NEWMARKET, UK–Dubawi (Ire) and Frankel (GB) may occupy the top two spots in the sires' table, but not far behind them, and with Baaeed (GB) still to be unleashed on Champions Day, is Sea The Stars (Ire), who had his own moment in the spotlight at Tattersalls as the sire of the 800,000gns top lot.
A Book 2 record was set in 2019 when the million-guinea barrier was breached for the first time, but Monday's leading light, who was sold less than an hour after the start of trade, was still a long way in excess of last year's top price of 525,000gns.
The only horse in the sale to be offered by Fiona Marner of Windmill Farm, the colt (lot 570) was bred under a foal-share agreement by the Kitcarina Partnership and Sunderland Holdings. The partnership takes its name from the 7-year-old mare Kitcarina (Fr) (Shamardal), a winner at Kempton for Windmill Racing on her first start after she was bought as a 3-year-old from Haras de Saint Pair. The mare's full-sister Kitcara has already produced the treble Group 3 winner Al Aasy (Ire) and the listed-placed Sea Karats (Ire) from matings with Sea The Stars, and further encouragement can be drawn from a pedigree laced with plenty of German black type and containing the stallions Konigstiger (Ger) and Pentire (GB).
Anthony Stroud, in action for other clients along with Godolphin on Monday, confirmed that the colt will enter training with John and Thady Gosden.
“Since her purchase the pedigree has just really developed,” said Fiona Marner, who also divulged that Kitcarina is back in foal to Sea The Stars. “This colt has been so special all along, though I'm not sure we realised he was that nice.
“It is such a team effort, we are just a tiny farm, we only have five young mares. This mare is owned with two very longstanding and loyal partners, Derek James, who is in America–l will call him now and wake him up–and Peter Wollaston.”
As the buyers' bench broadened to include plenty of people who tried and came up short for yearlings from last week's bumper Book 1, the figures recorded during the first of three Book 2 sessions were almost identical to those set last year. Garnering overall turnover of 18,618,000gns from the sale of 209 yearlings (86%), the average of 89,081gns was marginally down from 89,318gns, while the median dropped slightly to 65,000gns (-7%).
Hot Cross for Classic Dream
The cross that has already produced the Classic winners Adayar (Ire) and Homeless Songs (Ire), and which contains the magic names of Frankel and Dubawi, as seen in effect with the day's second-top lot (lot 787) sold by Genesis Green Stud on behalf of Rabbah Bloodstock. Will Douglass made an attempt from the back stairs, but he had to settle for the role of underbidder as the son of Frankel was knocked down at 700,000gns to an online buyer which later transpired to be Michael Donohoe of BBA Ireland.
The chestnut, out of the Dubawi half-sister to listed winner Hadaatha (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), was originally intended for Book 1 until the decision was taken to delay his sales appearance.
“He was a big horse, and he was always a tall and narrow horse, but with prep he hasn't grown at all but he's [filled out]. He's turned into a Dubawi basically, with a Frankel walk,” said Genesis Green's Michael Swinburn. “And obviously it's a cross that has done so well with a number of Group 1 winners.”
Another Saint Pair Family to the Fore
A colt by Sea The Moon (Ger) out of Pearly Spirit (Fr) had been a bold pinhook at 110,000gns last year but , as the auctioneers like to say, he “walked into money” as he prowled around the ring at Tattersalls, attracting bids from Anthony Stroud, Joseph O'Brien, Karl Burke and, finally at 410,000gns, from Michel Zerolo.
Sitting in the seats with Jean-Claude Rouget, who will train the colt, Zerolo confirmed that he will race in the colours of Peter Brant's White Birch Farm, which were seen in Grade I-winning action over the weekend aboard Tattersalls graduate In Italian (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Rougir (Fr) (Territories {Ire}). They were of course also carried by the Rouget-trained Prix du Jockey Club and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Sottsass (Fr).
“He's got a fine page and it's a pedigree we know well in France,” said Zerolo of the colt whose unraced dam is a full-sister to recent G1 Matron S. winner Pearls Galore (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).
“He comes from a very good family developed by Mr. Putsch, and Sea The Moon is most definitely a serious stallion.”
The shrewd team at Yeomanstown Stud was behind the profitable pinhook for the colt described by the farm's David O'Callaghan as “exceptional”.
He said, “He was a Book 1 horse in Book 2, but that was part of the plan. We always like to put a horse like him into Book 2. He was exceptional: a beautifully balanced horse, bay with black points, a beautiful mover and very correct. I don't think there was a man or woman on the sale ground who did not admire him.”
The Son Also Rises
Charlie Vigors may have had to give best to his mother Fiona Marner's top lot, but his Hillwood Stud also featured among the leading lots of the day on two occasions.
Hillwood sold lot 669, a Lope De Vega (Ire) sister to G3 Solario S. runner-up King Vega (GB) for 375,000gns to Paddy Twomey, and lot 644, a colt by Showcasing (GB) out of Megan Lily (Ire) (Dragon Pulse {Ire}), to Anthony Stroud, for 260,000gns.
“We knew they were two nice horses coming here and they vetted out clean and well. Thankfully the market agreed with us,” Vigors said.
The Lope De Vega filly was bred by Fortescue Bloodstock from the Teofilo (Ire) mare Moi Meme (GB), who up until this season has been mated exclusively with the Ballylinch Stud resident, producing some notable results in the process. A listed winner herself and a daughter of the dual Group 3 winner Di Moi Oui (GB) (Warning {GB}), the 10-year-old was bought for €440,000 and her four previous yearlings have all commanded six-figures sums in the sale ring, including the maiden winner King Of Conquest (GB), who was bought by Godolphin for 900,000gns.
Having started life with Andrew Balding, the Group 3-placed King Vega is now at Graham Motion's stable in the US, which is also the country where another of the mare's offspring, Capital Structure (GB), ended up after being bought by Mike Ryan for Klaravich Stables. He recently finished runner-up in the GIII Waya S. at Aqueduct.
Vigors explained, “Fortescue Bloodstock is one of our breeding syndicates that breeds on a commercial basis. The mare has been fantastic for us on the commercial front and has gone on and is delivering on the track. That's a cross that has been working well and she is actually in foal to Night Of Thunder now. It's an exciting family.”
New Bay Colt for Derby-Winning Owner
In his days working for the late Duke of Roxburghe, Chris Gillon was no stranger to consigning expensive yearlings at Tattersalls, and now under his own Gillon Bloodstock banner and still operating from Floors Castle, the consignor featured on the top 10 list.
The New Bay colt he prepared on behalf of breeders Joanna and Malcolm Imray was Gillon Bloodstock's sole offering for Book 2, and he will eventually race in some famous silks, having been bought by agent Richard Brown for 325,000gns on behalf of dual Derby-winning owner Saeed Suhail. His most recent victory in the Epsom Classic came just this year with Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), who was also bought by Brown from Book 2 two years ago.
“It's fantastic to do that in only our second year and our first time at Book 2,” said Gillon.
“Joanna and Malcolm Imray are just 10 miles from Floors and sent him to us in February. He has exceeded expectations and has been very popular here. He sold himself–he showed himself off and looked a million dollars. When you look at his page, he has a strong page as well.”
That page for lot 723 includes his Group 3-winning half-brother Psychedelic Funk (GB) (Choisir {Aus}) and the 13-time winner Gale Force Maya (GB), his half-sister by Gale Force Ten (GB), who has won two listed sprints in September since the catalogue was published. Their dam, Parabola (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) was picked up by the Imrays at the July Sale of 2010 for just 4,000gns but died last year, making her New Bay colt her final offspring.
Brown added, “I'm a big fan of the stallion. I think he is going places–any son of Dubawi you have to take very seriously and he is doing it. He is for Saeed Suhail, who is here and will be here all week.”
“We will work out training plans once the week is over. Saeed makes all the decisions with racing manager Bruce Raymond. I am sure any trainer would be delighted to have this horse.”
Brown also issued an update on Desert Crown. He said, “Desert Crown is absolutely fine. He had a bit of hiccup, but he is now out in the paddock and will go back into training in the next couple of weeks. We're all really excited about next year for him.”
Grande Result For Whatton Manor
Fresh from selling a 1.5 million gns Dubawi colt to Godolphin during Book 1 on behalf of breeder Andrew Stone, Whatton Manor Stud was back in the limelight on Monday and this time with a homebred. Lot 659, a filly from the first crop of Too Darn Hot (GB), is out of the Oasis Dream (GB) mare Minwah (Ire), who was unraced herself but has already produced a black-type winner in her current 3-year-old, Grande Dame (GB) (Lope de Vega {Ire}).
After watching the filly sell for 230,000gns to Anthony Stroud, Whatton Manor's Ed Player said, “When Grande Dame started doing what she did this year, winning her listed race, we knew we had a good chance, and then when she was third in the Sun Chariot that was a lovely update to come into the sale with.”
He added of Minwah, whose colt by Roaring Lion died as a yearling, but who is now in foal to Ardad (Ire), “The mare has been a little unlucky, but the two who have made the racecourse have been very talented. She is a lovely mare, we bought her here with Larry Stratton for 46,000gns. She's beautiful and luckily she breeds good-looking horses, too.”
Dreaming of Manderley, Again
Jonathan Portman makes something of a habit of winning the G3 Cornwallis S. and, having claimed the race for the third time on Friday with Rumstar (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}), he was at Tattersalls on Monday to buy a yearling colt out of one of his previous Cornwallis winners, Mrs Danvers (GB) (Hellvelyn {GB}).
He's a colt by no ordinary sire, either, as Mrs Danvers visited Galileo for each of her first three coverings. Two colts by the late champion sire featured in Monday's session and, mystifyingly, neither reached six-figure prices. They were both bought by shrewd trainers, however, with Mark Johnston going to 57,000gns for the colt out of Just Pretending (lot 556), while Portman is going home with the colt he came to see “for old times' sake”, having bought him from the Manister House Stud draft at 65,000gns.
“I don't like to be seen as being optimistic because then one looks silly when it all goes wrong,” Portman once told TDN on a bleak January day at his Lambourn yard. Nevertheless, Rob Hornby, who partnered Rumstar to victory at Newmarket, let on that the trainer had told him months ago that the colt would win the Cornwallis.
Portman confessed at Tattersalls on Monday, “I did say that, and I also said it about Mrs Danvers when someone tried to buy her after she'd won her maiden at Lingfield. They said, 'I know you've bought her for the Super Sprint but if that goes wrong could you bear us in mind?' And I said 'No, because she's a Cornwallis filly.' Of course we can all look clever when it happens, but it is nice to have a plan, and the pleasure is in the planning.”
Things went rather swimmingly for Mrs Danvers, who was famously a vendor buy-back at £1,000 when offered in the February of her 2-year-old season. She won on debut four months later and then just kept winning, including the Weatherbys Super Sprint, Listed St Hugh's Fillies' S. and the Cornwallis.
Asked about the plans for her son, Portman said, “Cotton wool, I should think. We don't buy expensive horses and I only came up to have a look at him for old times' sake. But he was stuck on 50 grand and I didn't want to see someone buy him for 52 that wasn't me, and then he took off a bit.”
He added, “With that pedigree I'd obviously have preferred him to be a filly, and I do love training fillies. I kept closely in touch with Jessica Harrington who bought his full-sister [Danvers Gold] last year. She was third at the Curragh and she is going to run her again soon, and she really likes her. So that gave me a bit of confidence that it wasn't just a flash in the pan.
“I like going back to families that have looked after me, and if they've been sound and had a good temperament, those are two very key things. I didn't come here expecting to go home with him. I was intending to be a spectator.”
It would seem, however, that the planning has already begun, though this time Portman is eyeing a bigger target than the Cornwallis.
He said, “He's not small but he looks ready to run now–I would like him to be ready to run on May 4, 2024. I want to win the Guineas with him. I'd happily give up the Super Sprint if he could win the Guineas.”
The trainer celebrated his surprise purchase over tea and cakes with Connie and Mark Burton, the breeders of Mrs Danvers, who leased her to the Turf Club for her racing career before selling her privately as a broodmare prospect.
“We're over the moon, we'll be even more frequent visitors to the yard,” said Connie Burton, who still owns Mrs Danvers's dam Rebecca De Winter (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}) as well as a half-sister. “They made us feel so included in all of Mrs Danvers's races and we celebrated alongside them all.”
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