Tag: Willie Browne

Gun Runner Colt Tops ‘Vibrant’ Goffs Dubai Breeze-Up Sale

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — A colt from the third crop of boom American stallion Gun Runner (lot 18) was hammered down to Stephen Hillen, agent for prominent owner Dr Jim Hay, for €543,210 to top Tuesday's second renewal of the Goffs Dubai Breeze-Up Sale, held in the parade ring at Meydan Racecourse. On behalf of the Scotsman, Hillen also acquired the second-dearest offering of the evening, a Justify half-brother to GISW Fog of War (War Front) (lot 2), for the equivalent of €518,519.

Following the withdrawal of 10 horses, 63 juveniles were presented to an enthusiastic group of bidders from a variety of jurisdictions and attended by Sheikh Mohammed and his advisors. Some 42 horses were reported as sold for AED25,814,178, a decrease of 18.2% from last year's AED31,580,000. The average of AED614,624 represented a 1% gain over the inaugural event, while the median of AED537,000 jumped by a whopping 37%. The clearance rate of 67% declined from 80% in 2022.

“The second renewal of the Dubai Breeze-Up in association with Goffs was another sale of vibrant sales ring action,” said Goffs' Henry Beeby. “Whilst the clearance rate was slightly down on last year, the average and particularly the median has grown considerably which demonstrated that the quality was selling extremely well.

“The old adage at these types of sales is 'breeze well, sell well', and those that caught the eye at the breeze were the most active in the sales ring. We built very solid foundations in years one and two and look forward to working with the Dubai Racing

Club to develop this sale into a truly world-class event, and the racetrack success of the first year certainly means that it has a bright future.

“Once again, I would like to extend thanks from all the team at Goffs to the Dubai Racing Club for the trust they have placed in us, and we salute the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed in adding the sale to this huge week of international racing at the Dubai World Cup.”

Hay Is For Horses

It was a busy evening for Stephen Hillen and Dr Jim Hay, who ended up securing not only the sale's top two sellers, but four of the top seven overall.

Lot 2 was bred in Kentucky by Orpendale, Chelston and Wynatt and was consigned to the sale by Willie Browne's Mocklershill on behalf of the breeder. Lead auctioneer Henry Beeby accepted an opening bid of a robust AED500,000 and bidding was steady up to and through the 2-million dirham level before Hay landed his first winning blow of the evening.

“We supported the sale last year,” said Hay, whose two purchases last year included a Gun Runner colt and a filly by Into Mischief. “We didn't do well with the purchases, but nevertheless, there are high-class pedigrees, the catalogue this year looks better. Stephen has had a good look at everything.”

Added Hillen: “He is by a top sire, Willie Browne thoroughly recommended him. I saw him at Willie's place about three weeks ago, big stride and by a good stallion. He'll probably stay here in Dubai to be trained by Bhupat Seemar.”

Hay has racing interests in all corners of the globe, but is encouraged about the trajectory of the local programme.

“The plan is to build up the stable in Dubai, this is where the prize money is and we need to race here,” he said.

“Very pleased with that,” said the consignor. “He was a beautiful horse by a stallion who is going places.”

A Justify colt also topped Monday's opening session of the OBS March Sale in Ocala, Florida, on a bid of $1.2 million.

A short time later, Hay and Hillen bought consecutive lots off Tom Whitehead's Powerstown Stud. Lot 17, a War Front own brother to the stakes-placed Stony Point, was acquired by Chad Schumer for $130,000 at last year's Keeneland September Sale and fetched €320,928 Tuesday, while Hay went back to the Gun Runner well once more when paying the sales-topping price.

“He was already a big horse when we got him, but he got broader and wider since,” Whitehead said of the Gun Runner son of Brazilian Group 1 winner Baby Go Far (Brz) (Elusive Quality), who was purchased for $160,000 at Keeneland last fall.

He, too, will be trained by Seemar, who said the colt reminded him a lot of his G1 Dubai World Cup hopeful Bendoog (Gun Runner), who was most recently runner-up in the G1 Al Maktoum Challenge R3.

Hay's fourth purchase was a colt from the first crop of Mitole–Warm Breeze (Street Sense) (lot 14) for €246,914. The May 3 foal was consigned by Bushypark Stables, who bought him for $60,000 at Keeneland.

 

 

 

Schumer Happy, Surprised By Results

American agent Chad Schumer does plenty of business in the Gulf region and is responsible for having sold last-out Listed Al Bastakiya S. winner Go Soldier Go (Tapiture) at last year's Dubai Sale. He was more than satisfied with the sale of the War Front colt through Powerstown, but was generally perplexed at the end results

“It's a very good pedigree and we expected that colt to do well,” he said, taking time out from his work down at the OBS sale. “He was a beautiful yearling and vetted well. You never know until you get there so we are delighted.”

He continued, “Tom generally just tries to buy the right kind of horse. This horse was well below what we were willing to spend, so it was a nice surprise we were able to pick him up for that.”

Given the success of last year's event, he was a bit taken aback at the level of engagement this time around.

“It was a real surprise to me,” he said. “Last year it felt a bit spotty to me. If you didn't have the right type, there was no money at all and Goffs did an exceptional job in pushing to get those horses sold. This year, based on the fact that so many of the horses had won and there was the Group 1-placed horse in Japan, I would have thought there would have been voracious demand, but there wasn't. Maybe OBS going on at the same time causes a pull from this sale, I don't know.”

 

 

 

Mitole A Hot Commodity in Dubai As Well

The first-crop offerings by Mitole (Eskendereya) proved popular Monday at OBS, with three lots fetching six-figure prices, and those that went through Tuesday in Dubai made a favourable impression as well. In addition to Hay's aforementioned purchase early in the session, Oliver St Lawrence and trainer Fawzi Nass went to €222,222 for a half-brother to the multiple Canadian stakes winners Dene Court (City Zip) and Jacally (Bold Executive). Lot 66 was purchased by Roderic Kavanagh's Glending Stables for $60,000 at Keeneland in September.

“I liked this colt very much and it seems like the sire is making some good horses,” St Lawrence said. “They have good substance and are good doers.”

The Name's Stroud

Buyers at Tuesday's sale were identifiable by paddles bearing a three-digit number, and lot 42, a colt by Darley America's Street Sense was knocked down to agent Anthony Stroud–holding paddle 007–for €370,370, the joint-fourth highest price of the sale.

Bred in Kentucky by Lewis Thoroughbred Breeding, the bay colt is out of Gold Serenade (Medaglia d'Oro), whose superstar 11-times Grade I-winning dam Serena's Song (Rahy) was responsible for G1 Coronation S. heroine Sophisticat (Storm Cat) and graded-stakes winners Grand Reward (Storm Cat) and Harlington (Unbridled). This is also the family of US champion Honor Code (A.P. Indy).

 

 

 

No Nay Never Colt Leads Euro-Breds

Of the 18 2-year-olds offered during Tuesday's session by European-based stallions, lot 71 proved the most coveted, selling to the burgeoning Najd Stud for €209,877.

A son of 2012 G1 Irish 1000 Guineas third Princess Sinead (Ire) (Jeremy), the May-foaled bay was led out unsold on a bid of 40,000gns during Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Sale last fall.

“We are delighted with that,” said Colm Kennedy, whose Drumphea Stables consigned the colt as the property of a partnership. “We were very pleased with the way the horse presented and his breeze [Monday] was very nice. Certainly the sire helped him, but that was a very good result.”

Najd Stud, the operation of Saudi Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz, bought four lots Tuesday topped by a Constitution colt (lot 25) out of a half-sister to multiple graded winner and Grade I-placed Independence Hall (Constitution) for just over €395,000 off Brendan Holland's Grove Stud.

Click here for the full results.

 

 

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Breeze-Up Goliath Back At Keeneland As David

LEXINGTON, KY–You may have seen in the news last week how they've just realised that a Mondrian masterpiece has been hanging the wrong way round for 77 years. That's just a year longer than Willie Browne has been accumulating his own perspectives on life and, when he looks at the filly he has brought to the Breeders' Cup, he pretty much knows that same, upside-down feeling. Because his long quest for the secrets of equine potential–which has so often brought him to this same town, wearing a very different hat–has now produced perhaps its deepest puzzle yet.

Browne, who processes as many as 90 breeze-up pinhooks through his Mocklershill nursery every year, seldom finds himself with more than two or three left over to send onto the racetrack himself. Among all the young horses to have passed through his hands, however, including many who went on to prove elite performers, none has shown him more talent than Spirit Gal (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}). So where does it come from?

“I trained this filly's mother,” he mused, after supervising her jaunt round the Keeneland training track on Tuesday morning. “And it wouldn't be doing a disservice to say she was as bad a racemare as I've ever had. She hadn't the mind for the job: she was a box-walker, she travelled bad to the races. So I said to Chuck, 'Listen, there's no future in this one.'”

“Chuck” is Charles E. Fipke, the Canadian geologist who had diamond strikes at the Breeders' Cup with Forever Unbridled (Unbridled's Song) in the 2017 Distaff and Perfect Shirl (Perfect Soul {Ire}) in the 2011 Filly and Mare Turf. Browne can't remember quite how or when they met. But it was at least 20 years ago, and in this same town, while Browne was engaged his own brand of prospecting–as a pioneer in a trade he had more or less patented in Europe. And for a long time now Fipke has been sending Browne young stock, typically out of his mares over the water, to be broken and then prepared either for sale or training.

“Chuck being Chuck, he said, 'Okay, I'll send her to Sir Mark Prescott,'” Browne remembers of Awesome Gal (Ire). “Which he duly did. But Sir Mark ran her up to two miles with the same result, nothing. So I kind of lost contact with the filly then. But not alone did Chuck keep her, he put a 120 grand cover on her. Then I got a phone call in January this year, asking me would I take two fillies up from France. When they arrived, I looked at their breeding and thought: 'Here we go again!'”

Browne pauses and shakes his head. “But right from the get-go this filly was special,” he says. “All those years trying to figure things out, looking at pedigrees, how does it all work. And it's a filly out of that mare has turned out quicker than any breeze-up horse I've ever had. Now, listen, she goes back well. The mare has a good pedigree, she's by Galileo (Ire). But it's strange, all the same.”

It's true: Awesome Gal (Ire) has a striking shape to her pedigree, replicating Urban Sea's dam Allegretta (GB) (Lombard {Ger}) as close as 3 x 3. Full credit to Fipke, then, for rolling the dice on such a purposeful cover for this dismal runner.

Soon after their arrival, even so, Browne received an email instructing him to prepare both Awesome Gal's daughter and the No Nay Never filly who had accompanied her from France for the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale at Doncaster.

“Well, the way Spirit Gal was training at home, I knew what was going to happen,” Browne recalls. “Sure enough, she was third-fastest in the breeze and everyone was all over her. She'd have topped the sale by a mile.”

As it was, she had to be scratched. Seldom has a touch of sore shins proved such a blessing.

“I was disappointed of course,” Browne says. “I wasn't going to get my commission. But to keep me happy Chuck said, 'Listen, you can train this if you want.' He'd often have said that before, without me taking up the offer. Joseph [O'Brien] trains most of them [in Europe] now, and he had John Oxx before, plus a few with Sir Mark. But I said, 'Yes, this filly I will keep!'”

As a rule, the only horses that keep things ticking over at Browne's Co. Tipperary base through the summer will be mediocre types that have for one reason or another missed their sales slot.

“I'd have maybe two or three winners every year but they'd be rated 65 or so,” Browne explains. “You do well to win one of those low-grade handicaps every year, it's so competitive in Ireland. But while it might sound contradictory, I wouldn't want to be seen doing too well at this. People would say this fella's keeping the best and selling the worst. I hope people know me well enough to know that would never be the case, but human nature being what it is, there would be a bit of that.”

But the exception has, in any case, arrived in another's service.

“We knew she was good after the breeze-up, so after her little break we started to train her and it has all just continued on from there,” Browne says. “I used to get Seamie Heffernan in to sit on her. He's such a good judge, if he likes something you can sit up and take notice. She was fourth on her first run and then has just improved and improved. It was a good class of race she won in Dundalk [7f Listed] last time. Fillies don't normally beat the colts and she hammered the one that went on to win the [G3] Killavullan S.”

That was none other than Ballydoyle's one-time GI Juvenile Turf contender Cairo (Quality Road). There's no denying that Secret Gal matches her dashing style with plenty of substance, then, and those who assume that trainers need tiers of “punchbags” to work a horse up the grades must accept that this one has thrived for her solitary regime.

“She trains on her own,” Browne confirms. “I've become a bit American, train her on the clock. But she's very forward-going. People might normally train in pairs, but you'd never do that for the breeze. Yes, you do your initial preparation in groups, but once they start breezing, they all do it on their own. And she's so forward-going that doesn't need help. She'd use herself too much, with other horses. But not alone is she quick, she stays to a good level.”

There are, admittedly, new factors this time. For one thing she must gel with her local jockey, Ricardo Santana, Jr., and the hectic style of racing round the sharp inner track may demand versatility.

“There are a lot of ifs and buts,” Browne acknowledges. “We're in a bit of a quandary, in that she has a reputation as frontrunner back home. But it's a different ball game here. Going to the bend as quick as they will, you'd be using a lot of petrol to lead them there. So ideally you'd maybe look to break well and then just tuck in. But she should travel. And, you know, if she does everything right, she could hang around.”

While the many trainers who shop annually from Mocklershill are grateful that Browne has never deployed his mastery in meaningful competition, he does claim more satisfaction in winning a small race with a moderate horse than in the celebrated pinhooks that have made him the doyen of the sector. (First consignor to sell a seven-figure breezer in Europe? Willie Browne. Second consignor to sell a seven-figure breezer in Europe? Willie Browne.)

So you can imagine how he feels to be bringing Spirit Gal, last month his first ever starter in a stakes race, to a challenge as momentous as the GI Juvenile Fillies' Turf on Friday.

“I was here for the September Sale, not having a clue this was going to happen,” he says. “And I walked out there [out of the sales barns to view the track] and thought to myself, 'Damn, this side will always be different.'”

His tone is poignantly laced with the implication that “different” might equally read “better”. But then he can comfort himself that few trainers in Europe have saddled as many good horses in their time. And the system continues to function smoothly: subsequent 'TDN Rising Star' Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), picked up right here last year after failing to meet his September reserve at $65,000, was sold on to Oliver St Lawrence for €550,000 at Arqana in May and has since proved himself among the best of the crop with his G2 Mill Reef S. success for KHK Racing and Roger Varian. From the previous cycle, Light Infantry (Fr) (Fast Company {Ire}) has earned his passage to Australia after consecutive runner-up finishes in Group 1 company this summer. He was found for just €25,000 as an Arqana October yearling, and sold to Blandford for £82,000 at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up.

Browne is proud of the expertise of those fellow horsemen who have helped the breeze-up sector in Europe achieve spectacular maturity. And he should be assured of a reciprocal goodwill, among the countless trainers indebted to his academy, now that he has a belated opportunity to slay a giant or two with his tiny residue of part-time ammunition. He is too immune to self-indulgence, however, to dwell pointlessly on what might have been.

“The problem we had, in '77, was there were three families at home: my father, myself and my brother Michael,” he says with a shrug. “My father did moderately okay, always had his few winners. But we weren't making any kind of money to sustain three families. We had to do something different, and that's why we started what we started. But listen, at this stage of my life, it is kind of a fairy story. I got the full-sister up from France last week. She's not as pretty. But who knows? That's the thing. You never know. I hope I don't let anyone down on Friday. Where we fit in here, I don't know. But she has brought us here, at least, and we'll take that.”

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‘The Dream Is Alive’ – Willie Browne on TDN Rising Star Sakheer

Breeze-up king Willie Browne, who sold G1 1000 Guineas heroine Speciosa (Ire), G1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris (Ire) and many more top-notchers, is allowing himself to believe that recent graduate Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) could be the real deal after he coasted to an effortless victory at Haydock on Thursday.

The 76-year-old bought Sakheer for $65,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sales in 2021 before producing the colt to top the Arqana Breeze-up Sale in May of this year.

Sakheer was bought by Oliver St Lawrence for €550,000 on behalf of KHK Racing Ltd. and went some way in justifying that price tag when bolting up by six lengths second time out at Haydock under David Egan for Roger Varian.

It was a performance that left tongues wagging, with the G1 Middle Park S. entrant earning himself a 'TDN Rising Star'  badge in victory, and Browne hopes that Haydock triumph can prove a launchpad for Sakheer's career.

He said, “Visually, it looked very good and we'd like to think he's smart. The third horse was a winner and the time looked good considering he could have gone faster if he [Egan] pressed a button.”

Browne added, “He was always a nice horse and he breezed very well for us. I think he breezed in the top four or five at Arqana and obviously we got well paid for him. He looked a special horse and hopefully he will go on and be that for his connections.”

Operating under the Mocklershill banner, Browne has been breezing horses since 1978 and described the current landscape of the profession as the best it's ever been.

 

“We're getting old but sure we'll try to keep going for as long as we can. It's hard to stop,” – Willie Browne

Thursday represented a good day for his renowned Tipperary-based operation, not only because Sakheer lived up to the high opinion he had always been held in by Brown, but because fellow Arqana graduate Ensued (Lemon Drop Kid) posted an encouraging debut at Salisbury.

He said, “We get it right a fair bit but we have also had quite a lot of horses through our hands so we need to produce a few good ones. Sakheer is one of them.

“I went out and bought him by chance at Keeneland last year. He was an expensive foal [80,000gns] in Europe and then the vendors brought him to America to re-sell him for whatever reason.

“He did have a sibling [half-sister Lemista (Ire) (Raven's Pass)] who did well out there so maybe that was part of the thinking in bringing him to America but he didn't make his reserve in the ring and we got him outside it [for $65,000].”

Browne added, “He was a beautifully put together horse and it wasn't rocket science. The fact that he could gallop, though, there was a certain amount of good fortune in that. Sometimes you can buy beautiful-looking horses and they might not be able to gallop. He could.

“The plus about Arqana is, even though this horse breezed very well and we got well paid, we'd another horse there, a Lemon Drop Kid, and we got well-paid for him even though he didn't break the clock.

“He [Ensued] actually ran yesterday, was a very good third on debut at Salisbury for James Fanshawe, and he's a good middle-distance horse going forward. He breezed like a middle-distance horse but the people who buy in Arqana can see beyond speed and that's a plus for us.”

 

Browne has been breezing horses ever since it was a thing and Mocklershill is recognised as one of the premier consignors of 2-year-olds in Europe. He has overseen a kaleidoscope of change in the industry and admits that, in order to get well paid, you don't always need to break the clock anymore.

He explained, “A fast horse will always get you money, no matter where you go, but the Lemon Drop Kid was a good example of a middle-distance horse making good money at the breeze-ups, as we got €260,000 for him.

“If yesterday's run is anything to go by, he's also an exciting horse in his own right, so there's two horses at the opposite end of the stick. The fast horse, Sakheer, who showed up well, and the middle-distance horse, Ensued, who may not have been as fast, but showed different qualities and made a good price.

“It's a great thrill opening the paper every morning and seeing the percentage of 2-year-old winners who are graduates from the breeze-ups. It's just off the charts. It's unbelievable what's going on in the breeze-ups at the moment. There's a lot of good people breezing horses and they know what they're doing.”

Asked where Sakheer may rank in the pantheon of top-notchers to have graduated from Mocklershill, he replied, “When he wins a group race, come back to me. He needed to do what he did yesterday. It gives you great satisfaction when you produce a good horse, it's as much relief as anything else, but when they cost what Al Sakheer did, you like to see them go on and be good.

“Sometimes it happens and other times it doesn't but the dream looks well and truly alive right now. If he goes and wins a group race, maybe we'll be able to put our chest out a little bit more.”

Browne has already been making his presence felt at the yearling sales and has been busy re-stocking for next year's breeze-ups.

He said, “I didn't go to the August Sale at Arqana this year. Maybe I should have, but I didn't. We went to Doncaster and bought a few there alright.

“We gave a good few quid for a Showcasing (GB) horse, we gave 140,000gns for him, which is plenty of money for a breeze-up horse, but he looks a fast horse to me. I'm hoping the money is well spent.

“We bought a Ten Sovereigns (Ire) for 50 grand as well, so that's the start of it all. We're getting old but sure we'll try to keep going for as long as we can. It's hard to stop.”

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Record-Breaking Rebound At Doncaster

DONCASTER, UK–Look, we all know to refrain from any bold pronouncements in such an uncertain world. But the same market that was last year first to be broadsided by the pandemic has now made consecutive statements: first one of cautious optimism and now, remarkably, one of record-breaking confidence. For if we left Newmarket last week reminding ourselves that a single swallow does not a summer make, then flight after flight seemed to fill the air at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale.

Whatever the ups and downs that inevitably still await, make no mistake. This was a huge day not just for the breeze-up sector, not just for the auction house, but for the whole bloodstock industry in Europe. Even in the absence of important recent investors, the prospect of a return to the racetrack appears to have opened the sluice gates on pent-up demand for one of the great joys of the life we all want to retrieve: the Thoroughbred racehorse.

Of course, there has never in history been a horse sale where every single vendor skipped away like Morecambe and Wise at the end of the show, and there were duly one or two consignors still grumbling about their fortunes. As prospectors and vendors basked in glorious spring sunshine, however, only the deserted benches around the sales ring told of the lingering impact of Covid. For if obliged to keep their distance indoors, then bidders were found themselves frantically congested in terms of competition.

Comparisons with the auction salvaged here last July (amalgamated with Arqana) would be pretty pointless, but the fact is that this sale outpunched even the buoyant returns of the preceding couple of years, when the sector overall had been riding a sustained bull run.

Perhaps most heartening of all, as at the Tattersalls Craven Sale which last week opened the European calendar, was the median. There really was a solid spread of business, and those perennial complaints about the soft centre of the market were silenced here. A median of £34,000 compared with £26,000 in 2019, and £25,500 the year before. The £48,590 average, equally, exceeded £45,750 two years ago and £40,058 in 2018. And if it's the home run you're after, then the 15 six-figure sales notched on Thursday compared with 11 in 2019 and 13 the year before. Overall business of £6,219,500 represented a 22% gain on 2019 while the clearance rate, as has become commonplace in the Covid economy, was again very purposeful at 89%.

Goffs UK Managing Director Tim Kent was rightly ecstatic. “This is an incredible business and today has been an amazing day,” he said. “To have the ability to hold the sale on its original date and at its intended location was the first success. To then smash all records is something that we couldn't have envisaged in the lead-up to this sale, and the results are very positive for the industry and for our loyal vendors who really backed us with some very nice horses.

“This sale has a brilliant record on the track and has produced five Royal Ascot winners since 2016, a fact that was not lost on buyers at any point today. We would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who purchased today, and we are sure that we will see many of them at Royal Ascot in eight weeks' time. In 2016, we saw two colts who shared the sale topping price–Prince Of Lir (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and Ardad (Ire) (Kodiac {GB})–who went on to win the G2 Norfolk S. and Listed Windsor Castle S. that year.

“We hope that that is a good omen for this sale and we would also like to extend a big thank you to our vendors, who provided us with a catalogue of real depth to market to our international audience, whilst we would also like to thank Doncaster Racecourse who produced superb ground to show our breezers to maximum effect.”

Tally Ho Splits Top Lots

Horses run no faster or slower because of their price, as we know, and the petrified 2020 market here duly produced a £28,000 winner of the G3 Molecomb S. And it was the man responsible for that coup, Michael O'Callaghan, who for a long time topped proceedings here with the £210,000 he gave for lot 118, a colt by Twilight Son (GB) presented by Tally Ho Stud.

But the consignors, who had a remarkable day even by their standards, had an equivalent trick up their sleeves with the very last animal into the ring: a son of Galileo Gold (GB) who joined his draft companion at the head of the day's business with a £210,000 docket signed by Armando Duarte.

Both were apt measures of the Tally Ho genius. The Twilight Son colt was picked up for just €28,000 from Olive O'Connor Bloodstock as a short yearling at the Goffs February Sale of 2020. If you think about everything that has happened since, this really was a “touch” that seemed to bring things full circle.

“He was my pick of the sale, by a long way,” said Michael O'Callaghan, who credited namesake Roger for his endorsement of the colt. “He's from a great hotel that we've been extremely lucky with. I saw him at home three weeks ago, loved him, and he couldn't have come more highly recommended. He took the preliminaries so well, he walked round the parade ring like an old handicapper. Though hopefully that's the last time he looks like one of those.”

The Curragh trainer, back on a happy hunting ground, laid out over £500,000 for six purchases in all, including a £140,000 Footstepsinthesand (GB) colt presented as lot 151 by Woodtown House Stud. He had failed to meet his reserve at €29,000 at Goffs only last autumn. “He's a lovely horse, I saw him at the Curragh three weeks ago and have been admiring him since the online sale at Goffs,” O'Callaghan said. “I probably should have bought him then. But he did an excellent breeze here.”

Duarte, for his part, had saved his best until last. His purchase will be staying in England, but no more could be disclosed at this point. Though he conceded that Galileo Gold has achieved limited commercial traction, this lad belongs to his first crop and he clearly retains every right to make himself fashionable where it counts.

“And the mare has produced quite a good stakes horse,” he noted, referring to Acklam Express (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), who had actually supplied a Group 1 update when placed in the Al Quoz Sprint since the publication of the catalogue. “He breezed very well, looks ready to run, and fits the bill as one that might have Ascot potential.”

Through the card Tally Ho sold 15 animals for £985,000 at an average £65,667.

McGivern Deserves Pinhook Of The Day

It's not hard to see where the Kodiac (GB) filly who came here from Derryconnor Stud might have found the resources to punch above her wait. Consignor Katie McGivern has been in the wars this spring but her fighting spirit evidently rubbed off on lot 154, who she bought for just £13,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Yearling Sale and turned into the fastest of all the breezers clocked here on Tuesday. That earned her a £180,000 docket signed by Oliver St. Lawrence on behalf of KHK Racing.

“I'm speechless, even though I can't stop talking,” said McGivern with an excited laugh. “I couldn't believe it when they kept going after £100,000. This is a life-changing result. I had no-one call and ask me for a half, so I actually own her outright. We're desperate for a straight gallop, so I suppose it'll have to go towards that.

“I love a Kodiac filly anyway and the first dam was two-for-two, one rated 90 and one rated 80, so she was a no-brainer if nobody wanted her on looks. She was a little small, and I had her vetted–which I never do–just to know that it was only her size that would be against her. Her homework has always been very good and consistent, but you still need luck on the day, you need them to keep straight and so on, and the rider did a great job.”

She may be indebted to the wit of auctioneer Nick Nugent for goading an extra bid or two as the impetus began to slow. “Come on,” he chided from the rostrum. “Do you want to be Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin?”

Mission control will now be the yard of Robert Cowell, whose brief was intimidatingly simple. “A fast, sharp Ascot 2-year-old,” St Lawrence said. “Katie says five or six furlongs, so we have a choice between the Queen Mary and the Albany. She's not the biggest but she's built like the proverbial brick 'outhouse', looks like a colt, and Robert loved her the moment he saw her. Times are important but I couldn't care whether they're first or 20th, you're only talking hundredths and what counts is that they look the business when they're doing it.”

Nay, Not Too Bad

An opening bid of £150,000 appeared to suggest that all the pre-sale talk about lot 74, a No Nay Never colt presented by Willie Browne, was going to be matched by ringside deeds. In the event, then, Browne permitted himself mild disappointment when Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock was able to secure an animal he prized so highly for 'just' £200,000.

“A little bit of an anti-climax, with all the action I had on him,” admitted the Mocklershill maestro, who presented the colt for breeders Meadowcourt Stud. “In a real strong market maybe he could have made a bit more. Listen, it's a fine price, but he's potentially very good. I haven't had one as good for a couple of years. Hopefully he's the real deal: he has lots of speed, but he'll stay too.”

If he's right, then what kind of bargain did Paul Nataf strike when acquiring the dam, an unraced daughter of Mastercraftsman (Ire), for just €11,000 through Baroda Stud at Goffs last November? Besides this colt she has just a yearling filly by Gleneagles (Ire), and she was sold with a Ten Sovereigns (Ire) cover.

“He's for a new owner who asked for one good colt out of the breeze-ups,” explained Brown, before putting in a call to John Gosden. “I thought he did a phenomenal breeze. There are some nice horses here, very forward, and for me he was the pick. Because while I think he can be a good summer 2-year-old, he has plenty of scope and I think he can train on as well. To be fair to Willie, he saw me drooling over the horse on Monday and he was very high on him.”

Cowell Sticking To Royal Formula

Robert Cowell is hoping that history will repeat itself after giving £170,000 for a Kodiac colt consigned as lot 52 by Bansha House Stables. That is precisely what he did here five years ago, virtually to the day, and two months later he had won the G2 Norfolk S. with Prince Of Lir (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}).

The Newmarket trainer signed for the colt in the company of Tim Palin of Middleham Park, who will race him in partnership with another client, Tom Morley. Whether or not he can emulate Prince Of Lir at Ascot, the hope is that he will prove a longer-term project.

“Ascot is the dream, but it's not the be-all and end-all,” Cowell said. “He has plenty of size and substance. He's not just a little 2-year-old, I hope he would have a lot more to him than that. We were looking for a nice fast horse that can hopefully repeat the kind of success we had with Prince Of Lir. We know he comes from a very good outfit, and he's a lovely specimen, with a good walk on him, and a great action. So all the stars aligned.”

It's certainly a brisk pedigree. The dam, a daughter of sale graduate Dream Ahead, has made a good start with her only runner to date being Operatic (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}), a dual winner at two last year; while the second dam is dual Group-winning sprinter Lidanna (GB) (Nicholas)–who holds down the same spot in the pedigree of G1 Prix de l'Abbaye winner Wizz Kid (Ire) (Whipper).

Con Marnane was delighted by the dividend on his £46,000 investment in the same ring last September.

“Over the moon,” the Bansha House consignor said. “We bought him off Plantation Stud and he's turned into a gorgeous horse, and it's a proper page. The sister is very talented, she was impressive in her two wins and the ground was very heavy when she was well beaten in the listed race at Newmarket after that. She could still be a very nice filly this year.”

As one of the stalwarts of the sector, Marnane was relieved by the buoyancy of trade, having candidly drawn in his horns in restocking.

“We're way down [in numbers],” he said. “We were just too scared and said we would only buy really nice yearlings. And thank God we did. I must thank our regular customers, because it's them that are coming back to us again and again. England is going to be back to normal way before other countries, so it's a pleasure to be here. In Ireland we've hardly sharpened the needles yet.”

Dance Continues Comeback Spree

The same family produced a good yield on lot 96, a May colt by New Bay (GB) who made £120,000 for Gaybrook Lodge Stud having been found by M.C. Bloodstock in Book 1 at Tattersalls last October for just 40,000gns. He's a half-brother to Wizz Kid, whose relationship to Robert Cowell's new Kodiac is noted above, and joins the team of breeze-up recruits being dynamically assembled by Manor House Stud.

That historic Middleham farm, freshly acquired for the revamped John Dance operation, was the top buyer at the Craven Sale last week with eight lots for an aggregate 1,035,000gns. The Classic quality of this colt's sire obviously balances out the family speed and the purchasing strategy duly looked consistent with the £140,000 acquisition of lot 76, who was certainly not a standardised, sharp-and-early type off the “Donny” conveyor belt.

This was a colt by Kingman (GB) out of a sister to Group 1 winner Jan Vermeer (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}), therefore a half-sister to another Ballydoyle high achiever in Together (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). He was pinhooked by Mags O'Toole out of Book 2 last October for 87,000gns.

“He was just very young-looking,” explained Oak Tree's Norman Williamson. “But he's a May foal and it's very hard to get your hands on a Kingman. He took his prep extremely well. He'll be a horse for later, maybe you'd see him September time, but to me he has a big future: we can all see how well-bred he is, and he's a tall, beautiful horse that should grow into something special.”

Manor House Stud ended the day with half a dozen new recuits at an aggregate £690,000, and the others did fit the traditional profile for this sale: a £120,000 Kodiac (GB) filly consigned by Powerstown Stud as lot 140, great work on a £33,000 punt here last year; a £100,000 Dark Angel colt from Malcolm Bastard, lot 166, found at the Orby for £45,000 by Richard Ryan; and, within the space of five minutes, £120,000 and £90,000 for two sons of the ubiquitous Mehmas (Ire) respectively consigned as Lots 124 and 126.

Mehmas is a prolific young stallion in every sense, duly the most represented in the catalogue with 17 entries. The market's pick at £150,000 turned out to be lot 41, the first foal of a Shamardal half-sister to Signoff (Ire) (Authorized {Ire}), a dual group winner in Australia, the pair out of another group winner in Circle Of Gold (Ire) (Royal Academy). This is the family of G1 St Leger winner Rule Of Law (Kingmambo), and Tom Goff duly hopes that this filly, presented by Glending Stables, will have more in her favour than the trademark precocity of her sire.

“She's from an extremely good farm,” the Blandford agent stressed. “And I thought her the best filly here by a country mile. She did a lovely breeze and I'd be very hopeful that besides having the class and speed to be a good 2-year-old, she would also have the scope and quality to go on next year. So I hope she won't just be one of those one-hit wonders, while I also hope she can be precocious enough too. The sire's obviously on fire, and she's out of a Shamardal mare, and goes back to a lovely Robert Sangster family.”

Goff could be no more specific of her destination than to say that she would be trained in Newmarket.

Roderick Kavanagh, her delighted consignor, has expanded to a draft of 14 breezers in his fifth year since inaugurating the Glending wing of his family's Kildaragh Stud. “She had great motion,” he said of a filly recruited via the Sportsman's Sale here for £25,000, signed for by Peter and Ross Doyle. “And she has been a joy ever since, straightforward all the way through. The Shamardal mare has been a great help and, though you dream of it, this was beyond all expectation.”

Collins Glad To Take The Blame

Pinhooking from the American market continues to yield great results for those of sufficient enterprise and this was an especially good day for Johnny Collins of Brown Island Stables.

He pulled off one of the touches of the day with a colt by Blame signed for by Chad Schumer at Keeneland last September for just $14,000. Here he realised £175,000 from Rabbah Bloodstock, who had earlier given £78,000 for a filly (lot 90) by the same sire in the same draft. Rabbah have proved a conspicuous inconvenience to anyone trying for nice American types at both the breeze-up sales in Europe so far.

“This was the last horse into the ring in Book 3,” Collins remembered of lot 172. “Travel was obviously difficult last year, but maybe that meant there weren't quite as many people going. But I've been going a long time and could hardly miss it, could I? I have sold two G2 Norfolk winners from America, Bapak Chinta (Speightstown) and South Central (Forest Camp). This was a nice square horse when I bought him and he's a nice square horse now.”

One of the best judges in the business had marked out the Jimmy Creed colt in the same draft as his pick, and Edgar Byrne was of like mind in giving $135,000 for lot 158, a $30,000 yearling at Keeneland. The colt will be joining Soren Jensen in Denmark.

“I've waited all day for him, so on a nice sunny day I've been walking my box,” said Byrne. “He's an extremely nice horse that came highly recommended by Johnny. They will have the dirt option out there if they need it, because Malmo is only down the road, but he obviously breezed very well on the turf here.”

Another transatlantic success, albeit in a much lower register, was a colt from the fourth crop of Carpe Diem picked up by Jim McCartan of Gaybrook Lodge for just $3,000 at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington last October. True, this was scarcely in the league of McCartan's legendary coup with Willie Browne at Arqana four years ago, when a $15,000 Street Sense colt evolved into a €1.4-million juvenile. But $52,000 from David Redvers for lot 21 still represented a fine percentage yield.

“It cost more to get him home than to buy him,” McCartan said. “I bought him at the end-of-year sale there and he was just a little bit backward, he needed to furnish a little. But he took his preparation very well and developed all the way through and turned out a very nice horse who could gallop well.”

Bringing American pedigrees into a notoriously parochial market has its obvious dangers, but the devotion of so many prospectors to breeze data means that the way the model functions can redeem any uncertainty even about dirt stallions. But then Carpe Diem is the only son of Giant's Causeway to have won a Grade I on dirt, and damsire More Than Ready resembles that legend in having established his versatility in different racing environments.

“He was a very good individual, to be fair, with a lot of More Than Ready about him-and I've been lucky with that horse,” McCartan said. “Most of the time you do need a [familiar] sire but there are an awful lot of horses to choose from, 4,000 or so at Keeneland, and if you're prepared to work hard you might come across one or two.”

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