IT is usual for Juddmonte-consigned drafts to dominate in the Tattersalls sale ring. This week they sent just four lots to the August Sale, all sold for a total of 410,000gns.

Almost all of that amount was contributed by a single lot, the sale-topping Frankel three-year-old colt Fabilis. He sold got 350,000gns, a new high for the sale.

Trained by Ralph Beckett, Fabilis won over 12 furlongs at Newmarket on his last start, adding to a pair of victories as a juvenile. A full-brother to the Group 3 winner Monarchs Glen, he was the subject of a prolonged bidding duel between bloodstock agent Peter Doyle and Tattersalls’ Jason Singh on the telephone, with many other expressions of interest, both ringside and online.

The colt will be heading to sunnier climes, as Doyle revealed. “He is for Najd Stud, a very long-established client. He is a lovely horse. I didn’t think he’d make that much, but lots of people liked him. He comes from a very good operation; it is always nice to buy a horse from Juddmonte. The immediate plan will be to go and race in Saudi Arabia and aim for the Crown Prince Cup. We have had some success in the race before.

Bahrain-bound

Minutes earlier bloodstock agent Oliver St Lawrence paid 180,000gns for the best of the large consignment from Shadwell Estate Company. The operation sold 36 lots for 858,000gns, by some way the leading vendors by aggregate.

The three-year-old Shamardal gelding was another to benefit from an important form update, winning over 10 furlongs at Newbury to double his winning score. St Lawrence was buying on behalf of Fawzi Nass. The new owner said: “I think he will handle the firm turf ground; there will be plenty of races for him now. He is rated 90, so there are plenty of options within the international series.”

The latter part of the two-day sale saw the top three lots emerge, and the last to do so was Zabeel Champion, a four-year-old son of Poet’s Voice and grandson of Dubawi. He was knocked down to agent Tom Malone, though it was Mags O’Toole who did the bidding. Malone was travelling to Germany.

O’Toole saw off Eric Cantillon to secure the six-time winner who was trained by Mark Johnston, the hammer falling at 185,000gns. The half-brother to dual Group 2 winner Dame Maillot will now be trained by Paul Nicholls. After landing in Germany, Malone said: “A real champion. He is a big, scopey horse, just our type of horse. He’s a chaser in the making. He ticks a lot of boxes, so fingers crossed he goes on and does the job as a novice over jumps.”

Irish-owned lots are to the fore as Marnane and Ballydoyle both sell well

JAMIE Railton sat in second place on the leading vendors’ table at the end of two days, and he supplied the top lot at the opening session. That was the stakes-placed maiden Bunglejungleparty, a two-year-old son of Winter Power’s sire Bungle Inthejungle.

The colt raced for Theresa Marnane and he cost agent Will Douglass, of Charlie Gordon-Watson Bloodstock, 125,000gns. The owner’s husband Con bought the colt for just €12,000. Douglass revealed that the colt will be another heading to the sun, in this case to Qatar.

Con Marnane was understandably delighted. He said: “I am over the moon. He is a very good-looking horse; big and strong. Everybody wanted him today. He had clean x-rays and a very good scope, and there were three people on him after 100,000gns. We rolled the dice here! He was entered in a Group 3 in Germany this weekend.

“We sold Will a good horse [Pom Malpic] last year who has been stakes-placed in Qatar. He knows where to get the good ones from!”

Older horses

Another highlight of the Railton draft was the Group 3 winner Pretreville. The six-year-old son of Acclamation cost Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock 95,000gns. An international campaign is ahead, though Boman ruled out Australia as his future home. Afterwards he revealed his formula. “It’s pretty simple. He is the highest-rated horse here. First time out this year he ran to a mark of 116, and beat home a Group 1 winner.

“He was originally trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, and has been handled beautifully by Pascal Bary, Older horses have served me well over the years, and he is a top-class horse.”

A total of five lots realised six-figures, and just sneaking into that list was the best of the Ballydoyle offerings. That was the Galileo three-year-old Iowa, who sold just after Father’s Day, another Galileo sophomore. Both were bought by Hubie de Burgh, for 100,000gns and 80,000gns respectively, and are heading to Australia.

“They are both going to Darby Racing,” said de Burgh. “They are not making any more Galileos, and they love them down there. Aidan [O’Brien] does all the hard work for us. We take them down there and they are just ready to run – and they win.

Huge page

“Father’s Day just got a huge page. His full-brother Somerset Maugham is already in Australia and won four for Lloyd Williams. It’s a great family and The United States [out of second dam Beauty Is Truth] did very well in Australia. Father’s Day is a maiden as well so we have the advantage. He had a little setback when he was beaten a head so they had to stop him, but he vetted clean for us. He stays a mile and a half, so everything fitted into the picture as long as he vetted clean.

“Iowa is obviously a more exposed runner, but another Galileo with a huge page. His better runs have been more recently as he has gone further in distance, and he is just nailed on for Australia. He is going to be a mile and a half horse over there. His run against Masterofreality, who was second in the Melbourne Cup and got disqualified, was pretty good so for that sort of money.

Better value

“Buying these sort of horses at auction is much better value for us than if you went to buy them privately. I don’t know who will train them but they will go to Sydney as that is where Darby Racing is based.

Ballydoyle supplied another highlight of the sale in Sir William Bruce, another three-year-old son of Galileo. Hubie de Burgh was underbidder to Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock who paid 90,000gns for the full-brother to two stakes winner. This colt is also bound for Oz.

Boman said: “He is a first purchase up here for Grant Morgan of Ontrack Thoroughbreds. He raced Brazen Beau; that is his main connection up here in Europe. He brings tours up here with Ontrack every year. He brought a tour up the last time Australians could travel and got his ownership group interested in buying European horses. It’s been a project we’ve been working on for the last six months.

“This horse be going to Queensland to be trained by Tony Gollan, who is the leading trainer there. New South Wales and Victoria have been the real focal points for the European horses, but there are good opportunities for European horses throughout Australia.”

International participation abounds

TOWARDS the end of the two days, Roger Varian’s draft included the dual winner Lankaran, both his successes coming on the all-weather. The three-year-old son of Kendargant caught the eye of McKeever Bloodstock who combined with others to buy him for 97,000gns.

Johnny McKeever was buying in collaboration with Bevan Smith Bloodstock, and this is another who will be heading down under to continue his career. The new owner is Hong Kong owner-breeder Ben Kwok who set up Lion Rock Bloodstock last year, and he has substantial interests in New Zealand and Australia.

Three lots later and Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock made the third of their four purchases on the day when paying 77,000gns for dual winner Luigi Vampa, a four-year-old son of Elvstroem from the family of Lope De Vega.

Bloodstock agent John Walsh was acting for Ebrahim Al-Afoo when he spent 75,000gns on Shadwell’s winning Frankel colt Taqareer. The four-year-old is one of three winning offspring from the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas winner Bethrah.

Magnet

The sale is a magnet for overseas buyers, among them Bahrain’s HE Sultan Aldeen MS Al-Khalifa. He paid 75,000gns for a royally-bred, winning three-year-old son of Iffraaj. Bred and raced by The Queen, and trained for her by Roger Charlton, Encourage won over 10 furlongs and was bought for the new valuable Bahrain Turf series that has been introduced for this year’s Bahrain racing season.

“He is a little under the handicap mark, but we think he will go well in Bahrain and hopefully he will improve,” said the horse’s new trainer Ali Majeed. “He is for Sheikh Sultan and we are looking forward to running him. We hope this will be a nice horse!”

Chairman’s statement

AT the end of the second Tattersalls August Sale, chairman Edmond Mahony was pleased, saying: “Last year’s inaugural Tattersalls August Sale, which was born out of the Covid-related disruption to the racing calendar, was a huge success, and the second renewal has returned figures which suggest that the fixture very much has a long-term future.

“With the recent July Sale returning to its customary numbers, the August catalogue was smaller than last year, but the vibrancy and extraordinary level of international participation, which are the hallmarks of sales of this nature at Tattersalls, have been in evidence from start to finish. Buyers from throughout Europe, the Gulf region, Australia and the USA have added to the strong domestic participation, and we have yet again hosted a sale which has achieved a clearance rate in excess of 90% and generated sustained demand in all sectors of the market.

“Equally pleasing has been the fact that the August Sale has seen a return almost to normality after more than a year of staging sales which have been hampered by Covid-related protocols. It has been a real pleasure to have welcomed so many people back to Park Paddocks.”