Busy spell in store at Kildare Paddocks as focus returns to Goffs

Close to 700 lots will be going through the ring at Kildare Paddocks across three days this week as the Goffs Autumn Horses In Training Sale rolls into the Autumn Yearling Sale.

Tuesday's opening session is for the tried-and-tested performers. It was topped last year by the €160,000 Erzindjan from the Aga Khan Studs draft and the leading owner-breeder is offering three interesting prospects once again headed by Shajak (lot 98), a winning son of the operation's rising star stallion Zarak and Listed-placed when third in the Vinnie Roe Stakes at Leopardstown in August.

Others of interest include the multiple stakes-winning sprinter Make A Challenge (95), offered by Denis Hogan's Boherna Stables; the same team's dual-winning Kingman gelding Ransom (93), a Juddmonte-bred from the family of Riposte, Kind and Frankel; and Ballymullen Stud Farm's Wakai Umi (55), a juvenile daughter of Kuroshio who is having a good autumn and won her second race just ten days ago when scoring at Dundalk.

There is a sole offering by Joseph O'Brien's Carriganog Racing in the shape of the once-raced Angelus Griseo (45), a Dark Angel half-brother to Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris, while Dermot Weld's trio offered under his Rosewell Racing banner includes the well-related three-year-old Profitable filly Serafina (110).

Bred by Weld and a winner on her most recent start at Clonmel, Serafina is out of the Aga Khan-bred Kasanka - a Galileo half-sister to Irish St Leger heroine Kastoria - making her a half-sibling to two black-type performers including Loughbrown Stakes winner Kastasa.

Baroda waiting for another result

Standing out from the crowd is no bad thing and among the Autumn Yearling Sale there a notable entry by first-season sire Rajasinghe.

The National Stud resident has supplied five winners from just nine runners so far for an excellent strike-rate of 56 per cent, and, aside from the rarity value, his Goffs colt's pedigree catches the eye, given he is a full-brother to his sire's top-rated performer, the maiden winner and Pat Eddery Stakes second Waiting All Night.

He is offered as lot 712 among a large draft from Baroda Stud, which ranked second leading consignor by aggregate at this sale 12 months ago, with a dozen sold bringing €221,500.

Baroda's bloodstock and consigning executive Padraic Gahan said: "We have a good spread of stallions, young and proven. The Rajasinghe is a full-brother to a good horse. He was looked at for the earlier sales but the owner wanted to come to this sale, and we're very happy with how he's done throughout the prep.

"We're hoping he will appeal to trainers and he's out of an Azamour mare. You wouldn't think he's a May foal and he's a racy colt who appears to be a similar type to the Rajasinghes that Rebel Racing have been running.

"The sire has been producing runners and probably from limited opportunities."

Padraic Gahan and David Cox of Baroda StudCredit: Amy Lynam

He added: "He's very straightforward and had a good education with his owner. David [Cox, stud manager] and I are at the sales at this time of the year so we wouldn't be at the farm that much and so the ones you do hear about are the ones that have had problems. We've heard very little about him, bar the fact he's doing okay."

Baroda also consigns yearlings by sires including Saxon Warrior, Le Havre, Churchill, Ten Sovereigns, Profitable, Zoffany, Inns Of Court, Study Of Man, New Bay, Zoustar, Waldgeist and Phoenix Of Spain.

Gahan said: "The Phoenix Of Spain colt [557] is coming to us from the owner's place and they are very happy with him. He was withdrawn from the Orby Sale, so he's a certain physical, while there's also a nice Waldgeist filly [763] who is from a good German family out of a High Chaparral mare. She's eligible for the Goffs Million, which is a big incentive."

Big moment for small new team

The yearling section also sees the first step of a new collaboration, Brideswell & EMG Bloodstock, which offers a Camacho filly (667).

Ger McNulty, the Brideswell side, has joined forces with his friend Kyle Griffin in a small pinhooking and breeding venture.

The filly is of some significance to McNulty, 29, who works with mares and foals at Derrinstown Stud as his day job, as he fell in love with her unraced dam Emzoon when he was leading her around the ring for his employers and bought her for a small sum.

"She’s such a nice little filly and if I could I’d definitely keep her to syndicate and race her because I fully believe that she’s going to win races," he said.

"She looks a two-year-old, and the mare's Markaz colt I sold to Italy last year has won twice, and came second on his first run.

"That horse, Killer Grey, is the first thoroughbred I’ve actually bred, so the mare is one runner and one winner, and the dam is half-sister to a pretty promising horse by Night Of Thunder in Australia with Chris Waller, Hameron; he topped the Craven Breeze-Up in 2020 at 575,000gns. Hopefully it all helps her."

McNulty, who had been doing the rounds with his own two mares before and after work, made the difficult financial decision to let Emzoon go in order to focus on his other resident.

"I bought her from Jim Bolger, she’s by Dawn Approach out of a Galileo mare and there were three or four different studs who wanted to cover her," he said.

"She’s now in foal to Far Above, I like his speed and it’ll be interesting to see how he goes. She’s from the family of Dartmouth and Manatee, so I’m hoping there’s a bit of promise there."

McNulty and Griffin have found their own premises in Kildare and combined their assets.

"Kyle has his own broodmare who’s in foal to Invincible Army and he’d like to pinhook a foal that we’re going to prep together," said McNulty.

"Hopefully there’ll be two foals and a yearling to sell next year, it’s a bit of a project and something to aim for and look forward to."

Selling at Goffs on Tuesday begins at 12pm, while hammer time on Wednesday and Thursday is 10am.

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