A SATISFACTORY set of results for the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale was produced after two evening sessions which followed racing at Newmarket on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A smaller catalogue than the year before, and the lack of a big star among the 107 lots offered, contributed to some of the declines, with buyers being even more selective than last year.

This was reflected in the clearance rate falling by six points to 73%. A shortage of quality fillies in the catalogue was also a factor.

The best price in 2015 was 850,000gns and the previous year the million benchmark was exceeded. There was nothing this year to remotely challenge those figures and the sale topping colt emerged during the opening session when Mark Dwyer’s Oaks Farm Stables sold a son of Invincible Spirit to Jamie McCalmont for 360,000gns on behalf of Highbank Stud who bred him.

McCalmont, who was accompanied by members of the Coolmore team, was unsure about a future trainer for the colt who is out of the listed juvenile winner Lock Jipp, a daughter of Belong To Me. He said after signing the docket; “He is a powerful-looking colt, and he has not been fazed by the sale process at all.” The colt had been listed as a sale last October for 150,000gns.

The nearest challenger to the top lot was another involving McCalmont in the thick of the action. This time he was buying for a partnership of Coolmore and Stonestreet Stables when he gave 350,000gns for a son of The Factor out of Sweet Belle, a stakes winner at Santa Anita. The colt was purchased for $100,000 last September by Tally-Ho Stud and reoffered from the Co Westmeath farm.

FABULOUS BREEZE

After the sale McCalmont explained how the new buying partnership was formed. “He did a fabulous breeze, I don’t think there is another here with a stride like him, and it was especially impressive as ground conditions weren’t in his favour.

“This horse is very much like those by the sire I have seen and he has a great constitution - he was still bucking in the pre-parade ring tonight! He goes back to the US to be trained. John Moynihan, bloodstock agent for Stonestreet, saw the video of the breeze and really liked the horse and got in touch - hence the partnership.”

Another successful American pinhook concerned the sale of Lynn Lodge Stud’s son of Exchange Rate. This half-brother to three winners was sourced by Mags O’Toole at Keeneland last year and cost $140,000. This time his value was set at 340,000gns when Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock bought him for a client who now sends him to be trained by Simon Crisford.

Invincible Spirit accounted for three of the 17 lots to sell for 200,000gns or more at the sale. Apart from the best price of the week, they also included the 320,000gns colt out of Mambo Light which was sold by Norman Williamson’s Oak Tree Farm to Rob Speers who was acting for Ibrahim Araci. The colt was acquired in a private sale for €140,000 at Arqana last August.

Williamson also had another great result when his $150,000 Keeneland purchase of a son of Scat Daddy and a grandson of the Grade I winner Vivid Angel turned into a 270,000gns sale to Alastair Donald of SackvilleDonald. The colt joins Ed Walker.

Having purchased The Grey Gatsby and Astaire from previous Grove Stud consignments, it was certain that Kevin Ryan would check out this year’s draft. He and Stephen Hillen were taken with a son of Zoffany that Brendan Holland paid 175,000gns for last October, and they purchased the colt for owner Tengku Abdal Rahman who earlier on Tuesday saw his colours carried to victory up the road on Terentrum Star.

SUCCESS

The pinhooking success of the week concerned the sale of a More Than Ready colt from John Collins’ Brown Island Stables. Bought for a mere $17,000 at Keeneland, the son of the four-time winning Honour And Glory mare Rainbow Luck skyrocketed to a value of 300,000gns when he became one of seven purchases at the sale for agent Charlie Gordon-Watson.

More Than Ready, the sire of Verrazano, had two colts in the sale and the other was one of a pair of lots from Willie Browne’s Mocklershill to sell for 220,000gns. The first foal of the stakes-winning Street Cry mare Limonar, he was purchased by Shadwell Estate Company, though the bidding was done by the colt’s new trainer Simon Crisford.

The second 220,000gns colt from Mocklershill was a son of Nathaniel and the American stakes winner Wait It Out. Having realised 100,000gns as a foal, he was resold at Keeneland for $110,000 by Darby Dan Farm and purchased by Browne. Jamie McCalmont was again buying for Coolmore on this occasion.

The best of the fillies during the week was a daughter of Showcasing from Yeomanstown Stud. She was purchased by the O’Callaghans for 85,000gns as a foal but retained at 105,000gns as a yearling. That was a good decision and now she was valued at 220,000gns by Saeed H Altayer, the chairman of the Dubai Racing Club.

Katie Walsh was beaming when she sold a daughter of Kyllachy from the family of Invermark and Craigsteel to Simon Crisford for 210,000gns. She gave just 23,000gns for the filly last October in the same ring. The price was matched when Powerstown Stud sold a half-sister to seven winners by Kodiac to Rob Speers, and this graduate of the Premier Sale in Doncaster had colt £47,000.

Con Marnane’s Bansha House Stables has an enviable record selling high-class runners and they turned the 15,000gns Helmet yearling colt out of the listed winner Kathy’s Rocket into a 210,000gns sale to John Ferguson. The sire is set fair for a good first season in Europe with his runners and is already off the mark.

Rob Speers was very busy at the top end of the buying market and another of his purchases was a Lope De Vega colt out of the Dubawi mare Craighall sold from Mocklershill. He cost Speers 205,000gns and showed profit on his 80,000gns yearling purchase price.

Three colts sold for 200,000gns each. Powerstown Stud received that amount from Shadwell for their Helmet colt, Hillen and Ryan gave it for Star Bloodstock’s son of Requinto and Blandford Bloodstock bought Athassel House Stud’s son of Invincible Spirit for that price.

Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony summed up the two sale sessions on Wednesday; “The feature of the 2016 Craven Breeze Up Sale has been the strength of demand at the top of the market. The sale is a proven consistent source of top class performers on the global stage and leading international buyers, most notably from the Gulf region and Hong Kong, have made a significant impact.

“This year’s Craven catalogue is numerically the smallest this century and understandably the turnover has not matched last year’s level, but there have been some outstanding pin hooking successes, more lots sold for 200,000 guineas and above than last year, a new record median and a sale average second only to the 2013 sale.”