DAY one of the two-day Tattersalls October Book 3 Sale on Thursday produced a set of figures so remarkably like those of 12 months earlier that I had to double-check I was not making a mistake. As the yearling sale season goes on it would have been reasonable to expect that the demand for stock would reduce. However, the appetite of buyers appears to be just as great.

Last year’s sale produced a trio of six-figure yearlings, while there were four through the ring on Thursday when the sale got under way. Incredibly, the four lots this year all sold for the same amount, 130,000gns, a phenomenon I don’t recall happening before. The quartet were by four different sires, from four different vendors and were sold to four different buyers.

Kitty Cowhey’s Loughmore Stables was first to that mark within half an hour of the sale’s start. She sold a daughter of this year’s first-season sire star Mehmas for 130,000gns to Blandford Bloodstock’s Tom Goff and the half-sister to a pair of winners is out of a Street Cry half-sister to Yeomanstown Stud’s sire Invincible Army.

“I saw her in the rain yesterday, again this morning and she is an absolute star. Ed Dunlop rang me early this morning from Warren Hill and asked if anything was in early. These things happen fast. She is a lovely mover, I bought one by the sire on Monday and he is an absolute revelation,” said Goff.

“She was bought in partnership with Luke [Barry, Manister House Stud]; we bought for €11,000”, said Cowhey. “She is a lovely filly, we were delighted from the day we bought her. Obviously Mehmas has done what he has done which is a huge help. She behaved like a queen and all the right lads were on her. Book 2 was very strong. When you see what is going on in the world, it was amazing.”

Cowhey added: “I was always confident there would be twist in her, but I didn’t think she’d make that sort of money. I liked her a lot so I am not gobsmacked as I have thought a lot of this filly all the way through. The lads at home have done a great job, it couldn’t be done without them.”

Lunchtime success

As lunchtime approached so did the next 130,000gns sale, and yet another great pinhook success. Consignor Hazelwood Bloodstock and foal purchaser Troy Steve sold a son of Night Of Thunder to Brendan Holland of Grove Stud, the colt having been acquired for 20,000gns from Brookside Stud.

Holland said: “He has been bought to breeze, he is by a leading sire, and he is a good type. I have been lucky with the sire. This is a lovely clean-limbed horse with plenty of scope. I think he would have matched up with the horses sold earlier this week. The strong market gives everyone confidence for the foal market and for the spring too; this has helped.”

“It is all about Night Of Thunder, he has been sensational on the track this season and we brought this horse here as we thought he’d stand out a bit; he was on the periphery of Book 2,” said Hazelwood’s Adrian O’Brien.”

A grandson of Car Colston Stud’s foundation mare Wiener Wald was next to reach the 130,000gns mark, selling to Matt Coleman of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock. The Farhh colt features Group or Grade 1 winners Crowded House, Ticket Tape, Reckless Abandon and Brando up close and he is the first foal out the unraced Nathaniel mare Fair Daughter.

The colt is set to race in France. Coleman said: “He is just a lovely moving horse, and obviously Farhh’s statistics are incredible. He is lovely staying prospect and will be more three-year-old than two-year-old, but we were looking for a really nice middle-distance type.”

Car Colston Stud manager Jonathon Smithers was happy, saying “we are delighted. It is a first foal out of the mare, the penultimate daughter out of the foundation mare Weiner Wald. It is a fantastic chance to get the mare off and running.”

Churchill lights up the ring again with Ervine-bred filly

The first crop of yearlings by Churchill have impressed and he had another to do so in Book 3. As darkness began to fall on Thursday the Churchill filly bred by Max Ervine out of his Orientate mare Purple Glow entered the ring. The half-sister to dual stakes winner Main Desire was bought by Joe Foley for Clipper Logistics and it is a family that Foley knows well, having bought Main Desire for €40,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale in 2016.

“The filly is lovely, she looks very fast; the mare was very fast [two-year-old winner and stakes-placed],” said Foley. “We bought Main Desire at Fairyhouse and she was very fast. She was second favourite for the Queen Mary but broke her cannon bone and had a good character to come back from that and win the Listed Westow Stakes on her next start.

“The mare comes from a high-class US tap-root family and, though she has gone to ‘distancey’ stallions, she has bred very fast horses by the likes of High Chaparral, New Approach and Mastercraftsman. We have followed them all and they have all been big, rangy horses.

“We love Main Desire, she is one of our favourites. She has got a Frankel foal and is in foal to Churchill. We were very interested to see this filly this morning, and we loved her. She looks like a speedball and has a lot of Churchill quality about her. We bought Main Desire from Max ‘cheaply’ so it is nice to give him a proper price!”

Ervine update

“Purple Glow is in foal to Magna Grecia,” reported Ervine. “I bought her off Jim Bolger when she was in foal to New Approach. She is difficult to get in foal, but I think we have got the measure of her now, fingers crossed.” The filly was consigned by Keith Harte, who in the last year has bought a farm near Finchingfield, North Essex.

“This is the best yearling result we have had so far from the new farm, which is around 25 miles from here,” said Harte. “Max has been selling with us for years, he is great breeder. We sold Wichita for him. I am delighted that Joe has bought the filly, he has made the family. Everyone who has seen her has loved her and she looks a two-year-old, just like her sister. The mare has only had the one filly and she was a stakes horse.”