Green Room's latest blue-chip yearling headlines Ballylinch Stud's Orby offering

This year's Goffs Orby Sale may be being held at a different venue, but prospective purchasers can rest assured that it will be business as usual as Ireland's premier yearling auction switches to Doncaster for its two-day run.

Among the consignors journeying across the Irish Sea is Ballylinch Stud, whose 16-strong draft contains one of this sales season's most anticipated offerings, the daughter of Sea The Stars and Green Room.

Vimal And Gillian Khosla's brilliant broodmare ranks as one of the elite producers of her generation, with three Group 1 winners on her CV and with her Orby offerings alone having grossed a staggering €8.88 million.

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Her seven winners are headed by the sisters Forever Together, victorious in the Oaks, and Together Forever, who struck in the Fillies' Mile. Both are by Galileo and were purchased by Coolmore's MV Magnier, the former for €900,000 and the latter for €680,000.

Green Room's first foal was Lord Shanakill, a $110,000 yearling who went on to land the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat. The mare's last two offerings at public auction, the Galileo fillies Do You Love Me and Espania, have topped the most recent editions of the Orby Sale at €3.2m and €3m respectively.

"Green Room is an amazing mare and she seems to produce exceptional individuals and very good racehorses on such a consistent basis," says Ballylinch Stud's managing director John O'Connor.

The Sea The Stars filly (lot 176) is a sister to Signe, who became Green Room's first seven-figure yearling when knocked down to Amanda Skiffington for €1.1m at the 2014 Orby. Signe overcame a delayed start to her racing career to win three races while in training with William Haggas for Fiona and Ian Carmichael-Jennings.

Breeders Vimal And Gillian Khosla (left and second left) with the €3 million Galileo filly out of Green RoomCredit: Sarah Farnsworth

The seven-year-old's own breeding career is under way as she has delivered fillies by Siyouni and Kingman in the last two foaling seasons.

When asked for his appraisal of Green Room's latest yearling, the conviction is discernible when O'Connor says: "This is a very nice filly and she's well up to standard with the others, in fact, she's probably even in advance of her illustrious half-sisters [Forever Together and Together Forever] at this stage.

"She has a full-sister, Signe, who was a talented filly but she got injured as a two-year-old and wasn't able to run until later into her career. She's now a broodmare and she actually boards with us at Ballylinch. All of the stock out of Green Room have been fairly similar; medium sized with lots of quality and great action and this filly fits that description perfectly.

"There's a bit of trepidation when you take such a well-bred filly to a sale, but it's better to be taking one like her as opposed to one you're pretty sure won't sell."

The filly's page looks poised to improve significantly in the coming years, as not only is Signe now breeding, but Together Forever's first two foals have gained black type, with her second, Military Style, last seen winning the Group 3 Tyros Stakes. Forever Together delivered a colt by Dubawi in January and later returned to Darley's kingpin sire for her second covering.

O'Connor adds of Green Room: "She foaled very late last year [May 6] so she isn't in foal at the moment. We'll get her covered again next year though and hopefully she'll have more progeny to come as she's been an exceptional mare."

John O'Connor (red jacket) congratulates MV Magnier after the Coolmore man signed for Green Room's Galileo filly at the 2019 Orby SaleCredit: Sarah Farnsworth

There are 15 other lots in this year's Ballylinch draft, each of whom have to plenty recommend them, including two with significant recent updates.

First comes the Nathaniel colt out of Majestic Dubawi (269), whose Belardo half-sister Isabella Giles has not only won the Group 3 Prestige Stakes by no fewer than seven lengths since the catalogue was released, but was last seen landing the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes by clear water on Friday. The mare's second foal, Majestic Colt, has also won a brace of Listed events at Hanover this year.

"The Nathaniel colt out of Majestic Dubawi obviously has a big update as she's the dam of Isabella Giles," says O'Connor. "It was a neat trick to breed the first Group winner by Belardo as he was also bred by Ballylinch. This mare [Majestic Dubawi] looks like she's going to be very good, she's had two black-type winners this year and this colt is a very good individual."

The race preceding the Rockfel Stakes won by Isabella Giles was the Group 3 Princess Royal Muhaarar Stakes, and that also went the way of a sibling to one of Ballylinch's Orby lots in Antonia De Vega. A Lope De Vega sister to the four-time stakes winner will be the penultimate yearling to come under the hammer during the concluding session on Thursday.

Antonia De Vega: Ballylinch offers a full-sister to the dual Group 3 winner as lot 473Credit: Edward Whitaker

"She's a very nice filly," O'Connor says of lot 473. "She comes from a very high-class family and the mare has already proven she can do it with Lope De Vega so we're looking forward to offering her. We also have a Lope De Vega filly out of Kerry Gal (224), she's a full-sister to Rhythmic Intent, who's shown himself to be a good horse this year."

O'Connor continues: "We've got a lot of nice horses right through the draft and hopefully it'll be a strong sale. We've sold a lot of good horses at the Orby before as well as horses who have made good money, so hopefully it'll be the same again this year."

O'Connor began his time at Ballylinch as the farm's stud manager and resident vet and has now spent over three decades at the helm of the famed County Kilkenny nursery. In that time he has become one of the most respected figures in the bloodstock world and a prominent voice within the breeding industry.

He is former chairman and current council member of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (ITBA), a member of the HRI Pattern Committee and is the chairman of the Irish EBF. He was also inducted into the ITBA hall of fame during the organisation's 2017 awards ceremony.

Given his standing within the industry and the wealth of experience he has to call upon, his reading of the market is always worth listening to. Despite the current turbulence, O'Connor sees reasons to remain positive.

John O'Connor: 'There's no doubt that this is a very resilient industry'Credit: Patrick McCann

On the current state of trade, he says: "Given the times we're in, I think the market has been pretty good. I'd say clearance rates have been very telling in that the vendors are meeting the market and there's a good spread of buyers who are there to pick horses up.

"Nobody quite knew what would happen when so much of the sales season was up in the air, but overall I think there's reason for optimism and we've been happy with our own sales so far."

He continues: "We're in very challenging and changing times so people have to be ready for what's placed before them, and I think most people have done that this year. There's no doubt that this is a very resilient industry and the people who are in it are used to challenges and I think generally they respond very well to them.

"You've got to admire the attitude of the participants, whether they're vendors, purchasers, agents, trainers or pinhookers, everybody is trying hard to make the best of it."

O'Connor's fingerprints are all over Ballylinch's recent success stories, from standing important stallions such as King's Theatre, Bob Back, Soviet Star and Lope De Vega, to the Group/Grade 1 winners bred on the farm like Al Wukair, Belardo, Chriselliam, Eva's Request, Opinion, Red Rocks and Wizz Kid.

However, despite his steadying influence, it is with a wry smile that O'Connor reports that the stud has navigated a solely British-based yearling sales season without hiccup.

"It's been a bit of a challenge," he says on the subject of sending drafts usually bound for Fairyhouse and Kildare to Newmarket and Doncaster. "In terms of having to move horses around it hasn't been that difficult as the shipping people are highly efficient, but it's a bit of a challenge in terms of staffing because of the lockdown situations and the need for self isolation.

"We've got a very good team though, we basically have a crew going from one sale to another and so far it's worked well. I think our team is good at logistics, not that I can claim I'm responsible for any of it!"

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