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Tattersalls Braced For Good Trade As International Travel Returns

NEWMARKET, UK–Newmarket's 'July week' has always been the perfect blend of parties and parades, on the racecourse and stallion farms. But at the centre of all this fun, there is plenty of serious business to be done at Tattersalls, which hosts its three-day mixed July Sale from Wednesday.

A sizeable delegation of Australians has already arrived in town, now free from the travel curbs of Covid, and it is a safe bet that they will be joined by breeders, trainers and agents of myriad nationalities at Park Paddocks over the next few days.

Arqana kicked off the summer mixed auction fare last week with some pretty explosive results in Deauville, which featured the rarity of a current Classic winner as a last-minute entrant to the sale. The German 1,000 Guineas winner Txope (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) duly topped the sale at €1.2 million when sold to Yulong Investments, the outfit headed by Yuesheng Zhang, who has been a significant supporter of thoroughbred auctions the world over in recent years.

Zhang's first visit to the July Sale in 2016 resulted in the purchase of Harlech (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) for 60,000gns, and that proved to be a shrewd investment as she is now the dam of Australian Group 1 winner Hungry Heart (Aus) (Frankel {GB}), who was foaled the following year after the mare was covered at Banstead Manor Stud to southern hemisphere time before being exported to Australia.

“From the moment the catalogue came out it became clear that there was a fair amount of interest from all sorts of overseas markets, which is always encouraging,” said Tattersalls' marketing director Jimmy George.

“Domestic buyers have been pretty prominent and active in the last few years as well, so that will hopefully lead to a good, solid sale.

“Mr Zhang's team is in town and hopefully they will find what they are looking for. He's been very successful buying at Tattersalls so far, and he bought the Ribblesdale winner Magical Lagoon (Ire) here at the October Yearling Sale as well, so it's very good to see him here back in person after he was unable to travel for the last couple of years.”

Just as Txope was a late entry at Arqana, Tattersalls fields a number of wild-card additions to the catalogue, including the G3 Prix Six Perfections winner See The Rose (Ire), a daughter of the accomplished broodmare sire Kendargent (Fr) and a full-sister to Listed winner Xaarino (Fr). The 4-year-old will be offered as lot 271A by the Castlebridge Consignment, which has 105 horses to sell this week.

Godolphin, too, has a sizeable draft of 70, which includes the former German champion race mare Antara (Ger) (Platini {Ger}), whose winning offspring include the Group 3 winner Algiers (Ire) (Shamardal). She is offered as lot 126 with a March 28 cover to Darley's first-season sire Palace Pier (GB).

The Godolphin draft not only contained Hungry Heart's dam in 2016 but in that same draft was Bathrat Amal (Jpn) (New Approach {Jpn}), who became the dam of this year's G2 Godolphin Mile winner Bathrat Leon (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}). The mare was sold for just 8,000gns to breeder Mishima Bokujo and her aforementioned high-flying first foal is currently in Newmarket along with his trainer Yoshito Yahagi ahead of a shot at the G1 Sussex S. later this month at Goodwood.

Another bargain buy from last year's sale, as referenced by Brian Sheerin in Monday's TDN, was Knight Salute (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}), who was bought by trainer Milton Harris for 14,000gns and went on to be one of the stars of the 2021/22 National Hunt season with six hurdles victories to his credit, including the G1 Jewson Anniversary Four-Year-Old Hurdle at Aintree.

George continued, “It's a sale with a proven track record for producing group performers on the Flat, graded winners over jumps and also dams of Group 1 winners throughout the world. It's a bit of an old cliche but it really is a sale where there's something for everyone. It punches above its weight and this year we have a hefty contingent of potential buyers coming from Australia, and plenty of interest from the Gulf and North America as well. Everything is in place for good, solid trade.”

Wednesday's all-day session gets underway at 9.30am, while pre- and post-racing sessions begin at 9.30am and 5pm respectively on Thursday and Friday.

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The Week in Review: While Racing Sleeps Late, MLB Opts for Morning Betting

Since the advent of the simulcasting era 30 years ago, I've never understood why some enterprising track somewhere hasn't seized a late-morning first-post slot and carved out its own niche at a time of day when no other pari-mutuel competition on the continent is running.

Be it midweek in the winter, when most of the fair-to-middling Eastern time zone tracks do little to distinguish their products, or as a Saturday special during the summer when some C-level track could have an uncontested advantage for several hours as a lead-in to the attention-grabbing cards at Saratoga, the 10 a.m. to noon Eastern stretch remains an uncharted chasm.

Four years ago this month, shortly after the legalization of sports betting in the United States, I wrote a morning racing-related column for TDN that stated, “The time slot is there for the taking. In real estate, the money-making mantra is 'location, location, location.' The equivalent in simulcasting–if you're not a top track on the totem pole–is 'timing, timing, timing.'”

The revisit of this topic will tack on a slight correction to that 2018 story: The late-morning time slot is no longer completely wide open in terms of the overall wagering landscape. Major League Baseball (MLB) now sees Sunday morning starts at 11:30 a.m. Eastern as a lucrative opportunity.

Although the Sunday morning baseball games debuted with a soft-ish launch, MLB has inked a multi-year deal to lay claim to that time slot (some of the games later in the season will begin at noon, which is still at least an hour earlier than most traditional afternoon starts).

The streamed-only games can only be viewed by online subscribers who pay a monthly fee to watch them. And while MLB revenue executives are championing the early starts as a way to reach new fans outside of cable TV as viewing habits change, the unspoken but obvious message is that pro sports are staking out new territory, time-wise, to maximize revenue from gambling partnerships.

The National Football League figured this out with Monday Night Football broadcasts back in 1970. Although critics were initially skeptical that viewers would tune in to watch (and although it was illegal at the time, bet on) whatever two teams happened to be matched just because it was the only action on the tube, Monday Night Football eventually morphed into an eyeball-capturing juggernaut that spawned only-game-in-town football broadcast strategies on Thursday and Sunday evenings.

A heat wave across the Midwest at the end of June caused both and Churchill Downs (10:30 a.m.) Belterra Park (11:35 a.m.) to experiment with morning racing as a means to keep horses from competing at the hottest point of the afternoon. The one-off post time switches weren't pre-arranged with much notice or fanfare, hence a handle comparison wouldn't be of much value in these instances.

And since Churchill is an A-list track that has the benefit of lights to add flexibility to its scheduling of post times, regular morning racing there wouldn't make much sense.

But you could make a cogent case for Belterra taking a flyer on morning racing.

The Ohio track's current Tuesday-through-Friday schedule with 12:35 p.m. posts causes it to get lost in the shuffle against Saratoga, Monmouth, Gulfstream and Colonial Downs during the month of July. It would even benefit from standing out from the likes of Finger Lakes, Thistledown and Horseshoe Indianapolis, all of which overlap to some degree depending on the day of the week.

Beyer Blitz

Three Grade II stakes winners earned triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures last Saturday. Which was most impressive?

From a raw talent perspective, Life Is Good (Into Mischief)'s 112 wiring of the John Nerud S. over seven furlongs at Belmont Park was outright scary. Now 7-for-9 lifetime and having put together a string of seven consecutive triple-digit Beyers, this 'TDN Rising Star' scored by five after chewing up no-slouch rival Speaker's Corner (Street Sense). But beyond those two, the four-horse field was scant on competition, which allowed Life Is Good to motor home without any sort of a stretch tussle.

Fellow 'Rising Star' Charge It (Tapit) posted a gaudy 23-length victory in the one-turn-mile Dwyer S. at Belmont. His heaviest lifting involved bumping aside a pesky rival five-eighths out so he could maneuver off the fence and reel in the pacemaker, thus becoming the fourth also-ran out of the GI Kentucky Derby to win a next-out start. He earned a 111 Beyer, but only one of his five rivals had ever won a stakes (which was for Delaware-bred 2-year-olds last year), so the quality of competition angle applies here too.

It's difficult to believe that a horse can win five straight races with triple-digit Beyers yet still be considered a bit under the radar, but that's been the case with Olympiad (Speightstown), who is bound to get a lot more attention and respect after his no-nonsense cuffing of a decent field in Saturday's Stephen Foster S. over nine furlongs at Churchill.

Olympiad emerged from a five-horse, first-turn speed scrimmage to be a stalking second through robust splits. He then blasted off at the quarter pole and dug in furiously to repel a wall of contenders off the turn. His presence near the head of affairs early in the race combined with an ability to withstand significant pressure late to score by 2 1/4 lengths lends a nice glow of legitimacy to his 111 Beyer.

(Not yet) the end of an era

It might be a stretch to say Dr. Blarney (Dublin) is the “Last of the Mohicans.” But the 9-year-old sure looks like he'll wind up his career as the most impactful of the dwindling number of remaining Massachusetts-breds.

On July 4 at Finger Lakes, the good doctor won his 26th lifetime race, storming from off the pace to win a three-way photo by a neck for owner/breeder Joe DiRico and trainer Karl Grusmark.

The victory was even sweeter because Dr. Blarney was reunited with Tammi Piermarini, his horsebacking partner for most of his 37-race career.

Piermarini, 55, is the continent's third-winningest female jockey. She hurt her knee in a starting gate accident last November, and the ride on Dr. Blarney Monday was her first race back since that accident.

Fittingly, like her multiple stakes-winning mount, Piermarini was also born in Massachusetts, having started her career back in 1985 at Boston's Suffolk Downs.

Suffolk Downs is now three years defunct and the Massachusetts-bred program began to erode about a decade before the track closed for good in 2019.

Dr. Blarney won Massachusetts-bred stakes at least once a year between ages two and seven (to spend its remaining purse funds that were earmarked for stakes, the Massachusetts breeders' association ran those races at Fort Erie in 2020). Six of his lifetime victories have been by margins between 10 and 20 lengths.

Although many of those romps came at the mercy of overmatched restricted-stakes competition, he's also won a black-type stakes at Delaware Park and has bested open-company allowance horses at Finger Lakes.

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DRF Report: Hutter Stable After Training Accident

Cindy Hutter, exercise rider and assistant to her husband, trainer George Weaver, remained unconscious but was in stable condition Monday at Albany Medical Center, according to Daily Racing Form's Dave Grenig. Hutter was galloping Vindatude over the Oklahoma training track in Saratoga Sunday morning when the 3-year-old filly suffered an apparent heart attack and died. Hutter was pinned under the stricken filly.

“Based on all the imaging and data they've got, they think she's going to come around and be fine,” Weaver told DRF. “Hopefully, it happens sooner than later.

“She's not conscious yet,” Weaver said. “She picks up her right arm, she squeezes her arm a little bit when they do try to wake her up. She's not opened her eyes or tried to talk. We're waiting for her to come around, and she will on her own schedule. It was a pretty traumatic accident. I'm sure when her body's ready to let her wake up, she will.”

According to DRF, the 57-year-old Hutter also suffered broken ribs, a broken collarbone and a lung injury in the accident.

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First-Crop Yearling Previews: Yoshida

The ever-growing depth and caliber of the Japanese breeding and racing industry was on full display at last year's Breeders' Cup World Championships when Japan captured its first two Breeders' Cup victories in a span of just a few hours.

One year before future champions Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and Marche Lorraine (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) were both foaled, WinStar Farm's Elliott Walden and SF Bloodstock's Tom Ryan attended the 2015 Japan Racing Horse Association's yearling and weanling sale. They came home with a group that included Yoshida (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn} – Hilda's Passion, by Canadian Frontier)–a ¥94 million (approximately $850,000) yearling purchase, eventual multiple Grade I-winning 'TDN Rising Star', and now, a WinStar Farm sire with his first crop of yearlings pointing for the sales ring.

Bred by Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Farm, the grandson of the Japanese breed-shaping sire Sunday Silence is the second foal out of Hilda's Passion, a multiple graded stakes winner who culminated her career with a victory in the 2011 GI Ballerina S. and then sold to Katsumi Yoshida for $1.225 million at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale.

“Yoshida is very prototypical of the Japanese breeding program,” said WinStar's Liam O'Rourke. “He's out of an elite American race mare and he is by a son of Sunday Silence. We've seen it come to fruition in recent times that in the Japanese program, they breed for class and versatility. Those are two of the big qualities that Yoshida represents.”

Campaigned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and Head of Plains Partners, Yoshida raced from age two through five under Bill Mott's tutelage, claiming four stakes wins headlined by the GI Old Forester Turf Classic S. on turf and the GI Woodward S. on dirt.

Debuting in his career at stud with a fee of $20,000 in 2020, the durable earner of $2.5 million bred 148 mares in his first year at WinStar. With a $15,000 stud fee, he saw another 84 mares last year.

“His first book was ranked third by CPI among [incoming] sires that year,” O'Rourke noted. “We're very proud of the types of mares that he has gotten. He's been supported by a variety of breeders, both commercial and racing types.”

As Yoshida's yearlings now work through their sales prep, O'Rourke said that he has heard optimistic reviews from breeders.

“They have a lot of his physical qualities,” he reported. “They have that class and strength. In watching them as foals early on out in the field, you could see that they were high energy. They were assertive types, kind of rambunctious, and were really aware of their surroundings. The one really common piece of feedback that I get as I've been visiting farms is that you can't give them enough work. That's a great quality when they have the desire to work and to be competitive.”

O'Rourke said that Yoshida's ability on multiple surfaces, along with Japan's growing success on a global scale, has retained breeders' interest throughout the stallion's first three years at stud.

“It's unique that he was so successful on dirt and turf,” he said. “I think he brings a different dimension to the stud barn that we're very proud to offer breeders. He was a very convincing winner of the Woodward, which is a great sire-producing race. In the Old Forester Turf Classic on Derby Day, [he beat] a great field. I think there was eight graded stakes winners in that field. He also beat Horse of the Year Bricks and Mortar in the GIII Hill Prince S.”

Last year, Yoshida was represented by 36 weanlings and short yearlings at the fall and winter breeding stock sales. 23 youngsters sold to average $38,279. His colt out of GIIISW Catherinethegreat (Uncaptured) sold for $150,000 at the Keeneland November Sale while in Japan, a colt out of Curlins BFF (Curlin) brought $181,235.

Yoshida has seven yearlings cataloged for the upcoming Fasig-Tipton July Sale on July 12, including a colt out of Moon and Stars (Orb) that sells as Hip 19 with the Shawhan Place consignment.

“He's very strong with tons of bone, good hip and a strong shoulder,” said Shawhan Place's Director of Sales Courtney Schneider. “He's built like a bull; he's just so strong. He's very easy to work with and he's a little bit more forward than our others so that's why we wanted to showcase him a bit earlier in the July Sale.”

Shawhan Place has a special connection with Yoshida as the birthplace of his dam. Bred by Shawhan partner Ted Kuster, Hilda's Passion did not meet her reserve as a weanling, but was sold early in her racing career and went on to claim five graded stakes for Starlight Racing.

“Yoshida was a stallion we were really excited to support here on the farm,” Schneider said. “He was a dual-surface Grade I winner and has all the qualifications of bringing back the Sunday Silence line. We have several on the farm that we're really excited about.”

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