Tag: time test

Value Sires Part 5: First 3-Year-Olds

In this penultimate edition of the Value Sires Series, we look at stallions that had their first runners last year, and will therefore have their first 3-year-olds in 2022.

With the numbers for 2021 tallied, this group actually appears to be a deep one, with plenty of them having done enough to go into their second years with a legitimate shot to still make it as a sire. While the last two cohorts produced runaway leaders in Mehmas (Ire) and Night Of Thunder (Ire), this year the riches were much more spread out among a group of promising young horses.

Cotai Glory (GB) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) was leading first-season sire of 2021 by winners (35), wins (55), black-type horses (8) and earnings in Europe (£796,103), just shading the expatriated Caravaggio (Scat Daddy). The latter's four stakes winners were headed by the G1 Cheveley Park S. victress Tenebrism (Ire), and also included the G2 Debutante S. and G3 Silver Flash S.-winning and G1 Moyglare Stud S. second Agartha (Ire). Caravaggio has two more Irish-conceived crops to come; he was expatriated to Coolmore's Kentucky satellite Ashford Stud last year and will stand for $35,000 in 2022.

Overbury Stud's Ardad (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) was quick to make his mark last season, and he wrapped up the year with 23 winners and two stakes winners: the G1 Middle Park S., G1 Prix Morny and G2 Norfolk S. winner Perfect Power (GB), and the G3 Sirenia S. scorer Eve Lodge (GB). Ardad also had the G2 Coventry S. third Vintage Clarets (GB). It will be interesting to see how Ardad's progeny develop: he himself won the G2 Flying Childers S. at two but failed to flourish at three. His dam only ran at two but her sire, Red Clubs (Ire), was a Coventry winner who trained on to be a group winner at three and a Group 1 winner at four. Should Ardad's progeny continue their upward trajectory, the breeders who sent 138 mares to him last year at a fee of £4,000 could be handsomely rewarded at the sales. Ardad is up to £12,500 this year.

The nod for leading European-based first-season sire by stakes winners last year went to the National Stud's Time Test (GB) with four. Two of those four were group winners, but Time Test's highest-rated runner thus far is actually the group-placed Sunset Shiraz (Ire), who was placed in the G1 Moyglare Stud S., G2 Debutante S., G3 Park S. and Listed Staffordstown Stud S. last year before breaking her maiden in her seventh start. She is clearly a filly with plenty of ability, and Time Test himself, like his damsire Dansili (GB), was an excellent runner without being a Group 1 winner. A triple group winner and dual Group 1-placed, Time Test stood his first four seasons at the National Stud for £8,500, and is up to £15,000 this year.

Time Test was one of two outstanding sons of Dubawi in this cohort, the other being the Aga Khan's homebred G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud scorer Zarak (Fr). France's leading first-season sire, Zarak sired two stakes winners last year but like Time Test, his highest-earning horse is not yet a black-type winner: that is Purplepay (Fr), who was third in the G1 Criterium International last year before selling to American owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson for €2-million at Arqana's December Sale. After standing his first four seasons for €12,000, Zarak jumps to €25,000 for 2022 and is booked full. Standing for the same fee is Coolmore's Churchill (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who sired three listed winners last year. And though the four-time Group 1 winner and dual Classic winner has not yet provided a pattern-race winner, there is reason to believe there is more to come: Churchill sired more runners rated 100+ by Racing Post ratings last year (6) in this cohort, with an additional four rated 90+.

Profitable (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), as his name suggests, was fast out of the gates with his first runners last spring, and he wound up the year with three stakes winners-and two stakes placed–and 29 overall winners, headed by the G2 Queen Mary S. winner Quick Suzy (Ire). Profitable has been one of the busiest sires of this group and after dipping slightly to €10,000 last year, is up to a career-high €12,500 for 2022.

G1 Prix de la Foret victor Aclaim (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) was busy churning out winners last year, his 27 leaving him not far from the top of the table, and he is available for £6,000 at the National Stud. Ribchester (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}) turned out a noteworthy three 'TDN Rising Stars' in his first year with runners, in addition to the Listed Doncaster S. winner Flaming Rib (Ire), and the four-time Group 1-winning miler is down to a career-low €12,500 in 2022.

VALUE PODIUM

Bronze – El Kabeir (Scat Daddy): Caravaggio wasn't the only son of Scat Daddy to jump up in this group: there was also El Kabeir, Yeomanstown Stud's American purchase who made a big early impression with three stakes winners among his 14 winners. Those were headed by the G2 Gran Criterium scorer Don Chicco (Ire), and El Kabeir also had Harrow (Ire) and Rerouting (Ire) placed respectively in the G3 Tattersalls S. and G3 Solario S. last year. Another indication of the quality of El Kabeir's stock is that he had four runners rated 100+ by RPR last year; a number bettered only by Churchill and Galileo Gold in this group. A Grade II winner at two who trained on to win a Grade III at three, El Kabeir remains at €6,000 in 2022, the same fee at which he stood last year and down slightly from the €8,000 he cost his first three years.

Silver – Galileo Gold (Ire) (Paco Boy {Ire}): In addition to his studmate Cotai Glory, Galileo Gold has provided Tally-Ho Stud with a formidable duo in this sire crop. Like Ardad and Time Test, Galileo Gold provided two group winners last year, and he, Ardad and Caravaggio were the only sires in this group to provide a Group 1 winners in their first season with runners, his being the hardy and admirable G1 Phoenix S. winner and G1 National S. third Ebro River (Ire), while the filly Oscula won the G3 Prix Six Perfections and was placed in the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac, G2 Rockfel S., G2 Prix du Calvados, and G3 Albany S.-those two started a noteworthy nine and 10 times, respectively, last year. Galileo Gold won the G2 Vintage S. and was third in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at two before winning the G1 2000 Guineas and G1 St James's Palace S. at three, and his stock look like they have the scope to train on, with five achieving RPRs of 100+ already. A close relative of the dual Group 1-winning sprinter Goldream (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) from the family of Montjeu (Ire), Galileo Gold stands for €7,000, having dipped to €5,000 in 2021.

Gold – Cotai Glory (GB) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}): this year's leading first-season sire by earnings, winners, wins and black-type horses gains another plaudit by picking up the gold medal on the TDN Value Sires Podium. Cotai Glory melds influences of class and toughness, being by Exceed and Excel out of a daughter of Elusive Quality-also the broodmare sire of successful sires No Nay Never and Deep Field (Aus)-and Cotai Glory exhibited those traits himself, running 30 times across four seasons. He won black-type races in each of his first three seasons and was Group 1-placed at four and five, including when a neck second to Profitable in the G1 King's Stand S. In addition to having three runners rated 100+ by RPR, Cotai Glory has seven rated 90+, providing hope that they, like he, will train on. Cotai Glory is up to a career-high, but still highly reasonable, €8,500 for 2022.

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Jackson Named National Stud Nominations Manager

Jamie Jackson has been appointed nominations manager for The National Stud.

Jackson gained work experience at Whitsbury Manor Stud and New England Stud before joining the BHA graduate programme, during which he was placed at the National Stud for eight weeks, after which he stayed on. Jackson takes over from Joe Callan, who remains within The Jockey Club has interim general manager of Market Rasen Racecourse.

The National Stud's Stud Director Tim Lane said, “Jamie came to us in July 2019 and showed real potential and determination. He has been a brilliant asset to the team and has grown and progressed exceptionally over the last two years. He has built a good client-base here and has been a huge part of the progress the stud has made”

Jackson added, “It's a really exciting time here at the stud, and I am very lucky to be in the position I'm in. Having seen Time Test and Aclaim foals through the summer and in the sales ring when I first started, to now being successful racehorses, has been amazing. The stallion roster is at its highest standard it has been for quite some time, and Tim and I [and co] hope to further evolve it over the coming years.

“Personally, I am very excited to launch Lope Y Fernandez for the 2022 breeding season. He is a hugely exciting horse to be the only son of Lope De Vega standing in England. Also, I feel very lucky to be working alongside Ed Harper, who helped kick-start my career at Whitsbury Manor Stud.”

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Foal Sale Strong To The End At Tattersalls

NEWMARKET, UK–As the prices dipped from Friday's bumper session to a more modest level, so did Newmarket's weather, which settled into relentless icy rain for almost the entire concluding session of foals at Park Paddocks.

Such gloomy exterior conditions could not dim the demand for bloodstock in the ring, however. We're not even into December yet, but Tattersalls can be satisfied with heartening levels of trade at the halfway house of its lengthy December Sale, with just four days of fillies and mares to come from Monday.

On Friday, Genesis Green Stud's Dubawi (Ire) colt brought the hammer down at a whopping 1.8 million gns, a sum not seen for a foal at Tattersalls, or anywhere in Europe, since Urban Sea's daughter My Typhoon (Ire) (Giant's Causeway) sold for the same price 19 years ago. And that had only even been bettered once, five years earlier, when Padua's Pride (Ire) (Caerleon), a sister to Generous, reached an eye-watering 2.5 million gns.

“The highest-priced foal sold in Europe since 2002, 14 of the 15 highest-priced foals sold in Europe this year, turnover in excess of 30 million guineas and a clearance rate bettered only twice this century are all impressive statistics reinforcing the status of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale as the premier sale of its kind in Europe,” said Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony as the sale drew to a close.

“The obvious highlight of the past four days was the spectacular sale of the Swinburn family's outstanding Dubawi colt out of their wonderful mare Madonna Dell'orto for 1.8 million guineas–the highest price for a foal in Europe and North America this year–but the real feature of the 2021 renewal of Europe's premier foal sale has been the unrelenting British and Irish demand from start to finish.” 

That feature has not been reserved for the foal market, with the strength of the yearling sales having more than once this week been cited as a reason for buyers to get in a year early. The extra months of keep are clearly judged as a small price to pay when set against current yearling prices. 

This year's foal catalogue was significantly larger than last, when the December Sale was staged as a further lockdown beckoned, and as a result, 105 more foals were sold in 2021, with 734 of the 906 offered being marked as sold. Naturally, the aggregate improved, by 19% to 31,301,500gns, which was also up on 2019 levels. The median rose by 25% to 25,000gns–beyond that recorded for the last two years–and the average was up slightly, by 2%, to 42,645gns. The clearance rate of 81% also moved up from 79%.

Trade on a solid final day saw the average rise by 22% to 16,557gns when another 2,400,700gns was added to the overall tally for 145 weanlings sold.

Mahony added, “Strong yearling sales drive the foal trade and the significant rises in all the key indicators this week reflect the extraordinary strength of the market throughout the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and also pay tribute to the endeavours of the pinhookers who have worked tirelessly all week. Owners looking for quality foals to race in the future have also made a major contribution to a successful sale, but as ever during the December Foal Sale, Park Paddocks has primarily been the domain of the British and Irish pinhookers, joined by many of their counterparts from throughout Europe. 

“The sustained demand at all levels has been notable and the record number of foals selling for 50,000 guineas or more has demonstrated a depth to the market which is encouraging as we turn our attention to a quality renewal of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale which begins on Monday and showcases the finest breeding stock to be found in Europe.”

Steve Parkin's Clipper Logistics will eventually race the top lot of the final session, a second-crop son of Expert Eye (GB) who had caught the expert eye of that operation's buyer and advisor Joe Foley. The Ballyhane Stud master has his own stallions to promote but he is also well placed to make astute judgments on those standing elsewhere.

“We have supported the sire well in his first years and we have got some very nice yearlings to go into training by him,” said Foley of Juddmonte's son of Acclamation (GB) after buying lot 1136 for 80,000gns from the Trickledown Stud draft. “We are a fan of the sire, he was a very good racehorse from a very good sire line.”

Bred by Alvediston Stud, the colt is out of the Oasis Dream (GB) mare Respondez (GB), a full-sister to the G1 King's Stand S winner Prohibit (GB).

Foley added, “He looks like Prohibit, freakishly like him, and Oasis Dream mares are very good. He was bred by the Wardalls, who are very good breeders. I have seen all the foals out of the mare over the years and he is the best one out of her. Let's hope he can prove that on the track.”

A filly by Bated Breath (GB) (lot 1070) caught the eye of Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock for 67,000gns. Bought to resell, the bay is also out of an Oasis Dream mare, in this case, the winning Adore (GB). Consigned by Clearwater Stud who picked up the dam for 78,000gns out of the 2016 December Mares Sale, the filly is a half-sister to three winners, while her granddam is the listed-winning Fantasize (GB) (Groom Dancer).

“I love Oasis Dream mares,” said Brown. “She has been bought for a syndicate to resell. Bated Breath has been going well in the US, and we bought with an eye on the US market, as a yearling, she might appear to US purchasers in next year's [Tattersalls October] Book 1.”

Weanlings by two of the leading British-based freshman sires of the season, Time Test (GB) and Ardad (Ire), remained in demand through to the end of the foal sale, with pinhookers Pier House Stud (lot 1137) and Oaks Farm Stables (lot 1084) each going to 67,000gns for colts by Time Test, while Tally-Ho Stud gave 64,000gns for a colt by Ardad (lot 1173), the stallion whom they bred and sold at the breeze-ups.

It is early days of course, but Time Test looks an exciting addition to the line-up of stallions at the National Stud and his yearlings and weanlings have been popular throughout this sales season. For 2022, his fee has risen to £15,000 from £8,500, a level which still looks fair considering his weanling average at Tattersalls this week of 33,077gns from 26 sold. 

National Stud manager Tim Lane is naturally delighted with the start Time Test has made. He said, “He's the first stallion I've ever bought and we've all got behind him as a board, going back to the Duke of Roxburghe, and Ben Sangster, Nicholas Wrigley and now Teddy Grimthorpe. And because we own him we've been able to look after people.”

Lane added, “He'll have to cover a big book next year but thankfully he is a very fertile horse and that won't be a problem for him.”

Similar comments apply to Ardad, whose nine foals this week sold for 34,000gns, which stands up favourably to his 2020 fee of £6,500. The question breeders may now be asking themselves is why more of them didn't use him last year, for Ardad has only 19 foals in this year's crop. It will be a different story in 2022 after he covered more than 150 mares earlier this year, and he will likely be in great demand during the forthcoming breeding season, for which his fee is £12,500.

As ever, backing first-season sires is one of the biggest gambles in breeding. Some will hit and plenty will miss, but if you land on the right one early the rewards can be great. It will be several years before we know the fates of the latest intake, but among those with their first foals on offer over the last four days, and with drafts in double figures, Too Darn Hot (GB), Blue Point (Ire), Magna Grecia (Ire), Advertise (Ire) and Ten Sovereigns (Ire) all returned averages in excess of 50,000gns. In fact, in another record for Tattersalls, 204 foals sold throughout the four days reached a price of 50,000gns or more. 

The ring will fall quiet on Sunday as breeders turn their attention to recruiting new broodmares from the final leg of the December Sale, which will get underway on Monday at 9:30 a.m.

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Foals Keep Up Market Momentum at Tatts

by Chris McGrath

NEWMARKET, UK — The world certainly looks a different place from when these babies slithered into the straw. A less frightening one, thankfully, to many breeders, who have been relieved by a remarkable strength and depth in all levels of the market after the global economy absorbed the shock of Covid. So while the Tattersalls December Foal Sale opened in the customary low register, business on Wednesday unequivocally maintained the buoyant morale established in other sectors. Indeed, the clearance rate of 84% was a session record, and likewise the 16 transactions of 40,000gns or more.

In fact, even if you set aside a sale that performed rather better than anticipated last year, business comfortably outstripped even the pre-Covid levels of 2019. Year on year, meanwhile, a virtually identical offering (204 entered the ring, three more than 12 months ago) yielded turnover of 2,624,800gns, up no less than 66% on 1,585,100gns. That translated into a giddy 15,350gns average, up 31% from 11,741gns (10,091gns in 2019); and a 10,000gns median up from 8,000gns (a mere 5,000gns in 2019). Just 33 lots failed to find a new home, compared with 66 last year.

And these figures, in a way, perhaps represent a more instructive harvest than those recorded at the top end. For it is days like this that can tell you most about horses and horsemen alike, and how they respectively cope with the attrition of the market's lower reaches. Many more “obvious” foals will doubtless be offered on Thursday, but the real judges were already at work and their acuity and diligence should, if only the wind keeps blowing behind them, find due reward many of these animals return to market next autumn.

Passing Every Test…

Time Test (GB) is the only rookie stallion in Europe to have mustered four black-type winners from his debut crop but here he owed his latest headlines to the people who stand his rival Ardad (GB), who has matched him with two group scorers.

For it was Overbury Stud who presented a son of the National Stud stallion to achieve the top price of the opening session, at 75,000gns, from Redpender Stud. And Time Test must share the credit for Lot 362 with his dam, Wild Mimosa (Ire) (Dynaformer), who had further decorated what is already an excellent family when the result of their first mating, Love Interest (GB), made a stylish winning debut for David O'Meara at Newcastle since the publication of the catalogue.

Wild Mimosa was confined to a single start in a frustrating career for the Lloyd-Webbers and was culled for 52,000gns to Blandford Bloodstock in this ring four years ago–despite a productive start as a broodmare, and counting two Group 1 winners (Compton Admiral (GB) (Suave Dancer) and Summoner (GB) (Inchinor {GB}) and the dam of champion The Fugue (GB) (Dansili {GB}) among her siblings. It is not difficult to understand why, however, judging from the testimony of Simon Sweeting.

“She's a mare we have to take the foals off straightaway as she savages them,” explained the Overbury Stud manager. “She has done it twice. So we were told not to let her see the foals, and to raise them on foster mares: we have one organised every time now. But she's been a huge success.”

Indeed, her yearling colt by Ardad brought six figures at the October Sale here.

“The 2-year-old looks like she might be okay,” said Sweeting. “She'll go back to Time Test. She was in foal to Ardad, but sadly lost it at 42 days.”

Sweeting declined to be partisan about Ardad's rival, describing him as a very different sire–while “almost” as good. In fact, he has a breeding right in Time Test. “He's a fabulous stallion,” he said. “And he's got a lot farther to go, we're very excited about him. It's great that the National Stud has such a good horse, I'm thrilled about that.”

The new owner of this colt, Jimmy Murphy of Redpender Stud, said: “He's a nice-looking horse by a promising young sire. I've never had a Time Test before, but this one is well-made, so we'll hope for the best. There's a bit going on in the pedigree. I thought less would buy him, but you have to keep bidding if you want one.”

Time Test had another colt stoke up the embers of the session when one of the very last into the ring, presented by his home farm as Lot 433, brought 66,000gns from Michael Fitzpatrick. This is another pinhook project, interestingly about an Apr. 25 foal, but he was certainly an elegant one.

“Time Test is a son of Dubawi and they're doing well,” explained Fitzpatrick, after signing as Good Will Bloodstock. “It's a trend that is becoming apparent. I'd like to have a Time Test to sell next year as I think his first crop will go on again as 3-year-olds.”

 

Hoping For the Stars To Come Out…

The market is gradually waking up to the gift made by Tweenhills in introducing the Australian sensation Zoustar (Aus) at such an inviting fee, and if his first Northern Hemisphere crop lives up to expectations next year then he may prove a very fertile pinhooking medium.

Sure enough, the March colt consigned by Highclere Stud as Lot 355 brought one of the top prices of the day from Billy Jackson-Stops.

“This is for a new pinhooking venture for Tony Elliott's Rogues' Gallery,” the agent explained, after signing a 70,000gns docket as JS Bloodstock/RGS. “He's a good physical, and hopefully there will be good upside with Zoustar. He's likely to be prepped for next year's sales back here.”

His dam is also entitled to contribute, of course, as a listed winner on both sides of the Channel. Making Eyes (Ire) (Dansili {GB}) is catalogued as Lot 2067 in Highclere's mare consignment here next week.

Railton Boards The Ulysses Bandwagon…

As the son of a Derby winner and Oaks winner, Ulysses (Ire) appears eligible to do better still as his debut crop benefits from maturity and middle distances next year. That obviously makes his achievements already still more auspicious, with 16 juvenile winners from 37 starters including G3 Eyrefield S. runner-up Piz Badie (Ire).

Some pinhookers were ahead of the curve, as they would hope to be, most notably Hegarty Bloodstock in converting a 4,000gns punt on a colt by the Cheveley Park stallion in this ring 12 months ago into a bumper payout of 150,000gns in Book 3. Demand has risen accordingly, and Jamie Railton was obliged to pay 60,000gns–the highest price of the morning–for a colt offered as Lot 279 by Bearstone Stud.

“We will just have to see how Ulysses turns out, but he has certainly made a promising start,” Railton said. “I've not been fortunate enough to have one yet, but he was a top 10-furlong horse so looks a sire with a future. Let's hope this horse matures and develops and goes the right way: I just thought he was a nice, attractive individual–and that is what they cost.”

There should be an injection of extra speed from the dam, as one would expect from a speed-oriented nursery like Bearstone. A five-furlong winner by Indesatchel (Ire), she has already managed to produce a stakes-winning sprinter in Vintage Brut (GB) (Dick Turpin {Ire}). That horse is clearly the best by his own sire, on ratings, and the mare has also produced winners by Firebeak (GB) and Equiano (Fr) from her only surviving foals so far on the track. As such, Railton is entitled to hope that Ulysses, with ripening stock to fly the flag in the meantime, will appear a real upgrade by the time he returns this Feb. 8 foal to the yearling sales.

The young stallion still has an awfully long way to go, of course, before he can aspire to the status of farm legend Pivotal (GB), whose death in peaceful retirement, aged 28, was mourned five days before the sale. Pivotal was a sprinter whose progeny often had more stamina than expected, but in threatening to reverse that paradox Ulysses is playing a commercially useful game.

The Force Is With Rookie Sire…

Needless to say, a lot of the energy in this market traces sooner to a newer cycle; to the search for a future Time Test, Ardad or Ulysses. And plenty of rookies predictably prompted an early roll of the dice.

One was Land Force, the G2 Richmond S. winner by No Nay Never who, after a single start at three in Australia, returned to Europe to cover 155 mares at Highclere Stud. That gave him quite a footprint here and he landed a couple of breakthrough punches in his home farm draft–both ending up in the day's top six transactions.

“They look runners,” said Con Marnane, such a good judge of the evolving physical, after giving 65,000gns for a February colt (Lot 380). “This is a lovely, quality colt, and we had to go an extra bid or two to get him. But I think the stallion could have some quality yearlings next year. Of course, he was a very good racehorse himself.”

But the dam could certainly contribute in that respect, too, having been placed in the G3 Princess Margaret S. and herself being out of a stakes-placed half-sister to dual Classic winner Finsceal Beo (Ire) (Mr. Greeley). She was bought by Avenue Bloodstock at the end of her career with Paul Cole, at the December Sale here three years ago, for 190,000gns.

Lot 356, similarly, had the benefit of a young dam with a useful page: she's an unraced Redoute's Choice (Aus) half-sister to G1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup Regal Parade (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) and G3 Acomb S. winner Entifaadha (GB) (Dansili {GB}). Farther back, this is the famous Juddmonte family of Zafonic (Gone West), Reams Of Verse (Nureyev) and Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). That steeled Alex Elliott's resolve in giving 60,000gns for this February colt.

“I'm a huge fan of the Scat Daddy line,” the agent said. “And a big admirer of Land Force. But this colt has a lovely pedigree all round, I've always loved the family. And he's a lovely horse, a good early foal with a lot of upside to him. He's bred to be fast, and should be easy to place in any sale next year. I buy for a few [resale] syndicates and he'll probably go to Ireland in the meantime.”

 

Tested Methods Opens New Territories…

Pinhookers seeking motivation through the toil of the months ahead will keep in mind the inspiring touch pulled off by John Foley of Ballyvolane Stud with a Time Test colt picked up in this ring a year ago for 56,000gns. Having elevated his value to 400,000gns in Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale, Foley was back to play up his winnings on a Mar. 5 foal by Territories (Ire) offered as Lot 234 by Hungerford Park Stud.

“He's a lovely horse with good updates,” Foley remarked after signing a 50,000gns docket as GHS Bloodstock. “He'll be for resale, I doubt we can repeat what we did but we'll try.”

Those updates concerned the colt's half-brother Wentwood (GB) (Pour Moi {Ire}), who has been in productive form in Australia, notably in winning the G3 Bendigo Cup H. last month. Among those disappointed to see the colt head off to Co. Limerick was Matt Coleman, who gave Foley sporting congratulations as underbidder.

Having kept that powder dry, Coleman was later able to give 55,000gns for the solitary offering [Lot 410] this week by Zarak (Fr), who has shown such promise in beginning to recycle one of the world's greatest pedigrees. He was acting for Daniel Macauliffe and Anoj Don, previously partners in the Group 2-winning juvenile Fighting Irish (Ire) (Camelot {GB}).

“He has been bought to race, and they were very keen to buy one by the sire,” explained Coleman. “From here he'll probably go to Culworth Grounds and will race in Britain.”

The February foal, sold by Stauffenberg Bloodstock, represents a rising tide in the Haras de Bonneval sire, who retired at €12,000 but rises to €25,000 next spring after including two Group 1 performers among 17 winners from only 32 starters.

 

Tide Remains Strong For Ocean…

Being every bit as brilliant as he was hardy, the designation of Crystal Ocean (GB) as a National Hunt sire offers a depressing commentary of the state of commercial breeding today. So it's good to see that some prospectors have their wits about them sufficiently to grasp that he has every right, as a top-class son of Sea The Stars (Ire), to add to the proliferation of stakes performers in his family tree.

Matt Houldsworth, for instance, gave 46,000gns for a February colt from an excellent German family, presented by Castletown Stud as Lot 365 and now on his way to Aughamore Stud.

“He has been bought for resale,” the agent confirmed. “He's just a really quality individual, a very good-moving horse. I haven't seen many by the stallion, but he was a very good racehorse. I know he's standing as a jumps sire, but that's not to say he won't be a good sire of Flat horses. Hopefully he can go to something like Book 2 here.”

Guy O'Callaghan of Grangemore Stud was another clear-sighted enough to give 30,000gns for Lot 268, a colt who can count none other than Doff The Derby (Master Derby) as fifth dam.

“This is a great-looking foal, by a champion racehorse out of a good, proven Shamardal racemare and with a good back family,” he said. “What's not to like? Simple as that. Crystal Ocean was a top racehorse by a brilliant stallion.”

Crystal Ocean has made a strong start in his “day job” and ended the recent Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale third in the averages at €35,257 for 30 lots sold, with a top price of €120,000.

A more conventional commercial newcomer to register a decent early strike was Tally-Ho's Inns Of Court (Ire), whose son out of a half-sister to Ivawood (Ire) (Zebedee {GB}) from Highfort Stud [Lot 431] made 49,000gns from Trev Group.

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