Foal Trade Reaches New High at Tattersalls

NEWMARKET, UK–A pair of colts by the young Darley and Shadwell stallions Masar (Ire) and Mohaather (GB) shared the top spot on the final day of foal trade at Park Paddocks which brought the curtain down, not just on a record week for weanlings but also a record year for Tattersalls–and that's before the Mares Sale even begins.

The average and median for the fourth session were both up on last year, with a total of 2,267,750gns added to the overall tally from the sale of 150 foals. For the sale as a whole, the aggregate of 35,255,050gns represented an increase of 13% on last year's trade, with the average up by 11% at 47,386gns and the median by 4% to 26,000gns. From a larger catalogue of 1,173 foals, of which 983 were offered and 744 sold, the only figure to drop was the clearance rate, which was down to 76% from 81%.

Commenting on a week led by a million-guinea Kingman (GB) foal from Whitsbury Manor Stud, Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony said, “Strong yearling sales will always drive demand for foals and the extraordinary strength of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sales has been followed by a Tattersalls December Foal Sale which has achieved significant increases in average and median as well as a record turnover in excess of 35 million guineas. The cream of the British and Irish foal crop has been assembled here at Park Paddocks and buyers at every level of the market and from throughout the world have all contributed to yet another record-breaking sale in a year of extraordinary sales at Tattersalls.”

 

Sweeting's Surprise

On the day that Overbury Stud announced that it would be standing G2 Flying Childers S. winner Caturra (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) next year, the farm's draft took co-top billing when selling a Masar (Ire) half-brother to this season's Lingfield Oaks Trial winner Rogue Millennium (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) for 110,000gns to Yeomanstown Stud.

The colt was born three months after his dam, the G3 Cumberland Lodge S. winner Hawaafez (GB) (Nayef), was sold by her breeder Shadwell for 14,000gns to Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock, who, unbeknown to Overbury's Simon Sweeting, bought the 14-year-old mare on his behalf. Three days after she safely foaled her Masar colt, his 3-year-old sister Rogue Millennium stormed to her listed victory. Enhancing the pedigree further was the victory earlier this month of 2-year-old Naomi Lapaglia (GB) (Awtaad {Ire}),  who won on debut at Kempton for Richard Spencer.

“I wasn't around and [Richard] did it himself,” said Sweeting. “It looked like a chancey buy to start with but the mare was an exceptional racehorse and Rogue Millennium has come along, and everything else has landed into place. The 2-year-old is now one for one and her Kingman yearling has gone to trainer George Boughey.”

He added, “It is definitely a progressive family. That sale did take me by surprise, but it is a lovely surprise to have. He was a late foal, but he has been very straightforward and everything has worked out well.”

 

Shadwell Restock With Classy Foals

While the Masar colt was one that escaped the Shadwell clutches, some new recruits have been added to the future racing string for Sheikha Hissa, with Angus Gold signing for seven foals this week, including the day's other 110,000gns colt, by first-season sire Mohaather.

“Obviously, we are a bit biased,” Gold confessed. “Mohaather was a very special horse for us. We thought he was slightly underrated if anything. For me, what he did at Goodwood that day in the Sussex S. was out of the ordinary. I haven't seen a horse quicken like that since Kingman in the same race.”

He continued, “So we are big fans and I have liked the stock I have seen. What I particularly liked is that, leading into this week, lots of people have told me that they have a really nice Mohaather foal, which is great to hear. We bought one two days ago, and the vendor told me they had an even better one at home. There are some really good vibes about him.”

Gold indicated that Shadwell will have around 75 to 80 horses in training in 2023 and, having sold a number of mares last year, the stud has a foal crop of only around 35.

“I spoke with Sheikha Hissa and she was keen to get some foals to supplement the racing team, if we could buy at relatively sensible money,” he added.

Tom Blain, more usually seen at the head of his expanding Barton Stud consignment, was one of the breeders of the Mohaather colt under the name of Ickworth Stud. The colt is the first foal of the Exceed And Excel (Aus) mare Time Of Change (Ire), a sister to the G2 Gimcrack S. runner-up Taajub (Ire).

“Time For Change is owned in partnership, it is a great thrill and I am delighted for all involved,” Blain said. “It was a bit weird to watch one of our own sell. We bought the mare for 9,000gns and I know the family as we used to board her dam Purple Tiger. There is a lot happening under the second dam.

He added of the colt, “I think he should make up into a serious racehorse and I just want to thank Angus for his support. It is great that Shadwell and Sheikha Hissa are backing their own stallion; we used him a number of times in the first year so we are really happy.”

Mohaather's name featured three times in the top 10 list on Saturday, with Tally-Ho Stud buying another from the Barton Stud draft, a filly out of Muaamara (GB) (Bahamian Bounty {GB}), for 68,000gns, while Cathy Grassick went to 50,000gns for a filly from Whatcote Farm Stud who is a three-parts-sister to recent juvenile winner American Sonja (GB) (Tasleet {GB}).

 

Freshman Action

As our accompanying vox pop shows, one of the talking points for the bloodstock industry at this time of the year is always which young stallions are taking the eye–and which are not.

Of course, what really matters is what their offspring end up doing on the track, and there will be plenty of disappointments and surprises to come next summer and beyond, but the foal sales always provide a first litmus test of a stallion's progeny.

Ghaiyyath (Ire), as a top-class performer himself, and with two Classic winners as parents, should have what it takes for a decent stud career, and plenty of buyers have backed him at Goffs and Tattersalls. This week his 10 weanlings sold returned an average of 130,700gns, and the only other first-season sire to set a six-figure average was Ghaiyyath's fellow Darley sire Pinatubo (Ire). He only had a handful of foals for sale this week but the quintet changed hands for an average of 126,400gns.

Earthlight (Ire), like Pinatubo a son of Shamardal, also proved popular with 12 sold at and average of 56,500gns, while Mohaather, referenced above, had 21 weanlings sold this week at an average of 41,881gns.

 

The Key Players

With a million-guinea filly in its draft, it was no surprise to see Whitsbury Manor Stud at the top of the consignors' table with 19 foals sold for 2,201,500gns. Norelands Stud posted a decent average for the sale of 123,667gns for nine sold, with Langton Stud's boutique draft had three sold for an average of 248,333gns.

Juddmonte's outlay of 2,425,000gns on Friday put them at the top of the buyers' list but noted pinhookers Tally-Ho Stud, JC Bloodstock and Yeomanstown Stud were all as busy as ever, with 15, 14, and 13 foals bought, respectively.

Concluding his appraisal of the week's trade, Edmond Mahony continued, “To see so many British and Irish breeders rewarded so handsomely this week reflects the quality of the stock which they have brought to the market and we should thank the consignors for their confidence in the Tattersalls December Foal Sale. In addition to Whitsbury Manor Stud's outstanding one million guineas sale-topping Kingman filly, the sale has produced the four highest-priced foals in Europe and a record-equalling 27 foals sold for 200,000 guineas or more.”

He added, “While the December Foal Sale is always dominated by the tireless and loyal British and Irish pinhookers, their European counterparts have also made their presence felt, as have a significant number of the world's leading owners who recognise the December Foal Sale as a consistent source of Classic and Group 1 performers. It is no coincidence that the connections of the Group 1-winning 2-year-olds Blackbeard (Ire) and Chaldean (GB), both bought at the 2020 December Foal Sale, have again targeted this sale, and international buyers from America, China, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Spain, Switzerland and from throughout the Gulf region have also made significant contributions, particularly at the top of the market.

“The international influence will without doubt be even stronger as we move on to the Tattersalls December Mares Sale which starts on Monday and features the inaugural Sceptre Sessions for elite fillies and broodmares. We have an exceptional catalogue which includes some of the best race fillies and mares to be offered at public auction for many a year and we look forward to ending the Tattersalls year on a high note.”

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Caturra Retires to Overbury Stud

The G2 Flying Childers S. winner Caturra (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}–Shoshoni Wind {GB}, by Sleeping Indian {GB}) has joined the roster at Overbury Stud in a deal brokered by Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock. His opening fee will be £6,500.

The 3-year-old will be available for viewing in Newmarket this week from Sunday to Wednesday at Crockfords, opposite the rear entrance of Tattersalls.

The arrival of Caturra at the Gloucestershire stud has echoes of Ardad (Ire), the leading first-season sire in Britain in 2021. Both horses were bred by Tally-Ho Stud and won the Flying Childers, having been bought by Brown as youngsters–Ardad at the breeze-up sales and Caturra as a yearling for 110,000gns from Tattersalls October Book 2.

Caturra was trained by Clive Cox for Saeed bin Mohammed al Qassimi and won as early as the May of his juvenile season before going on to land the Listed Rose Bowl S. at Newbury and gaining his Group 2 success. This season he has added further group placings in the G3 Prix Sigy at Chantilly and the G2 King George S. at Goodwood.

“He's got everything a top juvenile needs: great physical maturity–and he's an outstanding model–but also a wonderful mind. From the moment he stepped in the yard, he was a natural for Royal Ascot,” said Cox.

“The Flying Childers win was very special. To be able to accelerate off fast sprinting pace like he did–that really takes some doing. I loved the way he'd really get his head down to gallop. And so straightforward: I've never had a sprinter with such a sober attitude. Caturra had a lie down at the races when he arrived at Doncaster. That's rare! He saves all his energy for when he needs it, and he's a lovely, kind horse to work with. I am very confident he'd have been competitive at the highest level again at four.”

Caturra is a member of the second crop of Mehmas, who set a new world record in 2020 with 56 first-crop juvenile winners.

Richard Brown commented, “Caturra is the fastest son of Mehmas, and he won the same big race as Ardad. Those are two of the biggest names in the commercial market, and Caturra– who's a particularly good-looking horse–has every chance of joining them. He's just like Ardad.”

Overbury Stud will be offering a number of breeding rights in Caturra. Manager Simon Sweeting said, “We are keeping things simple: these are the same terms Ardad started at, and if ever there was a second Ardad, this is this horse. A fast and notably precocious Flying Childers winner by a top commercial stallion, just like Ardad. And, if anything, Caturra is even better looking, with a most lovely head and bags of strength and quality. We're really looking forward to showing him to breeders during the December Sales.”

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Ardad Heads Overbury Roster As Golden Horn Set At 8k

Ardad (GB), the sire of G1 Commonwealth Cup winner Perfect Power (Ire), will head the Overbury Stud roster at an unchanged £12,500 while new recruit Golden Horn (GB) has been set at £8,000. 

The brilliant G1 Derby winner and European Horse of the Year in 2015, Golden Horn joined Overbury Stud in July after being sold to new investors from Darley and Anthony Oppenheimer.

He will stand alongside 2015 Irish Derby hero Jack Hobbs (GB), whose fee has not been decided upon, and Frontiersman (GB), who will once again stand for just £1,000. Also on the Overbury team is Schiaparelli (Ger) at £2,000.

Overbury Stud's manager Simon Sweeting said, “I think we've got stallions for most ambitions and most tastes–certainly they are all showing they can sire horses you'd be proud to have bred. 

“We're really looking forward to talking to breeders about their mares and we'll be doing our best for them in the season ahead. I hope we can have as lucky a run in 2023 as we've had in the past year or two.”

 

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McGivern Grasps A Golden Opportunity

“I'm on a mission to make GB great in its own right.” A statement from Britain's new prime minister, perhaps? No. Forget Westminster, and cast your mind instead to the rolling Cotswold hills that frame the area around Cheltenham.

Those words are uttered not far up the road from the home of National Hunt racing, at Overbury Stud, by the new owner of the stud's newest stallion. Jayne McGivern is unashamedly proud of her recent purchase of Golden Horn (GB), the horse who lit up the 2015 Flat season, graduating from Derby trials, to winning the Derby itself, followed by the Eclipse, the Irish Champion S. and the Arc. No prizes then for guessing that by the end of that glorious season he was made Horse of the Year.

Since those days, Golden Horn, now 10, has resided at Dalham Hall Stud on the Darley roster. But with his Flat stallion career perhaps not as explosive as it might have been hoped for, but with some eye-catching early results over jumps, he was sold this summer by his owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer to McGivern, whose passion for all things equine is equal to her formidable curriculum vitae in the construction industry. With a track record that includes London's Crossrail project, a major construction development at Madison Square Gardens in New York, and a seat on the board of one of the world's leading construction companies, McGivern has recently been appointed as the CEO of the Sports Boulevard Foundation in Saudi Arabia. Currently on her plate is that company's major urban regeneration of the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Horses, then, provide a pleasurable respite during McGivern's return trips from Riyadh to the green pastures of her Dash Grange Stud, or nearby Overbury, which is temporarily home to her four broodmares and their followers. Golden Horn, meanwhile, is now a permanent resident at the latter and has been reunited with two old stablemates from his time at John and Thady Gosden's Clarehaven Stables in Jack Hobbs (GB), who was runner-up to him in the Derby, and Ardad (Ire), whose more precocious profile makes him a rather different prospect.

McGivern has been steadily making some notable purchases in her establishment of a boutique broodmare band. Queen Of The Stage (Ire) (King's Theatre {Ire}), the dam of the outstanding young hurdler Constitution Hill (GB) (Blue Bresil {Fr}), is perhaps the stand-out and was bought for €340,000 in May. Buildmeupbuttercup (GB) (Sixties Icon {GB}) was acquired last November, a year after the purchase of Jelan (Ire) (Milan {GB}), a full-sister to the Champion Hurdler Jezki (Ire). She had good reason then to wish to secure a stallion whose profile is rising fast among the National Hunt sector.

Of her mission to ensure that good stallions remains in Britain, McGivern told visitors to Overbury Stud last week as Golden Horn paraded before them, “I'm starting with the very best. I've looked for a stallion for some time and missed a couple for various reasons. I had a little go for Nathaniel and then [Newsells Park] stud got sold. But for the right reasons, I've ended up with this magnificent horse. I can pinch myself. I'm the luckiest person on the planet that he's mine. He's very intelligent and fortunately very fertile.”

Indeed he is. Golden Horn may have seen his appeal adjusting more from the Flat towards the National Hunt crowd but he has not been standing idle, and he covered more than 150 mares this spring before he left Newmarket. One of those was McGivern's treble listed-winning hurdler Buildmeupbuttercup, and while there are some smart jumping names on the list, such as L'Unique (Fr) and My Petra (GB), there are also still some Flat names to conjure with. At Overbury, which has been home to two leading first-season sires in Bertolini and Ardad, as well as multiple British champion National Hunt sire Kayf Tara (GB), it could be said that Golden Horn will have the chance to be involved in the best of both worlds.

McGivern is quick to emphasise that it is Golden Horn's genuine dual-purpose profile that appeals to her and, she hopes, to her fellow breeders. While his smattering of jumps runners to date can boast a strike-rate in excess of 60%, with 14 of his 23 representatives in this sphere having won, including the smart Grade 2 winner Stag Horn (GB), he has also had an encouraging summer on the Flat since relocating to Overbury. The thrice-raced Juddmonte filly Haskoy (GB) has won twice, including the Listed Galtres S., and may yet win back her second-past-the-post finish in the St Leger that was taken away in the stewards' room. The Andre Fabre-trained dual group winner Botanik (GB), meanwhile, is heading to the Breeders' Cup Turf, and another Godolphin representative, Trawlerman (GB), won the valuable Ebor.

“I do think that he's proving himself on the Flat and is a proper dual-purpose stallion,” says McGivern, who also owns 4% of Nathaniel (Ire), another stallion who has piqued the interest of jumps breeders but is eminently capable of siring top-class runners on the Flat.

“And I don't want to get political, but I think everybody may agree that Brexit has been a bit of a disaster for the thoroughbred breeding industry. I look at my own mares and the thought of sending them to Ireland, as we might have done some years ago, just doesn't work for me any more. It's incredibly expensive, it's a huge amount of admin, and I don't think that it's practical.”

She adds, “I have lovely mares, and I think it's really important that we start securing these terrific stallions for the United Kingdom.”

McGivern's broader-brush interests on the equine front run to the ownership of some smart eventers ridden by the current Burghley champion Piggy March. Together they won last weekend's CCI4* class for young horses at Blenheim Horse Trials with the grey stallion Halo.

“I'm fortunate enough that Pig rides for me, but really racing is my heart,” says the effervescent McGivern, who, like her husband David Crossland, previously rode in point-to-points.

“I am a National Hunt person. I love National Hunt racing. It is my passion and has been for most of my life. But that said, I'm moving to the dark side.”

It could be described as returning to the dark side, as McGivern's current horse on the Flat, the winning juvenile Sirona (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}), is with Mark Johnston, whom she and Crossland previously had horses with in the 1990s. She also bid on the filly's full-brother at the recent BBAG Yearling Sale, but he was eventually bought by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

She says of Sirona, who was recently second in the valuable British EBF Fillies' Series Final, “I'm really chuffed at the way that she's panned out. We're entering her for a listed race at the end of this month and then a Group 3 in Dusseldorf in mid-November. And then I think we'll just turn her out and see what we've got as a 3-year-old, but her pedigree's perfect for Golden Horn.”

McGivern adds, “I'm moving over into Flat racing a little bit, because this is a dual-purpose stallion by anybody's measure. If it had been six weeks later, the deal might have been slightly different, but as soon as I heard he might be available, we moved very quickly. I think I was extremely lucky to get him and he will be with me for the rest of his life.”

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