THE Tattersalls December Yearling Sale has long been a friend to both buyers and consignors, offering both their last opportunity to trade yearlings that year. The different reasons that see yearlings end up at the one-day sale, which returns on Monday, November 24th, makes for a varied catalogue.

Some missed or failed to flourish at their original sales date, others needed all the time in the world, neither circumstance reserved for bluebloods or their less commercial compatriots. The sale’s impressive honour roll and graduates’ prices demonstrate this, ranging from the 700,000gns paid by Demi O’Brien for subsequent Irish Oaks heroine Moonstone, to the 5,000gns given by Stephen Hillen for the all-conquering Via Sistina.