Bresil paints Fairyhouse blue as Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale is dominated by Rathbarry sire

Tattersalls Ireland was painted a bright shade of blue on Sunday as the opening day of the November National Hunt Sale was dominated by the progeny of Blue Bresil.

Rathbarry & Glenview Stud's sire of six individual Grade 1 winners supplied three of the day's most expensive foals, including the session-topping colt, purchased by Timmy Hillman for €68,000.

Offered by Clonmult Farm on behalf of breeders Richard and Mai Nolan of Old Court Stud, he is the third foal, all by Blue Bresil, out of the unraced Bee Yanka who is a daughter of another Glenview resident in Shirocco.

The couple were quick to point to the influence of Donal White in their success, with the former manager of Glenview Stud, now proprietor of Foxwood Farm which stands Night Wish, Saintgodrel and Racinger, involved from the beginning with Bee Yanka.

White purchased the daughter of Grade 2 Dovecote Novices' Hurdle winner Shatabdi for £8,000 in 2020 and provided advice for the couple on mating plans.

"We were advised by Donal to send her to Blue Bresil and she has visited the sire three times now," reported the couple. "The stock that has come out of her is so magnificent, we just kept going back, and she is an amazing breeder of foals. She is now in-foal to Night Wish, she is an incredible mare."

Bee Yanka has two older fillies by Blue Bresil, with JD Moore purchasing the yearling on behalf of Ballylea Farm in this ring in February for €22,000.

She was bred by Robert Waley-Cohen, who also bred her dam, a Mtoto half-sister to Rajdhani Express, victorious in Ayr's Grade 2 Future Champions Novices' Chase and the Topham Chase for Waley-Cohen and his Grand National-winning son Sam.

Kieran and Kate Shields, who bought Thistletown Stud's Blue Bresil colt at Tattersalls IrelandCredit: www.healyracing.ie

The arrival of Thistletown Stud's Blue Bresil colt in the ring on Sunday morning, with the sale barely an hour old, was a sign of what was to come as the dark bay colt with a slinky walk, reminiscent of the panthers which stalk across the frame in a David Attenborough documentary, had the main players in position early.

Kieran Shields and his daughter Kate were up front and in position to secure the February-foaled colt for €67,000. 

As with the session-topping Blue Bresil, he is also the third foal out of his dam, who in his case was third in a Listed novice hurdle at Cork.

 Kate Shields was given the task of taking the questions of the press pack.

She said: "He is a very good walker, a really athletic foal with size and by the right sire in Blue Bresil. The plan is to offer him for resale as a three-year-old."

The Furlongs of Thistletown Stud found Rolanna, who shares her sire Strategic Prince with Group 1 Phoenix and Matron Stakes winner La Collina, at the 2019 November National Hunt Sale, where she cost just €10,000 from Gaynestown Stud.

"She was a four-time winner and had black type over hurdles, which fitted our profile," explained Eileen Furlong. "We are trying to upgrade our mares by purchasing those with black type or sisters to Grade 1 winners, so we can have very saleable foals."

Thistletown Stud's Blue Bresil colt out of Rolanna sold to Kieran Shields for €67,000Credit: www.healyracing.ie

Of the foal, she added: "He was a gorgeous foal from the day he was born. He just walked out of the foaling box with this massive movement and presence, and he has worked out okay for us today."

That same easy walk, weighted with latent power, was visible in the third Blue Bresil colt to make at least €50,000. Offered by Walshtown Stables he was bought by Kevin Ross Bloodstock on behalf of Chris Jones's Killeen Glebe for that exact figure.

Anna Ross singled out the March-born foal's movement as one of his main attributes.

She said: "He is a big, loose-moving sort, and the sire can do no wrong at the moment. He has been bought as a resale prospect and for us was the best by the sire here today."

He is the second foal out of Castlegrace Rose, an Oscar half-sister to Pat Fahy's multiple Grade 2-winning chaser Castlegrace Paddy.

Seven of the eight Blue Bresils offered were sold on Sunday, returning an average of €39,857 and a median of €31,000. Five of the eight foals to make a minimum of €30,000 were by Blue Bresil.

Coolamurry Stud's Walk In The Park colt strides out after his €60,000 sale to J C Bloodstock at Tattersalls IrelandCredit: www.healyracing.ie

The only foal to break the Blue Bresil hegemony at the top of the charts was by that other Cork resident hot stallion – Coolmore's Walk In The Park – and he had a substantial pedigree as a half-brother to Paul Nolan's Grade 1 Golden Cygnet Novice Hurdle winner Latest Exhibition. 

Their dam, Aura About You, was a Grade 1 performer herself, earning that distinction when third in the Navan Novice Hurdle. She was also fourth in the Royal Bond, across the road from the sales complex at Fairyhouse, for her owner-breeder Jim Mernagh and trainer Nolan

Mernagh, who also bred and raced Latest Exhibition, consigned the colt and was effusive in his praise for the sire.

"Aura About You was a very good racemare and ran third behind Quevega in the Mares' Hurdle at Cheltenham," he said. "She bred a good one in Latest Exhibition. I sent her to Walk In The Park because he is just a legend of a sire."

Michael Fitzpatrick bought the colt for €60,000, with the purchase going down to JC Bloodstock.

A colt from the second crop of foals conceived by Group 1 Prix du Moulin winner Vadamos at Grange Stud made €32,000 to Caoimhe Doherty's CMD Bloodstock. He was offered by Kells Lodge Stud on behalf of breeder Maurice O'Brien.

Edmond Mahony in full flow at Tattersalls IrelandCredit: www.healyracing.ie

The bay colt is a half-brother to Run Wild Fred, whose biggest days of his career were when winning the Troytown Chase at Navan and the Grade 3 Powerstown Novice Hurdle at Punchestown for Gordon Elliott and Gigginstown House Stud.

He is the best of the three winners from four runners so far produced by Talkin Madam, a winning pointer.

Although Blue Bresil is garnering all the attention and the plaudits, the National Hunt line-up at the Cashman family's Glenview Stud is not limited to a single sire. Indeed, with the recruitment of rising star Jeu St Eloi ahead of the 2024 breeding season, the farm is firmly future-focused, though an old favourite reminded buyers that he is still a force to be reckoned with in the sales ring and on the track.

Sholokhov, sire of Cheltenham Grade 1 winners Shishkin, Bob Olinger and Don Cossack, who triumphed in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, may shortly celebrate a quarter of a century but he can still come up with the goods, as evidenced by Rathcannon Stables' colt, a €30,000 purchase by Matt Coleman on behalf of Newcastle Falcons and Newcastle Thunder owner Semore Kurdi.

Coleman said: "He has bought to race, he is very good-moving foal. He has been sold by Alex [Butler], who works with Luke Lillingston at Mount Coote – it is her first year selling foals and a first year breeding jumpers."

It is a pedigree the agent is on familiar terms with, especially the Grade 2 Classic Novices' Chase runner-up King Roland, who is a Stowaway half-brother to this colt's dam, Foxtail Fern. An unraced daughter of Flemensfirth, she is also a half-sister to the Grade 2 Leamington Novices' Hurdle third Make Me A Believer.

Jim Mernagh, who bred and sold the Walk In The Park half-brother to Last InstalmentCredit: www.healyracing.ie

Coleman added: "I knew the dam's half-brother King Roland quite well and it is a pedigree I like. Fingers crossed that in five years' time this chap is good!"

The family includes Shannon Rock, who won the Grade 1 Prix la Haye Jousselin, the 2023 running of which was on Sunday and won by Grandeur Nature for Arnaud Chaille-Chaille.

Although the number of sales in the €50,000 and above price bracket was double that of the equivalent session at the 2022 sale, overall returns were down year-on-year. That was partially the result of fewer foals being catalogued, resulting in less coming under the hammer, with an eight per cent reduction in that figure. The number of unsold lots increased by 21 per cent.

A total of 139 foals from 214 offered on Sunday were sold, which gives a clearance rate of 65 per cent, down from 73 per cent in 2022. That generated turnover of €1,625,500, which is a 31 per cent decline on last year's total of €2,355,100, but the fall in the average and median figures was less dramatic. Sunday's average of €11,694 was 15 per cent lower than in 2022, while the median dropped by 22 per cent from €11,500 last year to €9,000 this time.

The sale continues at 10am on Monday with the second of four foal sessions

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