Quality Is Key In Jockey Hall Draft

Last year's Goffs November Foal Sale was a particularly memorable one for Jacqueline Norris as her Jockey Hall Stud was responsible for selling two of the top-priced foals including the overall sale topper, a Kingman (GB) filly that sold to Outsider Bloodstock for €350,000. That filly was consigned by Norris on behalf of owners Paddy and Helena Burns but her other top five entrant was a son of Sea The Stars (Ire) bred by Norris herself out of Sioduil (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) and purchased by Timmy Hyde's Camas Park Stud for €290,000.

“We had a really good sale last year, obviously I was delighted to top the sale but I was also thrilled with the price my own colt made,” Norris said. “It was then great to see him develop into a good yearling and make €400,000 at the Orby Sale.”

Curragh-based Jockey Hall returns to Goffs this year with another select draft of foals and among the farm's seven on offer, the locally based Sea The Stars features as the sire of two of the foals that are likely to command a premium. Lot 752, catalogued towards the end of Part 1, is out of Ownwan (Kingmambo) a mare who has been very kind to Norris since her purchase three years ago out of the Godolphin draft at Goffs. Mated with Sea The Stars in 2017, she produced a colt the following year which was brought home by Norris when the bidding stalled at €75,000 at the 2018 foal sale. That proved a wise move as the colt obviously flourished over the next 10 months and a return trip to Goffs for the Orby Sale last month proved far more rewarding when the yearling was knocked down to Demi O'Byrne on behalf of Aquis Farm for €550,000.

“Ownwan's yearling this year was a bit special and it was a strange one really because he went to the foal sales last year and he was a lovely foal, everything about him was nice but he was just a bit babyish,” Norris said. “Then we took him home and he wintered very well and when we brought him back for the Orby he just stood out. I believe he has gone to Joseph O'Brien which is brilliant and I hope he turns out to be lucky for Aquis as he was a really nice horse to deal with. Demi [O'Byrne] was quite taken with him and knows the family well going back to High Chaparral (Ire). I really hope he's a success as a racehorse as ultimately that's what it's all about. It's not just about sales day; while it's great to get a result in the ring the real icing on the cake when you have the mare is when the progeny go on and prove themselves on the racecourse.”

Norris continued, “Obviously we were fortunate to acquire Ownwan for relatively small money. She was an expensive yearling herself and is a very well-bred and pretty mare from the family of a very influential horse in High Chaparral. We're delighted to have her as for every one nice mare liker her there are a whole lot more that don't work out so we appreciate her. Next week's filly is very straightforward, just like her brother and she is pretty, correct and has a good walk.”

The other Sea The Stars filly offered by Jockey Hall is lot 668, owned like last year's topper by Paddy Burns. She is out of the Group 1-placed mare Fraloga (Ire) (Grand Lodge), who has already produced two stakes performers in France, while the mare is a half-sister to two Group 1 winners in Fragrant Mix (Ire) (Linamix {Fr}) and Alpine Rose (Fr) (Linamix {Fr}) and hails from a deep Lagardere family.

“I think it's fair to say the filly's looks match her pedigree, hopefully people will agree,” noted Norris. Also on behalf of Burns, Jockey Hall offers the only foal by Siyouni (Fr) in the sale [lot 749]. This filly is out of the former Jim Bolger trained Oh Goodness Me (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), who was a very good racehorse herself, incidentally winning the Burns family sponsored G3 Lodge Park Stud Park Express S. and was also placed in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas. Further back in the pedigree a European champion 2-year-old in Lemon Souffle (GB) (Salse) crops up while the foal's yearling full-sister made €90,000 at Arqana in August. Pedigree buffs will also take heed of the fact that Siyouni has already sired Sottsass (Fr) and Newmarket stakes winner Maqsad (Fr) out of Galileo mares.

Lot 317 from Jockey Hall is another filly, this one bred by Norris out of the very well-related mare Tallulah Bell (Gone West), who is a half-sister to MGISW Amorama (Fr) (Sri Pekan) among a host of other international stakes winners. The foal is by Footstepsinthesand (GB) and is a half-sister to five winners, two of which are black-type performers, including 2019 Hong Kong winner Dan Control (Ire) (Slade Power {Ire}). He raced in Ireland last year for Michael O'Callaghan as Bruce Wayne (Ire) when he was second in the G3 Round Tower S. before being sold to continue his career with John Moore.

“Footstepsinthesand has had a fantastic year and she is a nice, good-walking filly,” Norris said. “It is a beautiful fillies family and the mare is a proven producer so hopefully she will go down well.”

Jockey Hall Stud offers two foals by first-crop stallions in Aclaim (Ire) and Ribchester (Ire). The Aclaim filly, lot 205, is out of the winning High Chaparral (Ire) mare Miss Giler (GB), while the Ribchester colt, lot 606, is out of a full-sister to the high-class multiple stakes-winning sprinter Only Mine (Ire) (Pour Moi {Ire}).

“The Ribchester is a fine, good-walking foal with plenty of the Iffraaj sire line about him,” Norris said. “He belongs to a very good friend of mine, Duncan McGregor, and the foal's yearling half-sister by Bobby's Kitten has just gone into training with Richard Fahey. He's a nice straightforward horse and I hope he sells well for Duncan who has been a good client of mine over the years.”

Jockey Hall is a firmly established brand in the bloodstock business and has been operating at the upper echelons of the sales spectrum for the last two decades, though in recent years its presence may not be as prolific in numbers as it once was.

“In the last few years I have been scaling back the operation a bit to focus more on our own stock on the farm and selling some for a few long-standing clients that I know well,” Norris explained. “I'm quite hands-on, I have three full-time members of staff and we do everything between us. Everything is done by hand, we hand-walk both mares and foals and our foals are quite free-range. We don't rug them or hot house them, they go out in the field every day and they are good and hardy as a result.

“We tend to concentrate on selling them as foals now and obviously Goffs is only down the road from us so it's very convenient but regardless of that if you have a nice foal, it should sell well anywhere. Goffs will have all the usual cross- section of buyers there and as we saw last year with Outsider Bloodstock, hopefully some interesting new faces as well. The bloodstock game is very resilient but still I think it's going to be an interesting couple of months. While some pinhookers didn't fare well overall this year, plenty of them did do well both in Ireland and England and I think a nice foal with a good walk will be popular. Also there are young people entering the fray all the time and you love to see them getting a touch early on as it gives them confidence and resources to keep going forward in the business. Overall I'm very optimistic for [next week], as while I'm only bringing a small draft, I think it's a good one and let's hope they all find a good home.”