Stakes producer stars at Tatts December

Stakes producer Callisto Star took centre stages during an international opening session of the Tattersalls December Sale in Newmarket on Monday when sold for 675,000gns to Badgers Bloodstock.

The daughter of Fastnet Rock led the way during a day that was unsurprisingly dominated by mares sold during the Sceptre Session, an initiative launched by Tattersalls last year to showcase the elite fillies and mares.

The unraced mare was bred by small-time breeder Kevin Molloy out of Livia Galilei, a Galileo sister to Group 3 winner Eye Of The Storm. Retained by Molloy as a broodmare, she has really hit the ground running at stud, with her first foal, Rhea Moon, winning this year’s Grade 1 American Oaks at Santa Anita and her second, There’s The Door, running stakes-placed. Her third foal Majed also recently broke his maiden at Wolverhampton for John and Thady Gosden.

Back in foal on an early cover to Rhea Moon’s sire Starspangledbanner, the mare went on to make 675,000gns to the Badgers Bloodstock team.

“She’s to stay here in Europe,” said Tom Pritchard-Gordon, acting on behalf of an existing client. “She’s a beautiful mare and has already produced a Grade 1 winner with her first foal. She’s carrying a full-sibling to that Grade 1 winner inside her.

“Fastnet Rock is as good a broodmare sire as there is and her dam is by Galileo so it’s all the bloodlines you want. She’s the whole package. We haven’t decided who she’ll be covered by next year but Starspangled is an obvious target. Fastnet mares work with so many different bloodlines that she could go anywhere.”

Japanese interests also made their presence felt, notably Lake Villa Farm which paid 625,000gns for last season’s smart two-year-old Mauiewowie.

“She’ll go straight to Japan and to stud,” said Yoshihisa Iwasaki of the Hokkaido-based stud, which bred the two-time Hong Kong Vase winner Glory Vase. “We liked her conformation very much, she’s very strong, and we loved her attitude. 

“We don’t know yet which stallion she’ll go to but the plan is to send her to the very best.”

The flashy Mauiewowie won last season’s Listed Curragh Stakes for Ger Lyons and was Listed-placed on a further two occasions. She also belongs to an extremely active family as a daughter of a half-sister to champion Ghaiyyath and fellow Grade 1 winner Zhukova. They are out of the 2006 Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Nightime, the first Classic winner sired by Galileo.

On an international day of trading, the Australian-based Kia Ora Stud went to 460,000gns for Listed winner Wonderful Times. The daughter of Golden Horn, a relation to blue hen Rafha, was bought in this ring for just 85,000gns last year by Billy Jackson-Stops of JS Bloodstock and Barton Stud. Then a minor winner, she progressed this year for Mario Baratti to win the Listed Prix Urban Sea.

Meanwhile, Ireland is the destination of Authoritaire, a member of the Wildenstein family’s famous Albertine dynasty who was knocked down for 525,000gns to Charlie Gordon-Watson.

The winning daughter of Tamayuz is out of the Wildenstein’s champion mare Aquarelliste, whose seven victories including the Prix de Diane, Prix Vermeille and Prix Ganay. Aquarelliste since produced eight winners at stud, including the Group 1 performer Ame Bleue and Listed-placed Amerique, whose two-year-old Cambridge showed smart form for Aidan O’Brien this year.

“I actually worked for the WIldensteins for a while,” said Gordon-Watson, acting on behalf of a client who plans to send their new purchase to Ireland. “Aquarelliste came along in my first year with them. She won the unraced fillies maiden at Longchamp in April of her three-year-old year, then she went to Elie Lellouche and won the Prix de Diane. 

“It’s one of the great Wildenstein families. And she’s in foal to Night Of Thunder. I think she’ll suit him well so she made a lot of sense.”

The sale continues on Tuesday from 9.30am.