Frankel In Front at Goffs with €1.7M Filly

 Less than an hour into the morning’s trade at Goffs Tuesday, the day’s star package, a daughter of the champions Frankel (GB) and Alexander Goldrun (Ire) (Gold Away {Ire}), strode into the ring and stole the show with a €1.7 million price tag. Michael Wallace of China Horse Club was late into the fray for lot 23, but as early bidders Matt Coleman, Amanda Skiffington and Dermot Farrington gave way, Wallace held his nerve to have the final say over Ross Doyle. China Horse Club principal Teo Ah Khing beamed with delight as his agent signed the docket while commenting, “She’s a very obvious filly from a really good mare and a horse like this holds great long-term potential. The Frankel side is self-explanatory and when you put sire and dam together with the filly’s visual characteristics you have something that looks rather elite.” No decision has yet been taken as to which lucky stable will receive the filly. She is the first Frankel yearling to be bought by China Horse Club, which later in the session also added to its purchases with a Galileo half-brother to GI EP Taylor S. winner Lahaleeb (Ire) (Redback {GB}) (lot 161) for €250,000 and the sole Munnings yearling in the catalogue, a filly out of Brocatelle (GB) (lot 73), a half-sister to Barathea (Ire) and Gossamer (GB). Bought for $27,000 at Keeneland by Ger Burke, she was sold through his Glidawn Stud for €130,000. Wallace added, “We’ll continue through to the end of the European sales before allocating the horses to trainers.” With 193 of the 229 yearlings offered being marked as sold, the first day recorded a clearance rate of 84%, down two points on last year’s corresponding session, while turnover climbed 2% to €19,614,500. Thirteen yearlings sold for €250,000 or more, but the average and median both dropped slightly, the former by 2.3% to €101,630 and the median by 7.1% to €65,000.

Gold Rush for Goldrun

Alexander Goldrun, the winner of ten of her 31 races, including five Group 1 contests in Ireland, England and Hong Kong, raced for Noel O’Callaghan during her training career with Jim Bolger. She retired to her owner’s Mountarmstrong Stud, where she has produced two colts by Galileo (Ire) and, though not in foal this year, she currently has a filly foal by Shamardal. The sales-topping Frankel filly may be the product of one champion racemare, but her bold performance in the ring at Goffs, often pawing the air with her front feet as if wanting to walk on faster, brought to mind the distinctive pre-race dance of another outstanding distaffer, Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}). She certainly seems to possess a temperament which will enable her to cope with the clamour which is bound to accompany her eventual racecourse debut and she sailed through her first public test at Goffs with aplomb. Rob Tierney, manager of Mountarmstrong Stud, allowed onlookers to admire the filly in the sun immediately post-sale and as she posed willingly for yet more photographs. He said, “We’re all thrilled–I didn’t expect that. Everybody loved her and she went down really well. She’s been a pure pro all week and is just a super filly to be involved with. I’ve known her all her life and she’s always been so easy to deal with. I must thank all the lads back at the farm for all their hard work–they’re a class bunch.”

Exceedingly Good Day for Deer Forest

Another extremely well-related filly, the full-sister to champion juvenile and Classic winner Dawn Approach (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) (lot 201) from Jim Bolger’s Redmonstown Stud, was knocked down to Eamonn O’Reilly for €480,000, while New Approach’s Darley stable-mate Exceed And Excel (Aus) was responsible for the most expensive colt of the day. Roger Varian’s stable recently took delivery of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid’s entire string and it will also be home to the chesnut son of the Italian Group 1 winner Aoife Alainn (Ire) (Dr Fong). The colt, who was bred and consigned by Luca Somaini of Deer Forest Stud, was knocked down for €400,000 to the trainer and is a half-brother to juvenile winner First To Post (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), the mare’s first foal (click here for the audio). “He looked a racehorse,” said Varian. “He had plenty of size and strength and he’s by a stallion who throws horses with speed and precocity.” The colt’s delighted breeder, who also bred and raced his dam, added, “We had plenty of people around and he was busy enough, but the sales have been very hard to read in recent years. It’s very important for the mare that he’s gone to a good trainer. She’s back in foal to Kingman (GB).”

Kelly Has Spirit for Cumani

Luca Cumani may be smarting at the recent loss of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid’s horses, including stable star Postponed (Ire), but he will gain some comfort in the recruitment of a smart prospect by Invincible Spirit (Ire) (lot 48), who was bought by Harriet Jellett for €370,000 on behalf of Jon and Sarah Kelly. The American owners already have an impressive filly in training with Cumani, the G1 Dubai Fillies’ Mile entrant Beautiful Morning (GB). Their most recent acquisition is a colt out of the Arch mare Arty Crafty who was bred by Airlie Stud. His dam is a sister to multiple graded stakes winner Prince Arch and half-sister to juvenile Group 1 winner Kingsfort (War Chant). During a frenetic period, which saw five horses sell for €250,000 or more within 10 lots, Tony Nerses swooped for a daughter of Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) (lot 40) at €360,000 for owners Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar. Her half-brother Order Of St George (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was the facile winner of the Irish St Leger a fortnight ago and has just entered quarantine for Australia ahead of his attempt on the Melbourne Cup. Nerses commented, “She looks a lovely filly and has a dual purpose for us as she will make a lovely broodmare after she’s finished racing. Blue Diamond Stud here she comes!” The fact that the filly is a half-sister to four black-type winners doubtless helped sway Nerses into his decision, but so too did the fact that she was presented for sale by Clare Castle, with which the buyer has enjoyed notable success in the past. “I bought [Derby winner] Authorized (Ire) and Green Destiny (Ire) from these guys. Let’s hope this filly is also lucky,” he said. The Clare Castle/Paget Bloodstock team bought the filly’s dam, juvenile winner Another Storm (Gone West), at Keeneland for $50,000 in 2010. Sent to Galileo the following year, she produced Order Of St George, who was sold as a yearling for $550,000. Another Storm is also the dam of a pair of Group/Grade 3 winners in Asperity (War Chant) and Angel Terrace (Ghostzapper).

Moyglare Opts for Another Angel

Another major owner-breeder operation looking to augment the broodmare ranks was Moyglare Stud, whose representative Fiona Craig was pushed to €350,000 by Charlie Gordon-Watson to secure a speedily-bred daughter of Dark Angel (Ire) (lot 227) from Yeomanstown Stud. Craig was emboldened in her purchase by the performance of Juliette Fair (Ire), who was second in the listed Blenheim S. at Fairyhouse earlier in the day–she too is a Yeomanstown-bred daughter of Dark Angel and was purchased by Moyglare for €240,000 at last year’s Orby Sale (click here for the audio interview). “She has a nice fast pedigree and we have a desperate need for outcross pedigrees,” Craig explained. “Hopefully she’ll be a good racehorse–and she looks a lovely straightforward filly. I wasn’t looking for mares from the Northern Dancer line as there are plenty of those stallions we need to breed back to.” The filly, out of the stakes-placed Most Welcome (GB) mare Kelsey Rose (GB), is a sister to Lady O’Reilly’s Sovereign Debt (Ire), who was runner-up to Farrh (GB) in the G1 Lockinge S. and is a dual listed winner. Just four lots from the close of the first session, John Ferguson signed for the sixth of his purchases of the day when gaining the verdict on a Dream Ahead colt (lot 246) out of a winning daughter of Oaks d’Italia victrix Valley Of Gold (Fr) (Shirley Heights {GB}). The colt’s vendor, Tally-Ho Stud, turned a reasonable profit when selling Dream Ahead himself at the DBS Breeze-up Sale of 2010 for £36,000, having bought him at Keeneland with Federico Barberini for just $11,000. The returns for his pinhooked son are much greater, however. Bought in the same ring last November for €78,000, his price improved to €360,000 ten months later.

Cause for Excelebration

The most expensive yearling to date by Coolmore’s first-season sire Excelebration (Ire) is Camas Park Stud’s successful pinhook, lot 109, a colt out of the unraced Sadler’s Wells mare Dance Avenue (Ire) whose third dam Madame Dubois (GB) (Legend Of France) won the G2 Park Hill S. and produced the Group 1 winners Indian Haven (GB) (Indian Ridge {GB}) and Count Dubois (GB) (Zafonic). The March-born colt cost €100,000 as a foal and was resold to agent Alastair Donald for €340,000. “I only had two on my list for this particular client and the other was the Exceed And Excel colt [lot 40],” said Donald. “I was the under-bidder on that one, but I’m delighted to get this colt. He’s a lovely horse–the best I’ve seen by the sire–and he’ll be trained by Ed Walker.” Steve Parkin of Clipper Logistics is the new owner of Airlie Stud’s Galileo half-sister to Intense Focus (Giant’s Causeway) (lot 112) after going to €300,000 through agent Federico Barberini. The filly’s dam, Daneleta (Ire) (Danehill), was a Group 3 winner, as was her sister Danelissima (Ire), and the family also includes stallions Sholokhov (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells) and Soldier Of Fortune (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Mick Flanagan opted for a colt by Galileo (lot 191), whose dam Healing Music (Fr) (Bering) has already produced the Derby runner-up At First Sight (Ire) to the champion sire. The agent gave €260,000 for the late April colt, who is to remain in Europe to race. Gatewood Bell was another to snap up a Galileo yearling (lot 123), paying €200,000 for Barronstown Stud’s daughter of Devoted To You (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), while another buyer to have traveled from America for the sale, Shawn Dugan, struck for a trio of fillies by Lawman (Fr), Zoffany (Ire) and Mastercraftsman (Ire). The most expensive of the three was a daughter of Lawman (Ire) whose second dam Interval (GB) (Habitat {GB}) won the Prix Maurice de Gheest and counts Group 3 scorer Short Pause (GB) (Sadler’s Wells) among her seven winners. Bought for 72,000gns as a foal by Amanda Skiffington, the Glenvale Stud-consigned filly’s yearling price rose to €270,000. The sale continues at 10 a.m. Wednesday.