AFTER one seven-figure sale early in trade on Thursday, onlookers were left waiting until late afternoon for a flurry of ‘fireworks’ as sales reporters like to call them, with the million mark reached another four times in the final few hours of Book 1.

The sale ended with 16 yearlings sold for 1,000,000gns or more – on par with last year, but none reached the four million mark that was twice breached 12 months ago. The number of lots to reach two million fell from eight to five.

Godolphin led the buyers’ table going into the final day of trade and were over 6,000,000gns clear of Amo Racing at the close of business, with 19,625,000gns spent on 23 yearlings. Thursday’s haul included the session topper, a Wootton Bassett colt from Fittocks Stud, bought for 1,900,000gns.

Juddmonte’s Simon Mockridge was the underbidder, which was somewhat ironic, given that Juddmonte sold the colt’s dam to Blandford Bloodstock in 2019 for 260,000gns. The daughter of Timepiece has since produced a listed winner for breeders Fittocks Stud and Andrew Stone, who also bred Thursday’s top lot.

He became the fifth yearling by the late Wootton Bassett bought this week by Godolphin, whose talent scout, Anthony Stroud, reflected: “He is a huge loss, an unbelievable stallion. He was such a good outcross and it is a huge shame for the European bloodstock industry. It is hard to get stallions of that level, and he has come up from standing for relatively little to where he was at the end.”

On their most expensive purchase of the day, Stroud continued: “He was liked by our team and Sheikh Mohammed really liked him, and we think he was exceptional. Having Sheikh Mohammed here is so important. Every year he keeps coming here, and it is so vital. He really enjoys it, and we depend on him for his eye.”

Juddmonte didn’t leave Tattersalls empty-handed on Thursday, though, as they successfully secured two yearlings for 2,550,000gns. At 1,500,000gns, their priciest acquisition was a Frankel filly from Watership Down Stud.

She is the first foal bred by the Harris family out of their 2,000,000gns purchase Ville De Grace, a Group 3 winner from the family of Prince Arch. Her investment remains money well spent, according to Tom Harris, who after Thursday’s sale commented: “She was an expensive mare, but she has been a very easy mare to mate.

“She is a fantastic-looking mare, she is an unbelievable mover and this is a beautiful first foal. She has been from day one - we have thought she was a star right from the start, and she continued to develop in that way all the way through.

“When we came up here, we were looking at the fillies and each evening we'd say to each other, 'Have we seen anything better?' and the answer was always 'No!' We are delighted she has gone to Juddmonte and it is a great start for the mare. She is back in foal to Frankel.”

Juddmonte was the buyer responsible for the Night Of Thunder colt that led trade for much of the day, rewarding breeder St Albans Bloodstock with a price of 1,050,000gns. Consigned by Newsells Park Stud, the half-brother to Grade 1 filly Mrs Sippy became Juddmonte’s second purchase by Night Of Thunder this week.

On the stallion’s appeal, Juddmonte’s Simon Mockridge commented: “It is a bit of a coincidence they are both by him, but at the end of the day, he has had a fantastic season with 13 Group winners. The quality of mares he has been covering over these last few years has got better and better; he is a sire on the rise and a sire we need to pay attention to.”

The February-born bay was bred by St Albans Bloodstock out of a listed winner from the family of Grand Lodge and top Australian filly English, as alluded to by Mockridge. “This colt has a proper pedigree; and there are some very good horses on this page. He is also an incredibly good-looking horse, and was very well presented by Newsells.

“The horse bought earlier this week [Lot 134] we think will be a miler to a 10f horse, he has a very fast hind leg on him, and I would say this horse is the same.”

On Juddmonte’s approach to the sales, Mockridge added: “We buy a handful of horses at public auction; we are very specialised in what we look for– these two horses have got to come back and fit into the top 10 per cent of yearlings at home.”

Night Of Thunder’ progeny generated the third highest average price of the sale at 611,136gns, bettered only by Frankel and Dubawi. The Kildangan Stud sire was responsible for three of the five yearlings to sell for seven figures on Thursday.

Henry Lascelles was one of the lucky buyers of the super sire’s stock, stretching to 1,100,000gns for the half-sister to Prix de l’Abbaye heroine Makarova. The price continued the fantastic success Brightwalton Stud have enjoyed with their 68,000gns buy Vesnina, having raced her two group performers.

Brightwalton's Jeffrey Hobby reflected: “It is the first millionaire for us and a filly, too, which is cool. We have been very lucky, we have been helped by some great people to get here, Matt Coleman bought the mare for us, the Barton team and the Brightwalton team – they all work hard to get the job done.

“It was a big decision to sell a filly, but we have a lot of fillies from the family and we have some nomination bills to pay and we need to sell some stock. We needed to have a shuffle around and I thought if we were going to sell one, she would be a good one; we would be well paid and it would keep the wheels on the bus.

Night Of Thunder’s many fans most definitely includes James Hanly, whose Ballyhimikin Stud combined with McKeever Bloodstock to buy one of his foals last year for 175,000gns. They were rewarded in spades on Thursday evening, when the colt in question was knocked down to Karl and Kelly Burke for a cool 1,000,000gns.

One imagines it was a nerve-wracking few minutes for Hanly, as it was for Karl Burke when a text came through. “I had gone over budget,” the trainer explained. “But luckily I checked my phone and a message to press on had come in from the client.

“He is a gorgeous colt, the Night Of Thunders are going well for me, with Zeus Olympios very exciting and really a horse for next year - the horses by Night Of Thunder do need a bit of time.”

Final figures

Last year’s record-breaking renewal was always going to be a hard act to follow, especially with the catalogue increasing by almost 20%. Despite a rise in numbers, turnover was almost on par with last year at 127,226,000gns, which saw the average price fall by 13% to 322,091gns.

The median price dipped by 16% to 210,000gns, while the clearance rate fell from 88% to 83%.

Tattersalls Chairman, Edmond Mahony, commented: “Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale consistently showcases the finest British, Irish, French and German-bred yearlings to a global audience, and this year’s renewal has been no exception. Longview Stud’s Sea The Stars colt out of Crystal Zvezda and Newsells Park Stud’s Frankel colt out of Aljazzi, which realised 3,700,000 guineas and 3,600,000 guineas respectively are the two highest-priced yearlings in the world this year.

“A remarkable 70 lots have sold for 500,000 guineas or more as we have welcomed buyers from throughout the world to Park Paddocks. As ever, the support from the Gulf region has been a feature as has the large number of American buyers who have purchased more than 40 yearlings.

“Last year’s renewal of Europe’s premier yearling sale was widely regarded as one of the more remarkable sales of recent years, bucking the trend of earlier yearling sales that autumn with wide margin increases in all the key metrics. Those results saw the bloodstock market take a significant upturn over the last 12 months and, whilst a drop in average and median were to be expected with the larger catalogue, it has been gratifying to return figures that are second only to last year’s record renewal.”