Bill Oppenheim: Strong Trade

The yearling market has been centered in Ireland the last two weeks, and solid increases have been the theme. Tattersalls Ireland's three-day sale at Fairyhouse last week was not entirely comparable to the previous year's two-day sale, but, with nearly 100 more horses sold, the gross was up by more than 25%, and the average even climbed marginally, to €15,303. This week's two-day Goffs Orby sale Tuesday and Wednesday produced similarly satisfactory returns, building on last year's big gains to record an 11% increase in gross, to €38.4-million, and an 8% increase in average, from €101,004 last year to €109,234 this week. Just as significantly, a whopping 78.2% of the yearlings catalogued were sold–though that was slightly below last year's clearance rate of 80.9%. Either way, yearlings in Europe continue to be sold at a significantly higher clearance rate than in America.
Over the two days of selling at Goffs, 22 stallions were represented by eight or more yearlings catalogued. Coolmore's Galileo topped the charts, of course, with six yearlings averaging €487,500, while his half-brother, Gilltown's Sea the Stars, averaged €402,857 for seven sold. Both have much bigger representation at Tattersalls next week, where Galileo has 29 catalogued in October Book 1, while Sea the Stars has 35. Kildangan's Teofilo is not included in the table, as he had only six catalogued at Goffs, but two of the five sold brought €950,000 each, resulting in Teofilo's average at Goffs Orby coming in at €439,000. Invincible Spirit, the Irish National Stud's flagship stallion, came next with an average of €225,286 for seven sold, while Darley's Exceed and Excel, who stands at Dalham Hall in England, had nine at Goffs average €194,666. Teofilo, incidentally, has 12 catalogued in October Book 1; Invincible Spirit has 17 catalogued, Exceed and Excel 16.
Only three sires with their first 3-year-olds racing (so this is their third crop of yearlings) had eight or more catalogued at Orby. Sea the Stars of course tops the list, and the two other sires with first 3-year-olds were Coolmore's Fastnet Rock(first Northern Hemisphere crop) and Mastercraftsman. They averaged €126,500 and €80,700, respectively. Only Coolmore's Rip Van Winkle and Derrinstown's Arcano, of sires with their first 2-year-olds, had eight or more catalogued. 'Rip' averaged €132,750 with eight sold. Arcano also had e
Five stallions had eight or more from their first crops catalogued at Orby. Three of the five stand at Coolmore, including the surprise leader Zoffany, a son of Dansili who won the G1 Phoenix S. and placed in three other Group 1s up to a mile, including when he gave Frankel the scare of his life when nearly catching him in the 2011 G1 St James's Palace S. Any form behind Frankel looks like good form, and Zoffany had yearlings bring €340,000 and €190,000 at Goffs, the eight selling averaging €109,500. Canford Cliffs, winner of five Group 1s in a row and identified by Richard Hannon, Sr. after he retired as the best he'd ever trained, had 17 sell (of 18 offered) for an average of €99,176, while Coolmore's third candidate, the 2011 G1 Epsom Derby winner Pour Moi, had 10 Orby yearlings average €74,000. Ballylinch's Dream Ahead, who was actually rated equal with Frankel when they were 2-year-olds, was himself a five-time Group 1 winner at six and seven furlongs. He had 13 Orby yearlings average €95,461. Lilbourne Lad was a Group 2-winning 2-year-old who stands alongside his sire, Acclamation, at Rathbarry Stud. He had nine sell at Orby, for an average of €57,444.
Two other sires who had notable sales were Tally-Ho Stud's Kodiac, a 3/4-brother to Invincible Spirit who is Europe's leading 2-year-old sire of 2014 with 36 2-year-old winners, including last weekend's G1 Cheveley Park S. winner Tiggy Wiggy; and the Irish National Stud's Big Bad Bob, who now has 11 2-year-old winners from his first INS-sired crop. Kodiac had 11 sell from 11 catalogued, for an average of €96,636. Big Bad Bob had nine sell from 10 catalogued (one scratch), for an average of €77,666, and a median of €80,000.
After a successful two-week run in Ireland, the yearling market moves to Newmarket next week for a two-week run, Tattersalls October Books 1-3. October 1 is three days, 471 catalogued next Tuesday through Thursday. Last year 339 yearlings sold for a total of 70,343,000gns, and averaged 207,501gns. In fact, there was a one-third leap in gross from 2011 (51m gns) to 2012 (68m gns), so there was only incremental improvement in the gross last year. There is a blockbuster weekend of racing coming up this weekend, and it's as safe a bet as you can make that it will be followed by a blockbuster three days at Tattersalls next week.
NEXT COLUMN: We'll have a short piece on Tuesday's first session of October Book 1 next Wednesday,
Oct. 8, with a fuller review of the whole of Book 1 on Saturday, Oct. 11.ight sell, which averaged €42,687.