THE two-day Goffs Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale concluded on Wednesday with an 85% clearance rate, only marginally behind last year’s 87%, and the rest of the sale’s key statistics were in a similar vein.
Although there were 23 more horses sold this year than last year, the total turnover was back 1%. The average price was down 7% and the median dipped by 14% to £30,000.
Top buyer over the two days was Manor House Stables (Michael Owen and Hugo Palmer), assisted by Ed Sackville of Sackville Donald. They bought 12 horses for a total spend of £844,000. Last year, they spent £800,000 on 16 horses at this sale.
Having bought the two top-priced horses on Tuesday, Rabbah Bloodstock ended the sale with eight purchases (£734,000), well over double what they spent at Doncaster 12 months ago.
Peter and Ross Doyle (nine horses), Clive Cox (seven), Sam Sangster (eight) and Richard Hughes/Ted Durcan (five) were also among the leading buyers.
As usual, Tally-Ho Stud were the leading consignors, selling 24 horses at an average price of almost £60,000. Tally-Ho’s first season sire Good Guess went down very well. His 21 yearlings sold for an average price of over £50,000, having been conceived off a published covering fee of £17,500.
Another first-season sire to make a splash was Dragon Symbol (by Cable Bay, son of Invincible Spirit). The Whitsbury Manor Stud stallion covered his first book of mares off an £8,000 stud fee and his 18 yearlings sold this week at an average of over £35,000.
At the conclusion of the sale, Goffs UK managing director Tim Kent commented: “With hotel space in Doncaster stretched to the limit, we have delivered another huge buying bench and the 85% clearance rate shows demand has been robust, with buyers from around the world in attendance.
“Buyers have always shown a strong appetite for Donny yearlings and the sale’s identity is alive and well which is fantastic - but there has been a call for more higher-end horses at this sale from buyers, and some vendors, over the last 12 months.
“Ultimately, it is for the market to decide what it needs and wants ‘Premier’ to be and our message to the market is this; we remain ambitious and hungry to grow this sale. We want to offer a higher quality catalogue to buyers who walk in our gates wanting and expecting to see real quality, and we want to continue to surpass the high expectations of vendors when we are given the opportunity to offer something special.
“We exist to offer vibrant competition to the market and, with prices of up to £1 million achieved in the Doncaster ring at our Breeze Up Sale, we have proven our venue can produce world-class results. And with another huge crowd of owners, trainers and agents on site this week, the ingredients are here, but we need the horses.
“All that said, we would like to thank our vendors who have brought some lovely types to Doncaster - headlined by 20 lots making six figures. We have welcomed new vendors and welcomed back some who have returned to Premier, which is wonderful to see.
“To our buyers, we wish you all the very best with your purchases and we look forward to awarding £250,000 in new bonuses next season.”
HEADING the day’s transactions was a £250,000 Blue Point colt sold by the McMurray family through Andrew Black’s Chasemore Farm. The colt is out of Happy Romance, a Dandy Man filly the McMurrays bought for £25,000 at Doncaster as a yearling. Trained by Richard Hannon, she won four blacktype races and was Group 1-placed before being retired to the paddocks.
Still owned by the McMurrays, this was her first foal - and part of Black’s first draft of yearlings consigned under the Chasemore banner.
“Happy Romance was the first filly we bought and put in training, and she did really well for us,” said Oliver McMurray. “We didn’t pay a massive amount for her in the grand scheme of things, and she ended up winning £750,000, so we were well in the green with her and thought it was worth having a punt and giving breeding from her a crack.
“This is her first offspring, so it’s going pretty well so far! She’s our only broodmare to date, but we’ve got another filly in training with Richard Hannon, who’s rated around 85. We’d love to build up a small broodmare band over time.
“Happy Romance is based at Chasemore Farm, which is a brilliant operation. Jack [Conroy], Pat [Sells] and the whole team are great to deal with. We were looking for a stud to put her in and Lezoo (bred by Chasemore) had won the Cheveley Park Stakes that year, so they cropped up on the radar and we gave them a ring, and this is where we are now.
“I did the mating myself, as I love my pedigrees. Blue Point had just had a cracking season, with Rosallion having just won the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, and I noticed that he’d worked well with Danehill-line mares before. Sending him Happy Romance, being so precocious and speedy, just looked like a good commercial mating.”
McMurray said the Blue Point’s price-tag exceeded expectations.
“Jack had an idea of what she would sell for, but you can never go in expecting a certain amount, as the market dictates the price. I suppose I was hoping for £100,000 to £150,000, so I’m over the moon with that result,” he said.
“I found that more nerve-wracking than racing, I felt sick before she went through the ring. Racing is easy compared to that.
“We’ve already put a fair amount of money into breeding, so this was about balancing the books. We’ll probably sell the colts and keep the fillies in future. She’s got a Camelot colt foal and is in foal to Oasis Dream. We’ve got our fingers crossed for a filly.”
Trainer Ismail Mohammed, who signed the docket for the colt, reported: “We need the quality for our stable, and when we saw this colt, by Blue Point and out of a blacktype mare, we said, ‘He’s the type we need to buy’.
“He’s a good-looking horse and when we inspected him everything looked positive. Being by that sire, with that quality, he could be a Royal Ascot type. We’re looking to support the sport here in Britain, as well as in Dubai.”
Mohammed, on behalf of Rabbah Bloodstock again, was also the winning bidder at £180,000 on Camas Park Stud’s widely admired No Nay Never half-sister to Group 3 winner Leading Spirit and listed-placed Spirit Of Light. Chasemore Farm really dazzled on its debut consigning yearlings to Doncaster, as it also sold the Sioux Nation filly out of the winning Camacho mare Lumacho - the last lot in the ring on the day - to Peter and Richard Fahey for £160,000.
WEDNESDAY trade was topped by a £210,000 Night Of Thunder colt from Eugene Daly’s Longview Stud in Newmarket. It was bought on one well-time bid by Charlie Bond and will be trained by Geoff Oldroyd, who provided Bond with a big York handicap winner last week.
The colt is out of the winning Kingman mare Snow Empress.
Bond, who was at the sales on Tuesday but was not there for this purchase, said: “I was in Doncaster myself yesterday and didn’t manage to get a bid in on one. The good horses are making really good money, the market for those seems quite strong.”
Great touch
Barry Kennedy and Anna Murphy’s Rigsdale Stud landed a magnificent touch when selling a filly by Sioux Nation to JB Bloodstock for £150,000. She had been pinhooked for €70,000 at the Goffs February Sale earlier this year.
“I’m thrilled with that result,” said Kennedy. “We bought her in February, so it was a quick turnaround but everything fell into place. We were lucky that Sun Goddess (also by Sioux Nation) came out of the sale and appeared on the front cover of the catalogue to remind everyone what Sioux Nation fillies can do.
“We were looking for a nice filly in November and didn’t quite get one, and we saw this girl in February and just loved her - she’s got a beautiful action. It’s the most we’ve ever paid for one, so it’s nice to get a return. Two lads at Castlehyde Stud had a leg in her - Donagh Healy and Darragh Connell. They work with the stallions, including Sioux Nation, every day so it’s great for them too. It’s their first time getting involved - maybe they were my lucky charm.”
GOFFS’ new US agent Louis Dubois struck the winning bid of £145,000 for Tweenhills’ Kingman colt out of the Group 3-winning Holy Roman Emperor mare Roman Mist.
“He’s a beautiful horse with a lot of substance and a good walk,” said Dubois. “He’s big for a Kingman, with a lovely page - the mare isn’t exposed at all. He stood out and obviously caught the eye of quite a few people.
“He’ll be going to Ireland and will be aimed at the breeze-ups. Rodgie Kavanagh’s Glending Stables will prep him. I’ll jump in and take a leg myself and we’ll see how we do. Rodgie is a good man and knows exactly what he’s doing - we’ll follow his lead.”
Grand National-winning jockey David Mullins’ Barrow Bloodstock had the final say when bidding £130,000 on Tally-Ho Stud’s colt by red-hot first-season sire Bayside Boy out of a daughter of top-class sprinters Twilight Son and Firenze.
“He looks racy, very much an athlete, and he’ll come back for resale,” said Mullins. “I’ll do him myself under the Barrow Bloodstock banner. I started last year and had a couple of touches, and hopefully he’ll be resold, whether that’s after breezing or racing.
“He’ll be kept between the family anyway. I was here with Emmet, who had to go home because he’s getting married on Friday, but hopefully he’ll take a leg in him too. It was a tough year to start out, but it’s a shorter turnaround than selling point-to-pointers. I do both and it’s good to have a finger in all pies. We’ll just try and find the horses and see if we can afford them.”
Pinhooker Paddy Vaughan paid £110,000 for the WH Bloodstock-consigned Havana Grey filly out of the listed-placed Rock Of Gibraltar mare Rock On Baileys.
“She’s for myself and Michael Fitzpatrick of J.C. Bloodstock,” said Vaughan. “We’ll offer her as a breezer next year. She looked a very strong filly with a good walk and a nice pedigree - and she’s by Havana Grey. It didn’t matter to us whether we bought a colt or filly as long as they looked fast, and she was the one.
“This one will be sold via [Fitzpatrick’s] Kilminfoyle House Stud, while a Chaldean filly we bought yesterday will come to my place.”
Clive Cox returns to source
CLIVE Cox spent £438,000 on seven horses. His most expensive purchase was a £165,000 Lope De Vega colt out of the listed-winning and Group 3-placed Dubawi mare Declaring Love, consigned by Lynn Lodge Stud. The trainer said: “I’ve not had many by the stallion before, but he’s got some very enviable statistics, and the cross with Dubawi mares has worked particularly well.” Cox also bought three by new sire Dragon Symbol.
Phelans get well paid for Saudi success
SHEM and Terese Phelan of Weylands Stud in Straffan sold a Mehmas half-brother to this year’s Saudi Derby Cup winner Al Haram for £150,000. A year ago they sold Al Haram (by Iffraaj) for the very same figure to the same owner - Aldullah Al-Sabah.
“We were expecting him to make a good price,” Shem reported. “He’s a smasher. He gives you the impression he’s going to be a very fast, sharp two-year-old, and the pedigree made sense. Al Haram is an unbeaten Group 3 winner in Saudi Arabia and I gather his connections think he could be even better in time.”
This is the family of multiple Group 1 winner Limato, also bred by the Phelans and sold at Doncaster.
Hugo Palmer stocking up
WITH 12 purchases over the two days, Hugo Palmer’s Manor House Stables was the leading buyer, assisted by agent Ed Sackville and landlord Michael Owen. Their priciest purchases were a Memhas colt for £150,000 from Tally-Ho Stud, a £140,000 filly by Chaldean and a £130,000 colt by No Nay Never from Manister House Stud.
Chaldean (by Frankel) had six yearlings sell for an average of £71,000. His covering fee was £25,000 (now £20,000).
Big Evs, Big Mojo, big black bull
CONOR and Kathryn Quirke struck the winning bid of £125,000 for Bearstone Stud’s Blackbeard half-brother to talented sprinter Washington Heights. “He’s another big black bull for R.P. Racing,” reported Conor. “I don’t think Blackbeard has done much wrong yet. The sire-line is the main draw. No Nay Never gets you those lovely, big, black horses who sprint. I personally think the Scat Daddy sire-line is manna from heaven, in that we were going down the route of small speed stallions covering small speed mares in Europe, and speed was becoming very small. It’s a vital sire-line as it imparts size, good looks and speed.”
Astbury and Keatley link up
BLOODSTOCK agent Dan Astbury and trainer Adrian Keatley teamed up to purchase three horses over the two days, including Tally-Ho Stud’s Kodiac filly out of Stunner, a Pivotal mare related to high-class sprinters Buratino and Danehill Dancer for £110,000.
“This was a filly we loved and Adrian has had a lot of luck buying off Tally-Ho Stud,” said Astbury. “My background is in jumping, but I’m very lucky to be buying flat horses for people like Adrian and James Owen, two great trainers who send out a lot of winners.”