Falmouth Winner Prosperous Voyage Hammers For 2.4m Gns To Katsumi Yoshida

The millionaires kept coming at Tattersalls on Tuesday, and lot 1811, the Zoffany (Ire) mare Prosperous Voyage (Ire), caught the eye of Katsumi Yoshida at 2.4 million gns later in the session. A winner of the G1 Falmouth S. and G3 Princess Elizabeth S., the 4-year-old was consigned by Kimpton Down Stables. Also, runner-up in both the G1 Fillies' mile and G1 1000 Guineas, Prosperous Voyage is out of a half-sister to a trio of stakes winners, including dual Grade I winner Senure (Nureyev). Bred by Lynch Badges and Camas Park Stud, she was a €76,700 Goffs Orby graduate when secured by Badgers Bloodstock. Prosperous Voyage originally exited the ring marked as sold online to the tune of 2.6 million gns.

 

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Keeneland Breeder Spotlight: Heider Happy Playing The Long Game

The apartment glistens with the quiet discernment of its owner. Lexington spreads below the great windows and balcony, its urban grid seamed green by the many old trees that endure downtown. In somewhat the same way, amid all the artwork, the gleaming décor, Scott Heider draws on Nature to explain his love of this business.

He gestures towards a rose in a vase. “That's the best analogy, you know,” he says. “Beautiful, but it doesn't last forever. I look at the wonderful broodmares we've been blessed with–these living, breathing creatures–and they're the same. That's part of what makes it so alluring, so intoxicating. Because it's about persistence.”

He remembers what his father used to tell him, and his brother: “Nothing worthwhile is easy, boys.”

Not, he acknowledges with a smile, something you necessarily wanted to hear when young.

“But for sure, as you mature and experience life lessons, you see that it's true,” he says. “If something's given to you, it's probably not going to mean as much.”

He points to shelves displaying some of his racing trophies.

“But I can promise you… That Park Hill? The Debutante, at the Curragh? These are things that I can't tell you how much they mean to me. That's why you do it.”

Both those Group races were won by fillies trained in Ireland by Joseph O'Brien–instructive samples, then, of a program that manages to combine a rigorous focus on quality (barely a dozen mares between Kentucky and Ireland) with an unusual range of application. That is no less than we should expect, perhaps, in one whose own perspectives and engagement have uncommon breadth by the standards of our insular sport. We should duly take heart that for all his passion for art and film, all his success as a real estate developer, nothing animates Heider quite like the animals that bring him here from his principal residence in Omaha.

Cindy and Scott Heider | courtesy of The Heider Family

“My wife and I love cinema,” he says. “In fact, we just got back from the Telluride Film Festival. But I have never seen anything like the Thoroughbred industry. Art, film, these are wonderful things. They can fill your soul, stimulate your mind, hopefully open you to things that you didn't think about or believe before. As my Jesuit friends say, 'Always be open to growth.' So those things are important to me. But the Thoroughbred business? To me, it's just absolute, unlimited possibilities.”

True, he feels that some of these have not been adequately realized. He is dismayed, for instance, that we cannot achieve the same media traction for Cody's Wish (Curlin) as for less edifying news from the racetrack.

“We have such a unique, beautiful, unbelievably passionate industry,” he reflects. “Sometimes I think we don't know how good we have it. There's so much potential.”

In his own case, the magic was first ignited by boyhood visits to Ak-Sar-Ben. During high school and college summers he even worked there as an usher and mutuel teller. Attending the University of Southern California allowed Heider to sample Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, another level again from Nebraska-breds. And soon after he had launched his own career in business, father and son were also exploring this avenue of pleasure together.

First a friend introduced them to the veteran trainer Lyman Rollins. “And that,” says Heider, “was the luckiest thing in the world–because Lyman was just an upstanding guy.”

In 1987 they bought a $14,000 yearling colt from TaylorMade by To-Agori-Mou (Ire), a miler imported from Europe but pretty much a disaster at stud.

“And, as the racing gods would have it, that yearling turned out to be a Californian champion sprinter that won the Hollywood Turf Express three years in a row,” says Heider.

Answer Do, who also won three graded stakes, raced six seasons.

“Back then you'd race until September, October, and then you'd turn them out and bring them back in March,” Heider recalls. “You just stopped, let Mother Nature do her thing. And they lasted forever.

“Anyway, because of Answer Do, we came across all these wildly interesting people that were around at the time: Allen Paulson, John Mabee, Margie Everett, R.D. Hubbard. And we realized that you could put Allen Paulson, founder of Gulfstream, together with a jockey, a trainer, a groom—and everybody would just want to talk horses. It didn't matter what your background was. This was the great leveler, and that's a beautiful thing.”

The Heiders could not have got off to a better start; nor, of course, a more misleading one.

“When that horse finally retired, we spent probably six or seven years trying to find one that could run a third as fast!” says Heider ruefully. By that stage, however, they were hooked. “And, in hindsight, it became a really important bond with my father. I was getting married, having a family, life takes over. But boy, did we enjoy our time traveling around the country together.”

Losing his father in 2015 confirmed Heider in his hope that he might yet share a similar journey with his own children, Grant and Courtney, both recent college graduates. However their interest proceeds, Heider has long felt grateful for the indulgence of their mother Cindy–right back to when she ordered a wedding cake in the shape of a chocolate horse head, iced with a Lukas white bridle.

“As a lot of people in this business know, when someone's horse-crazy, their spouse has to learn to live with it,” Heider says. “But God bless my wife, she has learned to like it, especially the breeding. And she's very involved in the philanthropic side. In the horse business we've found some really talented people and organizations that might be relatively small, but that are definitely punching above their weight and making a real difference.”

These “small but mighty” operations include the Eddie Gregson Foundation, New Vocations, Bluegrass Farms Charities and, most recently, Stable Recovery.

“If you're fortunate, you're born into a situation where you're going to get a couple opportunities to right mistakes,” Heider observes. “But a lot of people don't get that opportunity. And I think the Thoroughbred industry is uniquely positioned to work with some of these folks–not only to give them a second and third chance, in a profession, but because horses are therapeutic. Some of the programs created for children are amazing. At first, they're scared to death of these animals, but just a few days later you see a remarkable bond develop. And it's the same with some of the people that have been incarcerated, or that have other life challenges.”

But if privilege brings duty, do we also owe a certain obligation to the breed itself: to consider its best interests, in how we try to make a living? Or is that a luxury in such a precarious walk of life?

“The Thoroughbred industry is a pretty decent microcosm for society,” Heider replies. “For sure, we have people that every day come into work, do a great job, and you know what, they've got bills to pay, they've a family to raise. They might be struggling day to day. But I think those of us in a position to do so can hopefully lead by example, and be involved.”

Accordingly he renounces the question that dictates so much commercial breeding: “What have you done for me lately?”

“We have a lot of stallions that would have been successful if given a chance,” he remarks. “That shorter-term mentality unfortunately permeates every aspect of the business. But then we're in a disposable society. Everybody leases a car, everybody replaces their phone every couple years. But this business is different, or should be anyway. Because the bloodlines that we're entrusted with go back 100, 200, 250 years.”

To that extent, he implies, it's not so much a question of who can afford to do the right thing as whether anybody, in the longer term, can afford not to?

“To me, do the right thing means: be respectful to the horse,” Heider specifies. “And to those working with them. The commercial market's going to have its influence. I'm all for the people that want to find the next stallion: there's plenty of risk, and we need that investment, we need to put those horses in the proper hands to determine their potential. But I think there's a limit. Because we want people to play this game long-term, right?”

The Heider program, then, is all “long ball.” One example has been his cultivation, over recent years, of a transatlantic presence. Whenever he's asked what drew him to Ireland, Heider always ends up—besides the heritage and horsemanship–by pointing to the passion and sheer caliber of the people he deals with. Certainly his admiration for the O'Brien family is not confined to their extraordinary professional accomplishment. But nor did he embrace the experiment merely in some altruistic spirit of adventure: Heider is clear that diversification of bloodlines is not just wholesome for the breed in general, but can also benefit his stable in particular.

“We have a young mare at Mill Ridge, Zofelle (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}),” he explains. “A Grade III winner here, she ran second in the [GI] Matriarch on her final start. She's beautiful, and from the family of Listen (Ire) and Sequoyah (Ire) [both Group 1 winners by Sadler's Wells]. The kind of thing that I could just lie awake thinking about! But I didn't send her back to Ireland when her racing was over. This spring she had her first foal by Into Mischief, and I bred her next to Not This Time.”

Zofelle | Lauren King

Heider views such stallions as influences for brilliance, rather than any particular surface or distance. Conversely, the class and soundness of the mare's family can also transcend its recent European setting.

“I have no doubt that she's going to throw something on dirt along the way,” Heider vows. “If you look back to the '50s, '60s, '70s, the transfer of blood from Europe to the United States, and vice versa, has taken place for a long time. There's been far less lately, but now we're seeing Justify throw some brilliant horses in Europe. I don't know how many others are out there doing it. But again, it's about trying to do the right thing–in this case, about invigorating the breed.”

Heider stresses that he still loves the dirt racing on which he was raised. At some stage, however, he would enjoy testing convention. Had he bought out his partners in Mia Mischief (Into Mischief), for example, he would have been mighty tempted to have her bred in Europe. (As it is, of course, she was sold to Stonestreet.) “So I'm just as intrigued by having Irish mares over here as by maybe sending something the other way,” he says. “Time will tell whether it's going to look brilliant, or whether people end up saying, 'What's wrong with this person?'!”

Some aspects of the program remain perfectly orthodox. Heider likes his trainers to develop fillies with pedigree, such as the $750,000 daughter of Nyquist and GI Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can (Proud Citizen) bought from Airdrie at Keeneland in September, with a view to promotion into the broodmare band. But that, again, is laying up rather than trying to drive the green.

“I was raised in the investment business,” Heider remarks. “And you'd probably think that I'm always looking at the quotes in the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, checking my phone all the time. I do read the financial papers every day, but really don't pay any attention to daily or weekly fluctuations in values. Those don't matter to me because I'm not selling today or tomorrow. I'm more likely adding to existing positions over time. It's a share in the business that I own. If you're fortunate to own a piece of a really good business, you don't listen to what the next fad is. You make decisions only to benefit the business. You let good grow.”

Sure enough, he isn't going to fret about which stallion or nick might be hot today and abandoned tomorrow. “We don't care about any of that,” he says. “I want good, reproducing female families. If the mare has racing ability, even better.”

Heider shows a catalogue page for which he's responsible, and accepts that he invited market wariness with a stallion prone to produce a turf horse. But he felt the match ideal, both physically and in terms of the sire's versatility and temperament.

“Because a brilliant horse is what you're looking for, right?” he says. “Doesn't matter if it's turf or dirt, short or long. I think people like John and Tanya Gunther, who I have so much respect for, get that. They understand long ball, without a doubt. It's tough. A lot of times you stand at the plate and miss but, my goodness, they've bred more than their share of amazing horses. So, no, we really don't breed for a market darling. We breed to improve a family. Eventually, the page will prove out.”

One of his most cherished examples is the dynasty of Jude (GB) (Darshaan {GB}).

“Through four generations, you lose track of all the Grade I performers,” he says. “Well, that's because somebody nurtured it. That's because of Richard Henry. And that, I can tell you, is what you do in business as well. You hire the best people, you keep the best close to you. That's our approach in everything we do. It's never about quick returns. We'll give Flying the Colors, a beautiful young War Front granddaughter of Jude, every opportunity to shine. She's in Ireland, in foal to Night of Thunder, and she's returning to the States this fall to be covered by Uncle Mo. We are committed long term to that Coolmore family, and I will move a mare like her if I see it may benefit her.”

Yet even doing it this way soon fills the present moment with fresh cycles of excitement.

“You want to get me going?” Heider asks with a chuckle. “Just ask me about A New Dawn (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), who's a granddaughter of Cherry Hinton (GB) (Green Desert), and I'll tell you about her Kingman (GB) yearling filly that's going to Joseph, or her Wootton Bassett (GB) colt foal. Or our 3-year-old Gun Runner filly, Stunningly, that broke her maiden this summer at Saratoga. I like the balance we have going on. There'll be some interchangeable parts here, some moving back and forth. Time will tell how it all works out. But it's all long-term thinking, and that's what excites me. It's what I know best.”

Stunningly | Sarah Andrew

Yet while his ultimate legacy remains an unknowable horizon, each step on the way emulates the one that first embarked Heider on this journey.

“In the end, for me, it's the same thing as it was day one,” Heider says. “That love and respect for the horse. But I think our true job in this sport is to leave it better than we found it. Now, that may mean trying to improve the breed: introducing new blood, sounder blood, faster blood. Or it may mean a gentleman like Ron Winchell saying, 'I'm going to make Kentucky Downs something like the Cella family has done at Oaklawn.'

“That's long ball. I can relate to that, in the investment world. But then we have everything else. The families on the farms, on the backside. The horses, after their track careers are over. So, if nothing else, by the time I'm ready to run my final furlong, I hope people don't say, 'Boy, he had fast horses,' or, 'He raced Mia Mischief; and he did this and that in Ireland.'

“What I hope they say is, 'There's somebody that tried to do the right thing; tried to improve the sport itself, including the folks that participate and dedicate their lives to it, especially those individuals that maybe don't get nearly enough attention or support.' In our own small way I hope we can leave this incredible game, that we all love so much, a little better than when we found it.”

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Sakheer Routed Directly To Commonwealth Cup

'TDN Rising Star' Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), who ran seventh in the G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas earlier this month, is likely bound for the G1 Commonwealth Cup S. without a prep in June, according to trainer Roger Varian.

Owned by KHK Racing, the bay was named a Rising Star off of a victory at Haydock in September, and he ran out an open-length winner of the G2 Mill Reef S. at Newbury later that month. The Guineas was his first run at three.

“He's come out of the race well and most likely he will go straight to the Commonwealth Cup,” said Varian of his Royal Ascot-bound colt. “It was such a messy race the 2000 Guineas, it was almost a non-event for us. He made quite an eyecatching move in the race, but it was all happening away from him and maybe he just didn't get home the final 100 yards.

“We imagine a stiff six furlongs at Ascot is tailor-made for him.”

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200,000gns Farrell ‘Freak’ Shares Top Billing At Guineas Sale

NEWMARKET, UK–Nobody prospecting breeze-up horses here on Thursday will have needed reminding that there is “many a slip twixt cup and lip.” For one thing, the perils of the horse trade had been tragically amplified by the shocking accident that had meanwhile claimed the colt who set a sale record at Doncaster the previous week. The highest price recorded in the opening Horses-in-Training session here, meanwhile, actually represented only a quarter of the sum for which the same horse had been knocked down in the same ring last October.

Nonetheless the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale, after a fairly quiet start, rallied powerfully to complete what has been an extremely strong British cycle in the breeze-up calendar, registering an 18% hike in average from 35,678gns to 42,145gns and a new record in turnover.

This catalogue traditionally invites a slightly longer view than the earlier auctions, and a gratifying case in point was the Zoffany (Ire) colt found by Cormac Farrell at Fairyhouse last September for €55,000.

Brought here as lot 301, he had put a few eyeballs on stalks with the time he clocked the previous day, not least in view of the sturdy German blood clustering down the page. But he corroborated the impression made on the Rowley Mile with his languid stride round the ring, forcing Richard Hughes (with Ted Durcan alongside) all the way to 200,000gns to bring down the gavel.

“I think he might be a freak,” Farrell said. “He can do sectionals like a six-furlong horse, not one that should be wanting a mile and a half. He's a big rangy horse, nearly 16.2, but he just had this insane foot, it didn't make sense, particularly as we thought a bit of the other horses we had, the Kodiacs and the 'Starspangleds', and he could keep up with them. So he could just be exceptional.

“We'd just been nursing him along, he was raw and we minded him really, went very steady. It was only a month ago that we asked him to show us what he could do, and it came so natural to him that we only had to do a couple of gallops. It sounds silly, but we did come here thinking we might be able to top the sale. You never know until you get the breeze out of the way, though, so it's great that he's done what we hoped he would.”

Farrell acknowledged that the colt had not been an obvious type for the job.

“We thought we'd given plenty for him, at the time,” he admitted. “He was a big raw yearling, and people laughed when I said we were going to breeze him. And I could see why: in December he looked like an overgrown yearling still, but he has thrived since.”

He was delighted, moreover, to hear that his new trainer did not intend to press on with the horse immediately.

“We'll probably turn him out for some May grass,” Hughes confirmed. “I think six weeks will do him good and then we'll get him in and look to get him ready for an October maiden. He shouldn't be able to do what he's doing, really, at this time of the year, it's almost odd with the backbone of his pedigree a top-class German staying family.”

Sure enough, the colt is out of a sister to two most accomplished stayers: Getaway (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) won group races in Britain, France and Germany; while G1 Italian Oaks winner Guadalupe (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) has herself delivered two elite winners.

 

 

The Main Talking Points

  • Turnover for both sections of the sale reached a new high, for an aggregate 7,468,000gns on the day. Tally-Ho meanwhile continued their exceptional spring, leading consignors in processing eight juveniles for 438,000gns–highlighted by a 150,000gns Farhh (GB) colt (lot 309) sold to Rabbah.
  • One of the principal services of the breeze-up sector is to bridge the abyss that has culpably opened in recent years between dirt-bred American horses and the European circuit. The latest imported pinhook to impress buyers with her speed over the turf was a brilliant effort, a Congrats filly brought here by Katie Walsh of Greenhills Farm as lot 308. Picked up by Alpha Bloodstock at Keeneland last September for just $20,000, here she made 150,000gns from Oliver St Lawrence for Fawzi Nass. She'll join Jamie Osborne with Dubai in the back of their mind.
  • Rookies to celebrate headline sales included Calyx (GB), whose Apr. 28 foal from Bushypark Stables (lot 306) won over Richard Brown of Blandford at 135,000gns and who later added a 120,000gns colt (lot 351) sold by Tally-Ho; Magna Grecia (Ire), whose colt from Yeomanstown (lot 272) brought 115,000gns from John McConnell; and Soldier's Call (GB), who sold two colts at 110,000gns apiece, one from Powerstown (lot 289) to a stable that has excelled at this sale in Alan King (co-signed with Federico Barberini) and another from Derryconnor Stud (lot 327) to Amanda Skiffington.
  • Profitable (Ire) has dropped to a four-figure fee at Kildangan but his third crop showed how he can make that pay when registering a couple of big scores: Richard Ryan gave 150,000gns for the 32,000gns Somerville pinhook presented by Malcolm Bastard (lot 204); while another son brought 78,000gns as lot 267. Ryan's fellow, acquired for Teme Valley and Opulence Racing, will join Profitable's trainer Clive Cox.
  • After a fairly long and winding road, Starspangledbanner (Aus) has reached a new peak in his global reputation and prepared for the resumption of his shuttling career with two daughters catching the eye of shrewd racing syndicates. Middleham Park gave 120,000gns for lot 288, sold to Fozzy Stack at the Orby for €40,000 and brought here by A & N Bloodstock; while Nick Bradley landed lot 304, a 27,000gns Book 2 buy by Kilronan and consigned by Knockanglass, for 80,000gns.
  • At a sale that provides some oxygen for those bred to need a little more time and distance, plaudits for showcasing potential within the constraints of the format went to Michael Cleere for turning an Almanzor (Fr) colt (lot 190), found in this ring for just 9,000gns last October, into a 95,000gns sale to Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock. The agent in turn gave credit to client Peter Jeffers, saying, “He doesn't want the whizz-bangs.”
  • Whether enough attention was being paid to the breeding potential of fillies in the Horses-in-Training session must be in doubt, seeing that 5,000gns sufficed to land the collector's item that was Margaret Beaufort (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}) (lot 29). Though her two recent wins for George Scott had come at a very modest level, her granddam is the only foal ever delivered to the tragic George Washington (Ire).
  • The final transaction of the day prompted warm applause for auctioneer Ollie Fowlston, laying down his gavel after 25 years with Tattersalls to become managing director at Dullingham Park. He was never going to go quietly, given the volume he tends to favour! But there was no mistaking the affection and esteem of the many colleagues and friends who gathered to wish him well in his new role.

 

 

O'Callaghan Passes Test of Resolve

Michael O'Callaghan has done too well, too often, with the business model he has more or less trademarked at the breeze-ups to be disheartened even by the calamity that befell his record-breaking Harry Angel (Ire) colt in a freak transport accident following his £500,000 purchase at Doncaster.

Certainly the trainer will deserve redress from Lady Luck with the Time Test (GB) colt (lot 322) that again took him to the top of the sale, alongside the Zoffany colt sold by Cormac Farrell a few minutes earlier, at 200,000gns.

Found in the same ring as a foal by Pier House Stud, for 67,000gns at the 2021 December Sale, he was brought back by the masterly Willie Browne of Mocklershill. The colt has some top-class blood behind him–his mother is an unraced sister to G3 Queen's Vase winner Mikhail Glinka (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the pair out of a sister to none other than Sir Percy (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire})–and Brendan Morrin of Pier House soon decided that he might be a longer-term project.

“Willie does five or six breezers for us every year,” he explained. “And this horses has a lot of Galileo in him. We decided we'd hang on and wait for breeze, rather than sell as a yearling. Sometimes those plans don't work out, when you're buying them as foals, but we have been lucky today: Willie has done a fantastic job on him. He went there in January unbroken, but we'd handled him with the sales yearlings.”

“He's a magnificent-looking horse,” enthused Browne. “He looks a racehorse, he has a great walk and a great mind on him. I thought waiting for this sale might give him a bit of extra time, and he was a standout today.”

O'Callaghan was additionally intrigued by a resemblance to G2 Beresford S. winner Crypto Force (GB), another son of Time Test that he found at this sale last year for 160,000gns.

“He's a lovely, quality horse, and I hope lightning can strike twice,” O'Callaghan said. “Crypto Force was also out of a Galileo mare. This horse has a lovely action, he was a bit green in his breeze but we can forgive him that.”

Stars Align For Oakgrove

The last lot catalogued in the first half of the sale, comprising older Horses-in-Training, actually belonged to the same crop as the breezers that followed. But this Sea The Stars (Ire) filly, out of an unraced Nathaniel (Ire) half-sister to G2 Lancashire Oaks winner Pongee (GB) (Barathea {Ire}), arrived with a challenging history as one of 30 yearlings purchased for some £20 million by Richard Knight Bloodstock last year, only for client Saleh Al Homaizi to fail to come up with payment.

Most have already been re-offered (including one that won at Salisbury on Thursday afternoon) but this filly, who made 600,000gns when consigned by Newsells Park at the October Sale, has meanwhile been in pre-training and, according to Oakgrove Stud manager David Hilton after signing a 150,000gns docket, has had to overcome a “couple of niggles”.

Whatever her immediate future, Hilton emphasised that his employer John Deer had targeted the filly as a long-term project for Oakgrove, given a long screed of black type beneath her granddam Puce (GB) (Darshaan {GB}).

“This is very much a pedigree-based purchase,” explained Hilton. “We have [Pongee's daughter] Poplin (GB) (Medicean {GB}) and she's doing well for us. Whether we race her or not is up for debate, but we're very happy to buy her and she will join the broodmare band eventually.

“I spoke to Megan Evans at [consignor] Vicarage Farm, who was very honest and said they have not done a great deal with her. She's a big filly but very elegant, a good mover with a lovely head. She's very Sea The Stars, and Nathaniel (Ire) is starting to do well as a broodmare sire. The mare is based at Newsells and I'm sure they will be looking after her very well, so we'll be looking on with interest.”

The only runner to date out of this filly's unraced dam is Paz (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}), a dual juvenile scorer in France who ran second in the Listed Prix des Lilas at Chantilly Thursday evening.

 

 

Records All Round

Having seen his rivals at Doncaster celebrate a remarkable auction last week, Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony was glad to note the continued strong trade here.

“The momentum from the recent record-breaking Craven Breeze-Up Sale has been well and truly sustained at a second consecutive record-breaking renewal of this sale,” he said. “The combined turnover for the breeze-up 2-year-olds and horses-in-training has surpassed last year's record of 6.7 million guineas; the key indicators of average and median have matched or exceeded last year's impressive returns; and 13 2-year-olds have sold for 100,000 guineas or more, which is another record for the fixture.

“This sale traditionally attracts an abundance of overseas buyers and this year has been no exception with international demand, most notably from throughout Europe and the Gulf region, proving to be a feature of the sale which has also produced a combined clearance rate well in excess of 80%.

“Domestic buyers have as ever made a huge contribution to a successful sale and it is a tribute to the consignors that the breeze-up sector continues to go from strength to strength. There is no doubt that the consistent ability of both the Tattersalls Craven and Guineas Breeze-Up Sales to produce Classic and Group 1 winners has not gone unnoticed by the buyers, and we look forward to seeing plenty more quality performers emerge from both sales in the coming months.”

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