'This horse is the same model as Baaeed' - blue-blooded Sea The Stars colt caps Book 2 at 425,000gns

There was a late change of market leader during the final session of Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale when Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock went to 425,000gns for the Sea The Stars colt closely related to Group 1 winner Mekhtaal from Norelands Stud.

Brown said it was a likeness with Sea The Stars’ brilliant son Baaeed that really had him hooked, although he conceded it was another member of his team who first brought the attractive colt to his attention.

“A lot of credit has to go to our spotters,” said Brown. “It’s very hard to get around this number of horses and very early on Sam Goyette, who’s currently working for Juddmonte, told me he’d found a special horse. I raised my eyebrows and thought, ‘Yeah, of course’, but when I went down and saw this colt I was like, ‘Wow! This is a very serious horse.’

“I knew he’d be hard to buy because he’s by one of the greatest stallions around and is from a great back page. Luckily I had an existing client who was willing to have a go. He’ll stay in Europe but I’m not sure where he’ll be trained yet.”

Bred by the Tsui family’s Sunderland Holding Inc, the session-topper is out of Miss Aiglonne, a Dawn Approach sibling to six stakes performers. The sextet includes Prix d'Ispahan scorer Mekhtaal, who is also by Sea The Stars, and the Group 2 Prix Hocquart winner Democrate.

“It’s interesting as I saw Baaeed quite a lot at William Haggas’s, and he had this huge, flat hindquarter and great width of hip, but he wasn’t a huge horse,” continued Brown. “This horse has the same hind end as Baaeed. He’s a different colour but he’s the same sort of model. He had great movement and he just looked classy out there.

“Sea The Stars is right up there with the very best. We’re all dreaming but we’re also realists, unfortunately, and the fact is that most horses aren’t very good. But buying a horse who looks like that and is by Sea The Stars gives you a chance of having a top Group 1 horse.”

Richard Brown: 'Sea The Stars is right up there with the very best'Credit: Alisha Meeder

As is so often the case, buyers and sellers had slightly divided opinions on the strength of trade during the three days of Book 2. While acknowledging that double-digit year-on-year decreases are always going to be hard to ignore, the shifts seen across the spectrum of key market indices are arguably a greater reflection of the giddy highs of last year, rather than a sign of something more concerning this time around.

Granted, certain areas of the market proved more challenging than others, but by and large the three sessions produced solid trade, albeit with fewer flashpoints than 12 months ago. Turnover was down 11 per cent at 53,978,500gns, while the average dipped by ten points to 86,230gns. The median went from 70,000gns to 62,000gns, a drop of 11 per cent. The clearance rate was almost on a par with 2022 as 626 yearlings sold from 734 offered.

Brown gave his assessment of trade across the three sessions of Book 2, and was keen to emphasise the positives after a more challenging renewal of Book 1.

“I think the market has been strong,” he said. “It’s been well documented that Book 1 was tricky but this week has been hard buying. I haven’t bought as many as I did last week and I’ve tried on plenty.

"There are definitely cracks and it would be foolish for anybody involved to be saying everything is smooth sailing, but that’s often the way with markets. Overall, I think you have to have a positive takeaway from this Book.”

Hay hangs tough in face of financial pressures

Dr Jim Hay was content to put cold hard logic to one side and indulge in a labour of love at Tattersalls on Wednesday as the leading owner secured the 325,000gns Gleneagles colt who led the market for much of the session.

Hay was working alongside bloodstock agents Dermot Farrington and Ed Sackville, with the trio hoping the Whatton Manor Stud-consigned youngster is as talented as the other colts the owner has raced by the Coolmore sire.

The Gleneagles colt out of Ledena who went Jim Hay's way at TattersallsCredit: Alisha Meeder

Gleneagles has 21 Group/Graded winners on his stud record and the Hays have been responsible for two of the more notable names. The homebred Highland Chief landed the Grade 1 Man o'War Stakes for trainer Graham Motion, while Royal Scotsman, who is bred on the same cross as the 325,000gns colt, won the Group 2 Richmond Stakes and was behind Chaldean when reaching the podium in the Dewhurst and the 2,000 Guineas.

“We like Gleneagles,” said Hay, whose horses run under the name of his wife, Fitri. “We’ve got a lot by him; Royal Scotsman, Highland Chief. We like the bloodline and this horse has an outcross pedigree, the same as Royal Scotsman, as he’s out of a Pivotal mare. He’s got the bloodlines and the experts tell me he looks the business, but who knows?”

Hay’s pink and green silks have been carried to some notable successes down the years, including the Sussex Stakes strike of Here Comes When. The owner has been back in the Group 1 limelight in 2023 thanks to Khaadem’s victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, while the current campaign has also seen significant victories for the likes of Ancient Rome and recent Group 3 Sirenia Stakes scorer Starlust.

Hay, who has bought 18 yearlings this year, said he was reinvesting at his usual level purely out of devotion to the industry. He highlighted that he was not alone in his pursuit, despite the numbers involved making little financial sense.

“It’s worked out this year, for a change!” he said on his 2023 season. “That’s racing though. British horseracing is in a terrible state financially, but we’ll keep doing what we’ve been doing for the last 20-odd years. We’re not going to change, although we’d love British racing to suddenly become sensible and be funded properly.

“The big dream in all of this is if you produce a stallion that’s then worth a lot of money, otherwise the whole thing is just basically shredding money. It’s a passion, though. If you look around this ring you’ll see how much money is getting spent today.”

Jim Hay: happy to indulge in his passion despite prize-money and affordability check woesCredit: Laura Green

Hay also highlighted the glaring contradiction between what goes on at the sales and affordability checks being imposed on those who spend their leisure money on betting.

“Look at these affordability checks,” he continued. “A bookie wants to ask me if I can afford to put a £50 each-way bet on. Really? I’ve just spent 325,000gns without anybody asking me anything! This is the nonsense in all of this. It’s utter madness, and all of this stuff needs to come to a halt, I think. I’ve been gambling on racehorses since I was six years old. I used to gamble a lot but not now.”

The Gleneagles colt was Hay’s second headline acquisition of the day after his team of agents went to 310,000gns for the Churchill colt out of Honor Bound from Clare Castle Stud.

The sire has enjoyed a fine season thanks to the exploits of talents such as three-time Group 1 winner Blue Rose Cen and Dante Stakes scorer The Foxes, who also ran an unlucky second in the Belmont Derby. And Churchill is not the only element of the colt’s pedigree on the improve, as his half-sister Andromede had won the Listed Hoppegartener Stutenpreis after the catalogue was published.

“Dermot and I bought the horse together with Dr Jim Hay,” said Sackville. “Churchill has had an outstanding year on the track, headlined by the filly in France, Blue Rose Cen. This colt is from a brilliant farm who bred the broodmare sire, Authorized. Andromede is now a stakes winner so there’s plenty happening in the family. A trainer is to be decided.”

Hot colt a personal best for Kingsmead

The second yearling to reach 320,000gns, after the Havana Grey colt out of Hello Glory, was the second-crop son of Too Darn Hot out of I Remember You, a three-parts sister to Windsor Castle Stakes scorer Southern Hills. Jake Warren of Highclere Agency signed the ticket. 

The colt was bred in Sussex under the banner of Kingsmead Bloodstock, the nom de plume of Nigel and Nicola Welby, for whom this was a personal-best result. The couple, who purchased the dam through their adviser Richard Knight for 130,000gns, are no strangers to success at Park Paddocks as they topped day two of Book 3 in 2021, when Montgomery Motto gave 95,000gns for the Time Test colt out of Purest.

The six-figure Too Darn Hot colt was another offered through Whatton Manor Stud, whose Ed Player reflected on trade throughout Books 1 and 2 by saying: “We had four in Book 1 and 25 in Book 2. If you have a nice horse there’s lots of people there for it, but if your horse has a slight issue or doesn’t walk quite so well then it’s quite tough.

The Too Darn Hot colt out of I Remember You who brought the hammer down at 320,000gnsCredit: Laura Green

“It definitely feels weaker than it has in previous years, but trade can’t always go up year after year. There’s still great trade if you have a nice horse, as was shown by this colt. We’re delighted with the price.”

He added: “A lot of work goes into these two weeks. We have a great team at home who work incredibly hard, and then we have a great team here who work incredibly hard as well. Overall trade is perfectly okay, it’s just been tougher than in recent years.”

O’Brien and OPM strike for 310,000gns Siyouni colt

Joseph O’Brien got among the action when he went to 310,000gns for Grangemore Stud’s Siyouni colt out of Joie De Vivre. The leading trainer signed the docket as OPM Equine.

The page goes back to the influential Cassandra Go, with Coolmore-owned celebrities like Magical, Rhododendron and Auguste Rodin under the third dam, Halfway To Heaven.

The Siyouni colt out of Joie de Vivre bought by Joseph O'Brien for 310,000gnsCredit: Alisha Meeder

“He’s a lovely horse and obviously Siyouni has had an exceptional year,” said O’Brien. “This horse comes from good stock and we’re looking forward to him. He’s a nice strong colt and we’re delighted to get him. The pedigree goes back very well.

"We’ve had a few by Siyouni before and he’s one of the top sires in the world at the moment so we’re delighted to have another one. He’s been bought with Justin Casse and Olivia Perkins-Mackey, who works with Justin. Hopefully he can be a mature two-year-old but we’ll get to know him first.”

Another for Najd

Saudi Arabian outfit Najd Stud continued its October Yearling Sale spree on Wednesday, with the most eyecatching acquisition a 300,000gns Wootton Bassett filly from Islanmore Stud.

The youngster was bred by Sue-Ann Foley, daughter of JP McManus, from the Group 2-placed Hint Of A Tint. The Danehill Dancer mare is from the family of Hernando and has bred one winner at paddocks in Northern Express, a six-time scorer with a Racing Post Rating of 110.

“She’s one of the best fillies I saw this morning,” said Najd Stud representative Saud Al Qahtani. “She’s a very good individual, very correct, very nice. This is the first time I have bought a Wootton Bassett.

“I thought this filly was outstanding and I hope, inshallah, that she will do well for his Royal Highness Prince Faisal and be one of his best fillies next year. She will go to one of the trainers in Newmarket, but I’m waiting for the prince to let me know which one. There are three or four names and he will pick which one.”

The Wootton Bassett filly out of Hint Of A Tint bought for 300,000gns by Najd StudCredit: Laura Green

Najd Stud secured 11 lots throughout the three sessions of Book 2, with the 1,116,000gns spend following on from the purchase of a 100,000gns Ghaiyyath filly during Book 1. Although Al Qahtani said the 300,000gns filly would remain in Newmarket, as they have done with other notable purchases in the past, he said others would be exported to support the growing Saudi Arabian programme.

“Some will go to Saudi Arabia too because there is a booming racing industry there,” he said. “We have a plan to get bigger and bigger, but you have to work step by step. If this filly can win some big races she will stay here to become a broodmare. We bought Saffron Beach, who’s in foal to Frankel. Hopefully we will get a champion out of her.”

Al Qahtani added that he received advice from someone who knows the merits of Wootton Bassett better than most, as he said: “Paul Shanahan was advising me, ‘Don’t stop, this is a very good filly, go ahead!' So thank you so much to him.”

Concluding remarks

At the conclusion of Book 2, Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony said: "As referenced last week, the 2022 Tattersalls October Yearling Sales reached extraordinary heights, the like of which we may not see for many years to come, so for Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale to produce returns which, although falling short of last year, compare favourably with all bar two renewals of Europe’s largest yearling sale gives some perspective. 

“As recently as 2016 the turnover at Book 2 was below 40 million gns, with a then record average price of 65,000gns, a record-equalling median of 50,000gns and an unprecedented 117 lots selling for 100,000gns or more. This year’s sale has achieved an average in excess of 80,000gns, a median second only to last year’s runaway record and a clearance rate of 85 per cent. 

"The outstanding Dubawi filly who topped the sale at 725,000gns was the second highest priced filly ever sold at this sale, 55 lots have sold for 200,000gns or more, which is fractionally fewer than last year, and the diversity of buyers has been notable at all levels of the market."

Edmond Mahony: delighted with results despite dip from record-breaking 2022Credit: Laura Green

Mahony went on: “As ever, the support from the consignors has been outstanding. Year after year horses purchased at Book 2 are successful at the very highest level throughout the world, annually demonstrating the extraordinary quality of yearlings that British and Irish consignors, alongside many from mainland Europe, commit to this sale. 

"Buyers, both domestic and international, derive huge confidence from the consistent racecourse achievements of Tattersalls October Yearlings and buyers from throughout Europe and the Gulf region, as well as Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and the USA, have all made valuable contributions this week, alongside the domestic British and Irish participants who will always be the backbone of the October Yearling Sales.

"It's a source of pride that Books 1 and 2 showcase so many of the best yearlings to be found in Europe, but as we move on to Books 3 and 4 we should also highlight the quality of the yearlings to be offered in the next few days. The likes of last year’s Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Lezoo and recent Group 2 Beresford Stakes winner Deepone were both bought at Book 3 and are graphic illustrations of the opportunities still to be found at Tattersalls this week.”

The Tattersalls October Yearling Sale continues on Thursday, with the first Book 3 session starting at 9.30am.

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