THE sale’s top two fillies both emerged late in the sale, and sold within minutes of each other. First to the mark was Kilcarn Park’s Zoffany filly out of the Galileo mare Curtsy. She sold for 350,000gns to Thady Gosden who was with his father John. The obvious attraction for Team Gosden was that she is out of a half-sister to the dam of their dual Group 1 winner Mishriff.

“She is a brilliant moving filly; she has some class about her,” said Gosden junior. “She is an exceptional type and it is a happening pedigree that we know well. She is for a new client and hopefully she will do well for them. This filly has a very nice pedigree and so she will have some residual value too.” The filly’s Group 3 winning grandam is a daughter of the French Oaks winner Rafha, the dam of Invincible Spirit.

Bred by Mylerstown Farm and Brid Cosgrove, the filly’s dam was bought by Kilcarn Park for 95,000gns, the same price that they got for the Almanzor filly that she was carrying. Curtsy has a colt foal by Bated Breath and is in foal to Mishriff’s sire, Make Believe.

Shortly afterwards the price was again reached by the only filly offered in Book 2 by Wootton Bassett, Haras d’Etreham’s half-sister to four winners, two of them stakes horses. Matt Coleman of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock had the winning nod at 350,000gns, revealing that she was for a client of his agency partner Anthony Stroud who could not be at the sale. The agency previously bought one of the Coolmore sire’s best runners, the filly Audarya.

Kodiac daughter

For some time the leader among the fillies was Tally-Ho Stud’s daughter of Kodiac, a half-sister to stakes-winning juvenile Ventura Diamond and two other winners. She cost Ben McElroy 340,000gns and the Irishman, based in the US, said: “She has been bought for the same connections as Campanelle [Group 1 winning daughter of Kodiac]. I saw her two or three days ago and she has a lot of likeness with Campanelle.

Campanelle was bought by McElroy for 190,000gns two years ago and is trained by Wesley Ward for Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Stables. At two she won the Group 1 Prix Morny and Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes, and this year added the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup to her haul. McElroy added that the new purchase will also head to America, saying “hopefully the luck continues and I think Barbara already has a name picked out for her.”

Online buyer

Mrs Danvers was sold in the ring as a yearling for 1,000gns and sent into training with Jonathan Portman. Her five wins included the Group 3 Cornwallis Stakes, Listed St Hugh’s Stakes and the valuable Weatherbys Super Sprint, all of which netted almost £200,000 for connections. Her second foal is a Galileo filly and she sold for 320,000gns to Michael Donohoe of BBA Ireland, acting for Yulong Investments, and bidding online.

“She is an exemplary filly for her age [born May 4th],” said consignor Luke Barry of Manister House Stud. “She is a good mix of her dam and her sire. She has great quality, looks sharp, and Mrs Danvers has put a lot of strength into her.

“We brought her here to stand out.”