LEADING international racehorse owner John Stewart paid his first visit to Goffs on Monday and spent over €1.5 million on four yearlings, including the day's top lot, a €675,000 colt by Blue Point.

Stewart, who buys and races under the Resolute Bloodstock banner, is best knownin Europe as the owner of multiple Group 1 winner Goliath, trained in France by Francis Graffard.

And it is Graffard who is likely to train the Blue Point colt, consigned at Goffs by Tom Whelan's Church View Stables on behalf of breeder John Connaughton.

From Westmeath, Connaughton is in his 90s and earlier this year he was honoured by the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association. The Blue Point colt is out of his star mare Bloomfields, who has already bred a Group 2 winner in Bay City Roller. A year ago he sold a Blue Point filly out of the mare for €850,000 at this sale.

Tom Whelan said: "Unbelievable. Lovely horse, never put a foot wrong. Bred by a great man; he's unfortunately not here today but his daughter and granddaughter are. I am glad they are here to see this, but sadly he's not. He'll be thinking there about this, and it will be a great tonic for him. I have had [the colt] for about the last 10 weeks and he has been straightforward, no issues. It's a fantastic result and let's hope he is as lucky for the next person. That's what it's all about.”

Stewart said: “It’s a really good pedigree, and the dam’s record is only going to improve. We’re really high on Blue Point; he rates very highly on our system. He was one of the top colts we had for today and so we’re excited to get him. I felt like he was a good price; I think we got a bit of value for a colt from such a proven family."

Stewart's Monday purchases also included a €550,000 Frankel colt who is a three-parts brother to Derby winner Desert Crown.

“Of course we’re big fans of Frankel,” said Stewart. “He’s a strong stallion and we sent our Breeders’ Cup winner Caravel (Mizzen Mast) over to be bred to him twice. The colt has a really nice pedigree: the dam’s already produced a champion and another good horse [Gr.3 winner Archie McKellar (Archipenko)]. We feel pretty confident about him. I think we got good value on him. Frankel’s stud fee is £350,000, after all.

“He’ll more than likely go to Francis [Graffard]. We’ll send (this week’s purchases) to the UK to be prepped, broken and pre-trained first, and a few might go to the US, depending on where we think they’ll best suit the racing programme."

Monday's session returned a clearance rate of just under 88%. The day's average price of €131,752 was marginally up on last year's Book 1 average of €128,000, while Monday's median price of €100,000 was significantly up on last year's two-day median of €80,000.

Amo Racing

Kia Joorabchian of Amo Racing was back at the sale in person on Monday and, despite being outbid for the top lot, he also spent in the region of €1.5 million on four purchases. Top of his list was a Frankel colt out of Group 1 winner Madame Chiang. He was bred by Kirsten Rausing and consigned by her Staffordstown Stud.

Amo Racing also gave €400,000 for the Invincible Spirit three-parts sister to listed winner Rogue Lightning from Airlie Stud (Lot 136). Bloodstock agent Alex Elliot, acting on behalf of Amo, said: "We were up against two good judges, including Hugo Lascelles for Lady Bamford. This filly looks very fast, with a very fast pedigree, and she comes from a very good home who rear really good horses."

Fresh from spending €2 million at Tattersalls Ireland last week, Jaber Abdullah of Rabbah Bloodstock turned up again at Goffs and on Monday he spent just over €1 million on nine yearlings, all by different stallions. His most expensive acquisition was a Saxon Warrior colt from Abbeville Stud.

Other buyers who played a prominent role on Monday included Charlie Bond (Bond Thoroughbreds), and Al Shira'aa Racing.

Charlie Bond was involved in at least four purchases on Monday - two for trainer Christopher Head and two for Paddy Twomey. Heads trains Maranoa Charlie for Bond Thoroughbreds and Twomey sent out Black Caviar Gold to win a Group 3 race at the Curragh on Sunday for the operation.

Head is set to train the Frankel half-sister to Group 2 winner Naval Power who was consigned by Tally-Ho Stud and cost €440,000 (Lot 124), and the Wootton Bassett colt out of the Group 3-placed No Nay Never mare Celtic Beauty who was offered by Castlehyde Stud and cost €420,000 (Lot 67).

“Christopher's been great, I love what he does with all the technology and the stats he uses,” reported Bond. “We’re introducing artificial intelligence into our own business and he's starting to use it too, it’s got endless possibilities. We call our trainers partners, as it’s all about relationships. The communication has to be high.

“A beautifully bred Frankel filly speaks for herself. She was bought for the pedigree alone. She wouldn’t even need to hit the racetrack at that sort of money, in my view.

“As for the Wootton Bassett colt, there won’t be many more yearlings by the sire now, so it's a case of buying them while you can. Christopher knows Wootton Bassett inside out, he's trained so many winners by him, including Maranoa Charlie of course, and this is the one he had on his list. We loved him too.”

Heading to Twomey's yard are a Mehmas half-brother to Bear Story, bought from Church View Stables for €260,000 (Lot 23), and the Havana Grey colt out of Himyan, a speedily bred Muhaarar mare, who was purchased from Pier House Stud for €200,000 (Lot 170).

American investor Ramiro Restrepo spent a total of €675,000 on three horses, while Coolmore's M.V. Magnier bought four on Wednesday for a total outlay of €910,000. Two of his four buys were by the late Wootton Bassett.

French syndicate

David Redvers was acting on behalf of a syndicate based at Henri Bozo's Ecurie des Monceaux when bidding €625,000 for a Wootton Bassett filly out of dual classic winner Hermosa. The dam has already bred a top-class racehorse in Trinity College.

Redvers explained: “We have found it increasingly difficult to buy broodmares with that sort of page, so we decided we’d see if we could find some proper pedigrees at the yearling sales with a view to having the upside of racing them before adding them to the broodmare band later on.

“The stallion and the family need no introduction. She’s babyish, she’s going to improve a great deal with time, but she’ll come to Tweenhills to be broken in and then she’ll go across the Channel and Henri will manage her from there on. Henri has training plans under control; it’ll either be Francis Graffard or André Fabre, one of the two.

“There’s a group of four partners in her; we bought a beautiful New Bay filly earlier on in the day as well [Lot 44 from Airlie Stud for €230,000]. We’ll keep going through the rest of the yearling sales and we’ll see what we can find. They’re all established breeders who have mares at Monceaux and have loved the experience of being involved and want more.”

Newmarket trainer George Scott came away with the top lot from Tattersalls Ireland last week and he is also set to train a €550,000 Sea The Stars colt bought on Monday by agent Billy Jackson-Stops on behalf of Victorious Racing.

From the family of Crystal Ocean (also by Sea The Stars), the colt was bred by Natalma Bloodstock (an international bloodstock investment portfolio headed by John Ferguson, and the Tsui family’s Sunderland Holding) and consigned by Ciaran Conroy’s Glenvale Stud.

Victorious Forever

"He goes to George Scott and is for Victorious Forever [renamed after the merger of Victorious Racing and KHK Racing]. He has a pedigree we all know and we are really excited about the horse. The moment we put the horse up to them this morning they said yes. We strive for success, and we improve our chances of success with a horse like him. We are concentrating more on those classic-type horses.

“He made a little bit more than we thought but that is what you have to pay. When horses like this come up you have to dig deep. The sire is unbelievable. He goes and goes and goes, on the track and in the sale ring; it is always good to have a horse by a sire like him. It gives you the best chance of success.”

Victorious Racing enjoyed big race success with George Scott through Royal Ascot winner Isle Of Jura, the above-mentioned Bay City Roller, and Phantom Flight, winner of a listed race at Dundalk last Friday night.

KHK Racing is best known as owners of Group 1 winners Eldar Eldarov and Vandeek.

The Ballylinch Stud-consigned New Bay full-sister to dual Group 1 heroine Saffron Beach (Lot 130) was one of the catalogue highlights and she duly commanded a big price, being knocked down to Maurice Regan’s Newtown Anner Stud for €500,000.

“We thought she was a bit of a collectors’ item, being a full-sister to a Group 1 winner,” reported Newtown Anner Stud manager P.J. Colville, who did the bidding. “I thought she was a nice filly with a great step to her, so we were very keen to have her.

“It’s a lot of money but, look, you can go back and breed from her, and Maurice likes his breeding. Fillies are our focus. We sell the colts and pick up a few fillies. It’s going well enough at the moment.

“She’ll come back to my place, and we’ll break her in. We won’t decide where she’s going until the spring. We let the horses tell us.”

Book 1 continues on Tuesday.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE RESULTS