THE sale tempo increased on day two of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale when 17 lots realised 100,000gns or more, up from 14 in 2015 and just five the previous year.

A smaller catalogue saw the aggregate dip by 2%, but the more significant numbers were that the average and median advanced by 9% and 15%. As on the opening day the clearance rate was better, improving three points to 82%.

Winner of the Sussex Stakes and the Queen Anne Stakes, the first foals by Toronado were eagerly anticipated and they did not disappoint. One of his sons was the joint best price of the day, the half-brother to Group 3 winner Agent Murphy being snapped up by Jim McCartan’s MC Bloodstock for 190,000gns. He comes from a family that keeps producing superlative runners and the latest Group 1 winner on the page is this year’s St Leger hero Harbour Law.

The Castlebridge Consignment acted as agent for Wellsummers Stud.

The colt will be reoffered for a group including Jim and brother Paul McCartan, and Michael and Ciara Carty. His Azamour half-brother sold in October to Roger Varian for 230,000gns. Jim McCartan said afterwards that “it is a lot of money for a foal by a first-crop sire, but Toronado was a very good horse.”

Later another son of Toronado was proving popular when Robin and Scarlett Knipe’s Cobhall Court Stud’s half-brother to this year’s smart juvenile Global Applause sold to Ronald Rauscher for 145,000gns. Winner of the Listed National Stakes, Global Applause was placed in the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes and Group 3 Molecomb Stakes. Rauscher saw off Philip Stauffenberg for the colt.

Joining the Toronado on the 190,000gns mark was Trickledown Stud’s Kodiac colt, the first foal out of the listed-winning Teofilo mare Inyordreams.

Her dam in turn was the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes and Group 3 Molecomb Stakes winner Wunders Dream. The bidding was done by Anthony Stroud on behalf of Ballydogen Stud and he said the colt will be for resale.

Another son of the Tally-Ho Stud stallion to sell for six figures was Tibthorpe Stud’s first foal of the winning Cape Cross mare Lilly Junior, herself a daughter of the multiple stakes-winner Sweet Lilly. This is the immediate family of the champions and Group 1 winning sprinters Pastoral Pursuits and Goodricke. Timmy Hyde’s Camas Park Stud purchased him.

John Ferguson bought the first Invincible Spirit of the week, Bumble Mitchell’s half-brother to the stakes-winning two-year-old Ventura Mist, for 180,000gns and this was one of a pair of high-priced lots acquired by Sheikh Mohammed’s man. Earlier in the day he paid 170,000gns for a Cape Cross colt out of the Group 3 UAE winner Gower Song, who is already dam of a group-placed daughter of Cape Cross. Usk Valley Stud bred and sold the colt.

The Dark Angel colt from Glebe Farm Stables had a striking pedigree update as his dam’s half-sister Hibaayeb, a Group 1 winning two-year-old and later a Grade 1 winner in the USA, is dam of this year’s Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Wuheida, now the Oaks favourite. Two Irish farms fought it out for the colt, Corduff Stud and Yeomanstown Stud, and the former, represented by Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown, prevailed at 145,000gns.

Denis Brosnan’s Epona Bloodstock won the battle for a first-crop offering by the Invincible Spirit stallion Charm Spirit, offered from Whitwell Bloodstock. The purchaser’s stud manager at Croom House Stud revealed that he was for resale and much is expected from the previous two offspring of the colt’s Zamindar dam Postale, a half-sister to Group 1 Prix Jean Prat winner Mutual Trust.

Charm Spirit, a triple Group 1 winner, also sired Nuthurst Farm Stud’s colt from the Diesis mare Thankful and this half-brother to a couple of winners now heads to Brendan and Vanessa Holland’s Grove Stud, having cost his new owners 110,000gns.

A French-born son of Dawn Approach, consigned by Silfield Bloodstock, sold for 135,000gns to Mehmet Kurt’s Kingwood Stud. The first foal of his Manduro dam, the colt’s grandam won a Group 3 in France and is the dam of Mamool, champion older horse in Germany and a dual Group 1 winner there.

The well-established Iffraaj was another sire with a couple of six-figure foals to his credit. Derek and Gay Veitch’s daughter of the listed winner Zayn Zen had two important catalogue updates as her half-brother Ennaadd won a listed race and the two-year-old Poet’s Voice half-sister won twice. Stauffenberg Bloodstock Services took the filly home at 130,000gns.

For just a bid less, at 125,000gns, came Aston Mullins Stud’s Iffraaj daughter of the stakes-winning Tamayuz mare Ighraa. This was just ahead of the €120,000 realised by the mare’s first foal, an Elusive Quality colt, earlier in the year. Yeomanstown Stud made the purchase and this was one of three big price buys they made on the day. The others were Plantation Stud’s Showcasing filly out of the stakes-placed Love And Cherish at 120,00ogns, and The Castlebridge Consignment’s Dark Angel colt out of a winning Excellent Art mare.

Petches Farm sold a first-crop son of the Eclipse Stakes winner Mukhadram to Shadwell Estate Company for 120,000gns, while a Trickledown Stud half-sister by Poet’s Voice to Group 3 winning two-year-old La Rioja cost Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock 100,000gns on behalf of Ger and Brendan Morrin. Keith Harte as agent sold a son of Exceed And Excel, out of a half-sister to Group 1 winner Dominant and Group 2 winner and sire Es Que Love, to Jamie Railton for 100,000gns.