Cameras At The Ready As Flash Offers Blackbeard’s Sister

By Brian Sheerin and Emma Berry

KILDARE, Ireland–Blackbeard (Ire) has blazed a trail on the track this season and, less than a week after doubling his Group 1 tally when running out an impressive winner of the Middle Park S. at Newmarket, his little sister will go under the hammer at the Orby Sale on Tuesday, which gets underway at 9.30am.

The No Nay Never filly will be sold by Flash Conroy of Glenvale Stud and is one of the most important lots of the entire sale given the exploits of her older brother this year.

But there's only so far a yearling can piggy back off its vaunted sibling, according to Conroy, who says lot 93 has a physique to match her page.

“She's very good-looking, a lovely filly,” Conroy said on Monday. “Listen, we're looking at her all year and every day that Blackbeard ran was a big day for us.

“It's very rare in this game when you get the big updates on the page but you can stand over the physical of the horse that you are going to sell. It matches up in this case.”

Blackbeard has gone from strength to strength for Aidan O'Brien and the colt may not be finished yet. He has won six of his eight starts and, after following up on his Prix Morny victory in the Middle Park, O'Brien suggested he could run again before the year is out, possibly in the Dewhurst.

But Blackbeard has more than done his job as far as Conroy is concerned, with the leading consignor describing his offering as being up there with the best he has sold in recent times, which is saying plenty.

“Blackbeard is the top 2-year-old sprinter around. Watching him win, that's what this game is all about. If you don't get a kick out of that, you may as well give this game up.”

Conroy added, “We've had some very good horses in recent years and she is another. We sold Minzaal (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), Pretty Gorgeous (Fr) (Lawman {Fr}), and Flotus (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}), so we've had a good old time of it. This filly has all the physical attributes that you look for. She's a really good filly.”

Staffordstown's Rare Jewel

At the Lanwades/Staffordstown boxes on Monday much of the talk centred on Kirsten Rausing's five-time Group 1 winner Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who heads to the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Sunday.

“I'll be off my food by Sunday,” joked the filly's trainer Sir Mark Prescott as he tucked into soup and sandwiches handmade by Catriona Oxx and reminisced about Sea The Stars (Ire) with her husband John, who also trained Sinndar (Ire) to win the Arc in 2000.

Rausing herself admits that she will probably be a “bundle of nerves” by Sunday, and Alpinista is not her only star filly to be travelling to Longchamp as dual Group 2 winner Sandrine (GB) (Bobby's Kitten) is being aimed at the G1 prix de la Foret. But before thoughts can turn to Paris she has the equally important task of selling a half-sister to two more Group 1-winning Lanwades graduates, the brothers Time Warp (GB) and Glorious Forever (GB), both of whom are by the stud's late stallion Archipenko. Their younger sister, set to sell late on Wednesday as lot 490, is the sole yearling by Dubawi (Ire) in the catalogue, making her something of a standout. 

“I have a really nice Sea The Stars filly also and obviously we wanted to separate them, so the Sea The Stars goes to Tatts and the Dubawi filly came here. My thoughts were that there would be fewer Dubawi yearlings here, and in fact she's the only one,” said Rausing. 

“She was always an outstanding filly and she merits her place in the limelight. Her brothers both won the same Group 1 in Hong Kong, and the elder brother (Time Warp) won a further two Group 1s.”

Staffordstown, the Irish sister stud to Newmarket-based Lanwades, topped this sale in 2007 when selling the filly subsequently knowns as Jane Eyre (GB) – a half-sister to Alpinista's dam Alwilda (GB) (Hernando {Fr}) – for €2.4 million to Coolmore. Two years ago, for the more humble sum of £110,000, Rausing sold recent St Leger winner Eldar Eldarov (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}).

Meanwhile the International success of Lanwades continues, with the likes of  Zaaki (GB) and Le Don De Vie (GB), both by Leroidesanimaux (Brz), reaping group-race success in Australia.

Rausing continued, “I think I am right in saying that we have sent 11 Lanwades-breds down to Australia in the last few years. All 11 have run, one has only run once, ten have won, and seven have won black-type races. I suppose what it means is that I seem to breed horses that go distances the Australians like.”

No matter how out of fashion middle-distance races become in various parts of the world, there are few breeders who wouldn't dream of winning the Arc, and Rausing is justified to travel to Longchamp with high hopes of doing just that.

Of Alpinista she added, “She's obviously very special, as were her ancestresses Albanova (GB), her granny, and Alborada (GB), her great aunt in human terms.

“You're in this game so long that one tries to submerge any feeling of nervousness which I think I am fairly good at, because we all know that there are so many things that can go wrong. But if all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle actually fall into place it is so amazing one can hardly believe it.”

Staffordstown also offers four colts by the Lanwades first-season sire Study Of Man (Ire), including lot 236, who is out of the Group 3 winner Starlit Sands (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) and is a half-brother to the dam of the aforementioned Sandrine.

Altior's Brother 'Going Down Like A Bomb' 

Fresh off the back of another productive September Yearling Sale at Tattersalls Ireland, Mark Dreeling of Coole House Farm offers the quirkiest colt at the Orby Sale in lot 86, a Mastercraftsman (Ire) half-brother to Altior (Ire), one of the greatest two-mile chasers in modern times.

Dreeling admitted that the colt, who was a late June foal, was always going to struggle to make it to a National Hunt foal sale, even if that would have been the most natural place to sell Paddy Behan's youngster.

However, the consignor, flanked by the enthusiastic breeder at Barn M, described himself as pleasantly surprised about how well the colt has been received by buyers.

Dreeling said, “He was foaled late so it was always going to be a struggle to get him to the National Hunt foal sales. We contemplated bringing the half-brother by Camelot (GB) here a few years ago but decided against that.

“This lad came along and we thought he might be a novelty horse here and he's gone down like a bomb. Paddy was astute in his thinking. Himself and his wife Rosie have done all the hard work. Goffs were eager to have him and we said, 'why not?' He's going down terribly well.”

Monte Solaro (Ire) (Key Of Luck) has been a dream broodmare for the Behans, with four-time Cheltenham festival hero Altior flying the flag for the pedigree, and Tuesday's offering is likely to be the last out of the 22-year-old.

However, Behan will continue to breed from the family after revealing that he recently struck a deal to buy Princess Leya (Ire) (Old Vic {GB}), a half-sister to the legendary dual Champion Chase winner.

The post Cameras At The Ready As Flash Offers Blackbeard’s Sister appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Goffs, It’s Good To Be Back

KILDARE, Ireland–There's no denying that bloodstock sales are an important part of the business but it is what happens on the racecourse that truly counts and recent events have put an extra spring in the step of a number of breeders at Kildare Paddocks ahead of the start of the Goffs Orby Sale.

Standing outside her draft of six from Staffordstown on Monday morning was Kirsten Rausing, chatting happily with her staff and brand new director of the stud John Oxx. Rausing broke off every now and then to accept congratulations from passers-by on the second Group 1 win for her homebred Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in Cologne on Sunday. One of those passing was fellow owner/breeder Liz Barry of Manister House Stud, whose Astadash (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) had won the previous weekend's G3 Denny Cordell Lavarack & Lanwades Fillies S. The race is sponsored by Rausing, who was delighted to see a photo of Barry's grandson Alex holding aloft the giant trophy won by their homebred.

“We all know how much can go wrong with horses,” said Rausing with the experience of a breeder of some 50 years' standing, who has learnt, as we all must, to appreciate the good days. 

Fortunately there have been many good days this year for the horses racing in her white and green-hooped colours, as well as for those who started their days in the paddocks of Lanwades and Staffordstown. The weekend started in excellent fashion when Zaaki (GB) (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}) extended his group-race winning streak to five when landing the Underwood S., his second Group 1 victory in Australia for British ex-pat trainer Annabel Neasham.

Later that afternoon, Rausing was on the Rowley Mile to watch Sandrine (GB) (Bobby's Kitten), already the winner of the G2 Duchess of Cambridge S. and G3 Albany S., finish third in the G1 Juddmonte Cheveley Park S. And the breeder was already in Ireland on Sunday afternoon by the time the Sir Mark Prescott-trained Alpinista emulated her grandam  by winning the Preis von Europa 17 years after Albanova (GB) (Alzao) made Germany her own in a glorious summer of three Group 1 victories in Dusseldorf and Cologne.

Germany's leading older horse Torquator Tasso (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}) and top 3-year-old Sisfahan (Ger) (Isfahan {Ger}) fought out a thrilling finish to the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden earlier this month, but Alpinista has got the better of both of them independently, the former when she won the Grosser Preis von Berlin in August, while Sisfahan was third in Sunday's Preis von Europa.

So prolific is the Lanwades 'AL' family that it is no surprise that four relations of Alpinista feature among the Staffordstown draft, including a Sea The Stars (Ire) colt out of the G3 Oh So Sharp S. runner-up Alamode (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}), who features as lot 336. The only filly in the consignment (lot 337) features Lanwades stallions on both sides of her pedigree: the daughter of Sea The Moon (Ger) is the first foal of Albizzia (GB) (Archipenko), whose Galileo (Ire) half-sister Alegra (GB) has already produced two stakes winners. 

Rausing takes understandable pride that all 20 horses whose names appear in bold type on Albinista's pedigree page were bred at Lanwades, and it is doubtless the long-term thinking, planning and devotion to cultivating various families that has led to a record-breaking season for Lanwades on the racecourse this year. 

Power To The Breeders 

Similar comments apply to Patrick Burns of Newlands House Stud, whose draft of four contains a full-brother to another of this season's Group 1-winning fillies, Winter Power (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {Ire}), herself a graduate of the 2019 Orby Sale.

The breeder points to the catalogue page on the door of the colt who will sell as lot 294 on Wednesday and highlights the names to have appeared since he bought Winter Power's grandam Nordic Living (Ire) (Nordico) as a 4-year-old from Jim Bolger's Glebe House for IR£1,200 in 1995. 

“The family's been good to me, and so has the stallion,” Burns said of the clan which includes Winter Power's listed-winning half-sister Hay Chewed (Ire) (Camacho {GB}) and G2 Ridgewood Pearl S. winner Devonshire (Ire) (Fast Company {Ire}).

The stallion in question is his brother Maurice's Bungle Inthejungle, resident of Rathasker Stud and sire of another member of the Newlands House Stud draft (lot 370), the full-brother to G2 Lowther S. victrix Living In The Past (Ire). He has indeed been good to Burns, but then good breeders help to make stallions, too.

Tally-Ho Stud's season just keeps getting better and better, latterly thanks to one of the standout juvenile colts of the year, Perfect Power (Ire) (Ardad {Ire}), who on Saturday added the G1 Juddmonte Middle Park S. to his earlier successes in the G1 Darley Prix Morny and G2 Norfolk S. The enjoyment is undoubtedly extra sweet given that Tally-Ho also bred Perfect Power's sire Ardad–one of two freshman stallions to have supplied the winners of Newmarket's Group 1 races at the weekend, the other being Caravaggio, whose daughter Tenebrism came with a late flourish to land the Juddmonte Cheveley Park S.

Perfect Power's three-parts sister by Kodiac (GB) features among a strong draft from the stud as lot 214, alongside another five yearlings by Tally-Ho's flagship stallion, as well as one by Kodiac's son Kessaar (Ire), who has his first yearlings for sale this year. That colt (lot 384) is out of Bisous Y Besos (Ire) (Big Bad Bob), a mare who has already worked well with another of the farm's young stallions, Galileo Gold (GB), to produce Oscula (Ire), who has provided three updates since the catalogue was printed in winning the G3 Prix Six Perfections and finishing third in both the G2 Prix du Calvados and G2 Rockfel S. on Saturday.

Time For Rest

Another whose page has had a major boost since publication of the catalogue is lot 205, Tinnakill House's Dandy Man (Ire) half-sister to the GI Saratoga Derby Invitational S. winner State Of Rest (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}). The filly may have been bred just down the road from Goffs but the page has a proper transatlantic feel to it. Her dam Repose is an unraced daughter of Quiet American, while the third dam is the champion race filly It's In The Air (Mr Prospector), whose 16 wins include five Grade 1s, while her dynasty boasts such names as the Group 1 winners Storming Home (GB) and Musical Chimes.

Not only has the major win for State Of Rest–who has recently touched down in Melbourne for the next stage of his globetrotting tour–improved the page significantly but the mare's next foal, 2-year-old Tranquil Lady (Ire) (Australia {GB}), won at Galway on Sept. 7 for the same connections, Teme Valley Racing and Joseph O'Brien.

“It's all happening in the family, it's very exciting,” said Dermot Cantillon of Tinnakill House, who bought the grandam Monaassabaat (Zilzal) at Goffs back in 2007 from the late Sheikh Maktoum Al Maktoum's Gainsborough Farm. “She's a lovely filly and seems to be going down very well.”

Marju Magic For Oghill House Stud

Oghill House Stud has had notable success through daughters of Marju (Ire), with Mauresmo (Ire) having produced the G1 Racing Post Trophy winner Marcel (Ire) (Lawman {Fr}), while another son of Invincible Spirit (Ire), the first-season sire Profitable (Ire), has also worked well with Marju to produce this year's G2 Queen Mary S. victrix Quick Suzy (Ire). The racy full-brother to that filly appears early in Wednesday's session as lot 247.

“We've always been big fans of Invincible Spirit and we bred his first ever winner,” said Hugh Hyland. “We are also fans of his sons, which was why we used Profitable. Quick Suzy was such a nice model that we sent the mare back. It's all about the Breeders' Cup now for Quick Suzy and we're looking forward to cheering her on.”

Quick Suzy's dam, the dual winner Snooze (Ire), also has a Belardo (Ire) colt foal on the ground and is now back in foal to Profitable.

The stud also offers a three-parts-sister to Marcel, by Invincible Spirit himself, as lot 123.

A Welcome Return

A beautiful autumnal morning for the final day of viewing added to the sense of joy for many at the sale being back in its rightful home of Kildare. Henry Beeby regularly bounds up and down the stairs next to the Goffs press room with a sprightliness that belies his fifty-something years, and his sectionals were livelier than ever on Monday. 

“We're delighted to be back here,” said the Goffs Group Chief Executive. “This is what it's all about. It is the Irish national yearling sale and it needs to be in Ireland. Vendors are happy because that's where they want to be. It didn't bear contemplating going elsewhere so we're very happy to be here.”

This year's sale also features the return of the Goffs Million, a race that sets out to do exactly what it says on the tin, offering guaranteed minimum prize-money of €1 million. Graduates of this year's Orby Sale are eligible for the seven-furlong contest, which will be staged on the Curragh on Sept. 24, 2022.

Beeby said, “A noted breeder said to me that it isn't that people might come because of the Million, they will have to come. And happily the purchasers have engaged with it and said it's at the right time and at the right trip. Seven furlongs at that time of the year is the stepping stone to Classic distances, and that's what we are aspiring to sell.”

Acknowledging the difficulties faced by the the relocation of the 2020 Orby Sale to the Goffs UK complex in Doncaster, he continued, “It's no secret that last year's sale was a disappointment to us and wasn't what we hoped it would be, so it was important that we were proactive in addressing those issues, and the Million was a key part of that. We looked at lots of different things. There are some very good incentives and bonus schemes around, but generally the consensus was to have something you could get your teeth into–it's got prize-money down to tenth place, and it's got the Group 1 bonus if the winner goes on to win a Group 1 race. We've also appointed new agents in America, and created an entirely new role and agent in England and in France to add to our other agents, and that's been important. After last year we did a lot of talking to a lot of people and we had to be proactive.”

He added, “Time will tell but, happily for us, breeders have backed us with some lovely horses and the standard of the individuals is high. I've been getting some very good feedback over the last few days.”

The Goffs Orby Sale takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday from 10am each day.

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