'He should go down a storm with potential buyers' - prominent picks from Park Paddocks

Lot 7
Bay filly Lope De Vega - Thames Pageant (Dansili)
Consigned by Pier House Stud

This filly is one who should appeal to American buyers looking for a top-class turf horse. 

She is a half-sister to the 2021 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Twilight Gleaming and by Lope De Vega, whose record in North America is excellent.

He has sired two winners of the Breeders Cup' Juvenile Fillies Turf – the Book 1 graduates Aunt Pearl and Newspaperofrecord – and has five individual Grade 1 winners in North America.

The cross of Lope De Vega with Danehill and his sons has produced very good results, with eight of his top-level winners bred this way and three of them are out of Dansili mares, like this filly.

Thames Pageant was bred by the late Queen but didn't race, and was sold as a three-year-old at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale for just 42,000gns to Badgers Bloodstock. Her second visit to the Park Paddocks sales ring 12 months later saw her make 60,000gns to Peter and Ross Doyle from Mountain View Stud.

Her offspring have sold well, with her Phoenix Of Spain filly making €200,000 as a yearling and her now four-year-old Sioux Nation gelding, Spartan Arrow, making 380,000gns at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale.

She has three winners from four runners, and both her dam and second dam are black-type winners who have produced Group 1 performers, so it's a nice fillies' family.

Miriam Doran

Lot 8
B c No Nay Never - Thar She Blows (Zoffany)
Lynn Lodge Stud

My original choice was lot 397 but sadly that filly has been withdrawn. Happily, however, I am able to choose the next best thing, a very close relation to Camas Park Stud's daughter of No Nay Never.

Lot 397 is a half-sister to Prosperous Voyage, the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes winner of 2022 who earned herself a footnote in the career of Frankie Dettori when providing the jockey with his final Group winner at Epsom – although with Dettori's retirement tour ongoing, that record for Prosperous Voyage may yet not stand.

This colt is also by No Nay Never and is the first foal out of Thar She Blows, an unraced Zoffany full-sister to Prosperous Voyage, who was purchased at the Sceptre Sessions last December by Katsumi Yoshida for 2,400,000gns. Kingman was chosen as the first covering for Prosperous Voyage, who was also a very close second in the 1,000 Guineas and filled that position in the Fillies' Mile.

In addition to the Group 1 winner, Thar She Blows is a half-sister to Romanesque, a son of Montjeu who was third in a Listed contest at Warrnambool. 

Lynn Lodge Stud's No Nay Never colt is out of a Zoffany sister to Group 1 winner Prosperous VoyageCredit: Laura Green

Second dam Seatone, by Mizzen Mast, has produced five winners from five runners and is from an outstanding Juddmonte family which descends from the blue hen Best In Show.

Seatone's half-siblings include Grade 1 winner Senure and the stakes winners Speak In Passing and Dexterity. She is also a half-sister to Cochin, the winning dam of the Group 2 Chairman's Handicap winner Permit, and to Five Fields, dam of Listed winner Upcountry and second dam of this year's Group 1 Sydney Cup winner Circle Of Fire, who was bred by the late Queen.

Third dam Diese won the Group 3 Prix Corrida and is a half-sister to the European champion two-year-old and sire Xaar. Under the fourth dam, the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes winner and Group 1 Phoenix Stakes second Monroe, are the Group/Grade 1 winners Siskin and Close Hatches.

A year before her younger full-sister sold at the Sceptre Sessions, Thar She Blows was bought at Park Paddocks by Mags O'Toole and Plantation Stud for 400,000gns. Like her full-sister, she visited Kingman at Banstead Manor Stud this spring.

Aisling Crowe

Lot 170
Ch f New Bay - Farzeen (Farhh)
Meon Valley Stud                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
This filly, the second produce from the Group 3-placed mare Farzeen, stands out as an ideal opportunity to get into another developing strand of a classy Meon Valley Stud family.

Farzeen was the best of five winners out of Zee Zee Gee, by Galileo and an unraced daughter of top-class racemare and producer Zee Zee Top.

Farzeen, a winner and Group-placed on the track, and has made a promising start to broodmare careerCredit: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Farzeen is by Farhh, who has an unexposed profile as a broodmare sire, and has had one foal to race so far, Fondo Blanco (Ten Sovereigns), who shaped with plenty of promise in third on his debut at Newbury last month and looks a winner in waiting. He has entries at Nottingham and York this week.

This filly by Ballylinch Stud rising star New Bay – whose knack for getting precocious talent has been highlighted on the track again this year by the exciting two-year-old Bay City Roller – looks the ideal type for a potential owner-breeder to get involved with.  

Charlie Allen

Lot 184
B c Frankel - Gale Force (Shirocco)
Watership Down Stud

Watership Down Stud offers this Frankel brother to top-class middle-distance performer Hurricane Lane and he should go down a storm with prospective buyers, despite the continuing obsession with precocious speed. 

Happily, that trend has been less apparent at Book 1, where Classic pedigrees are generally more the order of the day, and this fellow has that type of page. 

His prolific brother – a 200,000gns purchase by Godolphin from this sale in 2019 – won on his sole start at two and enjoyed a barnstorming three-year-old campaign, winning the Dante Stakes and then going on to land three Group 1s, namely the Irish Derby, Grand Prix de Paris and St Leger. He was also third in the Derby and Arc. 

As a five-year-old, he won the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes. 

Hurricane Lane: triple Group 1 winner as a three-year-oldCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The pair's dam was a stakes winner herself and is also responsible for this year's Doncaster Cup and Henry II Stakes winner Sweet William. The Sea The Stars gelding was also placed in the Gold Cup at Ascot and the Goodwood Cup. 

Her other Frankel offspring, Frankel's Storm, was stakes-placed at two, meaning the mare is three from three with stakes-class horses. 

Gale Force is a half-sister to British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes winner Seal Of Approval and it is an Aga Khan family which traces back to dual Derby hero Harzand and includes the top-class Emily Upjohn. 

Kitty Trice

Lot 401
B f Territories - Sensationally (Montjeu)
Meon Valley Stud

This filly is a full-sister to Hoo Ya Mal, who made £1,200,000 at the Goffs London Sale two years ago.

He fetched that price having finished runner-up to Desert Crown in the Derby, though it’s fair to say that’s just about as good as it’s got for the now five-year-old, who was gelded after finishing mid-division in the Melbourne Cup.

Hoo Ya Mal, seen here winning the March Stakes, is the older full-brother of Lot 401Credit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

In all, Meon Valley homebred Sensationally has produced seven winners from eight runners, and she herself has a regal pedigree, being by the great Montjeu and out of Juddmonte International winner One So Wonderful.

Territories, meanwhile, has always struck as an uber reliable option for breeders on a budget – to borrow the name of our supplement early in the year in which he features.

The unbeaten Lazzat has kept the Darley sire's name in the Group 1 lights this year, Rougir and Regional having done that for the previous three seasons. In between her two top-level wins, Rougir sold for €3,000,000.

Andrew Scutts

Lot 403
Ch/gr f Dubawi - Serena's Storm (Statue Of Liberty)
Roundhill Stud

Bobby and Honora Donworth's foundation mare Princess Serena has created one of the great dynasties of present-day breeding. Their US purchase bred a hatful of classy performers, including Prix d'Ispahan winner Zabeel Prince and the smart Australian operator Puissance De Lune.

The Limerick farm retained a winning daughter, Serena's Storm, and her output has been just as prodigious. The grey produced Coronation and Moyglare winner Rizeena as well as Summer Romance, who went close to landing a Grade 1 in the US on a couple of occasions. The family keeps on giving, as only recently it was boosted by the Solario Stakes winner Field Of Gold – a fair fourth in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Sunday – emerging close up on the page.

Godolphin bought this filly's full-brother Regal Honour, who had looked a promising type before his untimely loss, for 625,000gns. The same owners, as well as many other powerbrokers, are likely to take an interest in this April-born lady.

Tom Peacock

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