BADEN-BADEN, Germany—A new record was set at last year's BBAG Yearling Sale when a Sea The Stars filly bred by Gregor and Julia Baum at Gestut Brummerhof sold for €820,000 to Godolphin. On the sales ground on Thursday, another filly by the Aga Khan Studs stallion was receiving plenty of attention at the Gestut Gorlsdorf draft, which was no surprise considering lot 61 is a full-sister to wide-margin Deutsches Derby winner Sea The Moon (Ger), who is now one of the most popular young stallions in Europe.
Already named Sea The Sky (Ger) by her breeders Heike Bischoff and Niko Lafrentz, the filly hails from a family laden with Classic winners, her dam Sanwa (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) being a full-sister to Sea The Moon's fellow Derby winners Schiaparelli (Ger) and Samum (Ger) as well as the G1 Preis der Diana winner Salve Regina (Ger).
This season's Preis der Diana went the way of another daughter of Sea The Stars, Miss Yoda (Ger), who was herself the joint-top lot of the 2018 sale. Though now trained in Newmarket by John Gosden, her German connections remain strong: not only was she bred in the country by the Kredel family at Gestut Etzean but she is owned by German-born Georg Von Opel. The latter races under the name of his family's farm Westerberg and has become a significant investor at the yearlings sales over the last few years.
Whether or not similar investment from top-end buyers will be as strong this year throughout the yearling sales is the topic of much debate in a season already disrupted by the global pandemic. BBAG's flagship sale is one of the few in Europe which has not been subject to a change of either date or location. It now comes hard on the heels of the Goffs UK Premier Sale which endured a predicted reduction in turnover but also returned a respectable clearance rate.
A number of agents and trainers have travelled straight on from Doncaster to continue their rounds and the fact that both sales this week are offering yearlings is really the only similarity. At Goffs UK, one expects to find a typical 'Donny' yearling, forward and racy, whereas the catalogue at Baden-Baden tends to include later-maturing middle-distance types. It is this feature which has drawn a number of Australian buyers on the hunt for staying prospects to Germany in recent years, though this time coronavirus restrictions mean they cannot be here in person.
A concern from Doncaster was the absence of participation by Sheikh Hamdan's Shadwell operation. His brother Sheikh Mohammed spent just shy of €2 million at BBAG last year and his buying team of Anthony Stroud, Matt Coleman and David Loder was on the sales ground on Thursday.
One of the yearlings they will doubtless have inspected is the sole Dubawi filly in the catalogue (lot 78), offered by her breeder Gestut Rottgen. She is another with Classic connections and an awful lot to live up to as her half-brothers Windstoss (Ger) (Shirocco {Ger}) and Weltstar (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}) were the first two foals of their 12-year-old dam Wellenspiel (Ger) (Sternkonig {Ger}) and won the Deutsches Derby in consecutive years.
Rottgen's Frank Dorff was overseeing his draft of 13 on Thursday and said between shows, “We have been just as busy this year as we have for the last few years, so I think we can have a fairly positive outlook going into the sale. I think some of the buyers feel that there will be some value in the market this year and perhaps that is right.”
Gestut Rottgen stands the 2014 Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) for his owners Australian Bloodstock and in 2017 paid the stallion a handsome compliment by sending Wellenspiel to him. The resultant 2-year-old filly Wellenpracht (Ger) is now in training with Markus Klug at Rottgen's private training centre within the stud's walls and is expected to make her debut this month.
Ronald Rauscher manages Protectionist for Australian Bloodstock and has four of the stallion's second-crop yearlings to sell among his own draft. Despite the absence of a wider international presence at the sale, Rauscher is taking a pragmatic view.
“Considering what has happened this year we are lucky to be able to hold the sale at all,” he said.
Rauscher's draft also includes one of three yearlings in the sale from the second crop of Ballylinch Stud's exciting freshman sire New Bay (GB). The chestnut colt (lot 171) is another with a Melbourne Cup connection as his dam, the four-time winner Ardeola (Ger) (Manduro {Ger}), is a three-parts-sister to the 2016 winner Almandin (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}).
A decent number of European stallions have their first yearlings for sale this year, and those with representation at Baden-Baden include Haras d'Etreham's Almanzor (Fr), along with his fellow Normandy residents Zarak (Fr), Zelzal (Fr), Recorder (GB) and The Grey Gatsby (Ire). The Coolmore stallions Churchill (Ire) and Highland Reel (Ire) also feature, with three and five catalogued respectively. Of the home team of first-season stallions in Germany, the Australian import Counterattack (Aus), a son of Redoute's Choice (Aus), has 15 in the sale, while dual French Classic winner Brametot (Ire) has two. Formerly at Haras de Bouquetot, he was relocated to Gestut Ebbesloh for the 2020 season.
The one-day sale gets underway on Friday at 10am.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
