Goffs February Sale Concludes Online As Lockdown Continues

The delayed Goffs February Sale concluded on Thursday with Part 2, a session of 84 short yearlings. The difficulties presented by offering young stock in an online format were highlighted by a large number of withdrawals from the original catalogue of 228, and a clearance rate of 42%.

The 35 horses to have found a buyer returned an average price of €10,311 and median of €8,000, and they added €360,900 to the overall tally for the sale which had to undergo both date and format changes.

“Selling weanlings in March without proper viewings was never going to be ideal but circumstances dictated that was the only option if we were to hold the sale,” said Goffs group chief executive Henry Beeby.

“When we were forced to further delay it by the latest Level 5 lockdown being extended we considered simply cancelling and directing the entries to the yearling sales in the autumn. However, several vendors made contact to implore us to give them an outlet so we staged today as a service to those who wished to present their weanlings to the market.”

The five bestsellers represented both codes at the opposite end of the distance spectrum. Ballinaroone Stud's colt by popular National Hunt sire Walk In The Park (Ire) (lot 506) led the way at €35,000. The son of the unraced Presenting (GB) mare Charming Present (Ire) is a half-brother to four multiple bumper and hurdle winners and was signed for in the name of Thursday Bloodstock.

Two colts from the first crop of Ascot Gold Cup winner Order Of St George (Ire) were also among the table-toppers, sold for €20,000 apiece to trainer Philip Kirby (lot 367) and to Peter Molony of Rathmore Stud (lot 471).

Among the most in-demand of the Flat-bred stock of the session were fillies by Australian sprinters Exceed And Excel (Aus) and Zoustar (Aus). The former, lot 374, was sold by Mark and Elaine Clarke's Wardstown Stud for €26,000 to BC Bloodstock and is a half-sister to the Chester listed winner Copper Knight (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}).

The filly from the first European crop of Tweenhills stallion Zoustar (lot 453) hails from a family which has been very much in the news in recent seasons. Her winning dam Tschierschen (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) is a half-sister to new Shadwell resident and G1 Sussex S. winner Mohaather (GB) (Showcasing {GB}), whose half-sister Roodle (GB) (Xaar {GB}) produced the G1 Queen Anne S. winner Accidental Agent (GB) (Delegator {GB}) for owner/breeder Gaie Johnson Houghton. She was bought from Baroda Stud for €25,000 by Italian trainer Bruno Grizzetti, who also purchased lot 406, a colt by Cotai Glory (GB).

Beeby concluded, “The results are predictably mixed with a clearance rate that speaks volumes but there was some spirited bidding for those that stood out and we are sure that several will be shown to have been value when they are reoffered in a normal yearling sale later in the year. Once again, Goffs Online proved its worth with bids from around the world.

“We now turn our attention to our Timed Online Sale on March 24, after which our fervent hope is that the vaccination programmes in Ireland and the UK will allow a return to some normality as the year progresses and we look forward to welcoming horses and people back to Kildare Paddocks for the Land Rover Sale in June. Following that we are working towards a full programme of Goffs sales throughout the rest of the year on their scheduled dates and in their usual location, here in Kildare.”

 

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A Legacy Of Excellence, And Still In The Making

There are few horses-or humans, for that matter-that have logged as many air miles as Exceed and Excel (Aus). The 21-year-old stallion can claim some 338,000, having shuttled for 16 consecutive seasons from his base at Darley Australia's Kelvinside Stud to Sheikh Mohammed's Dalham Hall or Kildangan Studs in Europe. Continued good results as both a sire and broodmare sire in both hemispheres mean that Exceed and Excel is a very notable absentee from the European stallion ranks in 2021, with Darley having called time on the bay's Northern Hemisphere stud career late last year, citing simply the desire to reward him for a career done well.

Exceed and Excel is not the most traveled horse of the modern shuttle era-that honour belongs to WinStar Farm/Vinery Stud's More Than Ready, who in 2019 completed his 18th consecutive year shuttling between Australia and the U.S. But it seems fair to bestow upon Exceed and Excel the honour of being the sire that revolutionized the shuttle route from Australia to Europe.

Exceed and Excel's sire Danehill (who shuttled for 14 consecutive seasons) died at the tail end of the 2003 breeding season in Ireland, and it didn't take long for an heir apparent to emerge, a horse that, like his sire, had near-equal effect on both sides of the globe-an incredibly rare feat indeed, something that even the great Galileo or Dubawi couldn't quite pull off.

Raced initially by Alan Osburg and Nick Moraitis, Exceed and Excel won the G2 Todman S. at two for trainer Tim Martin before blossoming into a Group 1-winning 3-year-old when taking the G1 Dubai Racing Club Cup over seven furlongs and the G1 Newmarket H. over six. Sheikh Mohammed purchased Exceed and Excel thereafter for a reported A$22-million-a record for an Australian homebred at the time–and shipped him to Newmarket with the intention of running in the Golden Jubilee at Royal Ascot, but plans went awry when the colt was forced to sit out the Royal meeting with unsatisfactory bloodwork. A reroute to the G1 July Cup provided a disappointing result, with Exceed and Excel beating just one horse home in the field of 20.

While Sheikh Mohammed's big buy may have yielded underwhelming results in the short term, a glimpse back over a near 20-year stud career reveals him to be an inspired purchase indeed. He was fast from the gates with his first crops Down Under after starting out at A$55,000, with 17 stakes winners across his first two headed by the G1 Blue Diamond S. scorer Reward For Effort (Aus). Exceed and Excel stood at Kildangan Stud in 2005 and 2007 for €10,000, bookending a season at Dalham Stud in 2006 where he stood for £7,500. He covered 300 mares cumulatively his first three seasons in Europe.

Exceed and Excel marked himself as a youngster to watch in 2008 with four stakes winners in his first season with runners in Europe, headed by the G2 Lowther S. scorer Infamous Angel (Ire) and the Listed Windsor Castle S. victor Flashman's Papers (Ire). The bay's first two crops would additionally go on to yield the G2 King George S. winner Masamah (Ire), the G3 Winter Derby scorer Nideeb (Ire) and the GIII Senorita S. victress Mrs Kipling (Ire), but Exceed and Excel's true breakout came with his 2018 crop, which produced the 2011 G1 Nunthorpe S. winner Margot Did (Ire) and the 2012 G1 Prix Jacques le Marois and G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. victor Excelebration (Ire), who suffered the misfortune of being a standout miler in the same era as Frankel (GB). By the time Exceed and Excel notched his first North American Grade I winner, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf victor Outstrip (GB) in 2013, his credibility had soared too Down Under, with standout juveniles Guelph (Aus), Helmet (Aus) and Overreach joining his honour roll. Earthquake (Aus) became his second Blue Diamond winner in 2014, and in 2019 Microphone (Aus) gave his sire a first winner of the G1 Sires' Produce S. and a clean sweep of the country's elite 2-year-old races.

If there is a trend of sires becoming less prolific with age, Exceed and Excel has well and truly bucked it. In Australia alone he provided 14 individual stakes winners during the 2019/20 season, his second-highest number ever in a year. He has provided back-to-back winners of the G1 Coolmore Stud S. in Exceedance (Aus) and September Run (Aus), and Godolphin homebred Bivouac (Aus) has marked himself out as an heir apparent with wins in the G1 Golden Rose S., G1 Newmarket H. and G1 Sprint Classic-excellent credentials with which to go to stud, perhaps in a dual hemisphere capacity? While Exceed and Excel's shuttle days are over, his career as a sire seems to keep finding another gear. He stood for a career-high A$132,000 during the recently completed Australian season-a remarkable accomplishment at age 20 when even the top-tier sires are often seeing their popularity dwindle in favour of the flashy youngsters.

Exceed and Excel's Northern career followed a similar trajectory. After starting out at €10,000 and £7,500 his first three seasons, Exceed and Excel's fee didn't dip for 13 years, rising to €50,000 in 2019, 2018 and 2019 before being trimmed to €40,000 in 2020.

While Exceed and Excel has carved out a reputation as a source of top-class 2-year-olds-he was the first stallion in the world to reach 500 juvenile winners-he has also had a knack for siring tough-as-teak horses that train on, like the dual G1 Hong Kong Sprint winner and G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize victor Mr. Stunning (Aus), who ran up until the age of seven last year; G1 Al Quoz Sprint winner Amber Sky (Aus), who ran until the age of eight; Heavy Metal (GB), who won the G2 Coventry S. and G2 Richmond S. at two, won three group races at the Dubai carnival at eight and was still running up to last year at age 10; Championship (Ire), who won a pair of Group 2s at the Dubai carnival in 2017 aged six; and Secret Ambition (GB), who won last week's G3 Firebreak S. at age eight.

With two crops still to hit the racetracks in the North, Exceed and Excel has left behind 144 stakes winners, 64 of which are group winners, and 815 overall winners-and he has a few sire sons coming up through the ranks that could yet build on his legacy. While Excelebration has since moved on from Coolmore his stud career has not been without merit, he having thrown the classy Group 1 winner Barney Roy (GB) and the evergreen group-winning sprinter Speak In Colours (GB). Helmet provided the first-ever dual winner of the G1 Dubai World Cup, Thunder Snow (Ire). Buratino (Ire) showed some promise with his first 2-year-olds last year, while among those yet to have runners are Cotai Glory (GB) and James Garfield (Ire). Or perhaps it will be the aforementioned Bivouac or Microphone who eventually follow their sire's well-trodden path down to Europe.

If there is any need to put further proof to the abundance of class that Exceed and Excel has spread, it is there for all to see in his broodmare daughters. During a golden summer in 2019, Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) won the G1 Epsom Derby just weeks before Ten Sovereigns (Ire) (No Nay Never) added a win in the G1 July Cup to a victory at two in the G1 Middle Park S. Margot Did has made a flying start at stud, with G2 Prix de Sandringham winner Mission Impassible (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and G3 Prix Vanteaux and GI Belmont Oaks Invitational scorer Magic Attitude (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) her first two foals. Interestingly, a handful of Exceed and Excel's daughters have already thrown multiple big-race winners: Anthony Van Dyck's dam Believe'N'Succeed (Aus) is also responsible for the G1 Railway S. winner Bounding (Aus), while Darley's excellent mare Essaouira (Aus) has provided Group 1 winners Alizee (Aus) and Astern (Aus). Exceed and Excel's daughters have thus far been responsible for 49 stakes winners, 29 of those group winners and nine Group 1 winners.

It cannot be overlooked, either, the doors that Exceed and Excel opened for Australian shuttlers in the Northern Hemisphere. His success could only have been encouragement for breeders to back another Group 1-winning son of Danehill, Fastnet Rock (Aus), when he shuttled for the first time as a proven sire in 2011, and he has been a rousing success in Europe with the likes of One Master (GB), Fascinating Rock (Ire), Qualify (Ire), Zhukova (Ire) and Diamondsandrubies (Ire) to his credit. Though no longer shuttling, Pride Of Dubai (Aus) caught the eye with five stakes winners from his first European crop last year, and yearling buyers will this year have the chance to get their hands on members of the first European-breds by G1 Coolmore Stud S. winner Zoustar (Aus), who has made such an exciting start Down Under.

Exceed and Excel's legacy will continue for generations to come through a multitude of channels, and it is very plausible that the best could be yet to come.

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Quality Across Tinnakill Draft

In an industry that involves cycles of frequent change, one thing that can be relied upon as a constant is the presence of Tinnakill House Stud at Goffs’s major sales, and Dermot Cantillon and Meta Osborne’s Co Laois nursery reliably returns this weekend with a select draft of mares and foals for the Goffs November Foal and Breeding Stock Sales.

Tinnakill’s 17 foals slated for the first three days of the sale include eight during Sunday’s premier session. Lot 600 is one of 13 foals by Invincible Spirit (Ire) set to go under the hammer and his dam, Chicago Dancer (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}), is quickly accruing an enviable record at this sale. Her first foal, a colt by Sea The Stars (Ire), was bought by the late Gerry Dilger of Dromoland Farm for €330,000 at Goffs November in 2017 and pinhooked for 1-million gns at Tattersalls October Book 1 the following autumn when bought by Godolphin. Named Volkan Star (Ire), he was a winner last year at two for Charlie Appleby and trained on in 2020 to win the Listed Fairway S. and the G3 Prix du Lys over a mile and a half at ParisLongchamp.

Chicago Dancer’s second foal, a filly by Sea The Stars, made €200,000 at Goffs November last year and will carry the green silks of Peter Brant, having been bought by his White Birch Farm for 350,000gns at this year’s renewal of Book 1.

Cantillon expressed confidence that Chicago Dancer’s third foal will catch the eye at Kildare Paddocks. As well as critically having produced a stakes winner with her first foal, Chicago Dancer is a half-sister to two stakes winners herself, and appearing under the third dam are the likes of the G1 Sydney Cup scorer Mourayan (Ire) and the G2 Lancashire Oaks and G3 Lillie Langtry S. winner Endless Time (Ire).

“The pinhookers have done really well out of this family,” Cantillon said. “This colt is by Invincible Spirit and it looks like the mare throws to the stallion. Both of the Sea The Stars’ were very much like him and reminded me very much of their sire, and this one reminds me of Invincible Spirit. He’s a good-walking colt with a good attitude. We expect he’ll do well for us and I’m fairly confident that whoever buys him, he’ll do well for them as well.”

Tinnakill offers a Camelot (GB) colt (lot 582) who is the second foal out of Benefaction (Ire), a 6-year-old daughter of Nathaniel (Ire) who was a winner at three in France. Benefaction is a half-sister to the Aga Khan-bred GI Secretariat S. winner Shamdinan (Fr) (Dr Fong) and the G2 Herbert Power S. scorer Shahwardi (Fr) (Lando {Ger}), and a granddaughter of the G2 Prix de Malleret winner and G1 Irish Oaks second Shamadara (Ire), who produced the G1 Gran Premio di Milano winner Shamdala (Ire). Benefaction has a yearling colt by Siyouni (Fr). The Camelot colt is one of six by his sire in the sale, and Cantillon noted they have been scarce in the marketplace.

“I’ve been surprised but how few Camelots have come up for public auction; I think there were only two or three in Newmarket and again at Goffs there are very few,” he said. “This is an outstanding foal. He comes from a really good Aga Khan Group 1 family and Camelot crossed with that type of mare will get you potentially a top-class middle-distance horse. Physically he’s a good horse, he’s a good walker. I’d be very optimistic he’d sell well and I think he’ll be a very good start for the mare. This would be one of our very best foals.”

Tinnakill’s lot 719 is an Exceed and Excel (Aus) colt out of the Listed John Musker S. third Silver Grey (Ire) (Chineur {Fr}). Cantillon signed for the then 9-year-old Silver Grey for 26,000gns in foal to Brazen Beau (Aus) at Tattersalls December in 2016, just weeks after her listed-placed 4-year-old half-sister Kodiva (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) sold for $425,000 in foal to Speightstown at Keeneland November. Kodiac, to be fair, looks much catchier on a catalogue page than Chineur, but Silver Grey has nonetheless proven a shrewd purchase for Tinnakill. The Brazen Beau colt she was carrying at the time made 65,000gns as a foal at Tattersalls for Tinnakill, while her next foal, a Fast Company (Ire) filly named Graceful Moment (Ire), made £35,000 as a Doncaster yearling. Tinnakill sold Silver Grey’s Kodiac (GB) yearling colt for 50,000gns at Tattersalls December last year.

“Maybe people were put off by Chineur, but she’s a grey mare and if you look down that family, there have been some very good horses of that colour so I suppose that appealed to me,” Cantillon said.

Those greys on the page include third dam Negligent (Ire) (Ahonoora), England’s champion 2-year-old filly of 1989, and four-time Group 1 and Classic winner Sky Lantern (Ire) (Red Clubs {Ire}). Cantillon explained, however, that the real credit for Silver Grey winding up in the Tinnakill broodmare band is due to showperson Alan Hannigan.

“I was standing on the rail at the back walking ring at Tattersalls and Alan Hannigan, who works for me at the sales, he was leading the horse up and he said to me, ‘Dermot, you should buy this horse,'” Cantillon said. “So that was the extent of the research. On the basis of that I went in and I bought the mare, and she’s been very, very successful for us.”

“Silver Grey was a very good sprinter in her own right,” Cantilled continued. “She was rated 108 and she’s the best sprinter and the highest-rated horse by her sire. Her first foal showed promise at two and has continued; he’s now won three races. This is a typical Exceed and Excel foal; he’s strong, he looks a 2-year-old sprinting type and he’s got a good walk. He’s what you’d hope for, and I always like to see in a foal that when it comes out of the box, it’s what you’d expect to see. He looks like an Exceed and Excel and I think that’s always a big plus.”

Tinnakill offers a filly from the first crop of champion sprinter Harry Angel (Ire) in lot 677. Cantillon purchased the filly’s dam, the winning Mokaraba (GB) (Unfuwain) for €30,000 at Goffs November four years ago from the Derrinstown Stud draft, and in the interim Mokaraba’s first foal, the GIII Robert J Frankel S. winner Qaraaba (GB) (Shamardal), has provided the family a significant boost. Her current 3-year-old is Harvest Moon (Uncle Mo), who won four straight races this summer including the G3 Torrey Pines S. and the GII Zenyatta S. before finishing fourth in the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland last month. Qaraaba’s Californiagoldrush (Cape Blanco {Ire}), now five, won the GII Sands Point S. and was third in the GI Del Mar Oaks in 2018. The third dam is the five-time Group 1 winner and triple Classic scorer Salsabil (Sadler’s Wells), herself a daughter of champion Flame Of Tara (GB) and a half-sister to Group 1 winner and sire Marju (Ire).

“I bought that mare from Derrinstown and I’ve been lucky that a number of good black-type horses have come up particularly under her first daughter, who was a stakes winner,” Cantillon said. “Qaraaba is producing fillies that are Group 1 fillies, really, and I’m excited about what’s going to happen as the pedigree matures.”

“I think the Harry Angel filly looks a real sprinting type,” he added. “What I liked about Harry Angel is that he had brilliance. On the racecourse he showed on a number of occasions that he was brilliant. I always think that if you’re going to invest in a stallion, if the stallion has shown that I think it sets them out from the crowd. I have a breeding right in the horse and that’s why I bought it, because I was attracted to the fact that he was such a great racehorse.”

Tinnakill offers just two mares during the breeding stock session of the Goffs November Sale on Monday, and each is a young stakes winner or producer. First into the ring as lot 898 is the 9-year-old Hala Hala (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). Cantillon bought her for 68,000gns at the same Tattersalls December sale he plucked Silver Grey from in 2016, and the two-time winner out of the Galileo (Ire) mare Galistic (Ire) cost 68,000gns on that occasion while barren. The three foals she has produced for Tinnakill have all done well in the ring-a €55,000 yearling, a 50,000gns foal and a 58,000gns foal-and the middle of those, an Exceed and Excel filly named Hala Hala Hala (Ire), was a winner this year at two and second in the G3 Princess Margaret S. Hala Hala is offered in foal to Bated Breath (GB).

Following Hala Hala into the ring will be Crisaff’s Queen (GB) (Zoffany {Ire}) (lot 899), who broke her maiden in listed company in Italy at second asking and is offered carrying her first foal, by Ten Sovereigns (Ire). Tinnakill purchased her for €30,000 at Goffs February this year.

“They’re two really nice mares,” Cantillon said. “Hala Hala, her second foal was second in a Group 3 as a 2-year-old and looks like she could win a stake next year. Crisaff’s Queen is what a lot of people really look for, and that’s a stakes-winning 2-year-old. They’re two good mares and I think they’d be two good additions to any broodmare band.”

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