THIS week’s Goffs UK Breeze Up Sale in Doncaster generated a fabulous set of results but all that was forgotten later in the week when it emerged that the top lot, a record-breaking £500,000 colt by Harry Angel, suffered a fatal accident on the way to his new home.

Consigned by Tally-Ho Stud, the colt was bred by Mark and Adrian Wallace of Grenane House Stud in Co Tipperary.

Tally-Ho bought him for €38,000 as a foal and he was the horse everyone wanted at last Tuesday’s sale. Bidding opened at £200,000.

Curragh trainer Michael O’Callaghan had to fend off Amo Racing to secure the colt and the £500,000 surpassed the previous record of £450,000, set in 2019 for the Siyouni filly Al Raya, a subsequent Group 3 winner as a juvenile.

One of the top commercial transporters was entrusted with delivering the top lot to O’Callaghan’s yard and The Irish Field understands the horsebox was on Irish soil but not yet at the yard when the two-year-old became agitated and broke his neck.

The colt’s dam Go Angellica (Kheleyf) won a listed race and is a half-sister to the dam of Twilight Jet, who O’Callaghan bought from Tally-Ho here in 2021 for £210,000. That colt went on to win two Group 3 races and was placed in the Gimcrack Stakes.

The sale average was up 29% to £63,396, while the turnover grew 54% to £10,016,500. The sale achieved a clearance rate of 86%. A total of 33 horses sold for six-figure sums, up on the previous record of 17 last year.

Fillies’ demand produces strong trade at Goffs UK

DEMAND for fillies was strong, with a trio of that sex selling for more than £300,000, all consigned by different Irish vendors. Shane Power’s Tradewinds Stud sold a filly by Twilight Son for £360,000 to Blandford Bloodstock. Power bought the filly, who clocked a very fast breeze, for just £30,000 at the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale last September.

Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown revealed that she was purchased for Sheikh Rashid, and he also races Bright Diamond who was sourced at Goresbridge from Power. Last year she was placed in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile after slamming a field of maidens by nine lengths. The latest purchase is out of a half-sister to eight winners, two of which were stakes-placed at two.

Brendan Holland’s Grove Stud sold a homebred Starspangledbanner filly for £350,000 to the Stroud Coleman agency, Anthony Stroud later saying that she was for a client in Bahrain. The filly is out of a winning New Approach mare whose grandam breed Group 1 winners Summoner and Compton Admiral, was grandam of four-time Group 1 winner The Fugue, and third dam of the champion sprinter Limato.

Longways Stables (Mick Murphy and Sarah O’Connell) sold a daughter of Dark Angel to Jake Warren’s Highclere Agency for £340,000. She was picked up for €52,500 in a private transaction as a yearling at the Arqana August Sale. Warren has had lots of success buying for Bermuda Racing, and this filly will eventually join Simon Scupham’s breeding operation. Her winning siblings include the stakes-placed Power Of Light, already the dam of Group 2 May Hill Stakes winner and Group 1 Fillies’ Mile runner-up Powerful Breeze.

Also sold by Longways was a daughter of Dubawi, the second produce of the winning Frankel mare Ejtyah who was placed in the Group 3 Musidora Stakes. Bred by Rabbah Bloodstock, she sold for £210,000 to Oliver St Lawrence Bloodstock.

Blue Point’s popularity rewards Walsh

THE splendid start made at stud by Blue Point ensured that there would be lots of interest in his stock at the sale. An early beneficiary of the sire’s popularity was Katie Walsh, and her Greenhills Farm sold the best on the day by the Kildangan-based stallion.

This was a half-brother to last year’s juvenile winner Rock Of England, and they are the first two offspring of the Sayif mare Miss Fay. That mare had four winning siblings, the best of which was Queen of The Sand, a Grade 3 winner in the USA who was runner-up in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes. Purchased for 42,000gns as a yearling, the colt’s value soared to £220,000, thanks to plenty of interest from the likes of Jake Warren and Anthony Stroud, but they were outbid in the ring by Roger Varian. The results sheet later listed the purchase in the name of Oliver St Lawrence Bloodstock.

The seventh lot into the ring at Doncaster was another son of Blue Point, Longways Stables’ son of the Group 3-placed juvenile Kodyanna (Kodiac). She is a half-sister to a pair of blacktype winning sprinters, Logo Hunter and Darkanna. Sourced as a yearling at Arqana for €105,000, he sold to Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock for £180,000 this time.

Matching that £220,000 price tag was Tally-Ho Stud’s Oasis Dream colt, named Milanocity. This son of a dual Italian stakes-winning two-year-old sold as a yearling last year at the SGA Yearling Sale in Italy for €75,000. Richard Ryan, representing Teme Valley Racing, signed for the colt who will now be entrusted to Paddy Twomey for his racing career.

Another highlight for the O’Callaghan’s Tally-Ho Stud was their homebred son of Kodiac, a sibling to no less than seven winners, out of a winning half-sister to the dam of Alcohol Free. Federico Barberini and stud manager Choc Thornton spent £200,000 to acquire the colt for Apple Tree Stud’s owner, Paul Dunkley.

Still going head-to-head

SIOUX Nation and Havana Grey raced against each other, vied for most of last year with each other to be the leading first season sire, and both were prominent again in the sales ring at Doncaster.

Sioux Nation short-headed Havana Grey for the best-priced lot by either sire, when his Mocklershill-consigned son of the Intello mare Intelectuelle, one of the last lots in the sale, sold for £210,000 to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock. Unsold at €50,000 last year at Arqana, he is a grandson of the Grade 2-winning Arch mare Sarach.

Unsold for €15,000 last year at the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale, Gary Bloodstock sold a daughter of Sioux Nation, owned by Grace Nagle, for first-time consignor Gary [de Sousa] Bloodstock for £160,000. She is the first foal of the winning Showcasing mare Minnelli and will now join Paddy Twomey’s yard. Mark McStay of Avenue Bloodstock signed the docket.

Best of the Hana Grey juveniles on offer was Knockanglass Stables’ half-brother to four winners, out of a winning daughter of Oratorio. Purchased at the same venue for £27,000 as a yearling, Thomond O’Mara sold him this time for £200,000 to Bahrain’s Sheikh Sultan who races as Al Mohamediya Racing. The Sheikh’s representative Ali Majeed said that the colt will be trained by Alice Haynes, the aim being to run at Royal Ascot. The owner has taster success at that meeting with Golden Horde.

Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown provided Matthew Whyte of Bushypark Stables with a nice windfall, paying £195,000 for his son of Flatter who was picked up for just $25,000 at Keeneland. This half-brother to a juvenile winner last year in the USA is out of a Street Boss full-sister to Grade 1 winner Capo Bastone. The colt will be trained by David Simcock.

Kent’s delight at outcome

BEFORE news of the top lot’s demise became known, Goffs UK managing director Tim Kent said: “When we started to visit vendors, we knew they were planning to target this sale with some of their better horses.

“The fact that there was a healthy increase in their purchase price compared to last year was positive. We then began to hear many positive reports after vendors had started to work these horses and the momentum continued to Town Moor where some sensational breezes led to some breathtaking prices.

“But it’s not just the top end that has been a success. We made a concerted effort to ensure that everyone was encouraged to participate at a sale which has a long history of winners being bought at all levels of the market.

“This meant that we focussed on all domestic buyers, but we also worked closely with GBRI to ensure that we had an increased participation from overseas with many new faces visiting for the first time.”