Drama is offstage at Goffs as online bidders tussle for top lots headed by €340,000 Red Azalea

The drama was offstage as two online bidders tussling for Red Azalea brought the Goffs February Sale to a climax on Thursday, with the Galileo mare out of Listed Sceptre Stakes winner Music Box, consigned by Baroda Stud, selling for €340,000 to BBA Ireland. 

It was the highest price for the sale in nine years and fourth best in its history, allied to the sale recording the best prices for Flat and National Hunt weanlings and breeding stock prospect of any February sale this year.

Red Azalea won one and was placed in five of her nine starts for Donnacha O'Brien and the Coolmore partners and is inbred 3x4 to Allegretta. The four-year-old's family traces back to that of Lammtarra.

The same buyer and consignor were involved in the day's other six-figure sale, that of Nomadland, an unraced four-year-old Frankel filly out of Love Conquers, a winning Deep Impact full-sister to the Group 1 Tokyo Yushun winner Deep Brilliante. 

Again it was a tussle between two online bidders for the filly, who is a granddaughter of the Group 3 Prix Chloe winner Love And Bubbles, by Loup Sauvage with a member of the BBA buying team winning out at €110,000.

Following on from their excellent first half on Wednesday, the Baroda team supplied the top three lots on Thursday, all of them breeding prospects and at full-time were the sale's leading consignors by aggregate, generating €1,133,500 of sales from 31 horses sold.

Barry Lynch signs the docket for Romanosa at GoffsCredit: Goffs

Barry Lynch went to €75,000 for the Holy Roman Emperor mare Romanosa, who was third in the Listed Prix Ceres at three.

"She is a very nice filly with a really good back pedigree. She will probably come back for resale hopefully in foal to a high-profile stallion," stated the agent, who was buying on behalf of a client.

That back pedigree is quite impressive - her dam Almahroosa is a Dubawi half-sister to the Ribblesdale winner Thakafaat, herself a half-sister to Group 1 winners Power and Curvy, who won the Ribblesdale herself prior to her Grade 1 EP Taylor Stakes success. They are out of Frappe, an Unfuwain half-sister to 2,000 Guineas winner and sire Footstepsinthesand and Group 1 Phoenix Stakes winner Pedro The Great.

Much earlier it had been a frosty start to the day but buyers soon warmed up with the early lots into the ring offering more than just somewhere out of the cold to entice buyers. 

Clare Manning's Boherguy Stud consigned two of the weanlings who drew purchasers into their orbit with a colt from the second crop of Blue Point and out of an Adlerflug mare eliciting a winning bid of €60,000 from LM Syndicate.

The colt, whose first birthday was on Monday, is the third foal out of Eye Witness and her first, a three-year-old daughter of Golden Horn named Ermesinde, made a winning debut over ten furlongs at Lingfield last Friday for Kevin Philippart de Foy.

Boherguy Stud's Too Darn Hot filly poses for the cameraCredit: Goffs

Eye Witness is a half-sister to the triple Group 2 winner Eagle Rise and Eye Of The Tiger, also a Group 2 winner by Tiger Hill. She is also a half-sister to the Listed winners Echoes Rock and Evensong out of the Listed winner Evening Breeze, a Surumu half-sister to Group 1 Singapore Airlines International Cup winner Epalo.

Jill Lamb was in the thick of the action early in the session, purchasing well-bred weanling fillies on behalf of Trebles Holford Farm Thoroughbreds, and having missed out on a couple of the choice prizes on Wednesday, she and Mike Watson were determined not to be denied for a second day.

They got off the mark early in the morning, snapping up a filly from the second crop of champion two-year-old Too Darn Hot for €52,000. Like the Blue Point colt, who was the day's most expensive weanling, she was consigned by Boherguy Stud.

"She is a filly with a page and could be kept for racing or offered for resale, that decision will be made later in the year," said Lamb.

Watson's Somerset farm enjoyed notable success in 2022 with the half-sisters Something Enticing and Mauiewowie. The former, a daughter of Fascinating Rock, won the Listed Gillies Stakes in November on her final start for her owner-breeders before selling for 175,000gns. 

Mauiewowie was successful in the Listed Curragh Stakes and second in the Marwell Stakes, also a Listed contest, for Ger Lyons and Eleanora Kennedy last season. Now a three-year-old, she is by Night Of Thunder and out of La Chapelle, who is a Holy Roman Emperor half-sister to Ghaiyyath and Zhukova, out of Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Nightime.

Church View Stables' Tom Whelan in conversation with Jill Lamb at Kildare PaddocksCredit: Goffs

Lamb and Watson also struck at €56,000 for a Dandy Man filly, consigned by Tom Whelan's Church View Stables, on behalf of breeder Brian McDonald.

Croke Park's hallowed turf was the stage upon which McDonald dazzled and mesmerised, winning All-Ireland minor medals and a Leinster championship with Laois. 

The Arles-Killeen star shone brightest of the golden generation that brought glory to the O'Moore county, with the forward's prowess on the pitch earning him plaudits including an All-Star nomination.

Breeding thoroughbreds on the Laois-Kildare border, McDonald's best include the Listed Knockaire Stakes third True To Herself, with this Dandy Man filly, a half-sister to Noel Meade's exciting three-year-old Encosta, providing McDonald with a fantastic result in the sales ring.

"I'm delighted," remarked the stunned breeder. "It was really unprecedented. We knew coming up here that she was a lovely filly and that the three-year-old in Noel Meade's was working for her, but we didn't expect her to sell that well. This is beyond our expectations."

Her dam Maraaseem was purchased by McDonald for just €14,000 from the Derrinstown draft at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale in 2020, in foal to Tamayuz, having cost €720,000 at the Orby Sale. She is an Invincible Spirit half-sister to Listed winner Pusjkin out of Propaganda, a Sadler's Wells half-sister to Group 3 winner Pearl Banks, dam of last season's Group 1 Matron Stakes winner Pearls Galore, by Invincible Spirit.

Maraaseem foaled a lovely Soldier's Call filly just days before her Dandy Man daughter thrust McDonald back into the spotlight.

The 2023 sale returned to two days having been run over three days last year, with 22 per cent fewer horses sold this year than 12 months ago. Accordingly, turnover declined by 28 per cent from €6,020,200 to €4,348,550, but the average dipped by just seven per cent to €15,929 from €17,103. The median of €9,000 was unchanged. 

Boherguy Stud's Blue Point colt out of Eye Witness, who sold to LM Syndicate for €60,000Credit: Goffs

Henry Beeby's end-of-sale statement

"Goffs February fulfils an important function in the sales calendar as it provides another opportunity for foal (weanling) sellers and buyers. Sometimes the youngster needed more time and on other occasions they did not make our superb November or December Foal Sales for some reason or failed to hit the target on that visit to the ring. 

"When November and December are strong it sometimes leads to a weaker February as orders might be filled and/or the better lots already sold. Whether or not that is the case this week is debatable, but the common theme over the last two days has been a vibrant trade for those that held most appeal, especially to the pinhooking fraternity, but an altogether different story for those deemed not to be as commercial. Suggesting otherwise would be foolhardy as it is very much the case in the times in which we live. 

Romanosa takes her turn around the sales ring at GoffsCredit: Goffs

"2022 probably enjoyed a post-pandemic bounce in terms of numbers with the expansion to three days for the first time since 2018 and so this year’s two-day affair was always going to show a reduced turnover. However, it is interesting to note that the median price remained the same as 2022, which demonstrates a consistency to the market for a sale in which the size of the entry is largely reactive to the autumn sales.

"Trade for the breeding stock session mirrored the weanlings with keen competition for some and less interest in others, but we have been pleased to welcome another strong overseas contingent to Kildare Paddocks, who are enticed year after year by the enduring quality of Irish bloodlines and the endeavours of ITM working alongside the Goffs buyer recruitment team and our excellent international agents.

"The market-leading status of Goffs February has been confirmed once again, with the highest February prices for Flat weanling, National Hunt weanling and breeding stock2, with the latter recording the fourth best price for this sale and the best since 2014. As ever, we extend our thanks to each vendor and all our purchasers for we are nothing without them."

Read more

Baroda Stud kicks off Goffs February Sale in match-winning form 

Promising horses in training and well-related fillies among Tattersalls Online February Sale entries 

Ballybawn Belter provides a thrill that money can't buy for Love