Newsells Park make tough call to offer sister to Japan and Mogul at Tattersalls

There have been few mares with the sales ring clout of Shastye, whose offspring have already drawn an eight-figure total for Newsells Park Stud.

According to general manager Julian Dollar "a bit of magic happens every time she goes to Galileo", and the tried-and-tested cross with a Danehill mare has produced the Oaks runner-up Secret Gesture, the high-class Sir Isaac Newton, recent Gordon Stakes winner Mogul, and Japan, who has a Juddmonte International among a lengthy list of accolades.

While money talks, it will still be something of a wrench for all those involved at the Hertfordshire farm that Shastye’s latest Galileo filly is set to be offered at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

"Perhaps in normal years we wouldn’t be offering her but we feel like, with the uncertainty of coronavirus and things, we have to wash our faces, we’re a commercial operation," said Dollar.

"We did um and aah about it a lot, and I’m sure she won’t be cheap, but she is exceptional and we felt we had to put her in the market. That's the long and short of it."

Dollar explained that the pressure was eased in some sense by the fact Shastye, now 19, is back in foal to Dubawi and that Newsells has three daughters already, including the unraced Galileo Secret Gaze.

Japan has become the family's standard-bearerCredit: Edward Whitaker

Mogul, the most recent of this invariably photogenic family to have sold, made 3,400,00gns at Book 1 in 2018 and was pipped only by Darain as top lot.

"The colts have been the ones to have caught the imagination at the sales but Secret Gaze did make just over a million and is a nice mare, and personally I think the yearling is as nice, if not the nicest filly we’ve ever bred out of the mare," said Dollar.

"She’s a bigger, scopier version of Secret Gesture but bar a few little tweaks here and there every sibling, well, they’re all very much in the same sort of mould.

"I know it’s not going to be a huge satisfaction from me when she goes to the ring, I can assure you, it’ll be more sadness than anything else, but sometimes in business these things are necessary.

"Hopefully someone among the world’s leading breeders will take the opportunity to buy a collector’s item like this, because that’s what she is."

The Jacobs family-owned Newsells Park is one of Europe’s biggest breeders and consignors and ought to be better prepared than most to weather potential storms.

Dollar, one of the industry’s reliable voices of sense and pragmatism, is nonetheless wary of complacency, especially as sales such as Book 1 could have assumed any number of forms within the next two months.

"We need to make contingency plans and various scenarios to work out what’s going to happen and just hope for the best," he said. "It’s just a worrying time for everybody. You hear of trainers that are okay and had horses in training but as soon as the sales have come along, owners have taken the opportunity to sell horses, I think that’s what we’ve seen.

"There have been buyers, which is good, but the sort of vibe I’m beginning to pick up is that while racing is going ahead there’s no atmosphere and no fun to be had with an owner going to watch their horse running.

"The attraction for owning a horse with the low levels of prize-money that we have is really not there at the moment. My concern is where you’d have an owner that might like to buy a couple of yearlings, they might only buy one, or they might not even buy that.

"But we understand the situation and we’re all a resilient bunch. We love the sport, we love the industry, we love the racing and I think we have the best racing anywhere in the world. We’ll get through this but it’s going to be a bumpy ride for a year or two."

Julian Dollar fears a 'bumpy ride' for the next couple of yearsCredit: Tattersalls

The leading consignor of Book 1 for the last couple of years, Newsells has plenty of other interesting members of its draft including a Sea The Stars half-brother to St Leger winner Masked Marvel from the immediate Waldgeist family, a sibling of Oaks winner Qualify by Dubawi, and quality individuals by the likes of Siyouni, Lope De Vega and No Nay Never.

"They’re just a beautiful bunch of horses," said Dollar. "Timing stinks, but it is what it is; hopefully there’ll be many Group winners among them.

"Whether we make the money we dreamed we were going to make maybe 12 months ago is neither here nor there. Hopefully they’ll go to good homes and we may end up racing a few of them ourselves, we’re happy to do that.

"There are all these scenarios and all these uncertainties but I do know one thing, there’s nothing uncertain about this filly, she’s an absolute queen. Hopefully we can keep her in one piece for the next eight weeks."

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