Galashiels tops out at 220,000gns as Godolphin and Marconi dominate Tattersalls February Sale market
Tattersalls opened for business for 2025 with the first leg of the two-day February Sale

Tattersalls opened for business for 2025 with the first leg of the two-day February Sale. A fairly routine session of selling peaked when bloodstock agent Colm Sharkey, standing besides leading jockey Jamie Spencer, bid 220,000gns for the classy Godolphin runner Galashiels.
The six-year-old son of Australia won five races during his time with Andre Fabre, with his most notable victories coming in Listed contests at Clairefontaine and Longchamp.
The transaction is set to see Galashiels continue his racing career on the other side of the world, as after signing the six-figure docket, Sharkey said: “He’s been bought by Ciaron Maher Racing. He has an obvious profile for Australia so Ciaron was keen to get him.
“He vetted fine, his form and his pedigree all stack up. He’s self explanatory really. Jamie was involved and it was really Ciaron who picked him out, I’m only a helping hand. He’ll get a bit of time now and then he’ll be on the flight to Australia. We’ve had luck buying off Fabre before so that wasn’t a deterrent, even if it might’ve put other people off.”
Asked if he had expected to be forced all the way to the session-topping sum, Sharkey added: “No, definitely not. But Ciaron was keen to get him so we persevered.”
Galashiels was bred by Stonethorn Stud from Glenmayne, a Listed-placed half-sister to Cheveley Park Stakes winner Millisle. He was making his second appearance at public auction having been added to the Godolphin ranks at a cost of 115,000gns at Book 2 in 2020.
Godolphin-consigned lots completely dominated the head of the market as the draft saw 36 lots change hands for receipts totalling 1,394,500gns. That meant the consignment accounted for 56 per cent of the day's turnover, while the group was also responsible for nine of the session’s top ten prices.
Marconi makes his mark
While Godolphin dominated the consignors’ charts, bragging rights among buyers very much belonged to Alessandro Marconi. The agent was comfortably the day’s leading purchaser by number of lots bought and aggregate spend, with 17 recruits secured for an outlay of 533,000gns.
The haul generated an average price of 31,353gns, with his purchases ranging from the 130,000gns Scarlet Princess, a twice-raced Godolphin-bred daughter of Kingman and Prix de l'Opera heroine Lady Marian, right through to two-year-olds by Expert Eye, Starman and Ten Sovereigns, each of whom were picked up for the minimum bid of 1,000gns.
The agent said training plans remained fluid with the haul set to be spread between various trainers and destinations.
“There’s a big syndicate in Libya that has been very active and we’re happy to be expanding in the Middle East and Europe at the moment,” he said. “They’ve experienced some good success already, and that’s why they’re happy to keep coming back to Tatts to try and get lucky again. You must buy at every level of the market if you want to find the good ones.”

Marconi also signed for a brace of 90,000gns lots, led by the Juddmonte-consigned Modernise. The lightly raced colt failed to cut much ice on his sole run at two but took a marked step forward on his second start to finish third over a mile at Southwell earlier this month.
That effort is not the only thing that suggests a bigger performance is in the locker, as he is by Frankel and out of Modern Look, a three-length winner of the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham during her racing days.
This breeding makes the Harry Charlton-trained youngster a sibling to six scorers, most notably the US Grade 3-winning Grand Jete, who also finished runner-up in the Beverly D. Stakes, and the Listed-placed Diderot. His second dam is Cheveley Park Stakes victress Prophecy, who is also granddam of Group 1 winner-siring siblings Camacho and Showcasing.
Marconi joked that his clients had been encouraged to bid so strongly on his recommendations because the back page of the February Sale catalogue carried the image of two of the agent’s Group 1-winning purchases.
“I’m extremely thankful to the Tattersalls marketing department as they managed to put Metropolitan and Facteur Cheval on the cover of the catalogue, so that’s probably why my valuation was backed so strongly by my clients!” he said after signing for Modernise.
“I want to take this horse to France so we can see what he is and then we can make a plan from there. He’ll be tested in France, I have a couple of trainers in mind, but it may take a few hours to finalise plans. He’s got the sire, he’s unexposed, he’s from a good trainer and he seems like he’s going to develop into a nice three-year-old over a Classic trip. Hopefully the ground and conditions in France will help him to build up his form.”
Marconi’s other 90,000gns purchase was the Godolphin-consigned Helen Keller, an unraced three-year-old daughter of Night Of Thunder whose siblings include the stakes-winning trio Blown By Wind, Discursus and Hadith.
Hillman hits the target
Paradise Springs was another lightly raced youngster offered by Godolphin, and the well-related daughter of Ghaiyyath was knocked down to Timmy Hillman, acting on behalf of Windgates Stud, at 82,000gns.
The filly is the fourth foal out of the Listed-winning Dansili mare Come Alive, making her a three-parts sister to Platinum Jubilee Stakes hero Naval Crown, who is about to commence his third season at Kildangan Stud.

Paradise Springs was sent off odds-on favourite for a Newmarket maiden in June but shaped as if something was amiss when trailing home last of three. Hillman said a decision was yet to be made about whether she would resume her racing career or head to the paddocks instead.
“It’s a very good family with Naval Crown under the first dam,” he said. “It goes back to a good Kilfrush line and there’s a lot going on up above as the dam has a couple of Dubawis to come and is going back to him. Her half-sister, Spring Promise, is also in foal to Dubawi. This is a good-looking filly who was well backed when she ran at Newmarket. Plans are undecided but she’ll likely stay over here for now.”
Durcan dives in
Ted Durcan was another busy buyer on the day with four purchases made for a combined 164,000gns. The priciest of the quartet was the 80,000gns Wedding Band, an unraced three-year-old daughter of Lope De Vega and the top-class Wuheida, winner of the Prix Marcel Boussac and Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
“She’s been bought for an existing client and she may head to Vandeek,” said Durcan. “It’s a beautiful page.”
And that page can only improve in the coming years with Wuheida having youngstock by Kingman, Frankel and Sea The Stars in the pipeline.
James Tate added to his Newmarket-based string with the 75,000gns purchase Rose Of Honour.
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Godolphin’s unraced three-year-old has plenty of black type on her page, not least from her dam, the Group 3-winning and Group 1-placed Rosa Imperial. However, Tate pointed to her sire, Night Of Thunder, as being of particular appeal.
“She’s a lovely filly with a proper pedigree,” said the trainer. “We love Night Of Thunder fillies. Electric Storm, Royal Dress and Cloud Cover all won black-type races for us last year - let’s hope she can do the same!”
The brisk session of selling saw 131 lots offered and 114 found a buyer for a solid clearance rate of 87 per cent. In turn, those transactions brought the aggregate to 2,509,500gns, which was up 78 per cent compared to the corresponding day 12 months ago.
The average price was up 56 per cent at 22,013gns, while the median rose fully 107 per cent, up from 7,000gns in 2024 to 14,500gns on Thursday.
The Tattersalls February Sale continues on Friday at 10am.
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