Over 5.5million Spent On Mares To Visit Lucky Vega At Goffs

The mammoth support of Lucky Vega (Ire) continued at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale when connections of the young stallion snapped up 19 mares to the tune of €5,625,000, headed by €790,000 purchase Aspiring, with the majority set to visit the Group 1-winning juvenile next year. 

Led by BBA Ireland's Mick Donohoe, who did most of his bidding online, the Lucky Vega Syndicate were continuing their recruitment drive for mares to visit the Irish National Stud-based sire after similarly strong sales this year and last. 

Aspiring (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), an unraced half-sister to Danedream (Ger) (Lomitas {GB}), was sold in foal to Wootton Bassett (GB). She is also a full-sister to Venice Beach (Ire) and Broadway (Ire).

He said, “I thought she was a lovely physical, she has a great cover and she's from a fantastic family. She's going to go to Lucky Vega. Mr Zhang is doubling down on his support this year by buying some select mares. He sent 30 mares to him last season and he'll probably send the same number next year but is going to up the quality on the strength of what he's seen from his foals on the ground in Australia.”

Lucky Vega stands the Northern Hemisphere season at The Irish National Stud for €15,000, and the Southern Hemisphere season at Yulong's farm in Victoria for AU$19,250 inc. GST. On the track he carried the green and white colours of Zhang Yuesheng, who has been a familiar face on the sale circuit this year, and was in attendance at Goffs again on Friday. The Chinese businessman's horses in Ireland are concentrated in the Jessica Harrington yard, which is where Bocca Baciata (Ire) (Big Bad Bob {Ire}) was based when she recorded Group 2 success. 

The Kiltinan Castle Stud-consigned mare, who is foal to Mehmas (Ire), was another to join the Lucky Vega Syndicate for €530,000.

Donohoe said, “Obviously Mr Zhang has horses in training with Jessie [Harrington] and she trained her so she recommended the mare to him. Jessie is high on the two-year-old sister [Foniska (Ire) (Galileo {Ire})] that she trains, too. He actually bought Lucky Vega's sister as well. It's undecided where she'll go next year but she'll go to stud in Ireland.” 

 

Donohoe went on to underbid the top lot Ladies Church, who sold to Dermot Farrington for an undisclosed client for €970,000, where he did most of his bidding online through his iPad on the balcony directly opposite the rostrum. That was until he appeared to lose signal and, alongside Mr Zhang, was forced to bid the old-fashioned way. 

Alas, it wasn't to be on Ladies Church but, on bidding online, he said, “Obviously Mr Zhang is quite familiar with the online bidding in Australia, the online bidding format there has a couple of years head start on Europe, so he feels comfortable bidding that way. That's the way they do it in Australia and that's the way it's going here because you can bid in a nice relaxed atmosphere.”

Donohoe added, “We can nip down and look at the horses in the parade ring and do our final checks, then go up and have lunch and bid in comfort. We value the horses and we bid to what we think their value is, so it doesn't really matter who's bidding against us. Sometimes when you're bidding in the ring you can maybe go one or two bids that you might regret afterwards when you've been wrapped up in the theatre of it. It's all a bit more composed doing it this way.”

The Lucky Vega Syndicate remained strong deep into the evening, spending €1.23 million on back-to-back lots [1314 and 1315] Pleasant Dreams (Ire) and Eaves (Ire), both of whom are by Galileo. 

Pleasant Dreams, who made €630,000, was consigned by Grenane House Stud and was sold in foal to Starspangledbanner (Aus) while Eaves made €600,000 in foal to Wootton Bassett (GB). All told, BBA Ireland signed for six Galileo mares to visit Lucky Vega for €3,195,000. 

The aggregate was up 19% to €16,525,500 while the average was ahead 17.6% to €82,328. The median of €42,000 represented a 35.5% rise while the clearance rate was 83%.

Ladies Church To Stay In Training 

Billed as one of the star attractions of the sale, Group 2-winning sprinter Ladies Church (GB) (Churchill {Ire}) was knocked down for €970,000 to Dermot Farrington who could not reveal the new connections. 

However, Farrington did confirm that Ladies Church, trained by Johnny Murtagh to win three times, including that career highlight in the G2 Sapphire S. at the Curragh in July, would race on as a four-year-old. 

Farrington said, “I can't say who she was bought for but she will definitely stay in training next year.”

Ladies Church was consigned by Murtagh's Fox Covert Stables and, as well as being a high-class racemare with a rating of 110, she boasts a strong page being a daughter of the French listed winner Rioticism (Fr) (Rio De La Plata).

Having been bought as a foal at Tattersalls in November 2019, she was then sold to Murtagh and agent Peter Nolan the following year for 160,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale in 2020. 

She was one of seven horses owner Mark Dobin, who spreads his small but select string between Murtagh, Gavin Cromwell, Joseph O'Brien and Ger Lyons, ran in Ireland this season.

Maljoom's Dam Makes €450,000

BBA Ireland's Adrian Nicoll was also busy, signing for Nictate (Teofilo {Ire}), the dam of Maljoom (Ire) (Caravaggio), from Limekiln Stud for €450,000. 

Maljoom has not run since going down by less than a length in fourth in the St James's Palace S. at Royal Ascot back in June. Nictate was sold in foal to Tally-Ho's Starman (GB) and Nicoll was flanked by Paul Shanahan's son Charles when the gavel fell. 

Nicoll said, “She's for an Irish partnership so she'll stay here. She's bred a good horse, she's a nice mare but I don't know which stallion she'll go to next. She's top of the range and when you're buying the dam of a black-type winner you've got to expect to pay that sort of figure.” 

Nagle Pays €520,000 For Smart Shadwell Mare

David and Diane Nagle of Barronstown Stud went to €520,000 to secure Shadwell's listed-placed Yasmeen (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), already the dam of listed winner Shaara (GB) (Shamardal) and in foal to Night Of Thunder (Ire)

Yasmeen is from a deep Shadwell family, with her dam Wissal a sister to Bahhare, and Nagle revealed that he planned on injecting some speed into the pedigree next year.

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‘I Was Dreading Doing That Interview All Week’ – Big Day for Small Owner

When you have a limited number of bullets to fire, you can't expect to hit the target too often, let alone on Irish Oaks day at the Curragh, but Ronan Fitzpatrick, racing manager to Mark Dobbin, sensed something special was in the offing on Saturday.

So much so, Fitzpatrick, full sure that either Cairde Go Deo (Fr) (Camelot {GB}) or Ladies Church (GB) (Churchill {Ire}) were going to do something special this weekend, had worked himself into a tizzy about doing a post-race interview with RTE's Brian Gleeson.

He needn't have fretted so much. Shortly after Ladies Church carried Dobbin's increasingly recognisable green silks to victory in the G2 Sapphire S. for Johnny Murtagh and Ben Coen, Fitzpatrick took to his media duties like a seasoned pro.

It was only after Cairde Go Deo earned Classic and Group 1 black type by rattling home for third in the Juddmonte Irish Oaks that Fitzpatrick could pause for breath but, even then, the achievements of his small but select owner had barely sunk in.

Fitzpatrick said, “I was dreading doing that interview with RTE all week. I said to my wife that, if they ask me, I am saying no. Brian Gleeson insisted so I'd no choice.

“I was expecting a big run from the fillies, more so from Cairde to be honest. Ladies Church was beaten in a handicap at Royal Ascot but Johnny said straight away afterwards that he'd aim her at the Sapphire and that she'd be better suited to a Group 2 than a handicap. I was thinking, 'how does that add up,' but he was right and I was wrong.”

An elated Fitzpatrick added, “I wasn't really expecting much from Ladies Church but Ger was really sweet on Cairde Go Deo. I was hoping that we'd be in the first three but then when Emily Upjohn (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) came out of the race yesterday I started to think it could happen for us.”

Dobbin, a native of County Down, who runs the Highline Construction company in New York, couldn't make it to the Curragh on Saturday. That's not to say he's not making his presence felt in Irish racing.

With a small but select approach to owning racehorses, he has quickly built up a talented team to go to war with, and the long-term dream of making the breakthrough at the highest level is fast becoming a reality.

Fitzpatrick explained, “I spoke to Mark and he's over the moon, he's absolutely delighted. When he got involved in racing back in 2017, he gave me a five-year plan, which was to win a Group 1 race within that time period. We have a Group 2 winner today and we have Group 1 and Classic black type now, so we're nearly there.

“He is from County Down and is big into his GAA. He was a very good footballer when he was in his early 20s and, when he went to New York, he captained them for five years.

“It was in 2017 when I got a phone call from a friend of his to say that he was interested in getting involved in horses. He asked me to get him a horse and luckily enough I had a store horse by Dubai Destination and I sold him that–didn't charge him enough, mind you! That horse turned out to do well for Joseph O'Brien.”

He added, “Mark's next idea was to buy foals. I went to the November Foal Sale at Goffs and, while he gave me a decent budget, I didn't buy anything for him. He was a bit annoyed about that and wanted me to go to Newmarket to buy a foal for him afterwards.

“I admired one particular bloodstock agent, Cathy Grassick, and always liked the horses that she bought, so I decided to give her a call. Cathy went to Newmarket and bought a New Approach (Ire) filly foal for 32,000gns and that turned out to be New York Girl (Ire) who won the G3 Weld Park S. here in 2019 before being sold.

“Cathy also bought a beautiful Champs Elysees (GB) filly, called Brook On Fifth (Ire), who won her maiden at the Curragh but got injured. So, from those two foals, Mark got two very smart horses and it took off from there.”

Fitzpatrick, whose late father John was a permit holder in Northern Ireland, enjoyed great days as an owner himself with Kempes (Ire) (Intikhab) before selling the horse to JP McManus.

Although there was a brief sabbatical when his brother Edward died in 1999, the self-labelled “small-time” estate agent returned to racing in 2005 and, through his association with Dobbin, has enjoyed some of his greatest days in the sport.

He said, “We spread them out between Ger Lyons, Johnny Murtagh and Joseph O'Brien and we also had a National Hunt filly, Lady Breffni (Ire) (Yeats {Ire}), who has done well with Willie Mullins. It's a very selective approach.”

Has there been a bad one?

“If there is a bad one, I usually blame the trainer! But, if we just stick to our plan and be selective–and Cathy has been a massive help–we can do well. I actually had a couple of question marks over Cairde Go Deo but Ger loved her so much that I said to go ahead and buy her. The same with Ladies Church, Johnny bought her for us as well, so sometimes trainers buy for us as well.”

He added, “Today has been an amazing day and hopefully there will be more to come. Johnny is always upbeat and he's looking at Group 1s for Ladies Church so maybe the Flying Five here on Irish Champions Weekend could suit. Ger absolutely loves Cairde. I've actually never seen a trainer love a horse as much as Ger loves Cairde. He thinks that she could be even better over further and may even be better next year. It's just an amazing team of people to be working with and it's great.”

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