September Yearling Sale returns to Ireland with fantastic Day 1 figures

The opening session of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, the sale held in Ireland for the first time since 2019, was headed by a son of the first-crop sire Inns Of Court (Lot 187), who sold for €110,000.

The Mountain View Stud-consigned colt headed up a fantastic day’s trade which produced an average of €31,861, a 5 per cent increase on 2021’s figure, a median of €27,000, a 15 per cent increase on 2021 and a record for a single session of the September Yearling Sale, while the aggregate of €6,436,000 was a small fall of 5 per cent from 2021 albeit a smaller catalogue.

The first yearling colt by the young Tally-Ho Stud-based stallion Inns Of Court to go through the Fairyhouse sale ring was bought by agent Ed Sackville, who signed the buyers’ docket on behalf of John and Jess Dance’s Manor House Farm.

The bay colt is out of the Listed-placed Unfuwain mare Silk Fan, a half-sister to the dual Group 2 winner Gutaifan. She is the dam of seven winners, including the Group 3-placed Haikbidiac.

Sackville said: "He is a lovely stamp of a horse and a really big, strong and imposing type – I have never seen so many people bid on one horse! John and Jess will decide on a trainer once the horse has got back to England and they have seen him.

"Inns Of Court is an unproven stallion, but he is by a proven sire of sires in Invincible Spirit. If he is anything like Tally-Ho Stud's recent first-season stallions he is going to have a very good chance of being successful; I would hope we are in safe hands.”

The first lot to a six-figure sum at this year's sale was Lot 176 – the colt by Footstepsinthesand bought on one bid of €100,000 by trainer Sheila Lavery's brother John Lavery.

The delighted trainer said: "He is a stand-out for us – he has a lovely attitude, he was up here watching everything with his ears, looking around but going forward the whole time. He is a very straightforward horse. He is for John to own, and I will train for him.”

Out of the Listed winner and Group 2-placed Sciolina (Oratorio), the colt has the benefit of a recent pedigree update – his 2018 half-brother Erosandpsyche (Sepoy) finished second in the Group 1 Flying Five Stakes on Irish Champions Weekend.

The March-born colt was bred and sold by Mark Dreeling and Barbara Fonzo's Coole House Farm, no strangers to selling highly priced young horses at Flat and NH Tattersalls sales at both Newmarket and Fairyhouse.

"He is going to a brilliant trainer – Sheila Lavery is a top-class trainer," said Dreeling. "She loves him, she came to see him four or five times. The Danehill-Footsteps cross is very successful, which is why we decided on the stallion for the mare – and we are also huge fans of Footstepsinthesand, we have been so lucky with him.”

Lot 57 gave pinhooker Michael Tallon a handsome return on his nine-month investment – the Havana Gold colt was bought by Tallon for 19,000gns at the 2021 Tattersalls December Foal Sale and sold today to Kevin Ross Bloodstock for €95,000.

Tallon, who preps his yearlings alongside his wife Margaret, said: "When I bought him it was a very, very, wet afternoon on the Saturday of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale, and I just remember looking across at him walking in the parade ring and thought that his walk was just unreal. He has this beautiful, easy action and he has a tremendous head on him and presence, I loved him.

“He is the first by Havana Gold that I have had – this colt has such a beautiful temperament, I wouldn't mind another one!"

Today’s successful purchaser Ross knows the pedigree well having bought the dam’s talented half-brother Crack On Crack On, also by Havana Gold, at the Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale in 2017.

"He is a smashing colt, he is our pick of the day," said Ross. "We bought Crack On Crack On at the breeze-up sale and he turned out to be a good horse, and this is a three-parts brother to him. This colt is very similar to the older horse – a lovely, athletic and good-actioned type. He is for Paul and Clare Rooney.”

The September Yearling Sale continues tomorrow with a further 230 quality yearlings on offer. The sale commences at 10.00am.