Consecutive record-breaking Tattersalls Guineas Sale

A pair of 200,000gns colts by Time Test and Zoffany headed a record-breaking renewal of the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale in Newmarket on Thursday.

When all was done and dusted, 141 lots sold for a record aggregate of 5,926,500gns and average of 42,332gns, up 19 per cent from 2022. Not only that, there were 12 six-figure lots, up from eight in 2022.

“The momentum from the recent record-breaking Craven Breeze-Up Sale has been well and truly sustained at a second consecutive record-breaking renewal of the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze Up and Horses in Training Sale,” said Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony. “The combined turnover for the breeze-up two-year-olds and horses in training has surpassed last year’s record of 6.7 million guineas, the key indicators of average and median have matched or exceeded last year’s impressive returns and thirteen two year olds have sold for 100,000gns or more which is another record breaking figure for the fixture.

“Traditionally the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up and Horses in Training Sale attracts an abundance of overseas buyers and this year has been no exception with international demand, most notably from throughout Europe and the Gulf region, proving to be a feature of the sale which has also produced a combined clearance rate well in excess of 80%. Domestic buyers have as ever made a huge contribution to a successful sale and it is a tribute to the consignors that the breeze up sector continues to go from strength to strength. There is no doubt that the consistent ability of both the Tattersalls Craven and Guineas Breeze-Up Sales to produce Classic and Group 1 winners has not gone unnoticed by the buyers and we look forward to seeing plenty more quality performers emerge from both sales in the coming months.” 

Trainer Michael O’Callaghan outbid Richard Ryan at 200,000gns for the co-topping Time Test colt, who shares his sire with Crypto Force, last year’s sale-topper who went on to win the Beresford Stakes.

“Hopefully lightning can strike twice,” said O’Callaghan. “We bought Crypto Force here last year and he was out of a Galileo mare, the very same cross as this lad. 

“This is a lovely, quality horse with a lovely action. He was a little green in his breeze but I’d forgive him that. We’ll give him a bit of time and I’m looking forward to getting him home.”

Out of Lady Glinka, a Galileo half-sister to Group 2 winner Mikhail Glinka from the family of Derby hero Sir Percy, the colt was originally purchased by Ger and Brendan Morrin’s Pier House Stud for 67,000gns as a foal. He was subsequently catalogued to last year’s Goffs UK Premier Sale but following a change of heart, was rerouted to Willie Browne’s Mocklershill academy with an eye on selling as a breezer.

“We decided we’d hang on and wait to breeze rather than sell as a yearling,” said Brendan Morrin. “Sometimes these plans don’t work but we have been lucky today. 

“He had been handled with all the sales yearlings but went to Willie’s in January unbroken. He makes all the decisions on where to send them after that.”

Browne added: “He is a magnificent looking horse. He looks like a racehorse, he is a great walker with a great mind on him. I thought waiting for this sale might give him a bit of extra time and he was a stand out today.”

Richard Hughes, meanwhile, landed the other co-topper, a son of Zoffany sold by Cormac Farrell. A half-brother to the Group 3-placed Guiri, he is out of the Listed-placed Guardia, a sister to champions Getaway, now a highly successful jumps stallion for Coolmore in Ireland, and Guadalupe, also dam of the Group 1 winners Guignol and Guiliani.

“He is for an existing client and I’m absolutely delighted to get him,” said Hughes. “It’s a big German family, you have horses like Getaway in it – it’s a top-class German family. So to be able to go as quick he did in the breeze, he has to be good.

“I will probably turn him out for some May grass now, I think it will do him good, and we will get him in a month or so and look to ready him for an October maiden.”

Teme Valley and Opulence Thoroughbreds, acting through Richard Ryan, also partnered up to land a Profitable colt, one of three lots to sell for 150,000gns through the day. Plans call for Profitable’s trainer Clive Cox to handle the colt, who was offered by Malcolm Bastard having been sourced by Jai Parmar for 32,000gns at the Tattersalls Somerville Sale.

“He will be the second horse that Teme Valley and Opulence Thoroughbreds have together,” said Ryan. “He will go to Clive Cox and it looks a good fit.

“He did a respectable time and he is a great physical specimen, a particularly strong individual. As a stamp of horse, he is exactly my cup of tea. He is going to be a second-half of the season two-year-old and make up into a lovely three-year-old.”

He added: “I am not that hot on times, especially if it is a horse who should not be blitzing this time of year. For a big, strong horse like this, you look to see whether he has done the breeze respectably and not in a hopeless time, presented in the bridle properly, extended and used his stride, and then finished out his gallop. He was well produced by Malcolm.”

The 150,000gns mark was also reached by the dearest filly on offer, a daughter of the pensioned WinStar Farm stallion Congrats. One of only a handful of American pinhooks catalogued, the filly was picked up out of last year’s Keeneland September Sale for just $20,000 by Alpha Bloodstock and resold yesterday through Katie Walsh’s Greenhills Farm. 

“Jamie Osborne put her up to us earlier on,” said St Lawrence. “She is a nice big, scopey filly who did an okay time. Fawzi liked the idea of her. She has an American pedigree so there is the option of shipping her to Dubai at the end of the season as well.”

No sooner had the gavel landed on that filly’s sale, then it was the turn of the next lot, a colt by Farhh, to hit the 150,000gns mark, in his case when knocked down to trainer James Tate on behalf of Rabbah Bloodstock.

Out of the North American Listed winner Indigo River, he continued the profitable run of foal pinhooks for his vendor Tally-Ho Stud; the stud paid just €29,000 for the youngster through Federico Barberini at the 2021 Arqana December Sale.

“We love Farhh,” said Tate. “We bought Far Above from this sale. They improve with age and time. This horse looked to have a lovely temperament and he did a very good breeze. Fingers crossed – we’re delighted to have him.”

The preceding horses in the training section, meanwhile, was highlighted by the sale of a beautifully-bred Sea The Stars filly for 150,000gns.

The filly was one of the 16 yearlings sourced by Richard Knight on behalf of Saleh Al Homaizi at last year’s Tattersalls October Sale. Al Homaizi subsequently defaulted on the 10,455,000gns payment due to Tattersalls, meaning that each of the yearlings bought had to be offered for resale.

David Hilton, stud manager of John Deer’s Oakgrove Stud, signed the ticket on the Sea The Stars filly, who hails from the famous Puce made famous in recent years by the high-class performers Magic Wand, Chicquita and Emily Dickinson.

Only hours following her purchase her pedigree received a timely update courtesy of her half-sister Paz, who fell only a nose short of victory in the Listed Prix des Lilas at Chantilly. The pair are out of the young Nathaniel mare Pinkster, a daughter of Puce herself.

“It’s very much pedigree-based,” said David Hilton, stud manager of Oakgrove Stud. “Mr Deer is very fond of the family. It’s one we know well as we have [stakes producer] Poplin, who is under the second dam and doing well for us. 

“I spoke to Vicarage Farm and they said they hadn’t done a great deal with her because she’d had a couple of niggles. Whether we race her or not is up for debate. She’s a big filly but very elegant and good-moving. She’s very Sea The Stars and [damsire] Nathaniel is starting to do well as a broodmare sire.

“Pinkster is also a Newsells mare and they’re as good as it gets – they’ll be looking after her very well. This filly will come into our broodmare band eventually. It’s the start of a new chapter when you buy a mare and hopefully she’ll be with us for years to come.”