Convergence Tops Tatts Day 3

By Chris McGrath

Trade at Tattersalls this week has consistently emphasized how trainers should never neglect the importance of maximizing the residual value of horses in their care. Credit, then, is due to Ger Lyons and David Lanigan, who both reaped outstanding dividends for their patrons at Wednesday’s third session of the Tattersalls Autumn Horses-in-Training sale.

All the indices at the third session of the sale once again registered a significant dip, an aggregate of 8,343,650gns down 17% on 10,032,000gns last year. The average price was down 33%, from 39,188gns to 26,321gns, while the median sank 25% from 20,000gns to 15,000gns. The sale of 317 lots represented a clearance rate of 88%.

Lyons was the star turn. He paid Shadwell just €32,000 for Convergence (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}) as a yearling at the 2013 Tattersalls Ireland November Sale. After winning two listed races and the G3 Ballycorus S. at Leopardstown in the colors of Vincent Gaul, the colt was sold here as lot 1086 for 420,000gns. Following strong interest from Jassim Ghazali and Sean Woods, it was Karl Burke who had the final say. Much though the trainer would have welcomed Convergence to his yard in Yorkshire, it turned out that he was merely representing one of its clients, Hassan al Abdulmalik, who will be sending the colt to his trainer in Qatar, Debbie Mountain. “As far as I know he goes straight out there,” Burke explained. “Hassan asked me to take a look at him and he’s a lovely horse who really fits the bill for racing out there.”

Burke himself, of course, is to be congratulated for a giddy upgrade this season in the value of Odeliz (Ire) (Falco), bought for as a yearling for €22,000 and winner of her second Group 1 prize in Italy last weekend. She has a date here at the Breeding Stock Sale Dec. 2.

Though they became only the fourth and fifth lots to pass 200,000gns this week, Convergence had restricted Rembrandt Van Rijn (Ire) (Peintre Celebre) to barely 10 minutes as the sale’s most valuable horse at 400,000gns. But David Lanigan, trainer of lot 1078, merited a rather longer moment in the sun for striking such an astute balance between the limited earning capacity of British racehorses on the track itself, and the capricious requirements of those who might export them elsewhere. This time last year, Lanigan persuaded Bjorn Nielsen to withdraw his homebred from this sale, suspecting that he could yet multiply his value as a 4-year-old. Sure enough, Rembrandt Van Rijn won four of his five starts this season.

“With the way prizemoney is in this country, it’s a great thing if an owner is willing to sit and let you train them,” the Lambourn trainer said. “And Mr. Nielsen is very patient–he lets you do it the right way. A year ago this horse had finished second three times and might have made 20,000. We did get lucky to the extent that we cut him on the basis that he might be a bit lairy, but when he won his maiden it instead looked more like he was barely getting the mile and a half. So we dropped him to a mile and a quarter at Chester next time and he came from stone last into the straight, picking them off like they were standing still– and that’s something you just don’t do there. He hasn’t put a foot wrong since, he’s been a pleasure to train and I hope he’s very lucky for his new owners.”

Stroud, who saw off a sustained challenge from Stephen Hillen, had identified the gelding as a luminous match for his Dubai Carnival brief in what he had found a fairly tricky catalogue. “He’s a horse we’d followed all year,” the agent explained. “We thought he might make that kind of money but we were pretty near the end of our tether, right on the cusp of what we wanted to spend. The problem is that there haven’t been that many horses that fit our profile, and there have been a huge lot of vetting issues. But David has done an excellent job with looking after him.”

Lanigan, who prepared a draft of just six horses for the sale, would quickly receive due reward for his coup with Rembrandt Van Rijn after lot 1081, another homebred, added another 150,000gns to Nielsen’s credit. It was only two weeks ago that Trevisani (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) won a Kempton maiden by four lengths, responding well to blinkers, and his new owners–listed as the Platinum Syndicate–indicated that the 3-year-old colt would now return to Lanigan at Kingsdown Stables.

Stroud, for his part, was able to reinforce his squad towards the end of the session through Make It Up (GB) (Halling), a homebred colt previously trained for George Strawbridge by Andrew Balding at Kingsclere. Four wins in 10 career starts had elevated the 3-year-old’s official rating to 111 and lot 1202 certainly looked a bespoke fit for Dubai.

An earnest crack at the top lot of the sale was by no means the only near miss for Jassim Ghazali this week, but he did manage to buy lot 1024, another near the top of his shortlist, from his compatriots at Qatar Racing. Winner of two of her six juvenile starts for Ralph Beckett, Flying Empress (GB) (Holy

Roman Emperor {Ire}) had finished fourth in the G2 Rockfel S. up the road on the Rowley Mile last month and is viewed as an eligible type for the Qatar Oaks. Will Douglass, who was assisting as Ghazali signed a docket for 175,000gns, said, “she stands out in the catalogue as one of its best 2-year-olds, and her physique is made for Qatar.”

The same destination beckons Mawjood (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), a handsome 3-year-old who secured 145,000gns–and top billing in the day’s Shadwell draft–as lot 1048. Out of a sister to the very classy Cuis Ghaire (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the colt had achieved a rating of 80 in a light career for William Haggas and Mohammed Abdulmalik, his new owner, hopes that he can reach the elite grade in Qatar.

As ever, the blue-blooded Juddmonte consignment lent an extra buzz to proceedings–as likely to tempt breeders, with its fillies, as overseas or even jumps trainers, with its sheer, copper-bottomed quality. Guy Mulcaster, busy foraging all week for Chris Waller in Australia, spent 100,000gns for lot 1149, a lightly raced gelding who recently broke his maiden on his third start for Andre Fabre. Hipparchus (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) is out of a granddaughter of the Juddmonte matriarch Bahamian. Mulcaster, incidentally, had already paid 120,000gns for lot 1107, Richard of Yorke (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) from the Bedford House draft of Luca Cumani.

An audacious opening bid of 100,000gns from Tom Malone was enough to secure lot 1156, Pilansberg (GB) (Rail Link {GB}), for Paul Nicholls, the UK champion jumps trainer. Third in the G2 Prix Chaudenay on Arc weekend, Pilansberg was rated the outstanding 3-year-old in the sale by an overjoyed Malone. “I never thought I’d get him,” he exclaimed. “To look as well as he does, after a busy season, running last weekend and then traveling here, is admirable.”

The final session of the Tattersalls Autumn Horses-In-Training Sale takes place Thursday.