Two Lots Set New Tatts February Record

For the first five hours or so of their selling year, the Tattersalls auctioneers must have looked down from the rostrum yesterday and wondered if all those giddy records set in 2017 had just been a dream. They made all their usual exhortations, they implored by word and gesture–but found themselves resembling the conductor whose orchestra can only persist neurotically in scales and sound checks. Meanwhile a crisp winter day had already faded into rainy dusk. And then, all of a sudden, the February Sale found its keynote. Within a few hectic minutes, at an auction which only registered its first 500,000gns sale through Easton Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) last year, 2,100,000gns was spent on four lots.

The circumstances, of course, were highly singular. For the usual flotsam and jetsam you might expect at a midwinter breeding stock sale had been joined, thanks to an unusual tide of fortune, by some of the most precious driftwood in European bloodstock.

First there was the fire sale resulting from the Steinhoff accounting scandal in South Africa, which has evidently required some partnerships involving Markus Jooste to be dissolved. And then, in contrast with that embarrassment, there was a rather charming epilogue to the Ballymacoll dispersal: the sale, as one lot, of the 5-year-old mare Thetis (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and her first foal–a filly just 19 days old.

It was as vivid an image as you could hope to see, to condense the quest that brings so many horsemen and women to places like this, year after year, in the hope that the patient cycles of their business will result in the breeding or buying of a champion. A mare standing guard over her tiny, anxious filly, the pair representing decades of experience and judgement by the Weinstock family and the long-serving Ballymacoll manager, Peter Reynolds. And some premier breeders were duly inspired to contest the opportunity to tap into a family tree nostalgically evocative of the pale blue silks, with the yellow and white checked cap.

For Thetis, herself runner-up in the G2 Rockfel S., is a half-sister to the lightly raced G3 Musidora S. winner Liber Nauticus (Ire) (Azamour {Ire}) out of a half-sister to the champion Conduit (Ire) (Dalakhani {Ire}); in turn out of a half-sister to Classic winner Spectrum (Ire) (Rainbow Quest). Having been unable to make her intended engagement in the December Sale, she had since delivered a filly by Lope De Vega (Ire) (Shamardal). “Your last chance to buy a bit of history,” urged auctioneer Alastair Pim, quite rightly. “Two for the price of one.”

His own task, ultimately, was to reduce the last two men standing–John McCormack and Stephen Hillen–to one. And that turned out to be McCormack, who coolly intervened with a single bid of 550,000gns. That took the final aggregate of the dispersal to 12,077,500gns, at least in formal terms. To McCormack, the whole legacy is evidently priceless.

“I'd say this is probably one of the best tap-lines of Ballymacoll. And that history will identify Peter Reynolds as one of the greatest stud masters of our time,” he said. “Himself and Michael Stoute made for a great team. They tailored and crafted some really good horses, and not from big numbers. It's a great credit to them. And hopefully in 15, 20 years from now, you'll still be reading about Ballymacoll.”

McCormack acquired the pair, sold as lot 149, for an existing client and said that Thetis will remain in Europe to be bred. “She's a very pretty mare, and the foal at foot is encouraging,” he said.

The new sale record would be matched moments later, by the very next lot into the ring, one of the Jooste horses. By the time these had all been through the ring, the indices for the opening session were guaranteed to have soared on those recorded last year, which had been the first extended into a second day.

Sure enough, despite a reduced clearance rate, the aggregate climbed by 22% to 3,992,650gns from 3,273,300gns, and the average by 32% to 27,536gns from 20,849gns. With the clearance slipping from 85% to 76% (145 sold out of 192 offered), the median dwindled from 7,000gns to 5,500gns (-21%). But sales like this will always be prey to random, fairly extreme variations in quality, and that was certainly the case here.

Smoulder Co-Tops Thursday's Session…

It is only technically, of course, that the next filly into the ring can be said merely to have equalled the new record at 550,000gns. For where Thetis had a little help from her daughter, Smoulder (GB) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) achieved that sum on her own account as lot 150 and must duly be credited as the most valuable animal to have been sold at this sale.

The 4-year-old is closely related to one multiple Group 1 winner Legatissimo (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) and out of a full-sister to another in Fame And Glory (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}). This is also the family of Farhh (GB) (Pivotal {GB}).

Smoulder had been bought here as a Book 1 yearling by M.V. Magnier for 725,000gns and was trained by Aidan O'Brien for his Coolmore patrons in partnership with Jooste but only managed a maiden success in a dozen starts.

She will now go to the paddocks of Lordship Stud after the Harris family saw off Bertrand Le Metayer. For the Harris family, she represented a gratifying second bite at the cherry.

“We loved her as a yearling,” explained Tom Harris. “But we were never going to get her then. So for us, it's come full circle. It's exciting. We've been trying to buy a mare all winter, but it's been very tough. We've some ideas for a covering sire, but as yet no plans.”

'Heart' Will Head Stateside…

Key To My Heart (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), selling in the same frenzied sequence as lot 154, had a very similar profile. She was an even more expensive yearling out of Book 1 in 2015, at 1.3 million gns, and raced for the same interests. It did take her six starts to break her maiden, but she later added a listed prize at Naas and represents the kind of blend of which you don't see enough these days: by a colossus among European sires but out of A Z Warrior (Bernardini), winner of the GI Frizette S. and a half-sister to two others also placed at the same level on dirt.

The need to mix things up that way is not lost on the shrewd Eamon Reilly, who duly went to 525,000gns on behalf of an American client. “Galileo mares are obviously hard to get and that's a page that will hopefully work out in the States,” the BBA Ireland man explained. “So that's where she'll go to be bred.”

Reilly was especially pleased as he had been underbidder, a few minutes previously, for Longing (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Selling as lot 148, the 4-year-old had started the dizzy spike in the day's business at 220,000gns for Cormac McCormack. Again, she had been a seven-figure yearling here for the Jooste-Coolmore association, but had been unable to build on a maiden success in a brief career.

“I'm delighted to get her,” McCormack said. “She's a Galileo filly and everyone wants one of those. You can't get better than that.”

Hillen Lands Pocketfullofdreams…

There was to be no such reward for the perseverance of Le Metrayer, who again found himself underbidder on lot 152. Pocketfullofdreams (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) was instead secured for 475,000gns by Stephen Hillen, who confined himself to stating that he was representing a new client.

Coolmore representatives were observing from nearby, as well they might after seeing the 4-year-old half-sister to MGSW The Juliet Rose (Fr) (Monsun {Ger}) hold her value since her acquisition by Peter Doyle and Mayfair Speculators as a €550,000 Arqana August yearling. She was twice runner-up in listed company, besides winning her maiden, and Hillen noted, “It's a happening family, The Juliet Rose made a lot of money privately, and of course she's by Invincible Spirit.”

'Rose' Bounds for Cheveley Park…

Another gem set in this cluster was lot 153, Tallulah Rose (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}). Out of a half-sister to both Laughing (Ire) (Dansili {GB}), winner of the GI Flower Bowl S. and GI Diana S., and Hong Kong champion Comic Strip (GB) (Marju {Ire}), she was acquired by Chris Richardson of Cheveley Park Stud as a highly eligible partner for its new sire Ulysses (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

Purchased here out of Book 2 for 80,000gns, the Floors Stud graduate won at Bath as a juvenile for Karl Burke but failed to go on after running a good fourth in the G3 Princess Margaret S.

“It's a fast family,” explained Richardson. “Ulysses has already let himself down well, and is doing well after the interruption after the Breeders' Cup through which he was restricted to box rest. We're very pleased with him, and have had plenty of interest from breeders. We're really pleased with all the stallions at Cheveley Park: they're an interesting group and at an interesting time in their careers.”

Juddmonte Offerings in Demand…

The bulk of the Juddmonte draft is concentrated in Friday's session but two mares sold Thursday consecutively raised the tempo during the low-key start to proceedings.

The 15-year-old Novellara (GB) (Sadler's Wells), herself a listed winner for the late Sir Henry Cecil, is a half-sister to–among others–Oaks winner Reams Of Verse (Nureyev) and dual Group 1 winner Elmaamul (Diesis {GB}), as well as to the dam of Breeders' Cup winner Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). That drops the genetic miner straight down to one of the richest Juddmonte seams. True, this mare has not had the best of luck at stud herself–despite one group winner in Australia–but she arrived as lot 70 with the benefit of a covering by the farm's up-and-coming sire Bated Breath (GB).

That was good enough for agent Will Douglass, who signed the 55,000gns docket and said, “There's not that many chances to buy a Sadler's Wells mare who has produced a black-type horse, and that's probably Juddmonte's best family under the first dam. And I think it's fair to say that it's getting quite hard to get into Bated Breath, too.”

The next mare into the ring brought exactly twice that sum from Paul Webber, bidding 110,000gns on behalf of David Nagle of Barronstown Stud. Canada Water (GB) (Dansili {GB}) (lot 71) is a full-sister to an Arc winner in Rail Link (GB), as well as three other group winners, and her first foal was beaten a head in the G3 Prix de la Rochette.