BOOK 2 of the Orby Sale kicked off on Wednesday and it saw 185 of the 220 yearlings offered find buyers, a clearance rate of 84%. This is significantly ahead of last year's two-day Book 2 clearance rate of 72%.

The day's median price of €20,000 is 33% higher than the 2024 Book 2 median price of €15,000.

A day after selling a Lope De Vega filly for €1 million, Co Limerick breeder and Horse Racing Ireland chairman Nicky Hartery was responsible for the top lot on day one of the Book 2 sale when selling a colt from the first crop of State Of Rest for €150,000.

Brought to Goffs by The Castlebridge Consignment, the colt was sold to agent Federico Barberini who was acting on behalf of Mrs Alanood Althani.

The filly is a half-sister to three winners.

Trained by Joseph O'Brien, State Of Rest won Group/Grade 1 races in four countries and on three continents when successful in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Prix Ganay, Saratoga Derby Invitational and Cox Plate.

Barberini said: “State Of Rest was a very good racehorse and I have been impressed by the yearlings I have seen by him. This was a particularly nice filly, and she has been bought for Mrs Althani, who has a number of horses in training in Britain. I am not sure what the plans for this filly are at the moment."

The small Derrinstown Stud consignment proved popular, their four yearlings fetching a total of €270,000. Top of the quartet was a colt by Too Darn Hot who was sold to breeze-up consignor Cormac Farrell for €120,000.

Farrell said: “I saw him a couple of times, he vetted very well. He has a nice pedigree; he’s out of a daughter of a multiple Group 1 winner and very good horse in Taghrooda (Sea The Stars). I liked his pedigree and I liked the horse. When we get to Newmarket a horse with that profile will be making that in sterling all day long.

“He’ll go breezing; I don’t know where. Kind of assuming Arqana but we’ll figure that out as the season goes on and see what he tells us he wants to do. The price was probably a little bit stronger than I wanted it to be, but that’s been the nature of the year. I’m envisaging things will go up another level when we get to Newmarket next week, so I was keen to spend euros. We’ll see.”

Farrell, operating from Copper Beech Stables, sold Distant Storm (Night Of Thunder) for €1.9 million at the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale in May, having purchased him for 90,000gns as a yearling. The colt has won two of his three starts, last week capturing the Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes.

Just one other yearling broke through the €100,000 mark on Wednesday and that was a Starman colt offered by Ballintry Stud on behalf of Pat Beirne’s Cornagher House. Noel Meade bid €100,000 for the colt but gave best when Con Marnane bid €105,000.

Marnane said: "He is a proper, proper horse. We are not doing big numbers for the breeze-ups next year, concentrating more on quality. That's the plan. He is the second horse we have bought here this week. We bought a lovely Mehmas on Monday. Lot 69. They'll both go to the breeze-ups and hope someone will like them as much as we do. You can't fault the sire; he has done incredible, and every one of them has an unbelievable temperament. That's what makes them so good.

“It has been impossible to buy. We would normally get seven or eight out of Fairyhouse last week, and we got one. We managed to buy two so far here.”

Other significant transactions on Wednesday included a €92,000 Palace Pier colt from Airlie Stud bought by Johnny Hassett and Dubai client Ramzi Alghul.

Moments later Katie McGivern of Derryconnor Stud bought a St Mark's Basilica colt for €60,000 from Baroda Stud.

McGivern said: “He is a big, strong horse and fast-looking. He would have been hard to leave behind. He will go breezing. It is a very strong, very solid market. Book 1 was strong and this trade looks the very same. There are plenty of horses to like, lots of racehorses. We have a very long list, and I think we are lucky to be going home with a few.”

Paddy Twomey bought a Starman colt for €85,000 on behalf of the Corbett family who had a runner in the Goffs Million last weekend and are keen to have another go. Their latest purchase was sold today by John and Karen Hannon of Killulla Stud who bought the colt for just €10,000 in February. The Hannons sold a homebred Blackbeard colt for €100,000 on Tuesday.

The Book 2 sale concludes on Thursday.

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