £105,000 for him today.” The subject of this sale was a son of the red-hot sire Ardad, and the colt was bought by Robson Aguiar as a racing prospect for Amo Racing.
Carrick revealed that some of the funds, which he described as a “life-changing amount of money”, will pay for his girlfriend’s midwifery course. He said: “A special thanks goes to my uncle Johnny Collins who owns him jointly with myself and my girlfriend Michelle Gibbons. Thanks also to trainer Richard Brabazon who allowed me to use his facilities to prep the horse. I worked for Dick when I was younger – it is definitely special thanks to him.”
Double delight for Kildare vets
FALLING just short of making it into the rarefied territory of a six-figure lot, Coole House Farm’s Footstepsinthesand colt, the first foal of an unraced Cape Cross mare, sold to Ed Sackville of SackvilleDonald. He was acting for M.V. Magnier when securing the colt with a winning bid of £95,000.
This marked another bright spot in an amazing 24 hours for the vendors, Mark and Barbara Dreeling. The previous day they sold a colt by Fast Company for £90,000 to Ed Dunlop and JD Moore. An overjoyed Mark Dreeling said: “The last 24 hours nave been phenomenal for us, the best two days of my life in this industry!
“My wife Barbara and I set a plan five years ago to get a Cape Cross mare.” That plan came to fruition when the couple spent €20,000 on Caped Lady, a half-sister to the Group 2 winning juvenile Captain Marvelous. They have supported Footstepsinthesand since he went to stud.
Dreeling added: “This is a fabulous first foal out of the mare. She has an incredible Bated Breath foal, who is 10 times better and will come here next year, and she is in foal to Ten Sovereigns. Two wonderful foals, two beautiful mares. It has been a hard year for Barbara and myself; we have both had health issues.
Unbelievable
“Tattersalls has been unbelievable to us. We are only small breeders but down through the years Simon Kerins in particular has gone above and beyond to try and help us, and encourage us to keep supporting this sale.”
Mark and Barbara Dreeling are both veterinary surgeons, and they are assisted in running the stud by their daughters Megan and Julia. Megan said of the Fast Company colt: “He has been a gentleman since the day he was born. Hopefully he will be as lucky as the full-brother [Group 3 placed, three-time winner Flashcard].” The dam of the yearling, the Pivotal mare Portico, is in foal to Gleneagles.
Notable other sales:
Lot 81 Filly by Farhh out of Imasumaq (Teofilo)
Sold for £90,000 by Knockainey Stud to Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock
The most expensive of 16 lots bought by the Doyles, this filly will join Richard Hannon who trained the sire’s best runner to date, King Of Change. The yearling’s dam was bought, carrying the filly, for 16,000gns and she is a half-sister to the dam of Southern Hills, a Royal Ascot winner.
Lot 129 Filly by Dark Angel out of Light My Fire (Dragon Pulse)
Sold for £80,000 by Grangemore Stud to Tom Ward/Steve Bradley
Lambourn trainer Tom Ward bought this first foal of the Group 3-placed Light My Fire, a two-time winner who was in the frame on all her four starts. She cost Guy O’Callaghan 20,000gns as a foal and left a tidy profit this time.
Lot 228 Colt by New Bay out of Poyle Meg (Dansili)
Sold for £88,000 by Ballylinch Stud to Kevin Ross Bloodstock
Bred by Eleanor Commins and the New Bay Syndicate, this colt is a half-brother to three winners, the best of which was the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile Stakes winner Whisper Not. The dam sold for just 3,000gns in 2018 and is a three-time winner from the family of Jemima.
Lot 329 Colt by Starspangledbanner out of Tammy Wynette (Tamayuz)
Sold for £85,000 by The Castlebridge Consignment to Blandford Bloodstock
Bred by Gerrardstown House Stud, this is the first foal of a winning mare who comes from the immediate family of Toormore. The sire is having an outstanding year, with Grade 1 winner State Of Rest and two Group 3 winning juveniles.
Lot 354 Filly by Acclamation out of Up At Last (Cape Cross)
Sold for £80,000 by Rathbarry Stud (Agent) to Mark Grant
Bred by Paul McCarthy’s Glencoole Stud, this half-sister to a multiple winner is out of an own-sister to Group 1 placed Musicanna and a half-sister to the dam of sprint sensation Overdose. This is the family of Queen Mary Stakes winner Raffle Prize. She has been bought to breeze.
Lot 475 Filly by Starspangledbanner out of Divert (Averti)
Sold for £85,000 by Ballyvolane Stud to Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock
Sold in the same ring last year for 20,000gns, this half-sister to seven winners left plenty of profit when reselling for four times that initial valuation. The filly was bred in partnership by Carrigbeg Stud and David Powell.
