Vibrant Trade at September Yearling Sale with Five Six-Figure Lots

A vibrant and cosmopolitan atmosphere on the Fairyhouse sales ground for the first day of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale produced strong trade, a stand-out clearance rate of 86 per cent and five lots sold for €100,000 or more, exceeding the number of six-figure transactions made over both days last year. 

The session’s top price of €130,000 was given for a colt by the Aga Khan Stud’s leading stallion Sea The Stars bought by bloodstock agent Billy Jackson-Stops and Newmarket-based trainer George Scott (Lot 201).

"This colt was obviously brought here to stand out and he did that!” said Scott. “Every time we went to see him, he showed himself better and better. It is hard to buy progeny by Sea The Stars and we are really pleased. He is for a new client who wanted a horse to race at a high level and we think this could be the one.”

Of the price paid for the Sunderland Holdings-bred, The Castlebridge Consignment-offered colt, Scott admitted that the budget had to expand a little, smiling: "You always have to push a little harder, and we did have to stretch to get him."

The Irish National Stud’s leading sire Invincible Spirit was responsible for the second top lot, a colt bred by Nicola FitzGerald’s Cherryvalley Farms out of the Mastercraftsman mare Kotaya (Lot 101).

Purchased by agent Cristiana Brivio of Razza Latina for the Group 2 Derby Italiano-winning owner Fabrizio Cameli, the duo had to go to €110,000 to secure their purchase.

"He is a very nice, good-looking colt, a good model for a first foal, and he is our pick of the sale," said Brivio, who is a strong supporter of the September Yearling Sale and said: "I have been lucky with the horses bought from this sale and it is a sale I particularly like to come to."

The colt's breeder Nicola FitzGerald of Cherryvalley Farms was understandably delighted with the result.

"We are very happy for the mare, it is a beautiful family, we have the full-brother at home and she is in-foal to Mehmas," said FitzGerald. "Kotaya was bred by the Aga Khan and is a cracking big strong mare.”

Lot 231, one of only two colts catalogued in the sale by Yeomanstown Stud’s first-season sire Shaman, sold for €110,000 to agent Alex Elliott. The sale provided Grangemore Stud with a great pinhooking result – last autumn the farm paid just €16,000 for Barry Lynch’s Funcheon Bloodstock-bred colt.

The page has benefited from a timely update – yesterday evening the colt's half-brother Rebel Diamond won the Listed Ballyhane Blenheim Stakes at Fairyhouse.

Elliott, who was buying for racehorse owner Gary Gillies, laughed: "This lad was on our radar very early yesterday, but the update killed us a little bit, we were hoping to pay a bit less! 

"This horse has size, scope, strength, great action, comes from a very good home, he is out of a Teofilo mare, and it is a great touch for Grangemore.”

Guy O'Callaghan of Grangemore said: "It is great for Shaman, he has had a good start to his season and it is really pleasing to see a horse of this calibre sell so well. This colt was a big, strong, man-of-a-horse as a foal, and he has come back to the sale ring as a bigger and more powerful version.”

Trainer Adrian Keatley spent €100,000 on a son of the first-crop Tally-Ho Stud sire and Group 1 July Cup winner Starman, the session’s leading sire by aggregate with ten lots sold for a gross of €390,000 (Lot 157), while agent Daniel Creighton on behalf of Fenerbahce footballer Ryan Kent went to €100,000 for a Saxon Warrior colt out of the winning Dansili mare Ihtifal (Lot 64).

The September Yearling Sale continues tomorrow at 10am.