THE strong trade at last years’ BBAG mixed sale was a bridge too far this year, and the final returns showed that a 70% clearance rate, a satisfactory figure at German sales, resulted in a 17% drop in turnover to €2,339,500, while the average and median were both back 22%.

Held over two days last week, with a select session on the first day, the anticipated highlight was expected to be the Gleneagles half-brother to the current star runner, dual Group 1 winner Mendocino. Offered from Gestüt Brümmerhof, he was bought back for €190,000, but he still qualifies for the sales races which offer substantial prizemoney.

The sale-topper was a colt from the first crop of Best Solution, the multiple Group 1 winner in Germany and Australia, and the Gestüt Röttgen offering is a half-brother to this year’s Group 1 Italian Derby winner Ardakan and Group 3 winner Alasksonne. The fourth produce of his stakes-winning dam, the colt’s three siblings have all run and won.

The colt sold for €120,000 and will now race in Italy for Diego Romeo’s Scuderia Incolinx, and will be trained by Bruno Grizzetti. Both the owner and trainer were at the sale.

Attention

Not surprisingly, the sole offering by Havana Grey attracted plenty of attention, and was listed as being sold for €80,000. Offered by Gestüt Karlshof, she was signed for by Holger Faust’s HFTB Racing Agency. The buyer revealed that his family bought out their partners in the filly, and said that she would go into training with Hank Grewe.

German owner Thomas Jander paid €64,000 for a son of Sea The Moon, sold by Gestüt Görlsdorf. The first foal of his stakes-placed Areion dam, Wonderful Gorl, he is closely related to the German champion two-year-old and Group 2 winner, Wonderful Moon. That colt is a son of Sea The Moon and a half-brother to the dam of the sale yearling.

Aga Khan families featured strongly at the sale. Gestüt Etzean’s Make Believe filly from the immediate family of Harzand sold for €61,000 to owners Route 66, while Gestüt Karlshof filly by the Aga Khan Studs’ Zarak, from the female family of the sire, was knocked down to Jörg Mangold for €58,000.

Claymore

Blandford Bloodstock’s Stuart Boman did not reveal the identity of the owner or trainer for an Amaron half-sister to Claymore which he purchased for €49,000. Jane Chapple-Hyam trains Claymore, a son of New Bay, for Mary Slack, and the colt won the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes at Royal Ascot this year.

Beatrix Mülhens-Klemm’s and Peter Brauer’s Panorama Bloodstock spent €40,000 on a daughter of Best Solution, and the filly is just the second foal of the four-time winning Mount Nelson mare, Delegation. The dam’s first runner is De La Soul, a two-year-old son of Sea The Moon and one of the leading juveniles in Germany this year. He won a listed race in Düsseldorf in mid-September on his second start.