Middleham Park Racing’s Esentepe topped the second day of the July Sale at Tattersalls when selling for 220,000gns to a new “overseas partnership” for whom she will race until the end of the season.
Bloodstock agent Tom Goff of Blandford Bloodstock, buying on behalf of the syndicate, said: “The plan is for her to have a short holiday, and I mean short. She’ll then go to David Wachman, who will train her for the rest of the year, then she’ll be retired as a broodmare.
“She’s a lovely, lovely filly and was the stand-out racing and broodmare prospect in the catalogue. It’s possible that she might have made more at the December Sale but that was very nearly my last bid. We didn’t leave much on the table.”
Winner of the Nell Gwyn Stakes in April for Richard Hannon, Esentepe, by Coolmore sire Oratorio, was the first Group winner for Middleham Park Racing, which has 75 horses in training in the UK. She was bought as a yearling by Peter Doyle at Tattersalls’ October Sale for just 22,000gns.
Following a quiet day’s trade on Wednesday, Thursday’s post-racing session provided the main highlight of the sale so far, with the four wildcard entries selling consecutively. Middleham Park Racing bought back the Nell Gwyn third Lily’s Angel for 105,000gns and Group 2 winner Penitent for 60,000gns while the remaining late entry, the Group 3-placed four-year-old Calico Cat, was sold for 40,000gns.
Only six horses failed to find a buyer on Thursday, giving a highly impressive clearance rate of 96%, with turnover up 7% to 1,903,600gns. The average of 13,895gns was an improvement of 12%, while the median dropped slightly to 7,000gns, from 7,500gns in 2011.
The only other six-figure lot of the sale so far was Figaro, a four-year-old son of Medicean out of the Group 1 winner Chorist, who was sold for 100,000gns and will be leaving William Haggas’s Somerville Lodge Stables in Newmarket to start a jumping career with Tim Vaughan.
Figaro was bought for an existing owner with Vaughan by agent Tom Malone, who said: “We really liked him, he’s a very exciting horse. He’s a proper dual-purpose prospect but he still has a lot of strengthening to do. There’s no plan yet for him as such, the plan was just to secure him and that wasn’t easy.”
The sale concludes on Friday, with two sessions pre- and post-racing on Newmarket’s July Course.