Foal Spotlight Switches to Tattersalls After Vibrant Start at Goffs

As poster boys and girls go, the Group 1-winning three-year-olds Economics (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) and You Got To Me (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) aren't too bad at all. It's a truism that plenty of top-flight winners in Europe are owned by their breeders, but it also the case that all breeders have to sell some of their young stock, and plenty of hard graft at the foal sales can unearth a good one. 

The Classic winner You Got To Me returns to the December Mares Sale next week in the draft of her co-owner Newsells Park Stud for what will be her third visit to Tattersalls. Her debut appearance came when she was offered as a foal by the National Stud and was bought for 62,000gns by BBA Ireland. Returned the following autumn to Book 1 by Glenvale Stud, a decent pinhooking profit was secured when she was snapped up by Alex Elliott for Valmont for 200,000gns. But that's only the beginning of her story. A winner on debut at two, she turned heads this spring when winning the Lingfield Oaks Trial and was then fourth in the Oaks before winning the Irish Oaks. Her price next week will almost certainly have an extra zero on the end. 

In hindsight, Economics, too, now looks to have been a bargain foal purchase from Baroda Stud by Adrian and Philippa O'Brien of Hazelwood Bloodstock. He also turned a profit as a yearling when sold for 160,000gns at Book 2 to Highclere Agency on behalf of owner Shaikh Isa Salman Al Khalifa, and he has been one of the most talked-about horses of all season, winning the G1 Irish Champion and G2 Dante Stakes.

It has been a funny old sales season, hasn't it? We started the yearling sales in a rather cautious manner, and a number of the earlier sales did not perform as well as they had done in previous years. But that whimper had turned into an uproarious bang by the time the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale came around, doubtless emboldening the foal buyers to go once more unto the breach. They're a pretty bold crowd anyway, and over in Ireland at Goffs the trade had an extra crackle to it, with significant gains across the board. 

What's in Store?

So what can be expected at Park Paddocks, where just over 1,000 foals have been catalogued? The four days of foal action begin on Tuesday – after the traditional final session of Monday yearlings – and continue on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with a 'dark day' for extra inspection time for the later foals on Thursday.

Facteur Cheval (Ire) (Ribchester {Ire}) is another Tattersalls foal graduate and a half-sister to the G1 Dubai Turf winner features among a septet of weanlings by Wootton Bassett (GB), whose trajectory continues on an upward curve. The filly (lot 908) is offered by her breeder McCracken Farms and it's not just the admirable Facteur Cheval on the page to recommend her as this is a family which also contains the Group 1 winners Tamayuz (GB), Eshaada (GB) and Santiago (Ire). Shadwell have done well with this family for several generations and beyond their involvement it traces back to Allez Les Trois and Allegretta (GB). McCracken Farms also did well to buy the dam of this filly, Jawlaat (Ire) (Shamardal) from Shadwell for 18,000gns – a sound investment which should again be rewarded at Tattersalls, for this is a filly who would sit well, eventually, in any broodmare band. 

Back in 2020, the weanling who would become known as Chaldean (GB) had to play third fiddle to two colts by Dubawi (Ire) who came ahead of him on the leader board. The son of Frankel (GB), bred by Whitsbury Manor Stud, was bought by Juddmonte for 550,000gs, went on to win the 2,000 Guineas, retired to stand alongside his own storied sire at Banstead Manor Stud. He now has mares being sold carrying his first crop of foals. 

Chaldean's dam Suelita (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) has become something of a bloodstock cause celebre, with the success of her offspring on the track (five black-type performers and counting from her seven winners) driving up the prices in the sales ring. Two years after Chaldean's appearance at the foal sale, his half-sister Kassaya (GB) (Kingman {GB}) topped the sale at 1,000,000gns, again bought by Juddmonte. 

On Friday, Chaldean's full-sister will be offered with no little fanfare. Ed Harper has proclaimed that she is “probably the best foal we'll ever produce at Whitsbury.” We can see where this is going, right? If you want to see Tattersalls at its theatrical best, make sure you're in what will definitely be a packed ring for when lot 945 goes through on Friday. 

Along with this filly, Whitsbury Manor, traditionally one of the largest foal vendors, has another 23 to offer, a good many of whom are by the farm's young stallions Havana Grey (GB) and Sergei Prokofiev. 

Suelita's filly is far from the only Frankel of note in the sale. He too has seven weanlings to represent him, among them the second foals of Breeders' Cup winners Audarya (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) and Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead), both of whom started their broodmare careers by visiting Dubawi (Ire).

The colt out of Audarya, who also won the G1 Prix Jean Romanet for Alison Swinburn, is consigned for the breeder by Swinburn's in-laws at Genesis Green Stud as lot 936. Genesis Green enjoyed a particularly good foal sale in 2021 when topping Tattersalls with a 1,800,000gns colt by Dubawi. The colt from Glass Slippers, the pride of Terry and Margaret Holdcroft's Bearstone Stud, is lot 927.

There's a bumper entry of 39 foals by the aforementioned Havana Grey, himself a graduate of this sale back in 2015 when sold by his co-breeder Mickley Stud for 42,000gns. But if you think that's a lot, his stud-mate Sergei Prokofiev, currently co-top of the first-season sires' table with Mohaather (GB) on 19 winners, had 65 catalogued, though 12 of those are already withdrawn. Even that pales into insignificance compared to the group of 80 foals consigned through Barton Stud – 67 after withdrawals – which is by far the largest draft in the book and includes a filly by New Bay (GB) out of the Grade III winner Angel Terrace (Ghostzapper) from the family of top stayer Order Of St George (Ire).

First-Season Sires 

There has already been a flurry of interest over the results of the sires who have their first foals on offer this season, with a number of them getting off to a positive start.

Baaeed (GB) was out super early when one of his foals was sold at the JRHA Select Sale in Japan back in July for the equivalent of approximately £290,000. Eight more of the first crop of the world's top-rated turf horse of 2022 will come under the hammer at Tattersalls, including lot 902. The filly out of the G3 Prix de Lieurey winner Cloudy Dawn (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) is offered by James Wigan, whose West Blagdon Stud draft is regularly one of the highlights of the December Foal Sale. 

Among those newcomers with foals on offer next week are also Overbury Stud's Caturra (31), Darley's Perfect Power (26) and Naval Crown (six), Ballylinch Stud's Bayside Boy (six), Starfield Stud's Space Traveller (five). 

We have already had a look at the offering by Stradivarius for the foal sale, and State Of Rest (Ire) is another sire of great interest. A four-time Group 1 winner in four different countries, the son of Starspangledbanner (Aus), who is now at Rathbarry Stud, has already had eight sold Goffs for an average price of €29,125, and there are three more to come at Tattersalls, including lot 858, a filly from his breeder Tinnakill House who is a half-sister to the French listed winner Sotteville (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}).

One and Done

There are some noteworthy sires with just one weanling in the book at Tattersalls, and for many of us outside Germany it will be the first chance to see a foal by the 2021 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Torquator Tasso (Ger). The son of Adlerflug (Ger) was the busiest stallion in Germany in his first season at Gestut Auenquelle, and one member of that crop is catalogued as lot 476. The filly, who hails from the family of another Arc winner, Alpinista (GB), is consigned by Peter and Aline Rodde's Gestut Westerberg.

Westerberg is also home to the stallion Destino (Ger), a Group 3-winning son of Soldier Hollow (GB) who was runner-up in the Deutsches Derby. He has one well-bred individual in the sale from Northmore Stud. Offered as lot 1098, he is a three-part-brother to two black-type earners and out of a Monsun (Ger) granddaughter of German champion two-year-old filly Narooma (Ger). 

Zarak (Fr) and Galiway (GB) need no introduction, and the popular French-based stallions have one each at Tattersalls. Lot 865 is a Zarak colt from the Hascombe & Valiant family of Gold Cup winner Courage Mon Ami (GB) and he is being offered by Voute Sales. The Galiway colt in among the Baroda Stud draft as lot 849.

The GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Golden Pal is at Ashford Stud in Kentucky but the son of Uncle Mo is represented by a British-foaled colt in Newmarket from Plantation Stud. Lot 669, from Golden Pal's first crop, is out of the dual winner Lady Clementine (GB) (Churchill {Ire}), herself a daughter of the listed-winning sprinter Wind Fire (Distorted Humor).

Havana Grey will ensure that his sire Havana Gold (Ire) will not be forgotten in a hurry and there is just one foal from the late stallion's final crop on offer at Tattersalls. That is lot 1066, a colt who surely needs to be named Battle of Hastings, and is a member of the Souk (GB) dynasty, which features any number of smart performers, including Magic Wand (Ire) and Chicquita (Ire).

Camille Pissarro's Half-Sister Heads Yearling Interest

This is always an interesting sale to attend and follow, containing as it so often does, a select number of well-bred individuals who, for some minor reason or other have had to miss an engagement in an earlier sale, or their owners have elected to give them a little more time in waiting for this final yearling auction of the year. Let's not forget that this was where Via Sistina (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) made her debut public appearance when sold for 5,000gns. A mere £4.5 million in earnings later, she appears to have made rather a name for herself. 

This year's sale opens with a Study Of Man (Ire) filly from the further family of Al Bahathri and City Of Troy, and only four lots later comes a Ulysses (Ire) half-brother to the lovely Hamish (GB) (Motivator {GB}), bred by the late Brian Haggas, who died last month at the age of 93, and who cultivated this family of Frog (GB) (Akarad {Fr}) for years. He has been ably assisted in this regard by his trainer son William. (And in fact, Maureen Haggas should be given much of the credit for the success of Hamish as she rides him daily and dotes on him.)

A potentially very special offering on Monday is lot 63, the half-sister to recent G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Camille Pissarro (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). By Dark Angel (Ire), whose exploits as a broodmare sire are of increasing relevance, the April-born filly has another three more black-type-winning half-siblings in the G1 Commonwealth Cup winner and young sire Golden Horde (Ire), who is by Dark Angel's sire Lethal Force (Ire), and Exhort (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) and Line Of Departure (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}).

Their dam Entreat (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) was bought by James Cloney for 14,000gns at the Tattersalls July Sale when she was carrying Golden Horde, and she was certainly well bought. Camille Pissaro was bought for 1,250,000gns from Book 1 last year, and it would be no surprise to see the Dark Angel filly take top order on Monday.