WITH a few hours selling yet to go, the latest edition of the Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Up Sale was set to fall short of the record-breaking 2025 edition.

The clearance rate was also likely to be slightly down, but the median and average figures offered more encouragement. Many of the top lots were profitably pinhooked, and gave their vendors some cause for comfort.

The interim leader was Tradewinds Stud’s St Mark’s Basilica colt, sold to Ken Condon’s Osborne Lodge Racing for 230,000gns. Mark and Shane Power gave 26,000gns for the colt last December, and this sale represented quite a killing for the brothers.

Condon said: “The sire is doing very well; he has created a very good impression. This horse is a May foal, but he has a lot of balance, athleticism, and Jim [Tilton] has been very lucky at this sale before. The colt goes to the US and will be in trained by Brendan Walsh. He needs a bit of time, but will be a lovely sort for the future. Every time he showed, he stood out and went well. He has a pedigree too.

“There is a certain cache to buying Irish horses and they can go anywhere in the world, they are sound, they can run and do well.

“It is always good to come back to sale that has been lucky for us.” The colt is the second produce of the French Listed winner Preening, and the first is a winner. The dam is a full-sister to the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile runner-up More Than This.

SIX-FIGURE lots were scarce for the first three hours of selling, and then there was a raft in quick succession. Three lots had each brought €200,000 at the time of writing, a colt by Starman and fillies by Blackbeard and Sioux Nation.

Rockfield Farm was first up with their son of Starman, a €105,000 yearling purchase in Book 1 of the Orby Sale. Stephen Hillen outlasted Matt Coleman whose final bid of €185,000 fell short. The agent said: “I did not really have anyone for him and rang up an old pal of mine who said he’d go for it. I can’t tell you who it is because his wife doesn’t know yet! He goes to Kevin Ryan, looks a sprinter, and did a real fast final furlong. He is probably my pick of the sale.”

Hillen added: “He is quite a big tall rangy horse; he’s probably not quite there physically yet. He looks like he is going to fill out and develop, and he does not look like a two-year-old. He will have a break now and you probably won’t see him until July or August.”

Next to the mark was Kingsfield Stud’s Blackbeard half-sister to a three-time winner, and their dam was stakes-placed in Italy. From the first-crop of her sire, this €65,000 foal was purchased by Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock. “She did a very good breeze, is a sizeable filly and will need a little bit of time. It was more than I was expecting to pay,” said Brown. “I am afraid I can’t divulge future plans.

“The [breeze up sector] is a phenomenal product, and the results from these sales have been tremendous. From spending not very much money to having a winner six weeks after the sale, to Royal Ascot winners and Group 1 winners, it is a huge source of success.”

Joining the €200,000 club was a homebred Sioux Nation filly from Roderic Kavanagh’s Glending Stables. She was purchased online by Paddy Twomey, using a familiar modus operandi, and is for Bond Thoroughbred. The trainer said: “The breeze-ups have been very lucky for us and the Tattersalls Ireland breeze-up sale has been particularly lucky. We have managed to buy a nice horse out of this sale for the past number of years. City Of Memphis, Letsbefrankaboutit and Yellowstone Lake came from this sale and they were all by Sioux Nation, so it’s great to get another one by him.

“She’s nice filly and it’s great to get her on behalf of Bond Thoroughbreds. They have invested a lot of money into the industry in recent times and obviously have a stallion in Maranoa Charlie to try and support. They want speedy fillies and hopefully this filly can develop into a nice prospect for them.”

Miriam O'Donnell, James Tate for Rabbah Bloodstock and John Bourke after the sale of a Bayside Boy filly for €175,000 \ Healy Racing/Tattersalls Ireland

MOTHER and daughter duo. Miriam and Christine O’Donnell of Bramblestown, were the toast of the sales yard when they sold a filly by first-season sire sensation Bayside Boy, for €175,000 to Rabbah Bloodstock’s James Tate, acting for Jaber Addullah. They gave just €20,000 for the filly in Book 2 of last year’s Orby Sale where she was selected by John Bourke.

Bred by Ballylinch Stud, the filly is half-sister to a pair of winners of the Group 3 Sirenia Stakes, Brown Sugar (Tamayuz) who also won the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes, and the year-younger Burnt Sugar. Their three-year-old half-brother Westport, trained by George Boughey, remains unbeaten in three starts and heads to Royal Ascot. It is the immediate family of Charyn.

Bourke deflected all praise to his ‘other-half’ Christine, and to Miriam who broke the filly in. He said: “They have done a brilliant job. There was holy war to start with; I was in and then I was out, but the women won in the end and I was out!

“None of the pinhookers had really honed in on [Bayside Boy] as a stallion for a breeze-up prospect, but the stars have aligned for this filly. The stallion looks exciting, and then we have got the update, thanks to George Boughey for that! It is a fantastic pedigree. It is Christine’s first-ever breezer and I think she could tell John O’Connor more about Bayside Boy than they know themselves! To be fair to Miriam, she asked me to look at every filly by the sire at the sales and we got this one.”

Christine O’Donnell added: “I’m not usually this emotional; I sell horses all the time! It’s just surreal. It’s all been straightforward. Since the moment we got her she’s been a dream. This is my first ever breezer. I’ve prepped her for the sale. I rode her in most of her pieces of work, John [Bourke] did a few bits too, and Pierce Gallagher got up on her once too. He’s done a great job.

“I mainly produce event horses. I’ve evented up to four-star level, been to a couple of World Championships. I love that and have a lot of lovely horses at home. Something drew me into breezing and it’s a similar system to what I do currently. I tried to put a lot of the eventing grounding into practice with the breeze-up filly.”

She concluded: “It’s kind of like an out of body experience really! She hasn’t been put back in her stable all week. She’s been super busy but so well behaved; she’s got a great attitude. If they were all this easy we’d do it all the time, but I think she’s just a special filly.”

*Final report next week