Godolphin close to Book 2 record as they reach million mark for brother to Kameko Grade 1 winner
James Thomas reports from the third and final session of Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale
Godolphin secured the most expensive colt ever sold at Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale when landing a well-bred son of Kameko from Tweenhills Farm and Stud at a cool 1,000,000gns.
The youngster came to the ring armed with a major pedigree update as he is a full-brother to New Century, who became his sire’s first top-flight winner when landing the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine. That was not the only update in the Qatar Racing-owned colt’s profile, as also landed the Listed Stonehenge Stakes on his penultimate outing.
“I think he’s a very nice horse and he’s a full-brother to a Grade 1 winner,” said Anthony Stroud, who stood beside Charlie Appleby during the bidding. “Kameko has had a very good start, he’s a beautiful, quality horse and he’ll go to Moulton Paddocks. It’s great to have him, although the valuation was on the higher side of what we’d thought.”
The colt is out of Potent Embrace, who joined the Tweenhills-based broodmare band when purchased by David Redvers for €150,000 at Goffs in 2016, where she was sold by Godolphin. The daughter of Street Cry has now bred two bold black type winners as her first foal is Passion And Glory, who carried Sheikh Mohammed’s royal blue silks to victory in eight races, most notably the Group 3 Glorious Stakes.
“He’s actually more like his dad than his brother,” said Redvers. “His brother looks a proper two-year-old but this horse, I can see him being a bit scopier really. The thing in common with all of the Kamekos though is they have this incredible temperament, which is why the brother was able to go across to Canada and come back and go on to America. He takes it all so well. The mare died foaling this lad in Ireland. It was one of those cruel twists of fate, but she has left quite a parting gift.”
The transaction marked a successful return to selling at the October Sale for Tweenhills, which last sold yearlings under its own name back in 2012. The seven-figure trade is the latest positive step in Kameko’s burgeoning stallion career. His debut juvenile crop contains ten European winners, two of which have stuck in black type company. New Century is joined by Wimbledon Hawkeye, a comfortable winner of the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes on his latest outing.
Despite breaking into seven-figure territory Godolphin’s latest purchase could not quite reach the record price for Book 2, which belongs to the Listed-placed filly and four-time winner Tarhib, a 1,050,000gns signing by Shadwell back in 2019.
Sumbe keeps it real
Nurlan Bizakov’s Sumbe operation continued its October Yearling Sale recruitment drive when general manager Tony Fry bid 750,000gns for a Territories colt from Oaks Farm Stables. The brother to the Group 2 Railway Stakes third Masseto returned a handsome bit of pinhooking profit as AP Bloodstock picked the youngster up for 65,000gns at last year’s foal sales, where he was offered by Cobhall Court Stud on behalf of breeder Ciaran Paterson.
“We knew we had a nice horse coming here and when he started showing as well as he did we were happy enough,” said Catherine Dwyer, daughter of Oaks Farm’s Mark Dwyer. “We were confident he’d sell well but not quite as well as that! I was shaking and smiling during the bidding, but I turned around and Peter Molony said ‘You need to have your poker face on!’ It was electric in there and the bids were flying from all directions. Everyone wanted him.”
She added: “He went back over to Ireland and to Jim McCartan’s through the winter then came to us in Yorkshire about three months ago. We prepped him at home and he hasn’t put a foot wrong. He’s turned from a boy to a man during prep.”
Although the colt, who was bred at a fee of just £10,000, becomes the most expensive yearling by his sire, he is far from Territories most expensive offspring. That distinction goes to Prix de l'Opera winner Rougir, who sold to Oceanic Bloodstock for €3 million at Arqana in December 2021, prior to her EP Taylor Stakes success in the colours of Peter Brant and Michael Tabor.
Bizakov will be hoping Territories can do Sumbe another good turn as the Dalham Hall Stud resident is also the sire of the owner’s homebred Prix Maurice de Gheest hero Lazzat. The Group 1 winner has departed Jerome Reynier’s French base for Australia, where he is due to contest the A$10 million Golden Eagle at Rosehill on the first Saturday in November.
“Territories is doing us well, and hopefully he’ll do us well in three weeks’ time because Lazzat is in Australia now,” said Fry. “This is a similar type of horse. Whether lightning will strike twice, I don’t know. He’s just a nice horse. It’s a lot of money and I probably should have bought him as a foal. Well done to Mark Dwyer because he’s made more than ten times what he cost then.”
Sumbe purchased four lots during Book 2 for an investment of 1,470,000gns, following on from a 900,000gns spend on three yearlings at Book 1.
“We’ve bought some and been blown out on some others,” said Fry. “It’s Nurlan’s money and it’s sometimes easier when he’s here because if he likes them he might bid a bit stronger, but it’s nice he’s put his faith in us with this horse.”
Book 2 has been a happy hunting ground for Sumbe, as it was at the 2021 renewal of the sale that Fry unearthed dual Group 1 winner Charyn for 250,000gns. The son of Dark Angel is a short-priced favourite for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, which is set to be his final domestic outing before retiring to Montfort et Preaux for the 2025 breeding season.
“You look back at what he cost and what he’s done, it’s a rarity,” said Fry. “I’m just very fortunate that we have a boss that has the passion and still has ambition.”
Fry declined to bask in the reflected glory of having purchased one of the season’s brightest stars, and instead offered a frank insight into the ups and downs involved in breeding and buying young thoroughbreds.
He said: “We’ve got 60 horses in training and three very good ones, but that means there’s a lot that aren’t very good. I look back and think ‘Why did we breed that mare to that stallion? Why did we buy that yearling or buy that foal?’ I take it very personally when they don’t work out.
"You buy them because you think they’re a champion, you don’t think you’re going to go to Wolverhampton. Everything we buy or breed, I think will win the Guineas, but the chances are they won't. We're buying hopes, dreams and wishes. Normally all three of those fail.”
Folland-Bowen in form
With three lots sold for a combined 1,140,000gns, it has been a Book 2 to remember for Natalie Folland and Matt Bowen, the duo behind Folland-Bowen Bloodstock. The draft’s headline act, a 550,000gns son of Sea The Stars, sold to Godolphin on day two, and they followed that up on Wednesday by selling the Too Darn Hot filly out of Ruzma to Anthony Stroud for 460,000gns.
The six-figure filly was sold on behalf of breeder Elaine Chivers, who bought the dam through Richard Knight for just €4,000 at Goffs in 2017. “It’s been a very good Book 2,” said an emotional Bowen, before Folland explained the backstory to the connection with the breeder, who keeps 17 mares at Folland-Bowen’s Fonthill Stud in Wiltshire.
She said: “I've done quite a bit for Richard Knight over the years and he was Elaine’s agent for a long time, so when we set up Richard told us that he might know someone with a couple of mares for us. It’s all spiralled from there and most of the stock on the farm is hers now!
“Elaine has been such a good supporter of ours and I know she’s been involved in the industry for a long time and has put so much in. I really wanted her to have a good touch and thankfully she has.”
Stroud made six Godolphin purchases at a combined 3,560,000gns, a haul that included the seven-figure top lot. Moreover, his Stroud Coleman Bloodstock agency, which is run with business partner Matt Coleman, was the leading buyer by gross spend, with 37 yearlings secured for an outlay of 8,030,000gns. When combined, those aggregate spends account for close to 17 per cent of total Book 2 turnover.
At the end of a busy three days, Stroud said: “I think it’s been an incredible two weeks. The market has been very strong, there’s a lot of international people, trade has been good and there’s been a lot of very nice horses.
“I think it’s great and these [sellers] have all had good prices for their yearlings. They’ll reinvest and it will stimulate the market. In many ways you’ll see the December Sales, the broodmare and foal sales, being extremely strong too. The important thing is that there’s some sort of control on stallion fees because it’s very important for the industry that they stay at a reasonable level.”
Amo makes late move for Ardad filly
Plenty of the usual suspects were hanging around gone 8pm, with Kirtlington Stud’s Ardad filly the lot in the collective crosshairs. After a protracted bidding tussle it was Alex Elliott who emerged victorious at 420,000gns.
The filly is out of Nell Gwyn Stakes runner-up Squash, whose three winners at paddocks include the triple US Grade 3 scorer Motorious and Matters Most, who was second in the Ripon Champion Two-Year-Old Trophy.
“I think that’s a very special filly,” said Elliott. “Some people might say that’s a lot of money but the price tells you how good she is. She’s just an exceptional filly. Ardad is a decent stallion but that pedigree goes way down into a deep Claiborne family. It’s a hell of a lot of money but I just really believe in her.
“Hopefully she’ll be a black-type filly herself, which she’ll need to be at that price. I was so confident about her that I was prepared to push the boat out. She’s for Amo Racing, Kia’s in New York now but he was happy for us to take control. I’m absolutely over the moon to get her. She’ll go to Richard Fahey, who’s trained the best runners by the stallion.”
Overbury Stud’s Ardad has been represented by 13 stakes performers, headed by the Fahey yard’s three-time Group 1 winner Perfect Power. This year’s yearlings are from the upgraded book of 205 mares that Ardad covered in the afterglow of Perfect Power winning the Norfolk Stakes, Prix Morny and Middle Park in 2021.
Dutfield at the double
Another consignor toasting a productive Book 2 was Harry Dutfield whose three-strong draft realised 885,000gns. Although Dutfield has made his name as a savvy pinhooker, this trio of yearlings were all consigned on behalf of clients.
The Turnbull family of Elwick Stud sent two yearlings by Sea The Stars. The filly out of Makawee gave Dutfield his best ever result “by a long way” when selling to Jason Kelly for 525,000gns on day two, while Godolphin added the half-brother to Lava Stream to their haul at 210,000gns late in Wednesday’s session.
Reflecting on the 525,000gns transaction on Tuesday evening, Dutfield said: “It was kind of mind-blowing really. I’m not used to dealing with those kinds of figures. I’m used to Book 3 horses who cost 20 or 30 [thousand guineas], not half a million pounds worth of Sea The Stars filly, she was just incredible. If someone had told me at the start she was going to make 525,000gns I would have just laughed at them. Those are the kind of things you read about, rather than create yourself.”
This year is the first time Elwick has entrusted yearlings to Dutfield, who continued: “It’s been an honour but a stress as well because I put pressure on myself, and when you get given a Sea The Stars you want to do your absolute best. Obviously I want to do my best anyway for any of the horses, whether I own them or not, but when you know she’s going to be in Book 2 it ups the pressure that extra bit. And she just had show after show after show. She had just over 200 shows and every one was the same. She just marched out with that lovely long stride.”
Reliving how he felt during the bidding, Dutfield said: “It got to 250,000gns and I gasped! I think it came out quite loud because the people nearby all looked around at me. But this should mean something, and it certainly does to me.”
Dutfield also explained that his own journey through the industry brought the significance of the six-figure sum into sharp relief. “I started working in racing then moved to the stud side, did the National Stud course and have been a stud hand for the likes of John Troy and Kildaragh Stud,” he said. “When you’ve worked at that level, you know how much you get paid each year. This filly’s reserve was met on the opening bid, and 100,000gns is four years’ wages for a stud hand. It’s mad, really.”
The Dutfield draft was completed by the Ardad half-brother to Arabie and Mammas Girl, who was sold on behalf of Robert Cornelius. The filly went the way of agent Dermot Farrington at 150,000gns.
Facts and figures
As was widely predicted, the sheer weight of trade at a record-busting Book 1 had a profound impact on the Book 2 marketplace. Just like Book 1, the three days of Book 2 produced an unprecedented set of results, with new high marks set for turnover and average price, all of which was underpinned by an exceptionally solid clearance rate.
A tighter catalogue saw 697 lots offered, 37 fewer than 12 months ago. But that did not stop the number of sold lots increasing by six, with 632 yearlings finding a buyer at a clip of 91 per cent. Those transactions yielded an aggregate of 68,517,000gns, which was up fully 27 per cent year-on-year, despite the smaller catalogue.
The three days produced a six-figure average for the first time in Book 2’s history, closing at 108,415gns. The median price was 70,000gns, which showed a 13 per cent increase to equal the benchmark posted in 2022.
In his regular end-of-sale address, Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony said: “The results from Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale last week were pretty remarkable and certainly instilled some confidence leading into Book 2, but yet again the level of trade has outstripped the most optimistic of pre-sale expectations.
“The extraordinary success of Book 1 has been well and truly replicated in Book 2 and again it is the outstanding quality of the yearlings and the sale’s reputation for consistently producing racehorses of the very highest calibre which have brought the buyers to Tattersalls in overwhelming numbers. Every year British and Irish breeders and consignors place enormous faith in the two weeks of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and the unrelenting demand throughout Book 2 shows that their confidence has been fully justified.
“Turnover and average have both reached new heights by considerable margins and the 1,000,000gns sale-topping Kameko yearling is the highest price ever for a colt at Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale, but it is the clearance rate above 90 per cent and the sheer volume of horses selling for 200,000gns or more that have been truly incredible.
“The demand for quality yearlings from buyers from throughout the world, most notably America, Australia, Hong Kong and throughout the Gulf region, has resulted in 93 yearlings selling for 200,000gns or more; a number far in excess of any other European yearling sale except October Book 1 and a huge increase on the previous October Book 2 record of 58.
"Also noteworthy has been the significant year-on-year rise in the median demonstrating a market with real depth, driven not only by overseas demand but also by a strong showing from the domestic British and Irish buyers, for whom Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale is always an unmissable event."
He added: “Above all, however, we can reflect on another Tattersalls yearling sale which has exceeded expectations at a time when confidence has sometimes understandably been in short supply. It has not all been plain sailing in recent years, but we work hard to bring as many buyers as possible to Tattersalls for the October Yearling Sale and as we move on to Books 3 and 4 we can look forward with a little more optimism and look back on another Tattersalls sale which has brought a collective smile to the face of the British and Irish thoroughbred breeding industry.”
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