2.2 million guineas sale of Waldlied tops blockbuster day at Tattersalls

A blockbuster draft from Newsells Park Stud stole the show during an electric session of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in Newmarket on Tuesday.

The talented and well-bred duo of Waldlied and Cayenne Pepper were widely tipped to be among the highlights of a strong collection of offerings and they duly lived up to the hype by selling for 2.2 million guineas and 2 million guineas respectively.

Prix de Malleret winner Waldlied was offered through Newsells Park Stud as the property of a partnership between that operation and Dietrich von Boetticher’s Gestut Ammerland, and following a lengthy bidding battle between Jill Lamb, sitting with Newsells Park’s new owner Graham Smith-Bernal, and Crispin de Moubray, the mare left the ring under the full ownership of her consignor.

The six-year-old daughter of New Approach belongs to a family that has served both Newsells Park and Ammerland extremely well for several generations as a daughter of Group 3 winner Waldlerche, also dam of the champion Arc hero Waldgeist and this season’s Gordon Richards Stakes winner Waldkonig. In turn, Waldlerche is a half-sister to St Leger winner Masked Marvel and out of Klaus Jacobs’ Falmouth Stakes-runner-up Waldmark.

Waldlied’s yearling by Kingman sold for 400,000gns to Mike Ryan at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale and she is back in foal to that sire. As such, it was no surprise to see Smith-Bernal and his team make such a concerted effort to bring the mare home.

“It was breaking one partnership and forming a new one and so she is coming back home where she belongs,” said Smith-Bernal. “She is a very special horse from a very special family and a beautiful mare in terms of her demeanour and attitude.

“She was a great racehorse, I think she was rated as high in training as Waldgeist by Andre Fabre. We are absolutely delighted to have her back with us.”

Star studded book for Wootton Bassett

As for Blandford Stakes winner Cayenne Pepper, she is set to form part of a high-profile book for Wootton Bassett next season after falling to Tom Magnier.

The Australia filly was a consistently high-class performer for Jessica Harrington, winning four races in the colours of the late Jon Kelly and then his wife Sarah. Her four-length win over Amma Grace in last year’s Blandford Stakes was the highlight of her career but she also struck in Pattern company as a two-year-old when successful in the Flame Of Tara Stakes and ran second to Even So in the 2020 Irish Oaks.

“She’s a lovely mare,” said Magnier. “Jessica Harrington held her in high regard and owner Jon Kelly was a very close friend of our family. We’ve had some Jon Kelly blood in Australia and it is nice to have some here, too.

“We’re here buying mares for Australia but she’ll stay up here and probably go to Wootton Bassett.”

Not only was Cayenne Pepper a high-class performer but she also hails from one of the most powerful female lines worldwide as a great-granddaughter of Allegretta; given she is a daughter of Australia, she is actually inbred to Allegretta on a 4×3 cross.

“It is a page we know well,” said Magnier, “and when you have a page like that and the physical, along with the ability, you have to be delighted to have her.”

Wootton Bassett’s book for 2022 is also set include Sunday Times, the dam of American champion two-year-old filly Newspaperofrecord for whom MV Magnier successfully bid 1.8 million guineas.

Winner of the Group 3 Sceptre Stakes herself for owner-breeder Allan Belshaw, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor was an immediate success at stud as the dam of Listed scorer Classical Times in her first season at stud and then Newspaperofrecord, winner of the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf for Chad Brown, in her third.

Now 12-years-old, she was sold through Goldford Stud back in foal to Newspaperofrecord’s sire Lope De Vega.

“She’s the absolute package,” said Magnier. “She’s already done it – Newspaperofrecord was a champion, it was incredible what she did at the Breeders’ Cup that day, and the mare is carrying a full sibling to her. 

“There’s plenty going on in the pedigree. It’s a very good family all the way down – obviously we also have Pink Dogwood, who’s in there. She’ll go to Wootton Bassett.”

Sunday Times represents two generations of breeding by Belshaw from his Simply Times family.

Belshaw, who operates as Times Of Wigan, paid just $18,000 for Simply Times, a daughter of Dodge, through Bill O’Gorman at the 1995 OBS Select Yearling Sale in Florida. She made two unproductive starts at two but went on to foal Hungerford Stakes winner Welsh Emperor in addition to six-time winner Forever Times, the dam of Sunday Times.

Sunday Times was the best of four winners out of her dam but another talented filly, the Listed-placed Question Times, has also helped the family flourish by producing Irish Derby hero Latrobe, Group 3 winner Diamond Fields and the Aidan O’Brien-trained Oaks runner-up Pink Dogwood.

The sale of Sunday Times on Tuesday marked a major contrast from her first appearance in a sale ring when she failed to sell for 10,000gns.

“I bought her here to Book 2,” said Belshaw. “Holy Roman Emperor was just starting his career. I don’t know if there was even a bid, I was hoping to get 30,000gns for her.

“But she turned into a good race horse and an even better broodmare, and the big moment, of course, was with her daughter, Newspaperofrecord, in the Breeders’ Cup.”

He added: “I am satisfied and happy about the sale, although slightly disappointed as I have had her since a baby. But there comes a time when she had to move on. I have plenty of babies from the family so it is like starting again with a young family. We can play up there now with stallion fees instead of looking at the basement.”

While Sunday Times headed into Coolmore hands, her daughter Daily Times could be set for a trip across the Atlantic following her sale for 800,000gns to James Wigan.

Wigan was acting on behalf of Peter and Bonnie McCausland’s Erdenheim Farm in Pennsylvania; the farm has been notably active at this sale in recent years, coming away with the likes of Listed scorer Billesdon Bess at 800,000gns in 2018 and the well-related Aflame at 675,000gns a year later.

Daily Times, by Gleneagles, won once at Southwell for Belshaw and John and Thady Gosden. She failed to sell at 600,000gns at last year’s December Sale but catalogued on this occasion in foal to Lope De Vega, found greater favour this time around.

“She is going to stay here for now,” said Wigan. “She will foal here and will probably go to Kingman, before travelling to the US.

“I was underbidder on her last year when she was bought back for 600,000gns. The vendor has stuck to his guns as I have had to wait a year and pay more!”

Flotus to Japan

In keeping with the trend seen at this winter’s breeding stock sales, Japanese investment was once again a key element to the strength of trade.

Particularly active were the Yoshida brothers, who came away with the top race fillies Flotus, Dandalla and Mystery Angel.

Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm paid a million guineas for this season’s Ripon Champion 2yo Trophy heroine Flotus, who came into the sale off the back of an excellent second to Tenebrism in the Cheveley Park Stakes for Simon and Ed Crisford. 

Her sale marked an excellent return on the 125,000gns that she had cost her owners, a syndicate that included Ed Babington and Jean-Etienne Dubois, as a yearling when knocked down to Arthur Hoyeau. 

The general consensus is that Flotus possesses the scope to train on into a high-class three-year-old but plans are undecided as to her future, said Northern Farm representative Shingo Hashimoto. 

“It’s undecided whether she’ll go to Japan to be bred from or whether she’ll race on,” said Hashimoto of the daughter of Starspangledbanner. “If she were to race on, she would stay in Europe.

“We thought that we would have to pay around that mark. Her last race was pretty outstanding. She is a brilliant filly and it’s very exciting to have her.”

Co-trainer Simon Crisford understandably had mixed feelings on the sale.

“She’s a beautiful filly and we’re sorry to see her go but we wish her new connections the best of luck,” he said. “She was owned by a syndicate so it was the right time to sell. She’s been fantastic for them. 

“She has not stopped growing all year, and so I am sure she will have a very successful three-year-old career.”

Retirement, however, does beckon for Albany Stakes heroine Dandalla, for whom Northern Farm paid 750,000gns.

“She is very good looking and she was very fast,” said Hashimoto. “Her speed was a great appeal to us. She won’t run again and will ship to Japan straight away.”

A mere €22,000 purchase as a yearling by Kelly Burke, Dandalla was saddled by Karl Burke to win four races in the colours of his wife Elaine and Nick Bradley, notably the Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket and Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot.

“She was just a lovely individual,” recalled Kelly Burke. “She was correct, athletic, strong. I’d picked out Lord Of The Lodge [Gimcrack Stakes runner-up] as a yearling the year before so I had a soft spot for Dandy Man anyway. She was one of four or five that I really liked that day and Dad saw her and agreed. She just floated along and went about her business. When we followed her through, there was no one else really there for her – luckily! But we didn’t sell her until February – she was literally the last filly to sell. Luckily Nick took a share.

“From an early stage she literally bounded up the gallop. My sister Lucy rode her and she rode Laurens, too, and before Dandalla ran, she said, ‘I hate comparing anything to a super star like Laurens, but this filly is the only I have ridden who takes me up the gallop like Laurens.”

Karl Burke was naturally delighted with the result although he was left wondering what might have been had the filly remained at 5f this season.

“We tried to make her a 7f filly, go down the Guineas route,” he said. “She was very relaxed at home but on the track she just got quicker and quicker as she got stronger. She ran off with Clifford Lee one day and he came back and said ‘she’s a 5f filly’ and then Jamie Spencer said the same when he got off her at Pontefract [when fifth in a Listed race]. And then of course she won the 5f Listed race at Ayr. So we’d missed a few nice races with her during the summer and because of that, I’d liked to have kept her as a four-year-old. She’s a lovely filly.”

The Yoshida family also came away with Oaks runner-up Mystery Angel, another classy filly to carry the Nick Bradley Racing colours, at 500,000gns. Bought for just 22,000gns by Bradley as a breezer, the daughter of Kodi Bear has done her trainer George Boughey proud as the winner of the three races including this season’s Listed Pretty Polly Stakes at Newmarket.

She is now set to join the broodmare band belonging to Haruya Yoshida, a brother to Teruya and Katsumi who operates Oiwake Farm on the island of Hokkaido.

“She was very talented,” said Oiwake representative Yuya Yasuda. “She is a very good mover. Her race form is good and she ran against some very good horses. I am not sure whether she will race on or will breed straight away but she goes to Japan now.”

Big day for Bradley

On what was an excellent day for Nick Bradley, the owner’s Group 2 scorer and 1,000 Guineas third Fev Rover realised 695,000gns to Kern/Lillingston to continue her career in the US for owner Tracy Farmer and trainer Mark Casse.

The Gutaifan filly was bought for just £20,000 as a Goffs UK Premier yearling and was saddled by Richard Fahey to win two races including last year’s Prix du Calvados at Deauville. She was last seen running a fine fourth in the Bahrain International Trophy.

“We thought she was the best racing prospect in the sale and she should have plenty of residual value as a Group 2 winner and Classic-placed,” said Kern/Lillingston’s Joe Miller. “She will go to the US now, and hopefully have a successful four-year-old season racing there.

“She was effective at a mile to 1m2f, which is perfect, and it looks as if her best ground is firm or good to firm. There are lot of opportunities for her in the US, if she is as good there as she was here.”

Sottsass support

Classy sprinter Shades Of Blue, meanwhile, to set to be among the second book belonging to Arc hero Sottsass next season after selling for 850,000gns to Michel Zerolo of Oceanic Bloodstock.

Zerolo was acting on behalf of American-based owner Peter Brant for the mare, who was sold by The Castlebridge Consignment carrying her first foal by Frankel.

“Mr Brant sent plenty of mares to Sottsass last season and plans to do so again next year,” said Zerolo. “This mare has the whole package – she was a good, sharp two-year-old, she’s by a very good stallion who is easy to use with Sottsass and she’s in foal to Frankel. She speaks for herself.”

A Kodiac relation to Gutaifan and Mustashry, Shades Of Blue won two races for Clive Cox including the Listed Prix Hampton at Maisons-Laffitte. She was also second in the Group 3 Summer Stakes and Prix du Petit Couvert.

When all was done and dusted, Tattersalls had turned over 41,912,000gns on the sale of 224 horses at an average of 187,107gns, up 39% from the corresponding day last year. The median rose by 75% to 105,000gns. No fewer than 115 horses sold for six figures.