THE top price of €500,000 at this year’s BBAG Yearling Sale, held last Friday at Baden-Baden, matched that of the 2016 edition. Twelve months ago it was for a son of Sea The Stars, while this time it was paid by Horst Pudwill for a colt by Soldier Hollow, a full-brother to last year’s Italian St Leger winner Dschingis Secret. That colt is also winner of the recent Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin, the Group 2 Grosser Hansa Preis and was placed in the Group 1 German Derby.

Pudwill races Dschingis Secret and the Hong Kong-based owner revealed that his latest acquisition, from Helmut von Finck’s Gestut Park Wiedingen, will also join Markus Klug to be trained. The colt’s third dam was the Northern Dancer mare Diana Dance who was runner-up in the German 1000 Guineas.

For much of the sale the lead was held by a colt from the first crop of the German Derby winner Sea The Moon. This half-brother to three winners, including the Group 1 Prix du Cadran third Fun Mac, is from the family of Group 1 Premio Lydia Tesio winner Floriot who was a champion filly in Germany. The €430,000 colt was the star of the draft from Gestut Gorlsdorf, owned by Heike Bischoff and Niko Lafrentz who raced the sire. Sea The Moon stands at Lanwades and his 13 yearlings sold averaged just shy of €100,000. The colt was the most expensive purchase made for Godolphin by Tom Goff of Blandford Bloodstock.

Gorlsdorf also sold a daughter of their classic winner well, receiving €180,000 for the second produce of the stakes winning juvenile Nouvelle Neige, a daughter of Big Shuffle and the classic-placed Nouvelle Fortune. Peter and Ross Doyle bought her on behalf of their longstanding Norwegian client Wido Neuroth who will train her.

Sea The Moon was responsible for two other six-figure lots. The British-bred colt out of a winning Danehill Dancer half-sister to Australian Group 2 winner Fantastic Love sold to Stall Mandarin for €140,000 and he comes from the immediate family of Last Tycoon, Immortal Verse and a host of other Group 1 winners.

Jamie Railton acted as agent for the sale of a Sea The Moon half-brother to this year’s German Derby runner-up Enjoy Vijay and he cost Franceschini Bloodstock €100,000.

A daughter of Mastercraftsman who sold for €250,000 in the ring is now listed on the BBAG website as a buy-back, but the honour of being the top-priced filly still fell to another offspring of the Coolmore stallion. Bertrand Le Metayer paid €235,000 for this half-sister to Pakistan Star, runner-up in both the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup and the Hong Kong Derby.

Mark Richards on behalf of the Hong Kong Jockey Club paid €200,000 for a Kodiac half-brother to the Grade 2 US winner Ramazutti and this was the best of the Stauffenberg Bloodstock draft. The colt was a 50,000gns foal purchase.

Matching that price was the Godolphin purchase, a Sea The Stars colt, the first produce of a winning half-sister to Group 1 winner Sortilege. The colt’s grandam is an own-sister to classic winners and champions Schiaparelli, Samum and Salve Regina, and to the dam of Sea The Moon.

HFTB Racing Agency made a number of notable purchases. The most expensive was a daughter of Holy Roman Emperor for €180,000 and she is a granddaughter of the German Oaks winner Amarette. Earlier in the sale they gave €100,000 for a daughter of Teofilo, a half-sister to four winners.

Klaus Allofs was capped 60 times for Germany and he was a prolific striker in the German Bundesliga. He paid €140,000 to secure a daughter of Mastercraftsman and the filly is the first produce of the listed winner Goiania, a daughter of Oasis Dream. Swordhalf was the champion two-year-old filly in Germany in 2012 and her second progeny, a daughter of Teofilo, cost Stall Helena €130,000.

Shortly afterwards Finn Blichfeldt gave €130,000 for a son of Dabirsim and the listed winner Amazing Beauty. The Group 1 winning two-year-old Dabirsim has made a successful start at stud, with a Royal Ascot winning two-year-old to his credit, and his son out of a winning Galileo daughter of the Grade 1 winner Janet cost Suzanne Roberts €100,000.

Mastercraftsman’s half-brother to Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin winner Sirius cost Stall Salzburg €110,000, while a filly from the first crop of Australia sold for the same amount to Gestut Auenquelle. Her dam Diamond Dove is a Group 3 winner and runner-up in the German Oaks.

The sale was very selective and trade at times was tough. A similar number of horses made €100,000 or more compared to last year, but a much reduced clearance rate contributed to a fall in both the aggregate and average.