WHEN the two-week Tattersalls October Yearling Sale came to a close last Saturday morning just shy of 200 million guineas had been spent on 1,582 horses.

Not only was this a record aggregate – and up 31% on last year – the average price was up an astonishing 54% to a record 127,000gns and the median price of 58,000gns was also a record, some 12% higher than last year.

Book 3 concluded after we went we press last Friday and there were some notable transactions in those closing minutes.

Dwayne Woods paid 90,000gns for an Aclaim half-sister to Washington Heights (Washington DC), who has finished third in the Listed Two Year Old Trophy at Redcar since the catalogue was published. She will be trained by Sean Woods.

Bloodstock agent Alex Elliott instructed his assistant Lucy Ryan to buy a colt by Due Diligence for 70,000gns. Ryan said: “He has been bought for Atlantic Equine and is going to trainer Clive Cox. The mare has done it already – she has produced a horse rated 104, and her two-year-old Destined finished second the other week first time out.”

Roger O’Callaghan of Tally-Ho Stud will breeze the Zoustar filly bought by Tom Biggs of Blandford Bloodstock for 77,000gns. She is out of the Cockney Rebel mare Cockney Dancer, dam of the stakes performer Lambeth Walk.

Biggs added: “We are hoping to repeat the trick of Lezoo,” referencing to the stallion’s leading European first-crop filly, Group 1 winner of the Cheveley Park Stakes. She was bred and sold as a yearling by Chasemore Farm, was bought here at Book 3 in 2021, and subsequently breezed and sold by Tally-Ho Stud. Biggs laughed: “I told Roger that they paid exactly the same amount to buy for Lezoo as a yearling!”

Pinhooking siblings Chris and Tara Armstrong of Beechvale Stud in Antrim sold a colt by Study Of Man to trainer Paddy Twomey for 62,000gns, exactly double the amount paid by the Armstrongs for the foal a year ago.

“We buy a handful of foals each year, at the time Study Of Man was not on our list,” reported Chris Armstrong. “We were down with the Barton consignment and he stood out as a physical. He has done well at home and he has come along through the year lovely, has physically done well. He has a great attitude, a good walk and today he stood out a little bit. It is good to see he is going to be very good hotel.”

Of the week’s transactions, Armstrong reported: “We had an Australia colt we sold yesterday – we had spent 31,000gns on him and got 65,000gns, and earlier in the week we sold a Saxon Warrior colt for 90,000gns to Jean Claude Rouget, we had paid 52,000gns for him. We have one to take back home, but overall, we have done okay and will be back in November to reinvest.”

Chairman comment

After Saturday’s Book 4 session ended, Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony said: “This has been the most extraordinary Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. Book 1 set the ball rolling and it has rolled all the way through to the very end with more yearlings sold than ever before for the astounding sum of 199 million guineas.

“It has been a phenomenal show of strength from start to finish with buyers from throughout the world drawn to Tattersalls and the unique environment of Newmarket by the promise of outstanding yearlings presented by so many of the top breeders and consignors, not only from Britain and Ireland, but from throughout Europe.

“The demand we have witnessed throughout the past two weeks has been truly global and above all it reflects the enduring appeal of the sport of horseracing which captivates so many people throughout the world and brings so many buyers to Newmarket and the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, year after year.”