Sales-Toppers Head To UK From BBAG

BADEN-BADEN, Germany—Leading honours at the BBAG Yearling Sale were split between a Sea The Stars (Ire) filly and a Siyouni (Fr) colt from two of Germany's leading stud farms, each of whom sold for €280,000 and will be trained in England.

Tom Goff of Blandford Bloodstock is a regular visitor to BBAG's main auction and made his presence felt relatively early when winning the bidding battle for Lot 76, Gestut Etzean's Sea The Stars daughter of the former German champion juvenile and G2 Diana Trial winner Monami (Ger) (Sholokhov {Ire}).

“She's a lovely filly out of a champion 2-year-old here in Germany and I just fell in love with her. She's by a stallion that Richard Brown and I absolutely love and we're delighted to have bought her,” said Goff, who couldn't name the filly's new owner.

“I love coming to this sale, the team here does a really good job. I first came back in 2001 with Paul Webber, Angus Gold and Jack Ramsden at the instigation of Paul Webber. One of the first yearlings we bought was Formal Decree (Ger) who went on to win the Cambridgeshire.”

The filly will be trained in Newmarket, which is also home to her half-brother Matchmaking (Ger) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), bought at this same sale two years ago for €70,000 by Jeremy Brummitt and the winner of four races in a month this summer for Sir Mark Prescott.

Two of the three most expensive horses of the sale will be running in the Godolphin blue, including the co-topper (Lot 200), a strapping son of Siyouni named Winwood (Ger) and bred by Gregor and Julia Baum of Gestut Brummerhof.

The colt's dam Waldtraut (Ger) (Oasis Dream {GB}), a listed winner at three and placed in the G1 Preis der Diana, has become something of a darling of the ring at BBAG. Three years ago her son Woodkid (Ger) (New Approach {Ire}) was the second top lot of the sale at €380,000, followed 12 months later by Woodmax (Ger) (Maxios {GB}), who fetched €240,000. Both dual winners, they ended up in training in Chantilly, with Alain de Royer Dupre and Nicolas Clement respectively.

A grand-daughter of dual German champion racemare Wurftaube (Ger), Waldtraut's family has been further embellished with top-level black type this season via her relations Waldgeist (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) and Waldlied (GB) (New Approach {Ire}).

Bidding on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed's operation was Matt Coleman of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock. He explained, “Anthony [Stroud] and David [Loder] were here yesterday and they loved him.”

Coleman also went to €205,000 in pursuit of Lot 80, the sole yearling by Darley's first-season sire Golden Horn (GB) in the catalogue. The colt was sold by Ronald Rauscher on behalf of his breeder Dr Christoph Berglar, whose G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. winner Novellist (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) is a half-brother to the colt's dam Ninfea (Ger) (Selkirk).

“He's a really good-moving colt from a fantastic family. Obviously Selkirk is a great broodmare sire and Godolphin are keen to support Golden Horn,” Coleman said.

Figures fall
A number of key top-end buyers in recent years at BBAG were either absent or didn't end up going home with a yearling, while one of the sale's leading vendors, Gestut Fahrhof had a significantly smaller draft than usual, choosing to offer a number of yearlings through sister farm Newsells Park Stud at Tattersalls in October. These could both be seen as contributory factors to a reduction in figures across the board.

The clearance rate, which was as high as 79% two years ago, dropped to 71% in 2017 and took another tumble, to 63% when only 156 of the 247 yearlings offered were sold. This led to a dip of 11.5% in both average (€38,644) and median (€39,000). Turnover for the day stood at €6,028,500, which was 23% down on last year but very close to the 2015 tally when the same number of horses sold.

With 13 horses selling for a total of €573,500, Ronald Rauscher was the sale's leading vendor. Germany's busiest stallion, Soldier Hollow, had 22 lots pass through the ring, with 17 selling for an average of €60,941. Also noteworthy was the fact that all four yearlings offered by Camelot (GB) were sold at an average price of €74,750.

Positive Start For Amaron
As well as consigning one of the two joint-top lots, a good day for Gestut Etzean continued with some decent returns for the offspring of the farm's first-season sire Amaron (GB), an eight-time Group-winning son of Shamardal.

His elegant daughter out of the Cadeaux Genereux (GB) mare Rondinay (FR) (Lot 183) was the selection of Ghislain Bozo of Meridian International at €160,000, making her the second-most expensive filly of the sale. It's a family with plenty to recommend the filly, her dam having already produced nine winners from nine runners, including Germany's champion 2-year-old filly of 2017, Rock My Love (Ger) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}), a Group 3 winner in her homeland last year and recently runner-up in the G2 Shadwell Prix de la Nonette following her sale to George Strawbridge and transfer to the stable of Freddy Head. Another half-sister, Rock My Soul (Ire) (Clodovil {Ire}), is the dam of this season's G3 Chester Vase winner Young Rascal (Fr) (Intello {Ger}).

“I'm absolutely delighted with the results for Amaron,” said Etzean's Manager Ralf Kredel as the sale drew to a close. “He was such a tough racehorse and by German standards he was pretty sharp—he was a top-class miler and is one of only two stallions standing in Germany to have won a Group 1 race at less than 2,000 metres. The other is Maxios.”

Amaron, who covered 55 mares in his first book at Etzean, is also the sire of Lot 230, another chestnut filly and this one from the same family as the sale-topper, out of Ma Coeur (Fr) (Sholokhov {Ire}), a winning sister to Monami and already the dam of two winners, one of which, Mystic Sunshine (Ger) (Maxios {GB}), was recently listed-placed. The name on the buyers' sheet was Gestut Winterhauch, which bred Amaron back in 2009. His five yearlings to sell at BBAG returned an average of €58,000 from a covering fee of €4,500.

International support
Outside a range of more local buyers, the international interest in the sale was provided principally by Australian agent Justin Bahen, acting on behalf of Hong Kong-based Orbis Bloodstock.

Bahen, a familiar face at European yearling sales in recent seasons, signed for five colts—by Soldier Hollow (GB), Thewayyouare, Muhtathir (GB), Pastorius (Ger) and Sea The Moon (Ger)—for a total of €365,000, and all five will be heading to Australia.

He said, “It's very hard to secure stayers as horses in training, it's become so competitive. These horses head into quarantine and then will have plenty of time to acclimatise in Australia. They are all 3-year-old types who should be progressive.”

The most expensive of the quintet was Lot 115, Gestut Auenquelle's Apex (Ger), by the farm's resident stallion Soldier Hollow. His 3-year-old full-brother Alinaro (Ger) has won twice this year, including BBAG's auction race in Hamburg over a mile. Bahen bid €120,000 to secure him and went to €61,000 for Lot 126, a colt by Soldier Hollow's Group 1-winnning son Pastorius (Ger), who recently relocated from Gestut Fahrhof to Haras de la Hetraie in France.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club bought just one yearling, Lot 196, the first foal of the listed-placed Tiziana (Ger) (Touch Down {Ger}) by Intello (Ger), for €58,000 from the draft of Ronald Rauscher, while Japan's Big Red Farm paid €17,000 for a very attractive daughter of Adlerflug (Ger) (Lot 44). The half-sister to G2 Gerling Preis winner All Spirit (Ger) (Platini {Ger}) was consigned by her breeder Gestut Brummerhof.

Peter and Ross Doyle have bought a number of horses at BBAG in recent years for the Mayfair Speculators but were in action this time for another longstanding client, Norwegian trainer Wido Neuroth, who will take charge of another Brummerhof graduate. Lot 83, appropriately named Nordic (Ger), is a first-crop son of Glenagles (Ire) out of the listed-winning Diktat (GB) mare Norwegian Pride (Fr), the dam of three black-type winners.

Among the domestic buyers, bloodstock agent Rudiger Alles of IVA-Alles was busiest of all, and signed for a number of yearlings on behalf of Albrecht Woeste, Honorary President of the Direktorium, which runs German racing and breeding. Woeste ended his nine-year stint as President in March when he handed over to Michael Vesper.

Among his purchases was Lot 192, Gestut Karlshof's colt by Soldier Hollow out of G1 Premio Lydia Tesio winner Sortilege (Ire) (Tiger Hill {Ire}) for €130,000. He also bought Lot 58, a New Approach colt out of the dual Group 3 winner Djumama (Ire) (Aussie Rules {GB}), bought for €110,000 from the Etzean draft.