Five things we learned from the ring and the racecourse during Craven week

1. Breeze-up trade was solid but dominated by Godolphin

Returns from this year's Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale delivered mixed messages. The company's decision to pare down the catalogue to 147 lots from 172 in 2018 resulted in an improved clearance rate of 78 per cent from 66 per cent.

The number of lots who eventually went through the ring was 109, down by 23 per cent from 142 in the previous year, and there was a closely correlated 22 per cent drop in turnover to 10,343,000gns.

With three fewer lots making half a million guineas or more – there were two this week compared with five last year – and also three fewer juveniles selling for at least 200,000gns, the average took a 14 per cent hit at 121,682gns.

However, a 13 per cent increase in the median figure to 85,000gns suggested that rewards were being reaped among vendors a little more evenly this time around.

Various pinhookers described trade as “tricky” and “sticky” after the sale, but it should be remembered that the 850,000gns top lot by Kingman set a record price for a filly at this fixture, while the median was the second best figure in the Craven Breeze-Up's history and the average gave best only to the 140,000gns-plus bonanzas enjoyed by sellers in 2017 and 2018.

Of course, with Anthony Stroud signing on behalf of Godolphin for all the top three lots and seven of the top ten, the auction leaned heavily on Sheikh Mohammed's participation.

Godolphin's expenditure stood at 2,940,000gns, up 143 per cent from last year and accountable for 28 per cent of total takings for this week's sale. Include the eight knocked down to Rabbah Bloodstock, made up of the sheikh's family and associates, and that ratio rises to just under a third of turnover.

The immediate reaction from breeze-up consignors might be delight and deep gratitude for the sheikh's support; but they, along with commercial breeders and other pinhookers, might have misgivings about market health being so dependent on one man's continued enthusiasm for the sport when other branches of his racing and breeding empires are currently making cutbacks.

2. Night Of Thunder in demand with strong home support

The surprise package among the sires at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale was undoubtedly Night Of Thunder. The 2,000 Guineas-winning son of Dubawi has been represented by only one runner in Britain and Ireland from his first crop of two-year-olds – an eighth-place finisher – and his covering fee stands at £15,000, but his four lots at the auction sold for an average of 255,000gns.

The quartet produced bumper profits for their pinhookers. A colt out of the Street Cry mare Sunset Avenue was sold by Brown Island Stables for 375,000gns after being sourced as a yearling for 48,000gns, and a colt out of the Authorized mare Permission Slip from Houghton Bloodstock went from €65,000 yearling to 300,000gns juvenile.

Another colt out of the Street Cry mare Travel consigned by Powerstown Stud sold for 260,000gns, an advance of 60,000gns on his foal purchase price, and a half-sister to Canadian Grade 1 winner Wigmore Hall from Mayfield Stables bought for €26,000 as a yearling was resold for 85,000gns.

All bar the last named lot were bought by Godolphin, who stand Night Of Thunder at Dalham Hall Stud, in an understandable show of faith that will no doubt add a little lustre to the sire's reputation.

Somewhat more bafflingly, Sheikh Mohammed's operation was effectively buying back two of the three Night Of Thunder juveniles it signed for as they had been carried by mares when they were culled as part of large Godolphin dispersals in recent years.

Travel was knocked down to Cormac McCormack for 100,000gns at Tattersalls July in 2016, while Permission Slip was also bought by McCormack for €80,000 at Goffs February in 2017.

Permission Slip's Night Of Thunder colt had been signed for as a yearling by Rabbah, who also bred the colt out of Sunset Avenue before selling him as a yearling.

An intriguing footnote to Godolphin's buying behaviour at Park Paddocks this week is that, following two years of the organisation having bought stock by Coolmore sires to break its own decade-long boycott, there were no such transactions this time.

The top-priced filly by Juddmonte colour-bearer Kingman was their only purchase not by a sire in which Sheikh Mohammed has some involvement, with one by Night Of Thunder's Dalham Hall colleague Farhh, one by Darley US stallion Medaglia D'Oro and another by Invincible Spirit, in whom the sheikh owns a significant share, completing the haul of seven along with those three by Night Of Thunder.

3. Starspangled enjoying success on the track and in the ring

Another stallion who was in strong demand at the Craven sale was the in-form Starspangledbanner.

The Coolmore resident, whose fee this year is €17,500, had a pair of two-year-olds on offer. One, a colt out of the Lawman mare Welcome Spring, sold to Jamie McCalmont on behalf of MV Magnier for 220,00gns having been pinhooked as a foal for €140,000; the other, a colt out of the Distorted Humor mare Many Hearts, went the way of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock and James Given for 200,000gns after vendor Yeomanstown Stud invested €120,000 in him as a foal.

It is no wonder that so many owners and trainers want a Starspangledbanner on their team, as the sire's first two-year-olds in Europe since 2015 have got off to an eye-catching start.

Godolphin filly Chasing Dreams is Royal Ascot-bound after bolting up by five lengths on debut at Newmarket on Tuesday, while the Archie Watson-trained filly Lady Kermit put six lengths between herself and her rivals when she scored first time out at Kempton earlier in the month.

Lady Kermit has been declared to run in a conditions race at Newcastle on Friday.

Starspangledbanner suffered from subfertility in his early years at stud but his depleted first northern hemisphere crop yielded two Royal Ascot winners, Anthem Alexander and The Wow Signal, in 2014. He had remained in Australia in 2013 and 2014 and missed the shuttle trip in 2015 to take advantage of that flying start due to a bout of colic.

He finally returned to Coolmore's base in Ireland in 2016 and enjoyed a remarkable upturn in fertility, and has 70 juveniles to go to war with this year.

4. Breeding partnerships bring success for ORS Bloodstock

Chasing Dreams was one of two wide-margin debut winners at the Newmarket Craven meeting bred in partnership by Chris Kilroy's ORS Bloodstock.

The filly was bred with Stanley House Stud out of the Listed-placed Refuse To Bend mare A Huge Dream, a half-sister to the high-class Xtension who is also the dam of the dual Listed-winning sprinter Mrs Gallagher. She netted her connections a huge profit when sold to Godolphin for 750,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 1 last year, making her by far the most expensive yearling by her sire in the northern hemisphere.

ORS Bloodstock is also the breeder, jointly with Highclere Stud, of Wednesday's five-length Wood Ditton Stakes winner UAE Jewel.

The colt is by Darley kingpin Dubawi out of the Listed-winning Galileo mare Gemstone, making him a half-brother to the useful Flat handicapper and Grade 2-winning hurdler Bedrock. The Dubawi-Galileo cross is also responsible for none other than sales sire of the moment Night Of Thunder.

UAE Jewel brought another handsome dividend for the breeders at the sales, knocked down to trainer Roger Varian on behalf of owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum for 400,000gns at Book 1 in 2017.

5. Scat Daddy's last-crop daughters doing him proud

Qabala's decisive victory in the Nell Gwyn Stakes on Tuesday marked her down as a filly of serious promise and ensured she was promoted to favourite for the 1,000 Guineas at a best-priced 9-2.

That means her sire Scat Daddy now has the first two in the betting for the fillies' Classic, with Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Skitter Scatter not far behind in bookmakers' lists at around 8-1.

Another female member of the last crop of three-year-olds by the late, lamented Kentucky stallion with 1,000 Guineas aspirations is Saturday's narrowly beaten Dubai Duty Free Stakes third So Perfect. She is generally a 16-1 shot for the race.

There is a certain irony in the fact that stud owners will desperately be hoping for more stallion prospects to emerge from the final runners by the increasingly influential Scat Daddy, and yet he has only longshots entered in the 2,000 Guineas.

Still, the owners of the high-class Scat Daddy fillies will no doubt be looking forward to breeding from them in the future, the sire's early daughters to stud having produced the likes of Forego Stakes winner Whitmore.

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