Tattersalls December Mares Sale

NEWMARKET, UK--The Arqana Breeding Stock Sale may not start until Saturday but there is plenty of French-flavoured fare to be served up at the Tattersalls December Mares' Sale this week in Newmarket. The partial dispersal from Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Thani's select band of broodmares based at Haras des Cruchettes in Normandy provides an obvious point of interest, with two young Group 1 winners among the eight mares to be sold through the Newsells Park Stud draft. "The connection was natural because Newsells has been boarding all our mares...

In what feels like the blink of an eye, we are now embarking on the final sale of the year at Tattersalls. The Newmarket auction house generally doesn't do things by halves and, if recent sales are anything to go by, the next two weeks at Park Paddocks will include plenty of show-stopping moments, with the mares' catalogues in particular being bolstered by several significant dispersals.  Before we get to that, however, we have one final day of yearlings to contend with. The December Yearling Sale can offer a second...

Led by Group 1 winner Amazing Maria (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), 24 mares and fillies owned by Sir Robert Ogden will be offered at the upcoming Tattersalls December Mares Sale, which runs from Nov. 29-Dec. 2. In foal to Oasis Dream (GB), the heroine of the G1 Falmouth S. and G1 Prix Rothschild in 2015, will be offered by Barton Stud, as will her 23 compatriots, on Nov. 29-30. Matt Coleman of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock will be overseeing the consignment. The draft entails 17 broodmares-14 in foal--and seven fillies in training,...

NEWMARKET, UK—Tattersalls' chairman Edmond Mahony was realistic enough to acknowledge that the 2020 December Mares' Sale "lacked a little of the depth of recent renewals" but, in a surreal year, it is understandable if owners and breeders perhaps decided to hold onto horses rather than enter them for a sale against an uncertain financial backdrop.  Furthermore, given that at times it looked doubtful that this sale would even be able to proceed during a second English lockdown, that fact that the bloodstock industry has been able to engage in business...

It has been quite the year for Bated Breath (GB), the Juddmonte stallion who could be all too easily overlooked against some of his more in-vogue stud mates but who nevertheless continues to provide a decent ratio of stakes winners. One of his most reliable performers in this regard is Breathtaking Look (GB), who heads to the Tattersalls December Mare Sale (lot 1662) from Diomed Stables. Her combination of speed, class and consistency gives the 5-year-old a profile with a commercial outlook. Of her six victories for trainer Stuart Williams...

The first chapter of the story of Palace Pier (GB) (Kingman {GB}) was written 20 years ago when John Warren bought the listed winner Miss d'Ouilly (Fr) (Bikala {GB}) from Jean-Luc Lagardere at the Tattersalls December Sale for 50,000gns. The Night Shift foal she was carrying at the time became known as Night Frolic (GB), and she has established her own important branch of an accomplished family at Highclere Stud.  For Palace Pier, the tale is far from complete. This season's champion miler will remain in training for 2021, but...

The final day of the Tattersalls December Mare Sale is usually a low-key affair. Take last year for example. That Thursday, 78 mares were sold for just shy of 280,000gns, a sum that wouldn't come close to buying even one of the headline acts during the sale's blockbuster Tuesday session. But Tattersalls prides itself on catering for all levels of the market and plenty of smaller breeders stay through to the end of the sale in the hope of finding a bargain. That was indeed the case for Domenico Zammitti,...

Beach Frolic (GB) (Nayef), Lady Gorgeous (GB) (Compton Place {GB}) and Miss Phillyjinks (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), all Group 1 producers in 2020, are among the standouts in this year's Tattersalls December Mares Sale, for which the catalogue was released on Thursday. There are over 100 stakes winners and producers catalogued, and mares in foal to 22 of the current top 25 active British and Irish sires. The four-day sale will take place at Park Paddocks in Newmarket from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 and feature 1,104 broodmares and fillies and...

Elite Racing Club's Marlinka (GB) (Marju {Ire}), the dam of champion and MG1SW Marsha (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), sustained an attack of colic and, although she underwent emergency surgery, she could not be saved, the club tweeted. Her Showcasing (GB) filly was also lost. Bred and raced by the Elite Racing Club, the 12-year-old was a daughter of the Barathea (Ire) mare Baralinka (Ire). A listed winner at two in France, the bay's first foal was the G3 Coral Charge Sprint S. victor Judicial (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}), and the outstanding sprinter...