TURNOVER at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale came achingly close to £20 million when the final lot at the two-day sale passed through the ring on Wednesday evening. Records tumbled across the board and the average passed the £50,000 benchmark for the very first time.

The reputation of the sale has been based on many factors, notably the record it has for producing not just precocious runners and winners, but horses of the highest quality too. The buying bench was as diverse as could be and demand for quality lots never slackened throughout.

Not surprisingly the Goffs UK managing director Tony Williams was delighted with the results. He said: “This was undoubtedly the strongest ever Premier Sale catalogue we have assembled; we marketed it globally in an effort to establish a world-class buying bench and we achieved that, with the sale now enjoying a truly international following.

“The results this sale consistently achieve on the track gave everyone confidence going into the sale and the last two days have been simply phenomenal, having produced marked increases in figures across the board following a record sale last year. To see the number of six-figure horses grow from 32 to 42 clearly demonstrates that this sale is very much competing for Europe’s best yearlings.

“The growth achieved over the last six years has been significant and the demand for ‘Donny yearlings’ has never been higher following the exploits of horses like Barney Roy and Harry Angel, to name just two. We are indebted to our vendors who have once again raised the bar with regards to the quality of yearlings they send to us and we wish our buyers, who descended on Doncaster from around the world, the very best of luck with their purchases.”

Three of the sale’s top four lots, all bringing a quarter of a million pounds or more, emerged during Tuesday’s opening session. Leading the way at £270,000, just £10,000 short of last year’s sale topping Dark Angel colt, was Ballyhimikin Stud’s son of Bated Breath and the juvenile winning Night Shift mare Night Sphere.

This half-brother to four winners, bred by James Hanly, is by the sire of leading 2017 juvenile Beckford, and Joe Foley had the final say for him.

Foley was acting in his capacity as advisor to Steve Parkin of Clipper Logistics and plans for who will train the colt have yet to be finalised. Foley signed for more than £1 million worth of yearlings over the two days and another of his more significant purchases was a Dark Angel colt, the first foal of the stakes-placed two-year-old Abbakova, a daughter of the Ballyhane Stud sire Dandy Man.

The colt was a lucrative pinhook success for Michael Morrissey of Farranamanagh House Stud in Cashel. Morrissey gave 70,000gns for him as a foal. His dam Abbakova achieved her best form when trained by Willie McCreery and failed to build on that after moves to David O’Meara and Paul Cole.

Just over an hour into the sale and the first of the week’s fireworks were lit. This was when a son of Kodiac strode into the ring from Brendan Holland’s Grove Stud. A 75,000gns foal buy in December, his value rose to £260,000, at which point the gavel fell in favour of Mark Richards representing the Hong Kong Jockey Club. The colt is the first produce of a Red Rocks mare who was placed in France for Theresa Marnane.

Richards bought five yearlings in all and on Wednesday paid that session’s top price when giving £250,000 for Camas Park Stud’s Dark Angel son of the unraced Snowfields, a Raven’s Pass half-sister to eight winners. Richards saw off all challengers for the offering from Timmy Hyde’s Tipperary nursery.

Yeomanstown’s prize stallion Dark Angel supplied no fewer than half of the 10 lots to realise £200,000 or more. One of these was a full-brother to the stakes-placed Maggies Angel, a 2017 juvenile winner for Richard Fahey. This homebred from Guy O’Callaghan’s Grangemore Stud caught the attention of Ed Sackville who was with Coolmore’s Paul Shanahan and the colt was duly knocked down to the duo for £250,000.

O’Callaghan’s Curragh-based stud sold a son of Acclamation, from the family of classic winners Oath and Pelder, for £160,000 to Shadwell Estate, a doubling of his foal value of €88,000 when he was sold by breeders Max and Carolyn Morris. Four yearlings sold by Grangemore averaged £131,000.

Shadwell Estate, in the guise of Angus Gold at the sale, emerged as the leading purchasers when their 15 lots totted up to a spend of more than £1.8 million over two days. Four of these cost from £150,000 upwards and the most expensive weighed in at £240,000. This was Glenvale Stud’s Dark Angel colt out of the Royal Academy mare Inca Trail and from a family of speedsters that includes the dual Group 1 winner Continent. The Ciaran Conroy consigned colt was the highlight of his draft.

Shadwell’s love affair with Dark Angel, sire of their leading 2017 sprinter Battaash, continued on Wednesday when Gold paid £200,000 for a daughter of the sire out of the listed-placed juvenile The Thrill Is Gone. The dam is a Bahamian Bounty half-sister to Group 1 winning sprinter Muarrab and the young stallion Bungle Inthejungle, and her grandam is the Cherry Hinton Stakes winner Crime Of Passion. She was sold by Chris Wright’s Stratford Place Stud and was one of two fillies to sell for that sum, the best paid for a member of that sex.

The McCartan’s Ballyphilip Stud is enjoying a stellar year on the racecourse and they received £150,000 for their yearling son of Heeraat out of the juvenile winning mare All Fur Coat. She won the Lily Agnes Stakes and this is the first crop of the sire, a Group 3 winning son of Dark Angel. Angus Gold signed the buyer’s docket.

Ger Lyons was to the fore on Wednesday when his bid of £210,000, on behalf of a new client in his stable, secured the Kodiac half-brother to the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes winner Toocoolforschool. He was sold by Liam and Jenny Norris through their Norris Bloodstock draft.

No yearling in the catalogue had updates to match those of Baroda and Colbinstown Studs’ daughter of Mukhadram and the Danehill Dancer mare Whirly Dancer. From the first crop of the Eclipse Stakes winner, the yearling’s half-brother Beckford was recently runner-up in the Group 1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes, while her dam’s half-brother Poet’s Word won a Group 3 race for two-year-olds.

All of this ensured that there was more than usual interest in the filly and she was the second of her gender to sell for £200,000. Eamonn Reilly of the BBA Ireland revealed that the filly was for Newtown Anner Stud, owners of Beckford. Alex Elliott, who paid 31,000gns for the filly last year, co-owned her with David Myerscough and David Cox and they realised a smart profit on their initial investment.

Godolphin Management Company Limited made just two purchases, both for six figures, and they were for consecutive lots on Tuesday. They paid £200,000 for Manister House Stud’s son of Teofilo out of the two-year-old winner Midget. That invincible Spirit mare is a half-sister to the Australian Group 2 winning Teofilo colt Amralah and comes from the family of Midday, Elmaamul and Reams Of Verse. The yearling cost €64,000 when sold at Goffs last November.

Minutes earlier Godolphin paid £125,000 for Newsells Park Stud’s son of Kodiac and the stakes-winning French two-year-old Melodique. Anthony Stroud and David Loder were acting for Godolphin at the sale.

The first six-figure lot of the week was the ninth yearling into the ring. Highclere Stud, run by Lady Carolyn Warren, sold an Oasis Dream son of the Exceed And Excel winning two-year-old Eminently to her husband and son, John and Jake Warren, for £190,000. They were acting for her brother Harry Herbert’s Highclere Thoroughbreds. The dam is a half-sister to Group 1 winning sprinter Reverence and they are out of the Group2 Flying Childers Stakes winner Imperial Bailiwick.

That price was match half an hour later by Longview Stud’s Iffraaj colt, the first produce of the stakes winning two-year-old Fig Roll. China Horse Club gave the winning bid of £190,000 through agent Mick Flanagan and the colt was sent to Doncaster by Eugene Daly’s Cheshire farm.

Kodiac was very popular over the two days and Noel O’Callaghan’s Mountarmstrong Stud sold a daughter of the stallion for £180,000. She received an important update before the sale when her Dark Angel two-year-old half-sister was Group 3 placed in France. Stroud Coleman was acting for the Cool Silk Partnership when signing for the filly. She will race for Peter Swann who owns her sibling and raced their dam.

A sole yearling offering by Frankel and the first progeny from the triple Group 3 winner Ladies Are Forever was offered by CSB Breeding Ltd. Failing to find a buyer in the ring, she sold subsequently to agent Dermot Farrington for £180,000.

Peter and Ross Doyle have enjoyed massive success with their purchases at Doncaster and this time signed for 21 lots, costing a bid less than £1.3 million. Topping the shopping list was a son of Society Rock, a half-brother to four winners offered from Tony O’Callaghan’s Tally-Ho Stud. It was the most expensive also of the 22 lots sold by the Co Westmeath farm who topped the table of consignors.