Godolphin go all out at Baden-Baden as Sea The Stars filly sets a new record

For the second time this week, the record price at a European yearling auction tumbled as Godolphin went to €820,000 to secure the Sea The Stars filly out of Anna Mia at the BBAG sale in Baden-Baden on Friday.

The Godolphin buying team had already departed Germany's flagship yearling sale following inspections, meaning Matt Coleman, Anthony Stroud's business partner in Stroud Coleman Bloodstock, was entrusted with bidding duties.

"Anthony Stroud and David Loder came over to Baden-Baden with me on Thursday; they looked around the main lots and really liked this filly," explained Coleman.

"Sea The Stars is a very well proven and well sought-after stallion and Gestut Brummerhof are very good breeders, so they were really keen to secure the filly for Godolphin. I was just the one doing the bidding on their behalf."

View full BBAG yearling sale results

Consigned by Gestut Brummerhof, who held the 12-year-old record for the previous high price of €710,000, the filly is the first foal out of her Listed-placed dam and shares her page with high-performing talents such as Anna Monda, Anipa and National Defense.

"She's out of a Monsun mare, he's a very good broodmare sire, she's medium-sized and very strong with good movement and a very good attitude – all the qualities that Sea The Stars throws so often. Someone actually said to me that she looks a bit like Sea Of Class," added Coleman.

The Sea The Stars over Monsun cross has been responsible for a number of high-class performers including Group 1 winners Sea The Moon and Shraaoh and the Bahrain Trophy scorer Raheen House.

Julia Baum – who with husband Gregor owns Gestut Brummerhof, immortalised as the breeder of Arc and King George heroine Danedream – was understandably ecstatic after the sale.

"She was a lovely filly with a lot of quality," she said. "We were confident that she would be among the top offerings at the sale but to break the record price – smashing our own record with North Star selling for €710,000 in 2007 – we're just thrilled.

"I also think it's a wonderful endorsement of German sales and breeding."

Godolphin's latest recruit has a pedigree that has brought the Baums tears of sadness and joy this year.

The dam's three-year-old half-sister Anna Pivola, retained to race in Brummerhof colours, was among the leading fancies for this year's Preis der Diana but suffered a career-ending injury in the week leading up to the race.

So distraught were the Baums that on the weekend of the Classic they removed themselves to their house on the island of Sylt instead of going to Dusseldorf to cheer on their other homebred runner in the race, the outsider Diamanta – only for that filly to win.

Anna Mia and Anna Pivola are descended from Anna Paola, Gestut Rottgen's Preis der Diana winner of 1981 who later became a foundation mare for Sheikh Mohammed and became ancestress of his stars Anna Salai, Epaulette and Helmet; so Godolphin's purchase of the Sea The Stars filly represents something of a homecoming.

The new BBAG record follows hot on the heels of MV Magnier's purchase of a Kingman colt for £440,000 that set a new high mark at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale in Doncaster on Tuesday.

Godolphin spree continues

Coleman was back in action on Godolphin's behalf later in the session when he went to €700,000 to acquire the sale's only lot by Kingman, a colt named Wirko out of the Listed-winning Mount Nelson mare Weltmacht.

Offered by Gestut Rottgen, the colt is the first foal out of the half-sister to Wild Coco, winner of the 2012 Group 2 Park Hill Stakes for Sir Henry Cecil and also runner-up to Treve in the following year's Prix Vermeille.

"Kingman is absolutely flying, he's had such a fantastic year" said Coleman. "This horse is a very good individual, a great mover and has a fantastic pedigree. The dam is a stakes filly and is a half-sister to Wild Coco who did so well in France, Germany and England.
"He's from Gestut Rottgen's best family and looks to have a big chance."

Godolphin secured the three most expensive lots at BBAG, having also made a successful play of €360,000 for Akua'bella, a Lope De Vega filly from the draft of Gestut Brummerhof.

The March foal is a three-parts sister to two black-type horses in German 1,000 Guineas winner Akua'da and the Listed-placed Akua'rella.

"She's a lovely big, scopey filly," said Coleman. "She's a great mover. The dam has been to Shamardal twice before and those foals are both stakes horses so obviously the nick has a good chance of working. Lope De Vega has had a great couple of years with his fillies."

Australian invasion

There was also a strong Australian presence in Baden-Baden as a number of the country's leading bloodstock figures got their names on the buying sheet.

Australian Bloodstock were busy adding to their burgeoning portfolio but it was Brad Spicer who struck for the most expensive of the southern hemisphere recruits, stretching to €120,000 in conjunction with Bahen Bloodstock to secure a son of Lanwades Stud stallion Sea The Moon.

"I thought he might make a bit more but I’m happy to snag him at that price," a delighted Spicer said. "He’s a really nice Sea The Moon colt.

"He’s coming back to Australia and will land in late October. Justin Bahen and myself bought the horse together, he has a couple of clients that he’ll put in and I have my clients who will go into the horse.

"He’ll be trained by Lindsey Smith in Melbourne and if he can manage to snag a Group 1 race in Australia, then he certainly has a stallion’s pedigree.

"He was pretty popular on the ground, a lot of the agents were on him and I think Sea The Moon is very much a young, progressive sire. I can see him going up and up over the next few years."

A first time visitor to the Baden-Baden sales ring, Spicer voiced his intentions to return to the yearling auction next year as part of a broader plan to import younger European-bred stayers into Australia.

"It’s all about the staying races for us and we’re trying to buy some nice stayers," he added.

"The guys have been buying tried horses for the last 15 years, you see horses like Protectionist and Fiorente come down with those great bloodlines, and I don’t think the yearlings have been explored that much. We’re certainly going to concentrate on that over the next few years.

"It’s the first time that I’ve actually been here and I’ve quite enjoyed it, even though I was only here for a couple of days. I’ll be coming back next year for sure."

The colt is out of the winning Royal Applause mare Royal Aspen, who is herself out of the well-related Aspen Leaves.

His third dam is the top-class producer Fall Aspen, who in turn is the dam of 12 winners including dual Grade 1 winner Timber Country, July Cup hero Hamas and fellow top-flight scorer Northern Aspen.

Among Fall Aspen’s other progeny are Grade 1 winner Fort Wood, Group 2 winner Bianconi - the sire of Widden Stud stallion Nicconi - and fellow Group 2 winner Colorado Dancer. Colorado Dancer is best known as the dam of Darley’s Group 1-winning sire Dubai Millennium.

Further back this is the same page as Group 1-winning shuttle sire Ribchester and fellow elite-level winners Elnadim and Mehthaaf.

Bahen back for more

Later in the session Bahen once again found himself signing the docket at €120,000, this time on his own, for a filly by Coolmore sire Mastercraftsman.

The filly is out of Dyveke, making her a half-sister to Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Diamond Dove.

Dyveke herself is a sister to Group 1 winner Donaldson and Listed winner Daytona — the latter being the dam of Group 3 winners Dallas Affair and Daytona Bay. The mare also counts Listed winner Duke Of Heart as her half-sibling.

Camelot colt heads to Ciaron Maher

The list of Australian buyers did not end there as Blandford Bloodstock and Ciaron Maher Racing teamed up to buy a colt by Coolmore stallion Camelot for €64,000.

The colt is out of four-time winner Al Queena, who is herself a half-sister to Listed winner Al Quintana and Listed-placed Albertville. Further back this is the family of Listed-winners Arpino and Annabelle.

"David [Eustace] in particular was very keen on the idea of targeting the BBAG Sale," Blandford’s Stuart Boman said. "We’ve had a bit of luck with the tried horses up here over the last couple of years, we bought Lord Belvedere together and we’re just looking into getting a few younger horses that can go straight into their system.

"He's a good first foal and the mare was quite well-performed. She was Timeform rated 99, won over 1,400 metres and had a bit of speed. She was actually fourth in a Listed race which is not on the page.

"Camelot has done particularly well in Australia and they seem to really suit the racing there. He shuttled for a few years but couldn’t get the local breeders to embrace him at that point, but they’re now breeding to him to southern hemisphere time and targeting his stock with yearlings and tried horses up here. Lloyd Williams races a few with Joseph and he’s a stallion target for an Australian market for sure."

Boman believes the trainers are well-placed to take charge of the Camelot colt, with Eustace having an excellent knowledge of European racing and bloodstock having grown up in Newmarket.

"He’s a good horse to learn with as they’ve got to get a system in place to take on younger horses, but they’ve handled the European horses that I’ve sent down there particularly well," Boman added.

"Their style of training and the facilities they have at the beach and now at Ballarat means they can adopt a more European style, which obviously David is very familiar with."

Australian Bloodstock were also active at yesterday’s auction, purchasing four yearlings for an aggregate of €308,000 including a filly from the first crop of Protectionist, who landed the Melbourne Cup for the syndicate in 2014.

Figures

The sale concluded with huge gains in all key areas. The clearance rate improved from 64 per cent to 73 per cent, with 143 of 196 offered lots changing hands.

The aggregate rose by 35 per cent on 2018's total to €8.175 million, the average rose by a massive 49 per cent to €57,165 and the median was also up by 47 per cent to €56,430, having been €38,420 just 12 months earlier.

More sales news:

Emotional result for Anna Sundstrom as Wootton Bassett colt stars at £280,000

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