Swiss Spirit colt worth the wait as Jamie Osborne has final say at £110,000

Jamie Osborne will be hoping that good things come to those who wait having bought the last – and most expensive – horse to go through the ring at the Tattersalls Ascot Breeze-Up Sale for £110,000 on Wednesday.

The son of Swiss Spirit, offered by Knockanglass Stables, ensured the Ascot sales ring remained busy until the end, with plenty of prospective purchasers hanging around to try to land the horse who reportedly clocked the fastest two-furlong time during the pre-sale breeze.

"He's your ticket to Royal Ascot," said auctioneer Richard Botterill as the colt, a half-brother to the Group 3-placed March, made his way around the ring.

Osborne traded increases of £5,000 with Matt Coleman until the hammer eventually fell in favour of the Lambourn trainer.

View full Tattersalls Ascot Breeze-Up Sale results

"He's a gorgeous horse, he clocked the fastest time and he has plenty of scope," said Osborne, before adding: "On the downside he's by a pretty cold stallion, but Thomond [O'Mara, Knockanglass Stables] is a good friend and has been recommending this horse for a long time. Time will tell, but hopefully not too much time!"

Jamie Osborne: 'Time will tell, but hopefully not too much time!'Credit: Debbie Burt

The colt showed the impact an impressive time can have on a two-year-old's value, having been pinhooked by Kilronan Stud for just €15,000 in a private sale at last year's Goffs Orby Sale.

The transaction saw Osborne bookend the auction, having also purchased the first lot through the ring, a Fountain of Youth colt for £30,000, while he also went to £60,000 for a Gutaifan colt offered by Meadowview Stables having been pinhooked for €12,000.

"I have a handful of Gutaifans at home, and if I have a representative sample – and it's always possible I don't – he's clearly a sire that's going to work," Osborne said.

He went on to explain that a new trading partnership was behind the purchase of the Swiss Spirit and Gutaifan colts.

"Hopefully this new partnership will be active at all the breeze-up sales," he said. "We're going to roll the dice and see where we end up."

Brazilian gold

Another vendor to enjoy an almighty pinhooking touch was Robson Aguiar, who had to part with just £2,000 to secure the Coach House colt out of Koharu at last year's Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale.

But under the Brazilian's careful handling and following a turbo-charged breeze, the colt returned to Ascot on Wednesday where he fetched £85,000 from Matt Coleman and Peter Swann's Cool Silk Partnership.

"He's a nice forward horse and will be ready to run in three or four weeks," said Aguiar. "He's got plenty of speed and has a very good action. When I bought him here he was a nice scopey yearling, and I liked that the dam had won twice over six furlongs."

Lot 58: the £85,000 Coach House is knocked down by auctioneer Matthew HallCredit: Debbie Burt

The colt is the second foal out of the Ishiguru mare Koharu, and in an indication of the esteem in which Aguiar held the colt he went to the trouble of purchasing his dam and half-brother

"After I started working him I actually bought his dam and his half-brother because I think so much of him," he said. "I think he'll be a Listed horse at least."

Coleman and the Cool Silk Partership have enjoyed success with previous Ascot breeze-up purchases, having picked up Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes hero Sands Of Mali here in 2017.

"This colt breezed very well, and we're going more on the breeze than the pedigree," explained Coleman. "I've bought a couple of good horses from Robson before and he's usually pretty accurate in his assessment and he was sweet on this one.

"With these breeze-up horses you have to listen to the vendor. Peter [Swann] was keen to have him and he'll go to Richard Fahey. We'll try to emulate what we did with the last horse we bought here, who won a Group 1!"

Coleman keeps it cool

Coleman and Cool Silk were back in action later in the piece when going to £60,000 for the Hot Streak filly out of Qatar Princess offered by Dunsany Stables, whose Daniel Benson pinhooked the filly for £20,000.

Matt Coleman: signed for two lots for the Cool Silk PartnershipCredit: Debbie Burt

"She'll also go to Richard Fahey," said Coleman. "She's small but she looks very fast and she breezed very well. She looks like she thinks she's bigger than she is as she's got a great attitude.

"She's from a great family of fillies too, so we'll try and win the £100,000 bonus Tattersalls are putting up for winning a race at Royal Ascot. Queen Mary here we come!"

The filly is out of the Marju mare Qatar Princess, who is a half-sister to the Group/Grade 2 winner Hawksmoor.

Summer vibes for Blandford

The first lot to hit the £85,000 mark was the Summer Front colt bought by Blandford Bloodstock and Richard Hughes and offered by Johnny Collins' Brown Island Stables.

"In my mind he was as nice a colt as there is here," said Blandford Bloodstock's Richard Brown. "He did a very good breeze on ground he would've hated being American bred. He's got a lot of quality and moves very well. He'll probably need a bit of time, I don't think he's an out an out whizz-bang two-year-old."

Summer Front is a son of War Front standing at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky who won at Grade 2 level and reached the frame in six Grade 1 events. However, Brown explained that he was not entirely familiar with the stallion's progeny.

"I haven't seen many Summer Fronts," he said. "For the first year in about 15 years I didn't go to Keeneland last year because my wife was about to foal, otherwise I'm sure I'd have seen loads of them."

The Summer Front colt, who is out of a Dixie Union mare, was led out of the Keeneland September Sale unsold at $45,000.

"He's been a very uncomplicated horse and hasn't put a foot wrong since he came to us," added Collins. "All the good judges seemed to like him and liked his breeze, he's a horse with a great big action.

"I saw a lot of Summer Fronts at the yearling sales and loved them. I have another very good one going to Doncaster."

Houldsworth a Cable guy

First-season sire Cable Bay got his second career off to the best possible start when his first runner, Electric Ladyland, made a winning debut at Lingfield on Tuesday, and his progeny made an impact at Ascot a day later as Matt Houldsworth struck at £55,000 for one of his sons in partnership with George Margarson.

"We've bought him for John Guest Racing," said Houldsworth. "I saw him yesterday and thought he was a standout. He's a good-looking horse with a good pedigree and it helps that the stallion had his first winner yesterday. Hopefully he'll make up into an Ascot horse this year."

The Kilminfoyle House Stud-consigned youngster is the second foal out of Hadeeya, an Oratorio half-sister to Group 2 winner Good Old Boy Lukey from Meon Valley Stud's Colorspin family, meaning the likes of Kayf Tara and Zee Zee Top appear further back on the page.

Despite the times horses clock during the pre-sale breeze generally having a major impact on the prices, Houldsworth said that he prefers to rely on more old fashioned instincts when assessing an individual's merits.

"We don't time them, it's not something I'm particularly interested in," he said. "I'm sure there are lots of studies that show the ones who breeze quick are good horses, but I'm more interested in how they finish off their breeze and if they hit the line going hard."

Despite the horse appearing among the top ten prices of the Ascot sale, his value showed a marked drop from his yearling price, having been signed for by Blandford Bloodstock at £110,000.

Final figures

Trade proved solid enough for the level, with the clearance rate showing a marked year-on-year improvement.

By the close of trade, 67 of 78 offered lots had sold at a clip of 86 per cent, meaning eight more horses changed hands than at last year's sale despite 40 fewer being offered.

With fewer horses coming under the hammer the aggregate was always likely to take a hit, but in the event it dropped by just three per cent to £1,377,000.

The average and median prices also dropped, the former by 15 per cent to £20,550 and the latter by 19 per cent to £13,000, having been £16,000 12 months earlier.