SUSTAINED demand across the two evening sessions resulted in new records being set at this week’s Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale. Indeed it was in the last hour of selling that the overall sale-topper emerged, and there was no surprise on the sale grounds when Gaybrook Lodge Stud’s son of Scat Daddy sold for 675,000gns.

The bid board showed the price as some $900,000 and this was a far cry from the $67,000 Jim McCartan paid in a private transaction for the colt at Keeneland last September after he was led out unsold.

By the now deceased sire of Caravaggio and Lady Aurelia, the colt is a half-brother to Great White Eagle and that Group 3-winning juvenile topped the same sale in 2013 when selling for 760,000gns.

David Redvers made the winning bid on behalf of Sheikh Fahad Al Thani and remarked: “When people buy the sale-topper, they always come out with the clichés that they thought it was the best horse in the sale, and that it ticked all the boxes.

“This horse had some minor issues as a yearling but he has proved that he can gallop. He has a great mind and this sale has been tremendously successful for us. We are delighted to have bought him, and in fact are quite surprised to have managed to get him. He is exactly the sort of horse we are looking for. He will be trained in Newmarket.”

GREAT SALE

The sale was another feather in the cap for Gaybrook Lodge and the McCartans who were still celebrating following a great sale the previous week at Goffs UK.

While the Scat Daddy was sold in the last hour of the second session, it was during the first hour on Tuesday night that Brendan Holland’s Grove Stud sold a son of Intello out of the stakes winning Marju mare Marika to John Ferguson for 575,000gns.

The colt was unsold at the same venue last October at 100,000gns. Ferguson loved the son of Galileo’s French Derby winning son. “He’s a beautiful, athletic horse. For a horse with that much scope to breeze that well is a huge plus.”

Marika is the dam of two stakes winners and her Group 3-winning half-sister Sueboog bred the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan winner Best of The Bests.

An early highlight on Wednesday evening was the son of Siyouni whose third dam bred the French 2000 Guineas winner Tin Horse. Sold by Roger Marley’s Church Farm and John Cullinan’s Horse Park Stud, this €62,000 Arqana yearling purchase was transformed into a 400,000gns (€500,000) two-year-old. He was bought by Stephen Hillen and will be trained by Kevin Ryan.

The most expensive of Shadwell Estate’s purchases was Malcolm Bastard’s son of Point Of Entry at 390,000gns. His 2016 Group 2 winning half-brother Taareef won for Sheikh Hamdan and this May colt will hopefully do as well.

He was a success story for Bastard who acquired him for €140,000 at Keeneland and is from the first crop of his Dynaformer sire, a five-time Grade 1 winner who was himself sold at a breeze-up sale.

O’MARA EXCELS

Shortly before that, a son of Exceed And Excel and the Group 2 Cherry Hinton Stakes winner Please Sing transformed from a 48,000gns yearling into a 370,000gns two-year-old for Thomond O’Mara of Knockanglass Stables.

The colt will be trained in England, though Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock was unable to reveal the name of the handler.

The French-bred Deja, a son of Youmzain and out of a half-sister to Hong Kong star Helene Spirit, was bought as a foal at Arqana for €62,000 and reoffered here by Tally Ho Stud. Kerri Radcliffe, wife of Jeremy Noseda and a key buyer at this year’s breeze up sales, secured him for 350,000gns and the colt will now join Noseda. Tally-Ho got the sale off to a great start when the second lot into the ring, an American-bred Distorted Humor colt, was knocked down to Charlie Gordon-Watson for 300,000gns.

The best price for a filly this week was 320,000gns for Mocklershill’s daughter of Shamardal out of a Barathea half-sister to Group 1 winners Mandaean and Wavering. John Egan and Alliance Bloodstock emerged as the winners for this relation to Golden Fleece who cost Browne €100,000 last year in Arqana.

Kerri Radcliffe bought two lots for 300,000gns each. A striking son of Lonhro from Lynn Lodge Stud was first to that figure and the son of a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Flashy Bull was well bought last year for 50,000gns.

Minutes later Radcliffe was again signing for a 300,000gns purchase, Dark Angel’s half-brother to the juvenile Group 1 winner Zafisio who cost 125,000gns last year. He was sold by Willie Browne.

The Marley/Cullinan combine of Church Farm and Horse Park Stud turned their €80,000 Tattersalls Ireland yearling buy, a son of Acclamation, into a 300,000gns sale to Al Shaqab Racing in association with Peter Doyle.

Four other lots achieved prices of 250,000gns or more. Shadwell Estate gave 270,000gns each for Knockanglass Stables’ Sepoy colt (35,000gns yearling) and Yeomanstown Stud’s Dark Angel colt out of Aspen Falls (retained at €120,000 last year). The latter’s full-sister won recently.

Fforest Farm Stables’ Declaration Of War half-brother to Irish Derby winner Frozen Fire cost €140,000 as a yearling and now made 250,000gns to SackvilleDonald.

This was the same price paid for the only Camelot in the catalogue, Mocklershill’s doubling the colt’s value when selling to Mark Richards for The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

COMMENT

TWO nights of incredible trade at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale had onlookers scratching their heads in wonderment this week. Every adjective in the book was used to describe the happenings in the ring, from amazing to bonkers.

There were pinhooking successes by the dozens, strong demand for the better lots, and the final hammer fell to reveal a new suite of records. More than 14 million guineas changed hands for 98 lots sold in the ring, with an astounding 57 selling for 100,000gns or more. This was only the fourth time that the 10 million guineas benchmark was bettered and it left the previous high, set in 2008, well in its wake.

The previous best average of 112,785gns was also left trailing by the new record of 144,082gns, while the median was in six-figure territory for the first time ever, settling at 110,000gns.

Three Irish consignors sold more than a million guineas worth of two-year-old, Willie Browne’s Mocklershill leading the way with 13 lots realising 2,193,000gns. Jim McCartan’s Gaybrook Lodge Stud and the O’Callaghan’s Tally Ho Stud were within 50,000gns of each other.

Charlie Gordon-Watson led the buyers’ bench, spending 1,115,000gns on eight lots. Shadwell’s Angus Gold bought half that number but they cost just over a million and averaged 260,000gns. John Ferguson, Kerri Radcliffe and David Redvers all spent in excess of 900,000gns.

Scat Daddy and Dark Angel were the two sires whose stock aggregated seven figures, the late American sire ending up 40,000gns ahead of Yeomanstown Stud’s star at 1,110,000gns.

Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony put the events of the two evenings in context afterwards: “This has been a very good Craven Breeze Up Sale and as well as sincere thanks to all the buyers who have made the sale such a success, we really must pay tribute to the consignors.

“Yet again they have brought an outstanding collection of two-year-olds to Europe’s premier breeze-up sale, the breeze on Monday was supremely professional and the buyers have consistently commented on the quality of the individuals throughout the two days.

“Those comments have been reflected in record figures across the board and to see the average and median increase by such wide margins is a clear indication of the extraordinary strength of demand at the top of the market and the equally extraordinary growth in this sector of the European bloodstock market. At the turn of the century the average price at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale was less than 25,000gns and the median was 20,000gns.”

He added: “The global demand this week is not only a source of encouragement for the forthcoming Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up and Horses in Training Sale, but also for the rest of the year.”