THE Ascot Yearling Sale is no more.
Having been moved to Newmarket last year for Covid-related reasons, the sale is staying at the Tattersalls HQ and has been renamed the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale.
There are 292 yearlings in the catalogue for next Tuesday’s sale. Following recent auctions at Deauville and Doncaster, this sale will reveal more about the health of the post-Covid bloodstock market.
Last year’s sale contained 32 horses who have already won this season, headed by this year’s Royal Ascot winner Chipotle, who was bought for just 10,000gns by trainer Eve Johnson Houghton and Highflyer Bloodstock.
The largest consignment of yearlings will come from Tally-Ho Stud with 19 lots catalogued, followed by Barton Stud and Rathasker Stud with 11 yearlings apiece and Trickledown Stud with 10. Last year’s sale-topping consignor Ringfort Stud will feature a small but select draft of four yearlings including colts by leading freshman sires Cotai Glory and Profitable.
Derek Veitch’s Ringfort Stud famously sold Group 2 Lowther Stakes winner Miss Amulet at the Ascot sale for just £7,500, while Group 3 Molecomb Stakes winner Steel Bull was a £15,000 Ascot yearling.
Well-related
This year’s sale features own or half-brothers and sisters to 44 group- and listed-race performers including star graduates Windstormblack (Group 3 winner in Italy this year) and the 2019 Sandown listed winner Flippa The Strippa.
There are also siblings to group- and listed-winning two-year-olds Aqlaam Vision, Chilworth Icon and Sweet Gardenia catalogued, as well as a half-sister to Ventura Rebel, placed in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup, and a half-brother to this year’s Group 2 Coventry Stakes third Vintage Clarets by first-season sire Unfortunately.
In total there are siblings to 108 two-year-old winners catalogued and 80 yearlings out of dams who won at two. These include 24 yearlings out of group- and listed-winning or placed mares.
There’s a Twilight Son colt out of the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes placed Baileys Jubilee and a Kodiac filly out of Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes runner up Sahool, already the dam of the Group 3 winner Laraaib.
Group 1 sires
The list of sires with catalogued yearlings includes proven Group 1 producers Acclamation, Bated Breath, Camacho, Dandy Man, Dark Angel, Dream Ahead, Fastnet Rock, Footstepsinthesand, Holy Roman Emperor, Iffraaj, Kodiac, Mehmas, Night Of Thunder, Oasis Dream, Sea The Moon, Showcasing, Sir Percy, Starspangledbanner and Zoffany.
Of the first-season sires, Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Group 1 winner Havana Grey leads the way numerically with 21 yearlings catalogued. A colt by this stallion fetched £110,000 at Doncaster last week.
Other first-season sires with yearlings in the catalogue are Cracksman, Expert Eye, Gustav Klimt, Harry Angel, Hawkbill, James Garfield, Jungle Cat, Kessaar, Lightning Spear, Massaat, Sioux Nation, Tasleet, Unfortunately, Washington DC and the champion Australian sire Zoustar whose first northern hemisphere crop are now yearlings.
The first crop of two-year-olds by Ardad, Cotai Glory, Galileo Gold and Profitable have set racecourses alight this season and all four have representatives catalogued, in addition to yearlings by exciting young sires Cable Bay, Gleneagles, Kodi Bear, New Bay and Territories.
All yearlings catalogued in the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale will be eligible for the new £100,000 Tattersalls Somerville Auction Stakes in addition to the immensely popular £150,000 Tattersalls October Auction Stakes held five weeks later.
Some 82 of the fillies catalogued are also registered for the lucrative Great British Bonus Scheme and eligible to win up to £20,000 in bonus prize money per qualifying race.
Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony said: “The catalyst for launching the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale at Park Paddocks was the extraordinary vibrance of last year’s relocated Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale and consignors have embraced the permanent move with an outstanding group of precocious yearlings.
“The improving quality of yearlings being offered at the sale has been matched by the racecourse performance of its graduates, and the introduction of the £100,000 Tattersalls Somerville Auction Stakes will further enhance the appeal of the sale which has quickly established a reputation as a consistent source of top-class juvenile talent.”
Sale information
Sale: Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale at Newmarket
Date: Tuesday, September 7th (10am)
Lots: 292 (12 withdrawn at time of writing)
Info: All lots eligible for the new £100,000 Tattersalls Somerville Auction Stakes (6f) at Newmarket in August 2022 as well as the £150,000 Tattersalls October Auction Stakes.
Tel: 0044 1638 665931
Web: tattersalls.com
New Race Details
£100,000 Tattersalls Somerville Auction Stakes
6 furlongs, Newmarket July Course, August 27th, 2022
1st - £55,000, 2nd - £22,500, 3rd - £10,000, 4th - £5,000,
5th - £2,500, 6th - 10th - £1,000