By Brian Sheerin
Sons of Dubawi (Ire) shot the lights out at Goffs on Tuesday as a colt by first-season sire Ghaiyyath (Ire) topped the November Foal Sale at €185,000 followed by a Night Of Thunder (Ire) colt who made €180,000.
Ghaiyyath himself was sold at this sale in 2015 for €1,100,000 before proving himself a world-class performer on the track for Godolphin and the Kildangan Stud-based sire has enjoyed a good start at Goffs this week.
The Ridge Manor Stud-drafted colt was sold to Pier House Stud, whose Brendan Morrin revealed that any hopes of nabbing lot 474 cheaply soon dissipated when Tony O'Callaghan appeared ringside.
But it was Pier House who fought off a strong drive from the Tally-Ho Stud boss to secure the colt who will be offered for resale as a yearling.
Morrin said, “I was talking to the people at Darley about him and I thought he was the best horse in this sale here today. He's by a son of Dubawi–sire of New Bay (GB) and Night Of Thunder –so for me, those Ghaiyyaths were all very much to type.
“He's a grand big scopey horse for the first foal. We didn't think we'd have to pay €185,000 to get him but we were anxious to get him all the same. He's coming from a good farm.”
The Tuesday sale topper is out of three-time winner Cross My Mind (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), whose dam Zaaqya (GB) (Nayef) has produced Group 3 scorer One Voice (Ire) (Poet's Voice {GB}).
Morrin added, “Ghaiyyath was the highest-rated horse in the world at one point and we've bred to the horse twice ourselves. We bred to Space Blues (Ire) as well. You couldn't have enough Dubawi in any family.
“He's the best sire in the world. The horse spoke for himself and Tony O'Callaghan was the runner-up on him. To tell you the truth, I was disappointed when I saw Tony there because I knew he was going to make him expensive on me. I try to buy them as cheap as I can and sell them as dear as I can. This lad will come back to the yearling sales.”
Three foals by Ghaiyyath sold on Tuesday for an aggregate of €314,000 and an average of €104,667.
Lot 474 @Goffs1866 November Foal Sale is by first season sire Ghaiyyath @DarleyEurope. The colt was consigned by Ridge Manor Farm and bought by Pier House Stud for €185,000. pic.twitter.com/HugItFVfLT
— TDN (@theTDN) November 15, 2022
The Night Of Thunder colt (lot 516) was consigned by Airlie Stud and signed for by Brendan Holland of Grove Stud. He is out of the black-type performer Good Place (Street Cry {Ire}) and Holland is hoping that his luck continues with the sire whose progeny is in high demand.”
He said, “Night Of Thunder is a super stallion. There are not a lot of them on the market and there's only three for sale at Newmarket next week. He's out of a black-type mare who's produced a 2-year-old winner this year. He's just a nice horse by a nice stallion.”
Holland added, “I've been lucky with the sire with the few that I have had by him. I sold a black-type winner [Lady Penelope (Ire)] and a 2-year-old winner this year.”
The aggregate on day two was €8,316,750 which represents a 10.5% rise on last year's figures. The average of €38,863 was also up 12.6% and the median was up 7% to €30,000. Of the 257 foals offered, 214 were sold, equating to a 83% clearance rate.
New Bay And Mehmas: The Emerging Powerhouses
The progeny of New Bay and Mehmas (Ire), the emerging powerhouse stallions in Europe, went down a bomb at Goffs and made up €850,000 of the day's trade.
If Saffron Beach (Ire) laid the groundwork for a memorable season for the Ballylinch-based New Bay, well then Bay Bridge (GB) and Bayside Boy (Ire) cemented his status as a top tier stallion when storming to Group 1 triumphs within the space of an hour on British Champions Day.
Mehmas had a similarly productive season, highlighted by Group 1-winning sprinter Minzaal (Ire), who was introduced at €15,000 for his first year at Derrinstown Stud.
And it was a colt by Mehmas, whose 2023 fee at Tally-Ho Stud has been set at €60,000, who first broke the €100,000 barrier at Goffs on Tuesday, eventually selling to John Rowe for €115,000.
Rowe, a graduate of the Darley Flying Start programme, was signing for the colt (lot 365), consigned by Dermot Kilmartin's Kildallan Farm, on behalf of Lilly Bloodstock.
He later went on to buy a New Bay colt consigned by Ballylinch Stud for €145,000 on behalf of Spirnac Bloodstock and revealed the plan for both acquisitions will be to return to the yearling sales.
Speaking about lot 424, the New Bay colt, Rowe said, “We really liked him and thought he was the nicest foal here today. New Bay is absolutely killing it and he ticked all the boxes. The sire is going in the right direction and this colt is just a king. He had everything; the walk, the physical and great strength. We loved him.”
On the Mehmas colt, a full-brother to Mehmar (Ire), who sold for €200,000 to Michael O'Callaghan at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale in April, Rowe added, “He will come home to the farm and he'll come back to the sales next year. He's a lovely colt with a great walk and great presence about him. He had the page and ticked a lot of boxes for us.”
That sale cemented a productive opening two days to the sale for Kilmartin's Kildallan Farm after they sold a Saxon Warrior colt (lot 231) for €88,000 to Ballyhimikin Stud on Monday.
Kilmartin said, “He is a cracking colt. All the right people were on him and we're delighted with the price that he made. We kept it local going to Tally-Ho Stud and it worked. The mare is back in foal to Starman (GB).”
Tally-Ho also supported their star stallion when going to €145,000 to secure Amy Marnane's Mehmas colt (lot 446) out of the three-time winner and black-type performer Azagba (Fr) (Deportivo {GB}).
This colt by Mehmas was consigned by @amymarnane and has been bought by @HoStud where the stallion stands. He made €145,000. Mehmas is proving popular on day two @Goffs1866 November. pic.twitter.com/Zwj0j6Jbwk
— TDN (@theTDN) November 15, 2022
However, it was the sale of another New Bay colt, lot 401, for €140,000, that supplied one of the more emotional stories of the day at Goffs.
Sold to Camas Park Stud, the colt was consigned by Oghill House Stud, who recently mourned the death of Hugh Hyland, the head of the family dynasty, at the age of 72.
John Hyland said, “My father passed away about six weeks ago and he would've loved to have seen that today, so it's a little bit emotional. We're going to enjoy it and we'll raise a glass to my father this evening. This is his legacy and we're going to continue it on for him and make sure we do him proud.”
“It's a brilliant result. This is a tremendous colt and from the day he was born we've been really fond of him. New Bay has gone from strength to strength and has had a great season, you can see that with his new fee, which is well deserved because he's a phenomenal stallion.
Wheeler Dealer Does It Again
English football manager Harry Redknapp famously stormed off a television interview when a sports reporter labelled him a “wheeler dealer”. One assumes Jerry Horan would not take such offence to a similar appraisal.
In fact, Horan, well-known for being adept with sniffing out a bargain, would take pride in his ability to get deals done, which was thrown sharply into focus with the sale of his Dark Angel (Ire) filly (lot 352) for €72,000.
Under the banner of Paragon Bloodstock, Horan secured the dam Scotch Bonnet (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) for 5,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in 2020.
After securing a foal-share with Yeomanstown Stud to Dark Angel, the resulting foal was on Tuesday offered by Fearghal Hogan's recently-formed Churchland Stud, with the hammer falling Peter and Ross Doyle's way.
Hogan was full of praise for Horan afterwards and said, “Jerry owned her and gave her to me to prep six weeks ago. Everything went very straightforward with her and she is a lovely filly with a good page.
“She is a good physical and we're delighted with what she made. Jerry took a chance on the mare and it has worked out. She was an older mare but, in fairness to Jerry, he's a serious dealer and he was clever enough to get a foal share to Dark Angel after he found the mare. He deserved to get well-paid for her as she was a lovely filly.”
Hogan added, “He's just top-class at that kind of stuff–an unbelievable operator and I'm lucky he sent her to me to prep. I'm only after setting up on my own at Churchland Stud a year and a half ago and I've been lucky that people have sent me a few nice foals to consign. She was up there with some of the best of what was here today.”
All told, it was a productive day for Dark Angel, with Yeomanstown signing for two colts for the sire–lot 394 for €98,000 and lot 409 for €75,000–for a combined €173,000. Eight foals from the Classic-producing sire sold for an aggregate of €430,000 which averaged out at €53,750.
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