Lope De Vega Colt Tops Lively Goffs Session

As the Goffs November Foal Sale cranked up another gear on Wednesday, the six-figure barrier was breached for the first time when a son of Lope De Vega (Ire) (lot 551) found favor at €105,000. Manister House Stud’s Luke Barry was the bold bidder for the May foal out of the proven producer Charmgoer (Nureyev), the dam of French listed winner Beringoer (Fr) (Bering) among her seven winners from nine previous foals. But it wasn’t just the female family–which includes Charmgoer’s Grade I-winning half-brothers Dare And Go (Alydar) and Go Deputy (Deputy Minister)–that appealed to pinhooker Barry, who has a particular fondness for the colt’s sire.

“The stallion has been lucky for us before and in my opinion he’s still under-rated,” he said of the Kellsgrange Stud offering. “This is a very nice foal and I’m delighted to get him.”

An encouraging clearance rate of 81% was the feature of the third session, with 173 foals sold for an aggregate of €3,509,000. The average for the session was €20,283 and the median €16,000, with the quality set to continue rising over the final two sessions.

Patrick Cassidy of Nafferty Stud enjoyed plenty of racecourse success with the durable homebred Mid Mon Lady (Ire) (Danetime {Ire}), who won six of her 67 starts and was stakes-placed on nine occasions, and her broodmare career looks like it could follow a similar path.

Mid Mon Lady’s first foal, a colt by Raven’s Pass, has gone into training with Mark Johnston after being bought for 35,000gns at Tattersalls last month while her second, an April-born Intikhab filly (lot 651) became Wednesday’s leading lady when sold for €87,000 to Michael Downey and Peter Kavanagh.

Intikhab’s three Group 1 winners are all fillies–Snow Fairy (Ire), Paita (GB) and Red Evie (Ire)–with the latter being not just a stellar racemare but also now an accomplished broodmare as the dam of GI Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Found (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

Commenting on their purchase, who will be reoffered for sale as a yearling, Peter Kavanagh said, “Intikhab is a very good sire of fillies and this filly had great physical presence–she was deep and strong, very mature for her age. The mare was very good and it’s hard to buy the complete package, but this is a filly with a good pedigree who is also a very good individual.”

The first lot to be offered for sale by Darley’s champion 2-year-old and Classic winner Dawn Approach (Ire) (lot 731) will be heading to England following a successful attempt to secure the first foal of Swift Action (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) by Chris and Charlie Budgett and Will Edmeades. The pinhooking team went to €70,000 for the Castlebridge-consigned descendant of the champion racemare and producer Marwell (GB) (Habitat) who, like her great-grandson, was bred by Sir Edmund Loder.

“She’s for one of our pinhooking syndicates and she’ll be offered for sale next year by Kirtlington Stud,” said Charlie Budgett. “He was just a really nice horse from a proper consignor and proper breeder.”

Another Darley freshman, the Australian reverse-shuttler Epaulette (Aus), has featured fairly prominently thus far at Goffs and late in Wednesday’s session his son out of the young Encosta De Lago (Aus) mare Union City Blues (Ire) was sold for €65,000 from the Ballylinch Stud consignment to CBS Bloodstock.

Two colts by popular Coolmore sires, Zoffany (Ire) and Choisir (Aus)–the former one of the hottest properties in the Irish stallion ranks and the champion freshman sire-elect while the latter sadly no longer shuttles from Australia–were each also sold for €65,000, again with resale as yearlings on the agenda.

Lot 512, the Zoffany colt out of the dual-winning Nashwan mare Ambrosine (GB), was selected from the JK Thoroughbreds draft by Timmy Hyde, while Paul Thorman signed for the Choisir colt (lot 540) out of the listed-placed Bunditten (Ire) (Soviet Star), who has produced six winners from her seven runners to date. Bunditten, who is owned by James and Geoff Mulcahy, also has a first-crop daughter of Helmet (Aus) to run for her next season after being bought by Dermot Farrington at the recent DBS Premier Sale for £40,000.

Pour Moi (Ire), one of five Derby winners standing at Coolmore in Ireland, has notched six winners from his 23 runners to date and his well-bred daughter from the family of former French champion 2-year-old and young sire Dabirsim (Fr) was John Kilbride’s pick of the day. The agent gave €60,000 for lot 626, who was offered by Railstown Stud and is the first foal of Lady Ederle (English Channel), a daughter of the G2 Oaks d’Italia winner Bright Generation (Ire) (Rainbow Quest {GB}).

Few stallions stamp their stock quite so distinctly as Kodiac (GB), and his reliability on the physical front is backed up in the sales ring and on the track. Hiked in fee from €10,000 to €25,000 last year, the Tally-Ho Stud resident is set for another price increase in 2016 to €45,000, and even at this level he’s likely to be oversubscribed. Breeders who managed to use him in 2014 will likely reap financial rewards in the sales ring over the next few weeks, and this was certainly the case for Albany Stud, whose grand-daughter of the GI Beverly D. S. winner Snow Polina (Trempolino) (lot 709) fetched a bid of €57,000 from Tony and Roger O’Callaghan of Tally-Ho Stud.

Earlier in the session, Dunboden Estate’s filly out of dual winner Noble Galileo (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) (lot 670) reached €56,000 when bought by Mark Dwyer and Willie Browne through the Ennel Lodge Stud draft.

Kodiac’s stud-mate, the Group 1-winning sprinter Society Rock (Ire), has his first foals for sale this year and an April-foaled colt out of the seven-time winner Smokey Ryder (GB) (Bertolini) hit the top 10 list after Jimmy Murphy of Redpender Stud had the final say at €57,000. A tough campaigner for her owner-breeder Jeremy Hinds, Smokey Ryder raced 24 times and was placed in the Listed Spring Cup at Lingfield. She was bought for 9,000gns by Tally-Ho Stud at the Tattersalls December Sale of 2011 and this is her second foal, consigned by Phoenix Town Stud.

The Goffs November Foal Sale runs through Friday, with Thursday’s action getting underway at 11 a.m. local time.