Last year's Irish Derby third French Claim (Fr) (French Fifteen {Fr}) was sold to continue his career in Saudi Arabia at the Tattersalls August Sale and was one of eight six-figure lots to go through the ring on Friday.
Bloodstock agent Marco Bozzi bought French Claim (lot 195) and recent winner Pivotal Revive (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) (lot 114) on behalf of Prince Saud Bin Salman and SBS Global.
French Claim, who was trained by Paddy Twomey to win three times and achieve a rating of 108, was sold for 115,000gns while the Jessica Harrington-trained Pivotal Revive was a narrow winner of a Leopardstown maiden on his fourth start last time and commanded 100,000gns.
Speaking about the latter, Bozzi said, “He is for my client Prince Saud Bin Salman and SBS Global. The horse will go to Saudi for the autumn season. He is by Pivotal, looks progressive, is a nice type and vetted well.
“He will be trained by the prince's trainer Ahmad Abdulwahed, who trained Emblem Road (Quality Road) to Saudi Cup success. The trainer will make a plan for the colt once the horse settles into the new routine.”
On French Claim, the agent added, “Prince Saud Bin Salman loved the horse, he liked the rating and his races. The horse is very nice, he moves very well. In Saudi they don't really have such fast ground and the dirt is quite deep at both Riyadh and Taif so it might work for him. He has not run since April, but his trainer [Paddy Twomey] said that as the ground has been too fast for him.”
It was the twice-raced Maximum Dividend (Ire) (lot 287), an American Pharoah colt owned by the Coolmore partners, who topped the sale at 200,000gns when selling to Sam Haggas on behalf of Australian trainer John O'Shea.
That sale rounded off a busy afternoon for Haggas, operating under the Hurworth Bloodstock banner, who said he expects the Richard Hannon-trained Maximum Dividend to progress with racing for his new connections.
Haggas said, “He is the first foal out of a good staying Galileo (Ire) mare and by a sire whose stock improves a lot with age–American Pharoah himself got better with racing. I hope this horse will do the same and is going to be a horse to improve from two to three and a bit beyond–and stay a bit further than the seven furlongs.
“He has run two very good races, the first was particularly eye-catching at Sandown and the form looks good. The winner goes for the Solario tomorrow and the third is a Listed winner. He is sound and looks sound of mind, too.”
He added, “Maximum Dividend is a nice straightforward horse who I hope will go and do well in Australia. He is going into training with John O'Shea and I have been working with him and his team. I like this horse's profile–he should improve and if he does he should be competitive for his new connections.”
Of the 354 horses catalogued, just 237 were offered and 189 sold (80%). The aggregate was down 39% on last year's figures to 3,235,700gns while the average fell 29% to 17,120gns. The median was 8,000gns.
Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony commented, “This is only the fourth renewal of the Tattersalls August Sale and numerically the smallest and while we may have been a little short of obvious stars there has been solid demand throughout the day with overseas buyers very much to the fore.
“Typically for sales of this nature at Tattersalls, buyers from throughout the Gulf region have been particularly active, most notably from Saudi Arabia where the racing continues to go from strength to strength. European, Australian and American buyers have also been active and the domestic demand, both Flat and National Hunt, has been evident at all levels of the market as has the widespread use of the online bidding platform which continues to prove its worth in a busy sales calendar.”
He added, “While the figures have fallen short of previous renewals of the Tattersalls August Sale, the fixture offers a valuable service for owners and trainers and is immediately followed by the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale, which takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 5 and has enjoyed a run of spectacular results in recent weeks.
“The Group and Grade 1 winners Bradsell (GB) and Anisette (GB) have flown the Somerville flag at the very highest level in Britain and America alongside last week's G2 Lowther winner Relief Rally (Ire) and G3 Tattersalls Acomb winner Indian Run (Ire) and we look forward to building on this success next week.”
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