Yeomanstown Team Hope Shaman Can Lay Down Marker At Goffs

Dark Angel (Ire) and Invincible Army (Ire) may not be the only exciting stallions at Yeomanstown Stud with David O'Callaghan outlining his hopes that Shaman (Ire) can lay down a marker at Goffs this week when some of the Group 2-winning son of Shamardal's first foals go through the ring.

A colt foal by Shaman fetched €22,000 at the inaugural Tattersalls Ireland Sapphire Sale on Saturday and O'Callaghan thinks the best is yet to come from a sire who is due to have 22 foals go through the ring over the next four days at Goffs. 

It was at this sale last year where Yeomanstown enjoyed a fruitful start with Invincible Army. The Group 3-winning juvenile, whose first runners will hit the track next year, averaged a respectable €34,350 for 20 foals sold. 

Top of that list was Ballyduane Stud's colt by the sire who was knocked down to top judges Peter and Ross Doyle for €85,000. That same colt was then re-sold at Book 1 at Tattersalls last month for 100,000gns to leading breeze-up handler Robson Aguiar. 

O'Callaghan is hoping for a similarly fast start with Shaman, and said, “Goffs is always an interesting sale for the first-season sires-it's where they get to lay down a marker. We'll get an idea into how the progeny of the first-season sires will be received for the rest of the year this week. We have some very good Shaman foals at home and I hope that the ones at Goffs are similar. If they are, it will set a good benchmark. I think people will like them.”

He added, “Last year, Invincible Army had a good sale at Goffs. One after the other, they were like peas in a pod. People seemed to fall in love with the idea of using Invincible Army and followed them the whole way through to the yearling sales this year. We'd be hoping that something similar can happen with Shaman. He breeds nice horses so hopefully he can get the ball rolling.”

Shaman was bred and raced by the Wertheimer family. He won five times in France for Carlos Laffon-Parias, the highlight coming in the Group 2 Prix d'Harcourt at ParisLongchamp where he had Way To Paris (GB) and subsequent Arc winner Sottsass (Fr) behind him. 

He also showed enough precocity to win his maiden over seven furlongs on debut as a juvenile and won a Group 3 and was twice a runner-up at the highest level as a three-year-old. 

For those reasons, O'Callaghan says that he thinks Shaman, who will stand for €5,000 next season, has been priced fairly and is backing him to be a success. 

“He covered over 100 mares in his first crop. People bought into the idea of him. He went in at small money, standing at just €6,000, but he is a very good-looking horse by Shamardal and won a Group 2 over a mile-and-a-quarter and is multiple Group 1-placed.” 

O'Callaghan added, “He has an excellent pedigree. He was just shy of being a top-class racehorse and was priced appropriately. Between his physical, his sire and his damsire, and his race record, there's no reason why he won't make it. He ticked an awful lot of boxes without winning a Group 1. He has a lot going for him so fingers crossed.”

With El Kabeir sold to join the stallion ranks in Italy, Yeomanstown's four-strong roster for 2023 is completed by G1 Middle Park S. winner Supremacy (Ire), whose first foals will arrive next year. That's not to say that the O'Callaghans have not been trying to add to that roster.

O'Callaghan explained, “El Kabeir was literally just sold last week. It's very hard to buy stallions. The reason is not just got to do with the marketplace but also it comes down to who owns these top-class horses. The way it worked out this year, Shadwell and Godolphin had control of pretty much all of the stallion prospects. On top of that, the Aga Khan had Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}) and it was a rare year where Coolmore did not have any top three-year-olds to retire. They had Luxembourg (Ire) but he is staying in training. It was a rare year with nothing in independent hands.”

He added, “You could say that we are somewhat victims of our own success at times. It's important for us that there is a strong market when it comes to selling yearlings but, when the big boys buy these horses, like Shadwell and Godolphin have been doing for years, then they are the ones who get to reap the rewards with the stallion prospects. They breed a lot and they buy a lot. The big outfits have control of all the top horses and they deserve to because of all the investment that they put into the game. It just means that there are less and less of these potential stallion prospects to go around for independent stallion farms like ourselves. We are always looking but there was nothing on our radar this year.”

One stallion the O'Callaghans will be hoping can continue for many more years to come is Dark Angel (Ire), who at the age of 17, sired his first Classic winner this season courtesy of French 1,000 Guineas winner Mangoustine (Fr). 

“God bless him. He has quite a lot of foals in the next couple of weeks and we'll buy a few of them ourselves. Hopefully they sell well for their breeders. He's had another great year with a top five finish in Europe and he's just uber-consistent. He's been in the top five sires list in Europe for the past eight years and hopefully he will keep going that way. 

“He's rock solid and gets good two, three and four-year-olds, sprinters, milers, colts and fillies, it doesn't really matter. He's just a great sire. He is 17 years of age but looks better than ever. He doesn't shuttle and he's very fertile so he has an easy life. He spends his summer out in the field with the cattle and comes in at the end of October to get ready for the season.”

Dark Angel will be represented by 21 foals at Goffs this week while fellow Yeomanstown Stud-based sire Invincible Army has a massive representation of 30. The sale kicks off at 10am on Monday. 

 

The post Yeomanstown Team Hope Shaman Can Lay Down Marker At Goffs appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Caravaggio Colt Tops Second Day Of Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale

The Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale continued in robust fashion during the second and final session with a son of Caravaggio lighting up the sale ring when selling for 240,000 guineas. The clearance rate remained a feature of the sale, finishing on 88 percent, whilst the turnover of 10,408,500 guineas was the fourth highest for the sale since 2008.

SackvilleDonald's Alastair Donald secured the attractive colt by first-season sire Caravaggio for 240,000 guineas after seeing off the efforts of Irish trainer Michael O'Callaghan. The son of the Galileo mare Bright Sapphire is a half-brother to the group-placed colt Wall of Fire.

“He is for a new Hong Kong client, he will go out to Hong Kong at the end of the season,” revealed Donald. “He will be pre-trained in England, he is a lovely big horse and he has a nice pedigree. He breezed well for a big horse and looks the type to do well in Hong Kong.”

Donald added: “They don't race until they are 3-year-olds, so don't want a 'here and now' horse. The sire looks like he has got a very nice 2-year-old already and this is the first I have bought by the sire. I did like the yearlings – they are particularly good walkers, and this horse's movement is very good.”

The colt was sold by Yeomanstown Stud, who bought the colt at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale for 155,000 guineas. Yeomanstown Stud's David O'Callaghan commented;

“He is a beautiful colt, he breezed really well and has a great attitude. We're very pleased, he was always a lovely horse and he hasn't missed a day.”

Kuwaiti buyer Sheikh Abdullah Almalek Alsabah bought the second highest priced lot for the day when going to 185,000 guineas to secure the Union Rags colt out of Careless Jewel. Named Tattered Flag, the February born colt was bought last September by Tom Whitehead of Powerstown Stud for $115,000 and was part of a three-horse draft that included lot 90, a colt by the fellow U.S.-based sire Practical Joke. He made 140,000 guineas and was bought by trainer Michael O'Callaghan.

“I am very pleased,” said Whitehead. “They are two nice horses, and the Union Rags will be a lovely horse later in the year.”

Whitehead's 2020 buying mission took place during the real depths of the COVID pandemic with travel restrictions and problems, but he is now obviously delighted that he managed to make the journey stateside;

“It was touch and go whether we'd get to the U.S. last year. That has been a great start, but we are only halfway there – we've another seven or eight to sell”

At the conclusion of the 2021 Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale, Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony commented;

“We introduced the £250,000 Craven Royal Ascot/Group 1 Bonus this year, in addition to the lucrative £15,000 Craven Breeze Up Bonus and it is clear that owners have embraced these unprecedented bonuses. We have seen solid and diverse demand at all levels of the market from start to finish which has produced the best Craven Breeze Up clearance rate since 2000 and key indicators which have held up well, especially when taken in the context of the COVID – related challenges and restrictions which we are all still grappling with and which continue to hinder international travel.

“Nevertheless, to hear consistently positive feedback from owners, trainers, agents and consignors about the bonuses has been gratifying, and reinforces our commitment to exploring as many innovative ways as possible to reward owners who buy at Tattersalls with extra prize money. There is no doubt that we will see plenty of this crop of Craven Breeze Up graduates performing at a high level and it would be even more pleasing than usual if the Royal Ascot and Group 1 bonuses were won in the coming months.

“Despite the prolonged difficulties with international travel, overseas buyers have again demonstrated their appetite for high class Tattersalls breeze up 2-year-olds. Buyers from America, Bahrain, Dubai, France, Italy, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Singapore have all been active, many of them using the live internet bidding platform, and as well as paying tribute to the consignors who have as ever presented an outstanding collection of two year olds, we must again commend everyone for their patience with the regulations and determination to overcome the obstacles we continue to face. We are still having to conduct sales under strict guidelines, but as well as looking forward to the forthcoming Guineas Breeze Up and Horses in Training Sale, we are also looking forward to returning to more normality in the not too distant future.”

The next chance to buy a 'breezer' at Tattersalls is at the Guineas Breeze Up and Horses in Training Sale which takes place from April 28-30, with all lots breezing on the Rowley Mile at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 28 before the sale on Friday, April 30.

The post Caravaggio Colt Tops Second Day Of Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights