NEWMARKET, UK—Ted Voute may not have been at Tattersalls but he certainly made his presence felt online when securing the three most expensive horses of the August Sale, and four in total for 650,000gns, on behalf of a new owner in Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh-based Najd Stud will race the quartet of colts and geldings, who have been bought with the primary aim of targeting Saudi’s King’s Cup series.
Leading the way was the 105-rated Walkinthesand (Ire) (lot 699), a 4-year-old son of Footstepsinthesand (Ire), who was bought from Richard Hannon’s stable for 220,000gns.
“We had a group of horses vetted earlier in the week and then I came up [to Newmarket] yesterday to inspect those who had made the short list,” said Voute on the telephone from his home. “The horses are all best over slightly different distances, but mostly we want them to get 10 furlongs on firm ground.”
Commenting on the new sale in the calendar, which is two months in advance of the traditional Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale at Tattersalls, he continued, “The timing of this sale just allows us to steal an extra month or two for the horses to travel to Saudi and get acclimatised before the season.”
Also on the Najd Stud list of purchases was Tell Me All (GB) (lot 711), a Cheveley Park Stud homebred by Lope De Vega (Ire) out of the Thompsons’ Classic winner Confidential Lady (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}), who won two races last season for Sir Mark Prescott and was sold for 180,000gns. The similarly well-bred colt To Nathaniel (GB) (lot 682) also made Voute’s final list. The 3-year-old son of Nathaniel (Ire) out of a daughter of dual Classic winner Finsceal Beo (Ire) (Mr Greeley) was trained for owner-breeder George Stawbridge by John Gosden to win three of his seven starts and was bought by Najd Stud for 185,000gns.
Voute added, “Bidding online was very easy and there was no need for me to be there today, having seen the horses yesterday. We had a vet there today to cover eventualities like a horse taking a lame step before going into the ring.”
To Nathaniel had also raised the interest of underbidders Oliver St Lawrence and Fawzi Nass, who have been active throughout the three days and earlier on Thursday had bought 5-year-old Bated Breath (GB) gelding Buffer Zone (GB) (lot 645) for 125,000gns. The former Ger Lyons trainee is a four-time winner over six furlongs and may also appear at he races in Riyadh.
St Lawrence said, “He looks an ideal type. He’ll be based with Fawzi in Bahrain. He likes firm ground, and there’s a little bit of an eye for us on the Saudi race, which is six and a half furlongs, so hopefully he will get up to that standard. He’s rated 114 by Timeform and 107 by the BHA and I know he’s got a few years on the clock but he seems very sound.”
The agent added, “I think the trade has been very strong—horses are making the same as they did last year, and long may that last.”
Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony agreed with this sentiment in his end-of-sale statement, in which he pointed to the similarly strong clearance rate seen this week and at the July Sale. He said, “Another post-COVID Tattersalls sale with a clearance rate around the 90% mark has to be regarded as a success. We made the observation after the recent Tattersalls July Sale that this sort of clearance rate would be noteworthy under normal circumstances, but in the face of the multiple challenges that everyone currently faces these sort of returns are little short of miraculous.”
The final session of the three-day auction increased in strength again, with an average price of 20,147gns and median of 9,000gns. Wednesday’s turnover of 3,626,400gns came from the sale of 180 horses and, like Tuesday’s session, only nine lots went unsold, leading to a clearance rate of 95%.
The sale’s total aggregate settled at 8,430,400gns with the 510 horses sold through the week returning an overall average of 16,530gns and median of 9,000gns. Clearance across the three days was 91%.
BBA Ireland’s Michael Donohoe was another agent on the hunt for colts to go on to race overseas, and he selected two 3-year-olds from Newmarket’s premier stables of Sir Michael Stoute and John Gosden for the Saudi Arabian-based Mandeel family.
Vindicate (GB) (lot 718), an elegant chestnut son of Lope De Vega (Ire) bred and raced by The Queen from Stoute’s Freemason Lodge, brought the hammer down at 125,000gns following his recent easy win over a mile and a half on the all-weather.
He will be joined on the trip to Saudi by for the former Gosden-trained Celestran (GB) (lot 683), a son of Dansili (GB) and a dual winner for Cheveley Park Stud who was sold for 85,000gns.
Donohoe said of Celestran, “He is for Sultan Al Mandeel of Saudi. Dansili has done well in the region so the pedigree should suit, he gets 1m2f and he has the profile to do well.”
It wasn’t all one-way traffic to the Middle East, however, and a number of National Hunt trainers selected staying prospects from the Flat during the day, including Charlie Mann, who picked up Camouflaged (Ire) (lot 576) for 90,000gns.
The Godolphin-bred was previously trained by Mark Johnston, for whom he won twice in June over a mile and a half. He was most recently placed over two miles at Chester.
Describing the 3-year-old as a stand-out, Mann said of the rare staying son of Dark Angel (Ire), “He is the only one I came for. It was a lot of money for a horse rated 76, but he stays well, and has acted on good to firm and soft. He’ll get two miles and further over hurdles.”
Encouragingly, despite the current complications presented by the pandemic and falling prize-money, a good array of British and Irish trainers were also on the buyers’ sheet this week, including Gordon Elliott, Gary Moore, David O’Meara, Roger Fell, Venetia Williams, and Jedd O’Keeffe. But the top five buyers in action at the sale—Ted Voute, Oliver St Lawrence, Michael Donohoe, Charlie Gordon-Watson and Gassim Mohammed Ghazali—were predominantly purchasing horses to race in the Gulf states.
International participation has also been encouraged by the expansion of the online bidding service, which saw a high level of activity throughout the three sessions.
“In addition to the extraordinary clearance rate, the other notable feature of the August Sale has been the huge impact of our recently introduced live internet bidding facility, which is particularly well-suited to sales of this nature,” said Edmond Mahony.
“From start to finish there has been sustained internet bidding from throughout the world at all levels of the market and it has been fantastic to see this technology being so quickly and widely embraced. It certainly bodes well for the forthcoming sales at Park Paddocks and we will continue to ensure that the platform is as simple and easy to use as possible.”
He continued, “From the Tattersalls perspective we salute all those who have supported this new fixture and made it such a success. Vendors, purchasers, vets, farriers, stable staff, the list is endless and everyone, whatever their role, has worked incredibly hard to ensure the smooth running not only of this week’s August Sale, but of all our recent sales.
“Naturally there has been plenty of discussion about whether this new August Sale will become a more permanent Tattersalls fixture and the success of this week has certainly demonstrated enthusiasm from vendors and purchasers alike. In a normal year there would be a major yearling sale taking place this week, but we will see how the rest of the Tattersalls sales season unfolds, have a look at the calendar and assess how best to proceed once we have a clearer picture.”
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