Five of the shrewdest Tattersalls July Sale buys of all time

Three days of selling begins at Tattersalls in Newmarket on Wednesday, with the July Sale kicking off at 9.30am.

The mammoth catalogue contains 910 lots, including a host of eye-catching wildcard entries, such as At Last, a Galileo half-sister to sire sensation Zoustar, and promising debut winner Volatile Analyst.

The July Sale has been a wellspring of talent down the years, most notably for broodmare prospects, and with drafts from powerhouse owner-breeders such as Godolphin, Juddmonte Farms and Shadwell, this year's offerings seem certain to produce the next generation of star graduates.

We run through five of the best broodmare buys from the July Sale.

Balladonia
B m Primo Dominie - Susquehanna Days (Chief's Crown)
Offered by Angmering Park Stud
Bought by CBA for 27,000gns in 2003

When Balladonia joined the broodmare band at Melba Bryce's Laundry Cottage Stud back in 2003, she was offered with her Alhaarth colt foal at foot, and he went on to be sold to Amanda Skiffington for 30,000gns the following year.

The first matings Bryce planned for Balladonia resulted in Mister Hardy and Mister Laurel, who fetched 30,000gns apiece and went on to win 11 races between them. However, what followed was no laughing matter.

Wootton Bassett wins the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp in 2010Credit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

The mare's fifth foal, a son of Iffraaj who fetched £46,000, went on to become Wootton Bassett, who went unbeaten in a five-race juvenile campaign that culminated with an impressive success in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere.

Wootton Bassett duly retired to Haras d'Etreham in 2012, and has gone on to sire champion Almanzor, as well as other major talents like Wootton, The Black Album and Patascoy. Not a bad legacy to leave behind given his story began with a winning bid of just 27,000gns.

View full Tattersalls July Sale catalogue

Dixieland Kiss
Bb m Dixie Union - Kiss The Devil (Kris S)
Offered by Darley
Bought by BBA Ireland for 33,000gns in 2011

Gerard Kerin struck gold at Tattersalls in 2011 when he purchased Dixieland Kiss, an unraced daughter of a Grade 3 winner and a half-sister to a Listed scorer for the relatively modest sum of 33,000gns.

That price represented a major snip on what John Ferguson paid to bring Dixieland Kiss into the Darley fold less than two years earlier, having signed for her as a yearling at $500,000.

Kerin sent his new acquisition to Kodiac when he was still available at €7,500, and recouped most of his outlay when he sold the resulting filly foal to Whatton Manor Stud for 30,000gns.

The breeder could have been forgiven for feeling he had missed out when the filly was sold on to Rabbah Bloodstock for 85,000gns as a yearling, but the daughter of Kodiac was still able to do Kerin another good turn.

Named Besharah by her owner, Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum, she proved herself a serious talent at two, winning the Group 3 Princess Margaret and Group 2 Lowther Stakes.

Besharah wins the Group 2 Lowther StakesCredit: Mark Cranham

Those performances advertised the talents of Dixieland Kiss to a wider audience, and at some point between 2015 and 2016 a private deal was struck that saw the mare join the Coolmore broodmare band.

How much they paid for Dixieland Kiss is not known, but suffice to say it will have been more than the mere 33,000gns Kerin paid for her back in 2011. She has since been mated exclusively with Galileo, and has a two-year-old filly and a yearling colt by the perennial champion sire.

As if that sweetener wasn't good fortune enough, Kerin also sold the mare's second foal, the Casamento colt Arzaak, to Shadwell for 110,000gns in 2014.

La Chicana
B m Invincible Spirit - Always Friendly (High Line)
Offered by Darley
Bought by Tally-Ho Stud for 48,000gns in 2011

Tally-Ho Stud's purchase of La Chicana looked a shrewd move at the time, given she cost just 48,000gns yet was carrying to a useful stallion in Halling, was a sibling to a pair of Group 2 winners and was out of Group 3-winning and Group 1-placed mare.

Subsequent events have made the O'Callaghan family's acquisition look even better, as that Halling foal, who was sold to Rabbah Bloodstock for 32,000gns, turned out to be the high-class stayer Desert Encounter, winner of last year's Grade 1 Canadian International Stakes.

Desert Encounter: Tally-Ho Stud bred the redoubtable performer after purchasing his dam for 48,000gns in 2011Credit: Edward Whitaker

La Chicana visited Tally-Ho's home stallions for five of her six subsequent covers, and the sale of talented performers like Fast Enough and Shaheen have helped contribute to gross yearling sale receipts totalling 397,000gns.

Not bad business given it all started with the purchase of a 48,000gns mare.

Queenofthefairies
B m Pivotal - Land Of Dreams (Cadeaux Genereux)
Offered by Darley
Bought by Tally-Ho Stud for 32,000gns in 2010

No one has farmed the July Sale with quite the success that Tally-Ho Stud has, and in 2010 the O'Callaghans returned to the well to acquire Queenofthefairies for a princely 32,000gns.

A bit of inside knowledge may well have informed their purchase, as they had prepared and sold her half-brother, the brilliant sprinter Dream Ahead, as a breeze-up prospect just a few months earlier.

And the Tally-Ho team did not have to wait long to receive some major pedigree enhancements.

Just ten days after the sale, Dream Ahead bolted up in a Nottingham maiden by nine lengths. Then, a little over a month after Queenofthefairies joined the O'Callaghan's broodmare band, Dream Ahead won the Group 1 Prix Morny, and added the Middle Park Stakes to his CV that October.

If Dream Ahead had upgraded the pedigree, Queenofthefairies more than upheld her end of the bargain. Her first foal, Kodiac's smart sprinter son Atletico, fetched 80,000gns, and her second, Now Or Never, was Group 2-placed at two and a Group 3 winner and Classic-placed at three.

Fairyland: Queenofthefairies' daughter was a 925,000gns yearlingCredit: Alan Crowhurst

Queenofthefairies' fourth foal, a filly by Kodiac, proved a smash hit in the ring as she sold to MV Magnier, Mayfair, and Peter and Ross Doyle for 925,000gns. The filly, later named Fairyland, justified that lofty price-tag by winning the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes in the colours of Evie Stockwell.

Queenofthefairies repeated the trick when her fifth foal, a daughter of Muhaarar, brought a winning bid of 925,000gns from Shadwell at last year's Book 1 Yearling Sale.

That transaction took Queenofthefairies' yearling sales total to a whopping 1,930,000gns, a phenomenal haul, particularly given it all started with a 32,000gns buy.

Seeking Solace
B m Exceed And Excel - Flamelet (Theatrical)
Offered by Darley
Bought by BBA Ireland for 65,000gns in 2011

Given the deep pedigrees it offers, the Darley draft always proves a major draw at the July Sale, and BBA Ireland dipped in in 2011 to secure Seeking Solace, a Listed-placed daughter of Exceed And Excel carrying to Halling.

Her first three foals showed ability without setting the world alight, but when breeders Camas Park, Lynch Bages and Summerhill sent her to No Nay Never, everything changed.

The most expensive of her first three foals fetched 40,000gns, but her fourth suggested something altogether different was in the offing when he was signed for by Charlie Gordon-Watson at 200,000gns.

That colt was, of course, Ten Sovereigns, who rounded off an unbeaten two-year-old season with victory in the Middle Park Stakes.

Ten Sovereigns' sister heads into the Tattersalls ring before selling for 600,000gnsCredit: Edward Whitaker

Things haven't quite gone to plan for Ten Sovereigns this year but, under the tutelage of Aidan O'Brien, he is no forlorn hope for this Saturday's Darley July Cup.

Ten Sovereigns also shone the spotlight on his year-younger sister at last year's Book 1, and the filly - now named Eden Quay - was duly knocked down to Coolmore's MV Magnier for 600,000gns.

With a No Nay Never yearling filly in the pipeline, and having been covered by the son of Scat Daddy again in 2018, Seeking Solace may not be done proving herself a genuine bargain just yet.

TATTERSALLS JULY SALE FACT-FILE

Where Tattersalls, Park Paddocks, Newmarket
When Three-day sale begins on Wednesday at 9.30am, with pre-racing sessions beginning at 9.30am on Thursday and Friday, and post-racing sessions starting at 5.30pm
Last year's stats From 645 lots offered, 562 sold for turnover of 12,074,300gns (down 18 per cent); an average of 21,485gns (down 16 per cent) and a median of 10,000gns (down 12,000gns)

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