By Emma Berry
KILL, Ireland—The whirr of an incoming helicopter will have been music to the ears of a number of participants on the sales ground at Goffs on Monday afternoon. Just after lunch, Sheikh Mohammed and his entourage touched down at Kildare Paddocks after spending a morning nearby at his Kildangan Stud.
It's the first time since 2005 that the sheikh has been present for Ireland's premier yearling sale and, after his spending spree at Keeneland's September Sale and more modest participation at Tattersalls Ireland last week through agents Anthony Stroud and Matt Coleman, his arrival was a welcome boost ahead of the Orby Sale, which starts its two-day run from 11am today.
“It is a huge vote of confidence in the Irish breeding industry and it's wonderful to have Sheikh Mohammed here,” said Goffs Group Chief Executive Henry Beeby, who welcomed the Maktoum party on arrival, which included trainers Saeed Bin Suroor, Charlie Appleby and Simon Crisford as well as Kildangan's Managing Director Joe Osborne.
The sheikh was soon swapping pleasantries with John Magnier and Aidan O'Brien, whose Ballydoyle team had netted a haul of six Group winners in Britain and Ireland over the weekend, before moving on to inspect yearlings.
Beeby added, “We're also delighted to welcome Sheikh Hamdan back to Goffs, and we never take the support of the Coolmore team for granted. We have to keep delivering to make sure we do the best job we can, and I believe, with a tightened catalogue, we have zoned in on quality.
“We have a significant number of American visitors here, as well as Japanese, and there's a decent mix of Europeans buyers—a really good international element.”
Back at Epsom in June the Derby went Sheikh Mohammed's way with homebred Masar (Ire) (New Approach {GB}) but he had to settle for second in the Oaks with Wild Illusion (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), who crossed the line four and a half lengths adrift of Forever Together (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). The Classic heroine graces this year's catalogue cover and her full-sister is, unsurprisingly, one of the yearlings drawing plenty of attention at Goffs.
Scheduled to sell on Wednesday as lot 318 through Ballylinch Stud, the January-born filly was bred by Vimal and Gillian Khosla from the Theatrical (Ire) mare Green Room who is already the dam of three Group 1 winners among her seven winners in total. Her three daughters to have sold at the Orby Sale previously have fetched €1.1 million, €900,000 and €680,000 respectively.
“She's been going down very well, as we would have expected, because she's a nice athletic filly and very correct,” said John O'Connor, Managing Director of Ballylinch Stud. “These very top horses have to have everything really: they have to be well bred, have a superior physique, move correctly and vet well.”
He added, “The Khoslas are enthusiastic owners and breeders and they will be here tomorrow. It looks like there's a very strong buying bench here and the sale has a really select feel to it.”
A surprisingly high number of withdrawals for a sale of this nature—36 at the time of writing—has brought the catalogued tally of 418 down to 382, with one late entry, Castletown Stud's daughter of Fastnet Rock (Aus) out of the G3 Prix Miesque runner-up Absolute Music (Consolidator) selling later today as lot 160A.
The Orby Sale is followed on Thursday by the Sportsman's Sale, which has also been restricted in numbers and kept to one day despite demand through the level of entries for an extra session.
Beeby said, “We've seen through the European season so far that there has been cause for concern. Keeneland was strong, and we're going to have to hope that we can buck the trend in Europe. We're very grateful to the vendors who have supported us with some seriously nice horses. All the ingredients are here.”
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