Tag: Tattersalls December Foal Sale

Freshman Sires All The Rage At Tattersalls

NEWMARKET, UK–With a hundred extra foals catalogued for this year's December Foal Sale, a lengthy opening session conducted in bursts of driving rain then bright sunshine kicked off the four days of trade in a largely positive manner. Both the average and median were up, as was turnover, albeit from a larger number offered and sold this year. Only the clearance rate, at 70%, was down, from 84% last year. The median of 13,000gns represented a 30% rise, while the average was up by 8% at 16,552gns. With 18 more yearlings marked as sold this year, the aggregate was 3,128,300gns.

There's always plenty of interest in the offspring of the first-season sires and leading the charge for the newcomers on Wednesday was Shadwell's smart G1 Sussex S. winner Mohaather (GB), one of a rising number of young sons of Showcasing (GB) at stud who was responsible for the co-top lot (486) who sold for 80,000gns.

Joe Foley has long been a fan of Showcasing, having bought Soldier's Call (GB) as a yearling for Clipper Logistics and now standing him at Ballyhane Stud, while Clipper's Steve Parkin bred his daughter, this year's G2 Queen Mary S. winner Dramatised (GB). Foley had to see off some stiff opposition for the Brook Stud-consigned son of multiple winner Lady Freyja (GB) (Mayson {GB}) who was bred by Jon A. Thompson.

Rifling through the rolodex of bloodstock sales cliches, Foley said with a wide grin, “He looked a real weapon. He comes from a good hotel, was a really good physical and he ticked all the right boxes for us. All the right people were on him; Luke Barry was the underbidder and he's some judge.”

The Ballyhane maestro added, “He was a real Showcasing; he reminded us of Showcasing and of Soldier's Call. The mother was a good race filly, she was rated 90 and was useful, and we bought a Ribchester (Ire) from the same family in Book 3. I actually underbid Mohaather as a yearling so we were really keen to buy one as he was a high-class racehorse. His acceleration in the Sussex was a joy to behold. He looks like a racehorse and we will try to make him a racehorse.”

Consignor Dwayne Woods said, “He was bought by superlative judges, and he is a horse who will go forward and make up into a proper yearling.”

 

The dependable Juddmonte sire Bated Breath (GB) has been a friend to plenty of breeders and that includes Yvonne Jacques of Carisbrooke Stud, who sold her smart filly (lot 346) out of the treble winner Naqaawa (Ire) (Shamardal) to share the top of the table at 80,000gns. Tom Goff, acting on behalf of Surrey-based Rupert Gregson-Williams of Wardley Bloodstock, signed the ticket.

“She is a beautiful filly from a very good farm and with a lovely back pedigree,” said Goff of the relation to dual Group 3 winner Alflaila (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}). “She has loads of class and quality, a good body and good movement. She could race or could come back here next year, we will see how she progresses through the year.

 

In addition to Mohaather, the plethora of first-season sires with their debut crop on display at Tattersalls includes the Whitsbury Manor Stud resident Sergei Prokofiev, who has a huge representation of 67 weanlings in the catalogue and made his presence felt during the first of four foal sessions at Park Paddocks. Charles Shanahan and Glenvale Stud's Flash Conroy signed for two by the son of Scat Daddy, lot 470 at 72,000gns and lot 291 at 40,000gns.

The former, consigned and co-bred by Selwood Bloodstock, is out of the Dutch Art (GB) mare Music Lesson (GB) from a family which includes dual Group 2 winner and French-based sire Triple Threat (Fr) and  multiple Group 1 winner Canford Cliffs (Ire).

Shanahan said, “The sire seems to be getting gorgeous-looking horses from what we have seen. He was obviously in training at Ballydoyle and it was thought that he had an awful lot of potential. We are thrilled to get one that looks like he does–he is a great mover with loads of scope, loads of strength, everything you look for in a foal that you want to sell on as a yearling. He was definitely the one we wanted to buy today.”

He added, “I was so impressed with his stock. Flash collected one earlier today so we are very keen on the sire and let's hope for everyone he can kick on over the next two years. This colt goes back to Ireland and Glenvale.”

Lot 291, offered by his breeders WHR John and Partners, is out of the multiple-winning Strategic Prince (Ire) mare Livella Fella (Ire), who has been mated exclusively with Whitsbury Manor Stud stallions and is the dam of Mai Alward (GB), one of the many first-crop winners for Havana Grey (GB) this season.

Sergei Prokofiev's 20 weanlings sold during the opening session sold for an average of 19,400gns from his initial fee of £6,000.

Kildangan Stud-based Earthlight (Ire), whose stock sold well at Goffs last week, is another freshman to have a weanling feature prominently on Wednesday in lot 446. Bred by Alex and Olivia Frost's Ladyswood Stud and consigned on their behalf by Barton Stud, the April-born colt is a son of the Group 3-placed Some Spirit (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) from a family that stretches back to the influential matriarch Park Appeal (Ire) and includes the stallions Cape Cross (Ire), Iffraaj (GB) and Diktat (GB). He was bought by Yeomanstown Stud for 65,000gns.

Barton Stud manager Tom Blain said, “He's a cracking colt, bred at Ladyswood, which is a lovely farm and they are great people, we love selling for them.

“The colt came here and performed well and we got a good price, I hope Yeomanstown does well with him. He is just really nice type, and I like the stock that I have seen by Earthlight.”

Continuing the freshman theme, Newsells Park Stud resident Without Parole (GB) was represented by a colt from the draft of Natton House Thoroughbreds (lot 274), who took an early lead during the morning when sold at 46,000gns. The March-born weanling is also a first for his young dam, the dual winner Image Of The Moon (GB) (Mukhadram {GB}) and was bought by Julie Wood under her Woodstock banner.

Wood's famous colours have been represented by plenty of successful runners from the Hannon stable over the years, including Zebedee (GB) and Olympic Glory (Ire), and this season she tasted victory with Rich (GB), who is by another son of Frankel (GB) in Cracksman (GB).

“I thought I'd get in on the Frankel line again and his first-season sire son Without Parole,” she said. “This is a nice foal, he looks quite compact at the moment, has a touch of class and is a good walker.”

Without Parole was the sire of five youngsters to go through the ring on Wednesday for an average price of 26,000gns.

Kameko and Arizona (Ire) were also among the top lots of the day with a colt each sold at 45,000gns. The Kameko colt (lot 398) was offered by his home stud of Tweenhills and was pinhooked by Eddie O'Leary of Lynn Lodge Stud.

Meanwhile the Arizona colt from the family of Bushranger (Ire) was bought from Derek and Gay Veitch's Ringfort Stud by brothers Paul and Jim McCartan.

Roger Marley, better known as a breeze-up pinhooker, signed up an Iffraaj (GB) colt (lot 336) with a good recent update for 55,000gns from the draft of Baroda Stud. The weanling's juvenile half-brother Tyndrum Gold (GB) (Muharrar {GB}) won on debut on Nov. 2 for Roger Varian and Opulence Thoroughbreds.

Bred by the Reed family's Copgrove Hall Stud, the colt is out of a winning full-sister to the prolific sprinter La Cucaracha (GB) (Piccolo {GB}), winner of the G1 Nunthorpe S. among her seven victories.

Park Paddocks returns to action tomorrow with another 10 a.m. start.

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Prokofiev In Right Key For Huge Tatts Debut

Ed Harper will never forget the time he first encountered Sergei Prokofiev in the flesh. The Whitsbury Manor Stud director was at the Rowley Mile for the G3 Cornwallis S., anticipating a big run from Heartwarming (GB) (Showcasing {GB}), a farm-bred filly leased to the Hot To Trot syndicate with Clive Cox.

“We fancied her heavily,” Harper recalls. “She'd been doing some very smart work, we knew we hadn't quite seen the best of her, today was the day. But then I saw Sergei Prokofiev in the pre-parade ring and thought, 'Crumbs, we could be in a bit of trouble here.'”

After all, the son of Scat Daddy had cost the Coolmore partners $1.1 million at the Keeneland September Sale the previous year, a graduate of David Anderson's exemplary nursery in Ontario. Though out of a Tapit half-sister to a graded stakes-winning juvenile, his overall pedigree was solid rather than sensational–an adjective that instead applied, unequivocally, to his physique.

In the event, Heartwarming found herself hopelessly stuck in traffic. But while Harper was vexed at the time, four years on he can look back at the winner's flamboyant performance as a platform for what has proved the most successful stallion launch in Whitsbury's history.

“Heartwarming got absolutely locked up,” Harper recalls. “I don't think Frankie [Dettori] even raised his whip, he was in a pocket the whole way. But meanwhile Sergei Prokofiev was just sidling out the back as if it were a half-pace spin, took a right-hand turn and overtook them all in three strides. It wasn't just the way he quickened up. He'd almost been tripping over heels, in fact I think he did at one point. It was just flabbergasting. If any of our clients ever asks me, 'Why this horse?' I just say go and watch the Cornwallis, and it answers the question.”

Enough of them did so for Sergei Prokofiev to cover 154 mares in 2021, making him not only the most popular new stallion ever launched by Whitsbury but also the busiest rookie of the intake. Partly that reflected a competitive opening fee of £6,500 (meanwhile trimmed to £6,000), but breeders obviously liked what they saw this spring with as many as 150 mares also crowding into the horse's second book.

As a result, the Foal Sale at Tattersalls this week is a pivotal moment in Sergei Prokofiev's new career. His footprint in the auction is quite staggering, with no fewer than 67 of his debut crop (before withdrawals) equating to nearly 6% of the catalogue.

The horse made a positive sales debut at Goffs last week, six foals all finding a new home at an average €34,167. But Tattersalls obviously promises to be a much headier experience for Harper and his team, not least with six Sergei Prokofiev colts and a filly among their own draft (two others scratched).

“I've been counting down the days, really,” Harper admits. “We know we've some lovely Sergei Prokofievs to sell, and our clients have been telling me likewise. Obviously the odd person has been slightly surprised to see how many he has in there. While he covered a good book in his first season, it was still less than a lot of other stallions cover, and it's really just a symptom of the way our good, regular clients include a very high proportion who sell as foals. Your typical small British breeder, for lots of different reasons, is probably leaning more towards being a foal vendor. And, at that level of nomination, a lot of our clients are among them.”

In fairness, his fee takes a lot of the pressure off those commercial breeders who appreciate the farm's candid orientation towards speed–with stellar results, once again, in the case of leading freshman Havana Grey (GB).

“Goffs went very well for Sergei,” Harper says. “They all sold, which is great, and at a very good average. The thing about his kind of fee is that you're not sweating over it for two years. I always feel that customers who make 30 or 40 grand off a six grand cover are a lot more relaxed than those that have to get massive numbers back.”

Next week is actually the consummation of something close to an obsession for Harper, tracing to long before that memorable exhibition in the Cornwallis. And, for that, he feels indebted to staff he can trust to maintain the smooth functioning of the farm.

“I think a big part of why we've been able to grow is that we have such a fantastic team here, who allow me to watch an awful lot of racing,” he explains. “It almost sounds like I'm shirking my duties, but I've learnt that it's actually the other way round. My job is to know what's happening on the racecourse. A lot of people in our industry only tend to watch races in which they have an interest. But while we're lucky enough to have four stallions with a lot of runners, I do try to watch every single 2-year-old race right through to October, November. That makes me sound like the saddest person on the planet, which I might well be. But it does mean I'm watching every race live, getting information real time, and that way I think it sinks in much deeper. And Sergei Prokofiev was one that hit me between the eyes with his first couple of runs.”

Ballydoyle gave him his debut in early April, when odds-on for a maiden at Dundalk only to be shaded in a photo by Skitter Scatter, likewise by Scat Daddy but with a run under her belt.

“I bet they were very disappointed he got beaten but he wasn't given a hard time and that filly went on to win the [G1] Moyglare Stud S.,” Harper notes. “She was a precocious little rocket, absolutely pin-ready that day. Sergei's a big strapping horse so, with what I know about him now, it's amazing to think that he was debuting as early as that. He went on to win his next race by eight lengths and never looked back. To get that size and stature and pedigree, combined with the fact that he was putting in those serious performances in April, you really don't see that too often. That's why he hit my radar so early.”

With hindsight, Harper is relieved that Sergei Prokofiev couldn't follow up his first stakes win in a strong edition of the G2 Coventry S., settling for third behind Calyx (GB) (Kingman {GB}) and Advertise (GB) (Showcasing {GB}): it would have been hard to land the horse, had he won that day. As it was, Sergei Prokofiev only cemented his talent by almost overcoming an awkward draw and a tricky passage from the rear. Similarly, even the rather fitful glimpses of his peak capacity, either side of the Cornwallis, only heightened Harper's interest.

“Because he's all speed, he needed races to fall his way,” he reasons of the 'TDN Rising Star'. “If they went off like scalded cats, he could just trot out the back. If they didn't, he'd pull hard because he wanted to go faster. But all his foals are going to know is that daddy liked to go fast. They're not going to read the form and see that they didn't go quick or whatever. In a perverse sort of way, that only underlined what I wanted to see, which is all speed.”

But there's another important dimension to this horse that needs highlighting. A personal conviction is that an ongoing schism between the American and European gene pools is preventing the kind of cyclical, mutual regeneration historically so critical to the breed's modern development. While Harper would not deny that it is dirt speed–rather than the associated ability to carry it–that primarily interests his farm, he does value the genetic variegation offered to British breeders by a son of Scat Daddy out of a Tapit mare.

“We're going down a black hole, genetically, with the stallion lines,” he says. “Everybody knows that. But it is so difficult to get out of that, when you're trying to buy a commercial stallion prospect. And that's why he was such a good opportunity.”

In those terms, it's a win-win situation. Quite apart from the different brand of speed embodied by Sergei Prokofiev, he's eligible to tap into growing American investment at the European yearling sales while providing a virtually guaranteed outcross for domestic breeders.

“Any time anybody likes the idea of using him, they can,” Harper says. “But the other thing is that very often, when you're putting size and stature into a mare, in Europe you're actually slowing that horse down, pedigree-wise. Whereas this sire-line is working so well, I think, partly because it can put size into that Danzig/Northern Dancer, little, European speed horse, but also maintain the speed. That's particularly useful for our broodmare band, which is full of Green Desert. So we can keep breeding the speed but also put back a bit of size.

“Even two-turn horses in America need speed, they have to get out on the front. And, at the end of the day, gate speed is about fast-twitch muscles. What's amazing with Scat Daddy is that he seems to gel with so many different types of pedigree. When bred to fast mares, Scat Daddy stallions get fast horses; with medium-distance mares, they still get fast horses; but longer-distance mares tend to work just as well. I've been really impressed that Scat Daddy horses get lots of different distances, and also go on lots of different ground.”

While Scat Daddy managed to overcome that transatlantic barrier, achieving widespread recognition in Europe, breeders here don't really have corresponding access to his sons. Caravaggio soon emigrated; Mendelssohn stands alongside his sire's premier performer, Justify, in Kentucky; El Kabeir has departed Ireland for Italy; and No Nay Never's fee has gone way beyond the reach of most. That leaves Sioux Nation, making a promising start in Ireland, plus several young sons of No Nay Never offering a more diluted strain.

So Harper is to be congratulated for spotting a pretty unique opportunity for British breeders. In fairness, he has tried a similar exercise before–again with the son of a stallion that managed to transcend the transatlantic divide primarily through Ballydoyle's enterprising patrons.

“If there is such a thing as a cheap proven horse, Due Diligence is it,” Harper remarks of War Front's son. “His price (£5,000) is governed by the fact that he's had very few runners the last couple of years, simply because he covered very few mares in years two, three and four. But he was champion first first-season sire in Britain by stakes winners–he had three in that first crop, two of them group winners–plus 25 individual winners. Well, if there'd been a first-season sire with those numbers this year, he wouldn't be that far behind Havana Grey and everybody would be talking about him.

“I know we have short memories in this industry, and 2019 seems a long time ago. But if we didn't think he had the right stuff, he wouldn't still be with us. The foals he bred after that first crop are 2-year-olds next year, and they sold very well as yearlings. He actually had his highest average yet. We have a lot of faith in him, we're sending him plenty of mares and I'm really looking forward to next year on the track with him.”

So perhaps Due Diligence could yet slipstream the terrific momentum uniting his studmates: the farm flagship Showcasing (GB) is an established phenomenon, while now there is a real buzz about the two younger guns.

Commercial breeders know how the system works. Fast new stallions will always corral big books, and anyone seeking a Sergei Prokofiev next week will plainly not be short of choice. (His remarkable fertility has contributed: Harper reckons that the farm's busiest ever rookie also had the quietest May of any new stallion, having got most of his mares in foal first time.) The bottom line is that he was priced to give the horse every chance–and he's entitled to capitalise, when you consider the flair of his best performances, his refreshing genes and that knockout physique.

“He's 16.1 and has bone you couldn't ask for,” Harper enthuses. “When he stepped off the lorry and first went into the stable, our stallion manager picked up his leg, just to pick his feet out and have a look at him. And he turned to me with a big smile and said, 'Holy crap, that takes some picking up!' Just the weight of his leg was different gear to the other stallions we have.

“But that just means he offers a different type of physique. I don't want to stand four stallions all offering exactly the same make and shape. At the end of the day, we're a shopkeeper of speed. As long as we're providing that, we want it to come in different shapes and sizes to give people options. He'd be a good 75 kilos heavier than our other stallions. But when you see him on the move, he has a massive, relaxed stride, so he has the athleticism with it–and very soon people are going to see his foals walk as well.

“Watching him in the Cornwallis, I did think that if ever there were a chance to do so, I just had to get involved with this horse–without ever thinking it could actually come off. To cover 150 mares in his second season, we've never been able to touch that. The sky's the limit with this guy.”

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Tattersalls Poised for Blockbuster Finale 

NEWMARKET, UK–There is no doubt that the mares' section of the Tattersalls December Sale will create much of the hoopla at Park Paddocks over the next fortnight. Blockbuster names such as Saffron Beach (Ire), Alcohol Free (Ire), Pearls Galore (GB), and La Petite Coco (Ire) and are set to come under the hammer, not to mention Desert Berry (GB), the dam of this year's G1 Derby winner Desert Crown (GB) back in foal to his sire Nathaniel (Ire).

The Monday and particularly the Tuesday evening sessions of the mares' sale are always frenetic and this year Tattersalls has branded a portion of those days as the Sceptre Sessions, for which an elite collections of fillies and mares have been gathered. That star-studded focus aside, there is still strength in depth to be found across the four days of that catalogue, not to mention two significant warm-up acts in the December Yearling Sale which kickstarts the December-in-November action this Monday, followed by four days of foal action from Wednesday to Saturday.

 

Last Chance For A Yearling

A last chance to buy a yearling at auction in Europe is provided when around 160 youngsters take to the ring for Monday's solo session. Britain's leading sires Dubawi (Ire) and Frankel (GB) hogged the limelight during Book 1 of the October Sale, and while they are sparsely represented here, there are still yearlings to note, including lot 31, the Dubawi daughter of the Wildenstein-bred G1 1000 Guineas winner Miss France (Ire) (Dansili {GB}), and lot 154, Shadwell's colt out of the listed winner and G2 Rockwell S. runner-up Fadhayyil (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}) who has already produced Australian Group 2 winner Turaath (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). Frankel meanwhile features towards the end of the session as the sire of lot 178, from Glenvale Stud, the half-brother to Group 3 winners Peace Envoy (Fr) (Power {GB}) and Our Last Summer (Ire) (Zamindar).

A quartet of yearlings by Invincible Spirit (Ire) features the Voute Sales-consigned half-sister to recent juvenile winner Bedazzling (Ire) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}). Offered as lot 43, she is inbred 3×3 to Invincible Spirit's granddam Eljazzi (GB) (Artaius), while Norris Bloodstock offers lot 112, an Invincible Spirit colt out of the young Frankel mare Aspirer (GB), a Juddmonte-bred daughter of the G1 Prix de Diane winner Nebraska Tornado (Storm Cat) from the family of this year's G1 Irish Derby winner Westover (GB) (Frankel {GB}).

 

Not Just a Pinhookers' Paradise

Tuesday may be considered a dark day at Tattersalls, but it is only in the ring itself that the lights will be out. Around the grounds prospective foal buyers will be hard at it before daylight has even appeared as they assess those on offer during the four sessions of weanlings, with the strongest pedigrees slated for Friday.

Many opinions will already have been formed during a strong opener to the foal sales season at Goffs last week, and this is especially so when it comes to the first glimpses of the stock of the new sires.

Among those already finding favour with buyers at Goffs was the Darley duo of Ghaiyyath (Ire) and Earthlight (Ire), sons of the operation's flagship sires Dubawi and Shamardal, respectively. Former Horse of the Year Ghaiyyath has another 14 on offer at Tattersalls, including lot 685 from Yellowford Farm who is interestingly inbred to Dubai Millennium's dam Colorado Dancer (GB) (Shareef Dancer).

Last year's December Foal Sale was responsible for the highest price for a European weanling for the last 20 years when Genesis Green Stud's Dubawi colt out of Madonna Dell'Orto (GB) was sold for 1.8 million gns. The year prior to that Dubawi had featured as the sire of three of the four top lots but in among them was a Frankel colt from the Dutch Art (GB) mare Suelita (GB) offered by his breeder Whitsbury Manor Stud. Back then he was already a half-brother to juvenile Group 2 winner Alkumait (GB) (Showcasing {GB}), but boy look at him now. Bought for 550,000gns by Juddmonte, named Chaldean (GB), and sent into training with Andrew Balding, the colt is now one of the best in his generation in Europe as the winner of four of his five starts this year including the G1 Dewhurst, G2 Champagne and G3 Acomb S.

This year Whitsbury Manor returns with his half-brother, slated as lot 1025 and by Kingman (GB), who provided the top three lots at the Goffs November Foal Sale, but he is far from the only weanling with enticing updates this year as there are also half-siblings to two of this season's British Classic winners on offer. Kirsten Rausing's St Simon Stud offers a Lope De Vega (Ire) half-brother to G1 St Leger winner Eldar Eldarov (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) as lot 1027, while breeder John Bourke of Hyde Park Stud brings a Mehmas (Ire) half-brother to the G1 1000 Guineas winner Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}) who has been catalogued as lot 1033 in what is bound to be a hectic Friday session.

“Obviously the foal sale is the primary target of the pinhookers, but it's a sale that has had a huge amount of success on the racecourse this year with the likes of Chaldean, Saffron Beach (Ire) and Blackbeard (Ire),” said Tattersalls' marketing director Jimmy George. “And I think, again, it reflects how lucky we are to have the stallions that we have at our disposal at the moment, and I don't think that goes unnoticed. I think with the way the yearling market has gone, the strength of the October yearling sales, which defied gravity to a degree, that gives a great backdrop with which to go into the December Foal Sale.”

 

Western Super Mares

As if the aforementioned mares weren't enough to whet the appetite for four days of trade for breeding prospects, since the catalogue was published some extra big names have been added, including Group 1 winners The Platinum Queen (Ire) and Princess Zoe (Ger). Five years ago the crack sprinter Marsha (Ire) set a new European thoroughbred auction record when selling from Heath House Stables for 6 million gns. Whether that record will be bettered next Monday or Tuesday remains to be seen, but it seems likely, during a run of strong sales around the world, that at least one mare or filly will come close.

“We've got six Group 1-winning race fillies in what is a very strong December Mares catalogue,” George said. “We announced the Sceptre Sessions back in the summer this year. It's clearly struck a chord, the support has been fantastic, and it's great to see the quality of the fillies and mares that have been earmarked for the Sceptre Sessions by the consignors.

“But they're not alone in terms of quality offerings, because there's a plethora of Group 2, Group 3, and stakes-winning fillies as well, and of course a huge number of well-covered, very well-bred mares. It's fantastic to have this sort of quality when we are launching something like the Sceptre Sessions, which are named in tribute to one of the most remarkable race fillies ever, who also had a rich Tattersalls history herself, as a record-breaking yearling way back in the mists of time.”

Among the mares in foal to be offered during the Sceptre Sessions, which collectively number around 90 individuals, is High Heels (Ire), a young stakes-placed daughter of Galileo (Ire) who is in foal for the first time to Siyouni (Fr), representing a cross that has been utilised with notable success in recent years. The 4-year-old is slated as lot 1868 from the Castlebridge Consignment.

In the same Tuesday evening session, Tweenhills Stud, which is selling a bumper draft of 44 mares, offers Qatar Racing's G1 St Leger and G1 QIPCO Champion Fillies and Mares S. winner Simple Verse (Ire) (Duke Of Marmalade {Ire}), who is in foal to Too Darn Hot (GB) on a May 3 cover and is in the book as lot 1886. There is also a decent draft of 18 fillies and mares from The Royal Studs, and while it is not an uncommon name to find on the list of consignors, there is extra poignancy to their presence in the months immediately following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

George continued, “I think we've got some real collectors' items in the catalogue this year and there's been a huge amount of interest from throughout the world ever since we released details of some of the stars that were coming to the sale. It's for a good reason, because the Tattersalls December Mares Sale is widely regarded as the most international sale of its type in the world, and you'd expect a very international crew to descend upon Newmarket in the coming days.”

Dispersals are fairly regular features of the December Sale and this year Philippa Cooper will disperse the stock of her successful Normandie Stud through Newsells Park Stud, with six mares forming part of the second Sceptre Session, including the G3 Prix de Flore winner Loving Things (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), who is offered as lot 1899 in foal to Sea The Stars (Ire).

Poignantly, a partial dispersal is being conducted through New England Stud and Freemason Lodge on behalf of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild's Southcourt Stud. Sir Evelyn, the breeder of a host of good horses topped by Horse of the Year Crystal Ocean (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), died on Nov. 7 at the age of 91.

“We've got two smallish, but nonetheless very good dispersals,” George noted. “It is with sadness that we offer the dispersal from Southcourt Stud, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild's famous nursery. Dispersals are always tinged with sadness, and obviously, with his recent death, it is now even more so. But these families pay a tribute to decades of breeding top-class horses. The great Crystal Ocean, arguably the best horse Sir Evelyn ever bred, will be fresh in everybody's minds as some of these wonderful fillies and mares from his family go through the ring.”

A number of chances to buy into Southcourt's successful 'Crystal' family are presented through the sale, including through an enticing in-training prospect, Crystal Caprice (Ire), a daughter of Frankel (GB) with three wins, listed black type and a rating of 101 to her name. The 3-year-old is catalogued as lot 1895 by her trainer Sir Michael Stoute's Freemason Lodge.

In anticipation of nine days of trade at Tattersalls in the coming fortnight, George concluded, “It has been a spectacular year at Park Paddocks so far and in terms of the strength of the respective catalogues–December Yearlings, December Foals and December Mares–I think we've got all the ingredients to bring the Tattersalls sale season to a fitting close.”

The December Sale action begins on Monday with the yearlings from 11 a.m.

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Three Wildcards Added To Tattersalls December Sale

Half-sister to a pair of Group 1 winners and a colt foal by Mehmas (Ire) are late additions to the Tattersalls December Mares Sale and Tattersalls December Foal Sale.

Five-time winner Nataleena (Ire) (Nathaniel {Ire}), a half-sister to Group 1 winner Bay Bridge (GB) (New Bay {GB}) will sell through The Castlebridge Consignment as lot 1639A. Her dam, the Multiplex (GB) mare Hayyona (GB), is a half-sister to Group 2 victor Shimraan (Fr) (Rainbow Quest). She is in foal to Harry Angel (Ire), who has already sired stakes winners in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Joining Nataleena for the Mares Sale is Houghton Bloodstock's Five Stars (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) (lot 1639B). The sophomore is a dual winner and a half-sister to G1 Prix de Royallieu heroine Loving Dream (GB) (Gleneagles {Ire}), as well as the GI American Oaks third Amandine (GB) (Shamardal). Their dam is Kissable (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), a listed winner and third in the G1 Moyglare Stud S.

Castlefarm Stud will consign the Mehmas colt as lot 725A. He is out of the winning Blissful Beauty (Fr) (Olympic Glory {Ire}), herself a half-sister to Group 2 hero Home Of The Brave (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}).

The Tattersalls December Sale begins with the December Yearling Sale on Nov. 21, followed by the December Foal Sale from Nov. 23-26. The December Mares Sale, featuring the Sceptre Sessions, will begin on Nov. 28 and go until Dec. 1.

The post Three Wildcards Added To Tattersalls December Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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