WITH records tumbling in every direction there was no hiding the satisfaction of the team at DBS on Wednesday night following two days of exceptional trade at their flagship yearling sale.
The company’s managing director Henry Beeby summed the feeling up: “I cannot overstate the delight all the DBS team are feeling after a superb renewal of the Premier Yearling Sales. This is our most important two days of the year and they have delivered vastly improved statistics for the fourth consecutive year.
“In fact every measure has risen again; average up 15%, median 11%, and eight lots making £200,000 or over compared to one last year, with an impressive 31 passing the £100,000 mark which is 10 more than 2014.
This has not happened by accident though, as we can do nothing without the yearlings and I want to thank every vendor for putting their faith in the DBS team and working with us to produce a catalogue that, by common consensus, was as good as ever, both on paper and upon physical inspection.
“Of course the other part of the equation is the buyers and we have so enjoyed seeing DBS graduates excel again on the track this year.
“That has driven all the major players to Doncaster this week and we have seen some monumental bidding battles, with multiple bidders still active in the higher echelons of some of the top lots.”
A number of key individuals and stallions served to make the sale the success it was, not least the extended O’Callaghan family, the huge influence of Dark Angel who had eight lots making six-figure sums, and the buying power of the four leading purchasers - Shadwell, Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock, John Ferguson and Tony Nerses - who between them spent one-third of the takings.
PACO BOY FILLY
It was Tony Nerses who signed for the sale’s best priced lot, the record-equalling Paco Boy filly offered from Houghton Bloodstock. She was sold by her breeder, Colin Murfitt of Pantile Stud, through Houghton Bloodstock and her price of £280,000 was a remarkable reward for the 8,000gns investment in the dam, Galicuix, when she was carrying the sale topper.
In the intervening period two hugely important updates have occurred. The filly’s juvenile full-sister Galileo Gold won the Group 2 Vintage Stakes recently, while Galicuix’s half brother Goldream landed the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.
The top price was challenged when Grangemore Stud’s Dark Angel own-brother to Birchwood entered the ring, eventually falling to John Ferguson’s bid of £270,000.
It was significant that Sheikh Mohammed’s representative numbered three sons of the Morristown Lattin Stud sire among his five purchases at the sale, expressing his admiration for the sire.
TOP-PRICED
Guy O’Callaghan bred this week’s top-priced colt out of Layla Jamil and he is just the second foal for his winning Exceed And Excel dam. Birchwood won the Group 2 Superlative Stakes at Newmarket since the catalogue was published. Birchwood races for Godolphin and Darley has clearly placed its faith in the stallion.
It was Guy’s father and brother, Gay and David, who sold the Yeomanstown Stud-consigned son of their star stallion out of Golden Rosie to Ferguson for £240,000, and the colt is very closely related to another good son of Dark Angel, Sovereign Debt. That Group 1 Lockinge Stakes runner-up is a half-brother to the yearling’s dam Golden Rosie who is another daughter of Exceed And Excel.
The third Ferguson purchase of a son of Dark Angel was Yeomanstown Stud’s first foal of the Lawman mare Heeby Jeeby, a half-sister to the Grade 2 Oak Tree Derby winner Devious Boy. He realised £110,000.