By Emma Berry
MILAN, Italy—Just as last year, the name next to the top lot of the SGA Sale was Diego Romeo's Scuderia Incolinx, which went to €90,000 to secure a son of Dawn Approach (Ire) from the draft of Le.Gi Stud.
Lot 86 is out of the unraced Tale of the Cat mare Snowfield who has made up for the absence of a track record by breeding three black-type horses, including treble Group 3 winner Voice Of Love (Ire) (Poet's Voice {GB}) and the Group 3 and five-time listed winner Time Chant (GB) (War Chant). The Massimo Parri-bred colt will be trained in Milan by Nicolo Simondi.
Heading farther afield to the UK is Razza Vedano's Raven's Pass colt out of Summer Dream (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}), who followed the top lot into the ring (87) and shared the spot for the second-most expensive yearling sold on the day at €75,000. French-based agent Crispin de Moubray signed for the colt on behalf of Middleham Park Racing.
He said, “It's the first time I've bought for Middleham Park and Tim Palin just said 'buy the nicest colt', so I did.”
De Moubray had a quick overnight turnaround in Paris after returning from Keeneland's September Sale, where he bought three yearlings.
He added, “I used to buy one here every year for Chris Wright. I thought there were some nice horses in the sale in great condition. You can get some real value in places like this, Baden-Baden, Keeneland Book 4—there are nice horses to be found always.”
Completing a trifecta of Darley-sired yearlings at the top of the table was lot 67, a Teofilo (Ire) filly out of dual listed winner Paris To Peking (Ity) (Intikhab), who also brought the hammer down at €75,000.
Sold by Razza del Velino on behalf of FLC Purosangue, the half-sister to juvenile winner Aucun Regret (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) will join the Chantilly stable of Alessandro Botti after being bought for former footballer and UEFA Champions League-winning manager Carlo Ancelotti.
Botti's cousin Stefano, the leading trainer in Italy, will take charge of another graduate of his family's Razza Del Velino. Lot 17, a strong grey son of Mastercraftsman (Ire), was knocked down for €60,000. The son of four-time winner and G3 Premio Regina Elena (Italian 1000 Guineas) runner-up Cronsa (Ger) (Martino Alonso {Ire}) is a half-brother to two stakes winners in Sweet Gentle Kiss (Ire) (Henrythenavigator) and Sunset Key (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}).
Bruno Grizzetti was the sale's leading buyer and top of his list of his purchases was Razza Del Sole's son of Bated Breath (GB) (lot 76) from a family of which the trainer has some insight. Grizzetti trained the colt's dam Rosa Del Dubai (Ire) (Dubai Destination) to eight victories, including the G3 Premio Mario Incisa della Rochetta, though it was Stefano Botti who has trained the mare's four black-type performers to date. They are headed by the G2 Oaks d'Italia heroine Folega (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}).
Con Marnane has been successful with Kodiac (GB) before, notably through G2 Norfolk S. winner and young stallion Prince Of Lir (Ire), and over the years he has also taken home yearlings from Italy who went on to be decent racehorses. That list includes G1 Middle Park S. winner Amadeus Wolf (GB) (Mozart {Ire}), Stewards' Cup winner Lancelot du Lac (Ity) (Shamardal) and Dandy Boy (Ity) (Danetime {Ire}), who won the Wokingham S. at Royal Ascot for Marnane's brother David and Malih Al Basti.
At €57,000, the breeze-up consignor plumped for one of two Kodiac yearlings in the sale, lot 80, another from the sizeable draft from Razza de Velino and a son of the listed-placed mare Savana Pearl (Ire) (Byron {GB}). A four-time winner herself, she has already produced a winner, Party Goer (Ire) (Intense Focus).
Trainer Antonio Marcialis was responsible for one of the earlier top prices when going to €50,000 for lot 7, a Henrythenavigator half-brother to G3 Premio Primi Passi winner You Better Run (Ire) (Thewayyouare) from Allevamento La Nuova Sbarra.
“We'll start him off here and see how he progresses. He could end up running in France,” said Marcialis, whose son Andrea trains in Chantilly.
Despite a decent crowd at San Siro for the sale, it's fair to say that trade was tough in the main and a feature of the day was the high number of buybacks—only 92 of the 149 horses offered were marked as sold by the end of selling (61.7%). The average slipped from €19,617 to €16,603 (-15.4%) and the median was also down to €10,000 from €12,000 (-16.7%). A much larger catalogue meant that despite the poor clearance rate, turnover was up on last year at €1,527,500. The fact that Italian prize-money is still being paid out around six months after the event doubtless adds to the drop in confidence and participation from domestic owners.
John Dunlop, who died in July at the age of 78, is being remembered today (Sunday) at San Siro racecourse with a race named in his honour. His son Harry arrived in Milan for the start of the sale and will take home a first-crop son of Kingston Hill (GB) (lot 82) bought from Le.Gi Stud for €23,000. The Lambourn trainer will also be representing his family at the races.
He said, “It's a really lovely touch to have a race named after dad. He loved coming racing in Italy and was very successful here but I hadn't quite realised that he'd trained more than 100 winners in Italy.”
Among those victories were four winners of the Premio Roma, four in the Gran Criterium, three Gran Premio del Jockey Club winners and three in the Premio Lydia Tesio. Dunlop senior's final major successes in Italy came in 2000 when Claxon (GB) (Caerleon) won the Lydia Tesio and Golden Snake (Danzig) took the Jockey Club.
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