Tattersalls August Sale | Horse Racing Free Tips

Swindler Tops Second Session Of Tattersalls August Sale

Trade continued in strong fashion at the inaugural Tattersalls August Sale with international participation and live internet bidding both featuring strongly on the second day. The top four lots were bought by buyers from Bahrain, Qatar, Hong Kong and the U.S., with two of the four falling to internet bids. The clearance rate was a spectacular 95 percent.

The high-class sprinter Swindler topped the second day of the Tattersalls August Sale after Oliver St Lawrence saw off the attentions of underbidder Steven Hillen to secure the gelding on behalf of Fawzi Nass for 150,000 guineas (US$206,930).

“He is to go to Bahrain, that will be his base,” commented Nass. “He is a very talented horse; he goes on fast ground and can sit off the pace. There might be a race for him on our International Day but he could make up to be good enough to go to Dubai or Saudi.”

The 97-rated Swindler is a dual winner from the family of French 2,000 Guineas winner Make Believe and was fourth last time out in the Stewards' Cup for trainer Ed Walker and owner breeder Bjorn Nielsen.

U.K.-based agent Jamie Lloyd secured the highly rated three-year-old Poet's Voice colt Whisper Not for 90,000 guineas (US$124,158) from the draft of Richard Hannon's East Everleigh Stables.

“He is for Chris Dunn for whom we bought Lady Prancealot, so he will be going to the U.S.,” said Lloyd. “This horse has got a lot of pace and is lightly raced – Richard Hannon said there is some more improvement to come. We have not finalized plans in the U.S. yet – West Coast or East Coast, probably west – but he will come back to the farm first.”

The colt has won his last two starts and was offered with a 'Timeform' rating of 94p, and Lloyd added: “He won that first race by 20l on a slow track at Pontefract and then won again on the faster track at Lingfield. I think he could drop back to a mile in the U.S.”

Owned in training at East Everleigh by owner Michael Pescod, the colt was bought by Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock for 20,000 euros (US$23,647) at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale in 2018.

The Tattersalls August Sale continues at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 26 with the third and final session.

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Home Secretary Visits Tattersalls As Swindler Steals The Show

NEWMARKET, UK—Britain’s Home Secretary Priti Patel MP paid a surprise visit to Tattersalls on Tuesday and will doubtless have had impressed upon her, by those depending on international trade ahead of the major sales of October and December, the importance of lifting quarantine restrictions for incoming buyers.

In the current climate, it is impossible to imagine the packed sales ring at Tattersalls on a dark, crisp December evening as a potential blockbuster mare comes under the hammer. Hopefully we will return to those moments of thoroughbred theatre in time, and in the meantime the bloodstock community is doing its level best to carry on buying and selling horses under previously unimaginable restrictions.

With that in mind, it was heartening to see the tempo quicken a notch on Tuesday after a solid start to the August Sale. Figures across all sectors rose a level from the opening session and again the most impressive indicator was a clearance rate of 95%. This is twofold, of course: on one hand buyers are there, either in person or online, and on the other, owners keen to move horses on are being realistic when setting reserves.

As buyer confidence increases in the use of online platforms, a rising number of bids were placed remotely, but Bahraini trainer Fawzi Nass attended the sale in person, along with his regular agent Oliver St Lawrence, and was successful in seeing off Stephen Hillen for the top lot of the day. That honour fell to the Bjorn Nielsen-bred sprinter Swindler (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) (lot 332), who has shown signs of a wayward tendency in going to post for his races but plenty of talent coming back, as his rating of 97 suggests. Interested parties pushed the price to 150,000gns for the 4-year-old, who has won two of his eight starts, both at Ascot.

“He is a very talented horse, he goes on fast ground and can sit off the pace. There might be a race for him on our international day, but he could make up to be good enough to go to Dubai or Saudi,” said Nass, who confirmed that the former Ed Walker trainee would be based in Bahrain.

Nass also picked up Dark Angel (Ire) gelding Deep Intrigue (GB) (lot 459), for 75,000gns and has plans to race him in Dubai. The 4-year-old was a five-time winner for Clipper Logistics when trained by Mark Johnston and was runner-up in last season’s listed Spring Cup.

Moyglare Stud’s homebred Desert Highway (Ire) (lot 345), a Dubawi (Ire) half-brother to Irish St Leger winner Royal Diamond (Ire) (King’s Best) and G2 Ribblesdale S. winner Princess Highway (Ire) (Street Cry {Ire}), will also be heading east after being bought by Qatar’s champion trainer Gassim Mohammed Ghazali for 82,000gns. Formerly trained by Dermot Weld, the 3-year-old colt has placed once in his three starts to date.

Jamie Lloyd went to 90,000gns for lot 470, Whisper Not (GB) (Poet’s Voice {GB}), who has won his last two starts over 10 furlongs in July and is now bound for America. The agent was acting on behalf of Chris Dunn, whose previous success racing European-breds in the United States includes being one of the owners of GI American Oaks winner Lady Prancealot (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}).

“This horse has got a lot of pace, and is lightly raced—Richard Hannon said there is some more improvement to come,” said Lloyd of the 3-year-old colt.

“He won that first race by 20 lengths on a slow track and then won again on the faster track at Lingfield. I think he could drop back to a mile in the U.S.”

During the first two days of the August Sale, more than 200 lots have had bids placed on them online and around 20% have been sold in this manner. That was the case for Shared Belief (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}) (lot 357), who was sold to C H Wong via the internet bidding platform for 80,000gns. The 91-rated 3-year-old will continue his career under trainer David Ferraris in Hong Kong.

David Spratt of Gaelic Bloodstock was another to take advantage of the online facility and he bought lot 436, Georgeville (GB) (Dawn Approach {Ire}) for 75,000gns. The 3-year-old colt was the leading light of the Juddmonte Farms draft and was previously trained by Dermot Weld, who also trained his winning dam Big Break (GB) (Dansili {GB}) and her decorated full-brother Famous Name (GB).

With this being the inaugural August Sale, there are no comparative figures, but a further 2,932,200gns was added to the sale’s turnover on Tuesday, with only nine of the 172 horses offered failing to find a buyer. The average price was 17,989gns and the median was 12,000gns—both up on the opening session.

The final session of the sale begins at 10am on Wednesday.

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Demand Remains Strong For Form Horses

NEWMARKET, UK—The concept of a horses-in-training sale in August had already been welcomed and the initial response to the new three-day Tattersalls fixture seemed solid enough on Monday as, once again, a decent clearance rate of 84% was the most promising statistic of the day.

With 200 horses put through the ring, 167 found new homes, bringing a first-day aggregate of 1,871,800gns. This is not the level of trade once normally associates with the higher-profile Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale, but it served a purpose and once again fed a consistently voracious international appetite for bloodstock from this part of the world. The day’s average was 11,208gns and median 6,000gns.

Even with restrictions in place, an array of buyers was able to assemble at Park Paddocks, but technology is playing an increasingly important role in bloodstock sales this year and the winning bid for the top-priced lot of the day came via Tattersalls’ live internet bidding platform from Bahrain.

Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa of Al Adiyat Racing is now the proud new owner of The Queen’s homebred Cloud Drift (GB) (Toronado {Ire}), who will depart Michael Bell’s Fitzroy House Stables to be aimed at an appearance on Bahrain’s big race day.

“I am excited to have purchased the horse with the target of running in a valuable 0-100 handicap over a mile on Bahrain International Cup day, a meeting which also features the £500,000 Bahrain International,” reported the sheikh after buying lot 188 for 75,000gns.

Bred by The Queen from the four-time winner Humdrum (GB) (Dr Fong), the 3-year-old Cloud Drift has won once in each of his two seasons of racing and was sold with a rating of 89.

Cloud Drift’s former trainer Michael Bell is a fan of timing of the new sale. He said, “I hope it stays. The July Sale can come up quite quickly in the season. The timing in August allows us to run horses at the summer festivals—Royal Ascot, July meeting, Goodwood—and then sell ahead of the yearling sales, which helps owners know where their finances are if they wish to reinvest.”

Another of the day’s top lots to be heading to the Middle East is Soldierpoy (GB) (lot 96). The 2-year-old son of Sepoy (Aus) who was bought for 67,000gns by Will Douglass for Qatar-based Injaaz Stud.

“This horse has rock-solid form,” said Douglass of the 79-rated gelding who has been in the first three in all three of his starts for in-form trainer Tom Clover, including winning a Thirsk novice race and finishing third to Happy Romance (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}) in the valuable Weatherbys Super Sprint. “The trainer has done a good job with him. He’s strong and sound, and should do a job for us.”

He added, “We tried to buy him a month ago and Happy Romance has won again since then. This is a great time of year to have a sale of this type. It suits everyone buying for an overseas market. At present [in the Middle East] they are not racing because it is high summer, so we buy them, and then ship them over which gives them time to acclimatise before they restart racing in September. The July Sale which is a very good sale, but this suits us better and I hope they keep it.”

One of a small number of mares in the sale, Mzyoon (Ire), an unraced Galileo (Ire) half-sister to crack sprinter Society Rock (Ire) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), was sold with a colt foal at foot by Exceed And Excel (Aus) for 58,000gns.

Bidding on behalf of Sheikh Sabah Al Sabah of Kuwait, Peter Harper signed the ticket for the 7-year-old mare, who was offered by the Castlebridge Consignment.

He said, “As a mare by Galileo she was hugely appealing. She will go to Derek Iceton at Tara Stud where all of the Sheikh’s mares board. We think she was value at that price. We will decide on plans for this foal, who will likely be sold as a yearling.”

The mare’s new owner has been represented on the racecourse this season by juvenile filly The Flying Ginger (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}), who won on debut earlier this month for trainer Roger Fell.

Continuing the international theme of buyers for the day’s more expensive offerings, Dr Johnny Hon stepped in to buy lot 162, Sir Oliver (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), for 50,000gns. The brother to Group 1-winning sprinter Mecca’s Angel (Ire) was bought for the owner from Richard Hughes’s Weathercock Stables by Tim Hide.

“We will get him home and give him a bit of a break before getting him back in for an all-weather campaign,” said Hide. “He looks a fast horse, he has a very fast sister, and he should be better in time as a 4-year-old.”

Trade resumes at Park Paddocks at 10am on Tuesday.

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New Tattersalls Fixture Gets Underway

There’s nothing very familiar about this year, and in an ever-changing sales schedule, a new auction takes place this week at Tattersalls. The mixed August Sale was originally intended to take place over two days but, such was the demand for places, it has been extended to three, starting on Monday at Park Paddocks.

That a sale consisting largely of horses in training has attracted such a large entry so soon after the traditional Tattersalls July Sale is not necessarily a positive sign for British racing. But while some owners are clearly eager to move horses on, the sale was welcomed in some quarters for the fact that it takes place before the start of the yearling sales, thus giving people a chance to reinvest, and we must all hope that is indeed what happens.

The July Sale performed remarkably well this year, with 330 of the 344 horses offered being sold at an extraordinary 96% clearance rate. Tattersalls will be delighted if a similar level of trade is seen this week for the 600 or so horses who will appear once withdrawals are taken into account.

Recent form always counts for plenty at such auctions and the well-related Surf Dancer (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), who sells as lot 706 from William Haggas’s Somerville Lodge, has a York listed win to his credit this season among his three wins from eight starts.

Among five horses consigned by Ballydoyle is Battle Of Liege (War Front) (lot 386), a 3-year-old brother to Evie Stockwell’s Group 1 winners Hit It A Bomb and Brave Anna who won a novice race last season and is currently rated 82.

Breeders on the lookout for a filly with a decent page will doubtless peruse the drafts from major breeders Juddmonte and Shadwell. Among the draft of 21 fillies, colts and geldings from Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms is lot 445, Sophistry (GB) (Make Believe {GB}), an unraced half-sister to G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner Epicuris (GB) (Rail Link {GB}) whose juvenile Frankel (GB) half-sister has been placed in France since the catalogue was printed. Also of dual-purpose or international interest is the 104-rated 5-year-old gelding Crossed Baton (GB) (Dansili {GB}) (lot 423), who was a listed winner at three and four over 10 furlongs.

There is also one wild-card entry, an 80-rated 2-year-old filly who will be sold on Monday as lot 199A. Named Ocean Star (Ire), the daughter of Adaay (Ire) is trained by Archie Watson and won over seven furlongs at Chepstow on Aug. 14 after finishing runner-up in two of her three previous starts.

Tattersalls’ Park Paddocks sales ground will be extra busy this year with the Ascot Yearling Sale having been relocated there on its new date of Sept. 7, followed by the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, which is also being staged in Newmarket this year, from Sept. 21 to 23.

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