Five key plotlines that can shape a fascinating renewal of the Goffs Orby Sale

Tuesday sees the start of four significant days of selling at Ireland’s biggest yearling auction, the Goffs Orby Sale. 

The event is perennially the highest-grossing sale held on Irish soil, with the 2023 renewal generating receipts worth a massive €53,770,500. Such sums are to be expected when you consider the auction’s roll of honour includes graduates such as Art Power, Bay City Roller, California Spangle, Dubai Mile, Eldar Eldarov, Jannah Rose, Prosperous Voyage and The Lion In Winter, to name but a few. Here are five of the key plotlines that can shape an unmissable two days of Orby Book 1 trade. 

Elite buyers in action

Elite yearling sales generally receive support from elite-level operations. Last year’s renewal of the Orby Sale saw Coolmore’s MV Magnier top the buyers’ chart by signing for nine yearlings at an outlay of €3,475,000. They include the €1.85 million top lot, a daughter of Frankel subsequently named Minnie Hauk who is, fittingly, set to debut at Cork on Tuesday. 

At €375,000 the second-most expensive of the nine is The Lion In Winter, who has assumed favouritism for next year’s 2,000 Guineas and Derby after going undefeated in two starts, most recently in a hot running of the Group 3 Acomb Stakes. 

The second-biggest spender at last year’s Orby was Godolphin with six recruits secured for €2.505m – a figure equal to five per cent of turnover. Last year’s purchases were the operation’s first Orby investments since 2019, when a four-strong haul included the Group 1-winning sprinter Creative Force. 

It will be interesting to see the extent to which Sheikh Mohammed’s buying team are involved this time around, particularly as the operation appears to have been taking a slightly more selective approach during the current European sales season. 

Anthony Stroud was among the familiar faces spotted at Kildare Paddocks Credit: SARAH FARNSWORTH

Godolphin made just one €400,000 purchase at Arqana, although a €1m spend at BBAG, which included the record-breaking €850,000 top lot, showed the powerhouse’s talent spotters are still ready, willing and able to splash the cash when the right article presents itself. That has also been evidenced in America this year, with three Keeneland September Sale buys costing a combined $1.85m. A solitary $1m colt was also added to the ranks at Fasig-Tipton. 

If Godolphin do enter the fray this week, it will be fascinating to see which stallion’s stock they target. The 13 lots the operation has signed for in the northern hemisphere this year (including breeze-up sales) include colts by the likes of American Pharoah, Camelot, Galileo, Galiway and Not This Time. 

The only ‘home’ sires whose progeny Godolphin have signed for this year are the as-yet unraced Blue Point colt out of Platinum Coast who cost 800,000gns at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale and a €150,000 son of Kildangan Stud stalwart Teofilo at Baden Baden. 

Godolphin’s presence at the yearling sales has tended to coincide with the offspring of Dubawi bringing sizeable figures, but with only one lot by the champion sire in the Orby catalogue, we may well see the buying team continuing to cast their net far and wide. 

A middle market born in the USA

While old foes Coolmore and Godolphin are regulars at the top of buyers’ sheets across the yearling sales of Europe, visitors from America are increasingly making their presence felt. 

Last year’s Orby saw Jacob West make noteworthy signings on behalf of Mike Repole and Robert and Lawana Low, while the likes of Clay Scherer, Kim Valerio, Legion Bloodstock, Philip Antonacci and Wells Watson all made multiple purchases too. 

While US-based purchasers may not necessarily be challenging domestic superpowers for the absolute cream of the crop, the strength and sheer number of American buyers has helped to add a noticeable solidity to the often choppier middle market. This was highlighted by last year’s Orby boasting a median price of €87,000, the second-highest on record, while the average price increased to €123,895, despite an expanded catalogue. 

The sales ground was a hive of activity from prospective American buyers on MondayCredit: SARAH FARNSWORTH

A strong American presence on the ground during inspections on Monday provides optimism that at least a similar level of investment will be witnessed this time around. 

And given how pivotal US buyers' purchasing power has proved in recent times, it was also encouraging to see the Keeneland September Sale buck the prevailing trend in Europe by posting record figures. Turnover hit a colossal $411,749,500, up four per cent year-on-year, while the average price was also a new high at $150,550, up five per cent on 2023.

If those who have made the trip across the Atlantic bid with the same sort of zest in Ireland this week, they look sure to make their mark. 

St Mark’s continues on the march

As is to be expected, the 516-lot Book 1 catalogue contains yearlings by some of the world’s highest-achieving stallions. Think Dubawi, Frankel, Kingman, Lope De Vega, Sea The Stars, Siyouni and Wootton Bassett. 

The up-and-comers are well represented too with plenty of choice among yearlings sired by Blue Point, Havana Grey, New Bay, Night Of Thunder, Study Of Man and Too Darn Hot. 

First-crop sires are always a particular point of interest at the yearling sales, and one among this year’s cohort looks poised to continue his eye-catching early momentum. Coolmore’s St Mark’s Basilica has 20 lots entered in Orby Book 1, including some notably well-bred sorts.

St Mark's Basilica: very well represented at Goffs Orby Book 1 Credit: Colin J Kenny Photography

None catch the eye more than Lot 187 from Barronstown Stud. The filly is out of Devoted To You, making her a sibling to Irish Derby hero Sovereign. And her page has improved even further since the catalogue was released, as her three-year-old three-parts brother Jan Brueghel was last seen landing the St Leger. Only time will tell whether the market continues to give St Mark’s Basilica’s youngstock a warm welcome, but a sister to not one but two Classic winners will surely command a hefty sum. 

Others by the sire who make plenty of appeal on pedigree include Lot 108 from The Castlebridge Consignment, a half-brother to Roberto Escobarr and Pablo Escobarr, and Ballylinch Stud’s colt out of the Listed-winning Monroe Bay (360). 

It may seem like a big ask for a first-crop sire to best the more established names in the market, but St Mark’s Basilica has already managed this twice before. He supplied the top lot at the Arqana August Sale when Coolmore went to €1.7m for the half-sister to Magic Wand and Chicquita, and at last year’s Tattersalls December Foal Sale when Jill Lamb and Newsells Park Stud gave 575,000gns for the filly out of Oaks winner Talent. 

Sales ring D-day for punchy pinhooks 

Despite the air of uncertainty that hung around last year’s breeding stock sales, plenty of hardy souls invested in high-end pinhooks for the 2024 yearling sales. The Orby catalogue features 12 lots who have already cost a six-figure sum on their first visit to public auction, and over the coming days we will learn how wise - or otherwise - these investments prove to be. 

Inspections continued at the Goffs sales groundCredit: SARAH FARNSWORTH

Leading the way by some distance is the Sea The Stars colt out of Celeste De La Mer (145) from Kellsgrange Stud. The youngster, a half-brother to Futurity Stakes runner-up Maritime Wings, was knocked down to Peter and Ross Doyle at €310,000 at last year’s November Foal Sale, after which Ross said: “I thought he was a bit unique as a physical. He’s a wonderful mover and seemed to have a great temperament every time I went down to see him. 

“I haven’t seen a foal fill the box with their presence the way he did in a long time. He was brilliantly produced by his breeders. He was bought for an established client and all options are open. The client trades and races so we’ll see how he progresses and make a decision next year.”

Others to note include Acorn Stud’s Havana Grey colt out of Ginseng, a €190,000 signing by Melchior Bloodstock, and the €130,000 Mehmas colt out of Hot Sauce from Jamie Railton Sales Agency. 

Another red letter day for blue hen Green Room? 

No broodmare is as synonymous with the Orby Sale as Vimal and Gillian Khosla’s blue hen Green Room. Two of the mare’s three Group 1 winners changed hands at past renewals of the Orby, with the impact of one of those transactions still being keenly felt this season. 

In 2013 MV Magnier gave €680,000 for the mare’s sixth foal, a Galileo half-sister to Lord Shanakill. She became Together Forever, who not only won the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile but is now the dam of none other than City Of Troy. 

Do You Love Me before her €3.2 million sale at Goffs Orby in 2018Credit: Peter Mooney

Together Forever is far from the mare’s most expensive progeny, however. Twelve months after Together Forever sold, Amanda Skiffington went to €1.1m for the Sea The Stars filly Signe, while 2016 saw Magnier go to €900,000 for Oaks heroine Forever Together. By 2018 the page was firmly established as one of the best in the book, which duly encouraged Phoenix Thoroughbreds to outbid Coolmore at €3.2m for Green Room’s tenth foal, Do You Love Me. 

Although that daughter of Galileo remained a maiden on the racecourse, she still holds the record for the most expensive yearling filly ever sold in Ireland, a title she shades over another of her full-sisters, Espania, who brought €3m from the Coolmore-Westerberg axis in 2019. 

All told Green Room’s offspring have realised a whopping €8,880,000 in Goffs Orby receipts alone. And that tally could be added to this week when the mare’s 14th foal, a colt closely related to Together Forever and Forever Together, is presented by Ballylinch Stud as Lot 257. 

It might be expecting too much for the Waldgeist colt to bring the sort of seven-figure sum his illustrious siblings managed, but given Green Room’s impact over the years it will be well worth keeping an eye on where her latest yearling heads, and how much he adds to his dam’s already remarkable sales ring record. 

Goffs Orby Sale fact-file 

Where Goffs sales complex, Kildare Paddocks 

When The two-day Orby Book 1 begins at 10am on Tuesday, with the two-day Book 2 starting on Thursday

Last year’s Book 1 stats From 497 offered, 438 sold (88 per cent) for turnover of €53,770,500 (up seven per cent year-on-year), an average of €122,765 (up one per cent) and a median of €85,000 (down two per cent)

Notable graduates Bay City Roller (sold by Church View Stables, bought by Clive Washbourn, Jackson-Stops Bloodstock and George Scott Racing for €320,000); Jannah Rose (sold by Galbertstown Stables, bought by Al Shira'aa Farms for €650,000); Live In The Dream (sold by Clonfert Stud, bought by Philippa Mains and Steve De Lemos for £24,000); The Lion In Winter (sold by The Castlebridge Consignment, bought by MV Magnier for €375,000)

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