TWO dozen yearlings sold for 250,000gns or more during the three days of frenetic trade in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. All but three of these were the progeny of established sires.

A report on the sale-topping Sea The Stars colt is elsewhere, and the stallion was also responsible for a colt from a winning half-sister to Group 1 Middle Park Stakes winner Zieten, sold by Glenvale Stud on behalf of Bob Lanigan’s Tullamaine Castle Stud for 300,000gns. The colt is destined to continue his career in Hong Kong after his sale to Mark Richards. Sea The Stars had a very good sale and his eight lots sold averaged 225,000gns.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club bought another of the high-priced lots at the sale, again from Ciaran Conroy’s Glenvale Stud, when they paid 260,000gns for a son of Rathbarry Stud’s Acclamation out of a winning dam and this was a profitable transaction as the colt was purchased as a foal for 85,000gns. The Hong Kong Jockey Club made four purchases in Book 2, while the Glenvale consignment realised 1,557,000gns and this placed them second only to Yeomanstown Stud.

Godolphin’s purchase of Yeomanstown Stud’s son of Dark Angel and the Dubai Destination mare Fuaigh Mor represented a significant pinhooking success for Gay, Annette and David O’Callaghan’s Co Kildare farm. Purchased for €95,000 as a foal, he became the second highest price at the sale this year, and the third highest in the sale’s history, when he was knocked down for 625,000gns. John Gosden on behalf of Godolphin saw off MV Magnier for the final day highlight.

We purchased him from Bill Dwan,” said David O’Callaghan, “and he could have been a Book 1 horse, but you need to split them somehow.” Anthony Stroud said: “He was our pick of the colts, he is gorgeous horse; he is from a good farm and by an excellent sire.”

Roger Varian’s spending on four yearlings in Book 2 cost his clients 1,075,000gns and nearly half of that amount was accounted for by the 500,000gns sale of the James Hanly’s Ballyhimikin Stud-consigned son of Lope De Vega, the first foal of the multiple stakes-placed Acclamation mare Boston Rocker. The colt’s grandam is a half-sister to the European champion Superstar Leo and to the dams of Group 1 winners Rivet and December Draw,

Another of Varian’s major buys was Stauffenberg Bloodstock’s Sinndar own-brother to Group 2 Blandford Stakes winner Four Sins. He was the only lot by his sire in the catalogue and will race for Sheikh Obaid.

Newsells Park Stud Ltd was the leading British-based consignor at the sale and they traded 16 yearlings for 1,454,000gns. Best of their draft was a son of their star stallion Nathaniel, sire of this year’s five-time Group 1 winner Enable, and this half-brother to stakes winner Waipu Cove received a significant catalogue update when his own-bother, the juvenile The Kid Bobby B, won recently. China Horse Club paid 350,000gns for him.

Godolphin restricted their buying to a dozen lots, but they averaged some 241,833gns. That list included a son of Zebedee from Denis Brosnan’s Croom House Stud, and the half-brother to three winners, out of a winning half-sister to Group 1 winner Steinbeck, cost 330,000gns.

Rathbarry Stud recorded a successful pinhook when they sold a son of Kodiac, bought as a foal for €110,000, to Godolphin for 300,000gns. This half-brother to three winners of out of a half-sister to Group 3 winner Norse Dancer, runner-up three times in Group 1 races and classic-placed.

The most prolific buying bench at the sale was that of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum’s Shadwell Estate Company. With an outlay of 5,920,000gns it acquired 42 lots, including the record-breaking sale-topper. Also on their shopping list was Corduff Stud’s son of Derrinstown sire Tamayuz at 325,000gns. This was a shade less than four times his foal price of 82,000gns and was a pinhooking coup for James and David Egan.

Tweenhills Stud’s Havana Gold has made an explosive start at stud and Coln Valley Stud sold a son of his for 250,000gns to Shadwell. The colt is out of an own-sister to five-time Group 1 winner Fame And Glory and just the second offspring of his unraced dam. The first foal boosted the colt’s sale prospects when she recently opened her winning account.

Diana Vasicek sold a Lope De Vega half-brother to seven winners through her Kenilworth House Stud and he was one of 32 purchases over three days for SackvilleDonald agency, their spend of 3,516,000gns placing them just behind Shadwell and just ahead of Godolphin on the buyer’s table. The Lope De Vega colt realised 320,000gns. The same purchasers took home Bearstone Stud’s son of Acclamation and the second foal from the stakes winning Exceed And Excel mare Excelette for 255,000gns. Her first foal is this year’s two-year-old winner Excellently Poised.