Tattersalls December Foal Sale

NEWMARKET, UK--With a hundred extra foals catalogued for this year's December Foal Sale, a lengthy opening session conducted in bursts of driving rain then bright sunshine kicked off the four days of trade in a largely positive manner. Both the average and median were up, as was turnover, albeit from a larger number offered and sold this year. Only the clearance rate, at 70%, was down, from 84% last year. The median of 13,000gns represented a 30% rise, while the average was up by 8% at 16,552gns. With 18 more...

Ed Harper will never forget the time he first encountered Sergei Prokofiev in the flesh. The Whitsbury Manor Stud director was at the Rowley Mile for the G3 Cornwallis S., anticipating a big run from Heartwarming (GB) (Showcasing {GB}), a farm-bred filly leased to the Hot To Trot syndicate with Clive Cox. "We fancied her heavily," Harper recalls. "She'd been doing some very smart work, we knew we hadn't quite seen the best of her, today was the day. But then I saw Sergei Prokofiev in the pre-parade ring and...

NEWMARKET, UK--There is no doubt that the mares' section of the Tattersalls December Sale will create much of the hoopla at Park Paddocks over the next fortnight. Blockbuster names such as Saffron Beach (Ire), Alcohol Free (Ire), Pearls Galore (GB), and La Petite Coco (Ire) and are set to come under the hammer, not to mention Desert Berry (GB), the dam of this year's G1 Derby winner Desert Crown (GB) back in foal to his sire Nathaniel (Ire). The Monday and particularly the Tuesday evening sessions of the mares' sale...

Half-sister to a pair of Group 1 winners and a colt foal by Mehmas (Ire) are late additions to the Tattersalls December Mares Sale and Tattersalls December Foal Sale. Five-time winner Nataleena (Ire) (Nathaniel {Ire}), a half-sister to Group 1 winner Bay Bridge (GB) (New Bay {GB}) will sell through The Castlebridge Consignment as lot 1639A. Her dam, the Multiplex (GB) mare Hayyona (GB), is a half-sister to Group 2 victor Shimraan (Fr) (Rainbow Quest). She is in foal to Harry Angel (Ire), who has already sired stakes winners in...

A Kingman (GB) half-sister to G1 Dewhurst S. hero Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) (lot 1025) is one of the highlights of the 1172-strong catalogue for the Tattersalls December Foal Sale which is now online. The sale will be held from Nov. 23-26 and will begin at 10 a.m. each day. There are a total of 161 full- or half-siblings to group and listed winners, among them 11 Group 1 winners. Besides the Kingman filly offered by Whitsbury Manor Stud, half-brothers to G1 1000 Guineas heroine Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}) (lot...

Demand for bloodstock continued in Newmarket on Thursday, albeit at a lower price bracket, as Adaalah (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), a member of the Shadwell draft, brought 82,000gns to top the fourth and final session of the Tattersalls December Mare Sale as the curtain fell on the sales season at Park Paddocks for 2021. Thanks in part to larger drafts from the aforementioned Shadwell, Juddmonte and Godolphin, the former pair having lost their patrons earlier this year, turnover at the December Mare Sale was in excess of 60 million gns,...

NEWMARKET, UK--As the prices dipped from Friday's bumper session to a more modest level, so did Newmarket's weather, which settled into relentless icy rain for almost the entire concluding session of foals at Park Paddocks. Such gloomy exterior conditions could not dim the demand for bloodstock in the ring, however. We're not even into December yet, but Tattersalls can be satisfied with heartening levels of trade at the halfway house of its lengthy December Sale, with just four days of fillies and mares to come from Monday. On Friday, Genesis...

NEWMARKET, UK--A proper old-fashioned bidding war between two superpowers of the breeding world underpinned the most expensive foal transaction seen in Europe for almost 20 years, when Genesis Green Stud's Dubawi (Ire) half-brother to Group 2 winner I Can Fly (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) sold for 1.8 million gns to Godolphin.  "I just wish Walter was here to see this," said an emotional Michael Swinburn of his late brother, the outstanding former jockey and trainer, who died in 2016. "He owned the mare and had her in training. I Can...

NEWMARKET, UK—Both the quality and the quantity were hiked, but the energy remained pretty seamless on the second day of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale. Once again business far surpassed the equivalent session last year, no surprise by this stage despite the unexpected resilience of that market, and measured up pretty closely to the tempo recorded in the pre-Covid innocence of the 2019 sale. With the pinhookers meeting conspicuous competition from end-users, especially for well-bred fillies, turnover soared by 32% to 9,225,000gns from 7,014,800gns, also eclipsing the 8,532,700gns banked in...

From bringing its largest draft of 26 foals to the Tattersalls December Sale in 2020, Mickley Stud's consignment for this week has almost doubled in size again to 50 weanlings.  It may be time-consuming for prospective buyers to work their way through this batch of youngsters down in the Solario Yard but it could also prove worthwhile. In 2015, Mickley's Richard Kent and his co-breeder, the late Lady Caroline Lonsdale, brought a Havana Gold (Ire) foal to sell who went on to become the Group 1-winning sprinter and young Whitsbury...

In what feels like the blink of an eye, we are now embarking on the final sale of the year at Tattersalls. The Newmarket auction house generally doesn't do things by halves and, if recent sales are anything to go by, the next two weeks at Park Paddocks will include plenty of show-stopping moments, with the mares' catalogues in particular being bolstered by several significant dispersals.  Before we get to that, however, we have one final day of yearlings to contend with. The December Yearling Sale can offer a second...

A pair of colts by Dark Angel (Ire) have been added to the upcoming Tattersalls December Foal Sale as wildcards. The duo, consigned by Barton Stud, will sell on Nov. 26. Lot 999A is out of the winning mare Nawassi (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), herself a daughter of G2 Queen Mary S. heroine Maqaasid (GB) (Green Desert). Maqaasid also placed in the G1 1000 Guineas and G1 Cheveley Park S. and is a sister to Group 1 producers Istishaary (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Jumooh (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). Istishaary's Il Fornaio (Arg)...