FILLIES accounted for the majority of lots offered at the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale this week, 58% of the catalogue, and they accounted for the top three lots over the three days, and six of the top eight prices.
Trade was solid throughout, with better lots realising more than buyers had assessed their worth in many cases. A clearance rate of 85% was an improvement on last year, and there was growth in all the measures, turnover (up 16%), average (up 14%), and median (up 6%), while the top two lots of the week surpassed last year’s high.
A total of 15 lots brought prices of €50,000 or more, a huge upswing from a mere four 12 months previously, and this from catalogues almost identical in size. This is a very different level of the market to Books 1 and 2 of the Orby Sale, but a vital one for breeders who wish to see stock they have produced find new homes and get a chance to compete on the racecourse.
A remarkable total of 130 lots are understood to have been sold to Italian buyers, more than a quarter of all sales, while another 100 or so are heading to Eastern Europe. Together this was half of all the yearlings sold from Monday to Wednesday. Henry Beeby paid tribute to Joey Cullen and his colleagues in Goffs who worked in tandem with Irish Thoroughbred Marketing to get the buyers on the ground in Kill. Representatives of 19 countries attended the sale.
Variety at top end
The top eight lots, all selling for €60,000 or more, were from eight distinct vendors, sold to seven buying entities, and were sired by seven different stallions.
Leading the sale overall, and selling at the second session, was Rathbarry Stud’s daughter of their resident sire Kodi Bear, and she is out of a Wootton Bassett half-sister to the French Group 1 winner Dubai Honour. He went on to be a champion in Australia where he won three times at the highest level.
Significantly, the filly had a big boost to her sale prospects when her classic-engaged two-year-old half-brother Bayraktar, by State Of Rest, won for Karl Burke after the catalogue was printed. The trainer was at the sale and one of the main players in the bidding competition, but he bowed out just short of six-figures, leaving the final duel between Willie Browne and Ross Doyle. The latter had the say at €110,000.
“A very nice filly physically and by a very consistent sire of good horses, Kodi Bear,” Doyle said afterwards. “She comes from a great home. Her brother could be a very good horse, I think. She’s been bought for a very, very long-term client of my father who has stuck with the family for generations. She will go to France and go into training with André Fabre.
“She has a great pedigree and hopefully might get a big update. She looks a quick, medium-sized filly. The client asked me to find him one filly and that was her. I am just delighted we got her.”
Derrinstown filly
All the chat on the final day concerned a rare offering from Derrinstown Stud, and this was a filly with a superb pedigree. A daughter of Too Darn Hot, she is out of the high-class mare Enbihaar. Trained by John Gosden, she ran a dozen times and won seven races, five of them at Group 2 class. She was not beaten far when third in a French Group 1 behind the classic winner Anapurna.
Charles Shanahan outbid Ross Doyle on this occasion, securing the filly for €90,000. He said: “She’s for a client in England. She looks a sharp, fast two-year-old and the mare had a lot of ability. She’s by the right stallion and it’s always good to buy a nice horse out of Derrinstown; they do a great job.
“She’ll go into training in Ireland, she won’t be for breezing, and hopefully we’ll see her early next year. There’s lots of potential, there’s loads happening in the family and there’s a lot to run. She’ll make a lovely broodmare in the future and that’s what this owner wants.”
EVERYONE wants a Sioux Nation, and there is a premium to be paid if it’s a filly, all thanks to the exploits of Sun Goddess. The sale had a single filly by the sire, and she was offered by Ballybin Stud on behalf of her breeders, the Davison family at Killarkin Stud. She sold to Thomond O’Mara for €82,000. The filly is the second poduce of a winning Kodiac mare, and the first is Howlin Wolf, a Curragh winner at two this year trained by Jack Davison.
O’Mara said: “She’ll go breezing, she look precocious and it’s a fast family. The sire’s on fire, so we are hopeful.”
Swedish trainer Francisco Castro was not at the sale on Wednesday when Rathasker Stud’s Coulsty half-brother to Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet was sold, but he instructed the Goffs Scandinavian representative Filip Zwicky, and the agent made the winning bid of €72,000. The colt has nine winning siblings from his dam’s 10 runners.
“Francisco was here at the Orby and had a good order which he couldn’t fill,” Zwicky said. “He decided to skip all the other yearling sales and come back here to try and find the best colt he could. He saw this one on Monday and liked him a lot. He’s a very, very nice individual with a great walk and is a half-brother to a Group 1 winner. He saved his powder for this one.”
Mehmas pair
The second-best colt of the week was Luke Bleahen’s son of Mehmas, a €38,000 foal buy at Goffs who cost Ian McCarthy’s Grangecoor Farm €65,000 on this occasion. He is set to be reoffered, and his half-brother Flying Pirate has won twice at two this year.
There were plenty of yearlings bought to breeze, and Mathuna Stud’s daughter of Mehmas is one. Charles Shanahan purchased her for Michael O’Flynn’s Rockfield Farm for €60,000, and he acquired a second lot to join her, this one a daughter of Bayside Boy from Noel O’Callaghan’s Mountarmstrong Stud. She cost €68,000.
Very last lot
The very last lot of the week, in the supplementary catalogue, was a Camelot filly and the first foal of a winning dam. Sold by Tom Whelan’s Church View Stables, she cost Danny Donovan €60,000 and is another set for a spring breeze-up sale.