Station Yard back on track for Guineas Breeze-Up Sale after dream Craven result

It will be hard for the Station Yard team to top the results of the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale, but the go-ahead operation is back for more at Park Paddocks for the Guineas Breeze-Up Sale. 

Charlie and Francesca Poste, who run Station Yard near Stratford-upon-Avon, are much more familiar names in the world of point-to-pointing but hit the headlines in Newmarket recently when their colt by Blue Point sold to Anthony Stroud and Godolphin for 800,000gns.

It was a fabulous first foray into the breeze-up market for the Postes, who put together a syndicate with a war chest of £250,000 and worked with Tom Biggs of Blandford Bloodstock to source their debut draft.

That duly featured the headline-making Blue Point colt out of Platinum Coast pinhooked for €78,000 from the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale, while they also sold a Blue Point filly for 100,000gns.

Reflecting on the dream result, Charlie Poste says: "It was beyond anything we could have expected. We had a long chat with the team trying to manage expectations and telling them if we broke even in year one we'd be absolutely over the moon. They were all on board with that, so to come out of the Craven Breeze-Up Sale with 900,000gns turned over was mental really. 

"We're still trying to get our heads around it. Someone said to me the other day, 'You must get tired of people saying well done'. I've been in the industry long enough to know I'll never get tired of that; there are plenty of times when people are moaning at me, so the well dones can carry on as long as long can be!"

Station Yard's Blue Point colt sold to Godolphin for 800,000gns at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up SaleCredit: Laura Green

The breeze-up circuit rolls on to the Guineas Sale at Park Paddocks this week and Poste's team will offer two lots, a filly by the red-hot first-season sire Sergei Prokofiev (214) and a Churchill colt (295). 

The Sergei Prokofiev filly is out of Two In The Pink, a winning sister to the Listed-placed Alben Star and the dam of Italian stakes performer You Are Beautiful, by Adaay. 

It is a family with plenty of class as under the third dam is St James's Palace Stakes winner and Coral-Eclipse second Bijou D'Inde, while the excellent start made by her Whitsbury Manor Stud-based sire is another big plus. 

"They're two different types to what we've sold so far, they're bigger horses," says Poste, who had a successful 20-year career as a jockey from 2000, first on the Flat and then over jumps, and who is also a regular pundit across a variety of media outlets, including the Racing Post.

"Everyone tells me the Sergei Prokofievs are bigger horses anyway and she's showing plenty of speed at home and is a big, powerful filly with a fast pedigree. She seems to have a good mind and great appetite and we're looking forward to selling her."

The Churchill colt is out of the Invincible Spirit mare Heroic Heart, a daughter of Because, a placed sister to Group 1 winners Yesterday and Quarter Moon, and from the family of Diamondsandrubies, Eminent, Thomas Chippendale and Demarchelier. 

Park Paddocks: scene of the Tattersalls Guineas Sale this weekCredit: Edward Whitaker

The March-born bay is said to have an equable temperament and physique to match his established pedigree.

Poste says: "Compared to all the others he probably has more of a mile and a quarter-plus pedigree longer term, but from day one he's had the most tremendous attitude. 

"He just works, eats, sleeps and is a nice animal to be around, a big, strapping colt with good action who is showing plenty of speed. He's quite exciting and the sire needs no introduction."

The Station Yard team, like so many others, have had to cope with the wet weather and loss of point-to-points and meetings under rules, leaving them with a number of youngsters waiting in the wings, including some they would hope to take to the sales. 

Poste says: "We've got a heap of four-year-olds left to run as the weather's been a nightmare; we were supposed to run a Westerner and a Peace Envoy on Sunday but both meetings were abandoned because of the heavy rain overnight. 

"It's been tricky but we're not the only ones in that boat, both over here and in Ireland."

Despite the difficulties, the Postes have managed to sell a couple of exciting prospects, including Chaddesley Corbett runner-up Country Mile. The Ocovango gelding, bought by the Postes for €26,000 at the 2022 Derby Sale, was moved on for £80,000 to Ryan Mahon and Dan Skelton at the Tattersalls Cheltenham December Sale.

Charlie Poste: "It's been tricky but we're not the only ones in that boat"

"We're a little bit on the back foot, although we have sold a couple of lovely horses," continues Poste. "Country Mile won a bumper at Huntingdon very impressively for Dan the other day, while we also sold to Dan a lovely Ballingarry four-year-old called Kykorock, who'd won first time out for us at Larkhill.

"However, we could do with a productive month with racing on in order to get some runs into these four-year--olds, because they've been kicking their heels on account of meetings being abandoned or the ground being too soft."

The breeze-up section of the Guineas Sale, estimated to start at 12.30pm on Thursday, features around 200 lots before withdrawals and includes offerings from many of the leading consignors. Breezes on the Rowley Mile take place on Wednesday from 9am.

Among the choice lots is Mocklershill's Wootton Bassett colt out of Peeping Fawn (353), winner of the Irish Oaks among four Group 1 triumphs and dam of three Group/Listed performers including the multiple Group 1-placed September.

Mocklershill also offers a Quality Road colt out of three-time Group 1 winner Alice Springs (232), dam of the Group-placed Prettiest and Fleetingly, who ran second in a maiden at Naas on Monday.  

Another to note is Longways Stables' Zarak half-sister to dual US Grade 1 winner Shaman Ghost (285). 

Dance string among Horses in Training lots

More than 50 lots owned by Coverdale Stud or Titanium Racing Club, operations connected to former prominent owner John Dance, were listed in the Horses in Training section, which starts at 5pm on Wednesday and continues from 9.30am on Thursday.

Dance’s firm WealthTek LLP, which also traded as Vertem Asset Management and Malloch Melville, was shut down by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in April 2023 after the discovery of “serious regulatory and operational issues”

Dance's assets were subjected to a £40 million worldwide freezing order last year, although this was upgraded to a restraint order under the Proceeds of Crime Act in November. In March, a court filing revealed the City regulator had alleged that Dance conducted “one of the largest frauds perpetrated by an FCA regulated individual at an authorised firm”, with the FCA successfully arguing for civil proceedings to be paused in order for a criminal investigation to take priority.

The first foal out of Laurens will be sold at Tattersalls Credit: Caroline Norris

Horses owned by Dance and his wife Jess have been blocked from running since September, having previously been able to participate under the banner of Coverdale Stud. Titanium Racing Club, of which Dance was president and to which he provided financial support, has been in a similar position.

Offered by the Castlebridge Consignment, the draft features First Ambition (151), an unraced three-year-old colt by Invincible Spirit and the first foal out of Dance's six-time Group 1 winner Laurens.

Also included are Twisting Physics (169), an unraced Dubawi half-brother to Group 2 winner Tropbeau, and Neverstopdreaming (189), a winning No Nay Never filly out of the Galileo mare Snowflakes, a sister to dual 1,000 Guineas heroine Winter. 

Other notable offerings in the HIT Sale include wildcards Blanchland (198), a dual-winning four-year-old son of Farhh who was runner-up in the Group 3 Zetland Stakes at two, and Cable Bay's five-year-old son Cephalus (196), who has been in outstanding form since December, winning five of his eight starts and being beaten a short head and a neck on two other occasions. He was a close fourth at Chelmsford last time despite the drop to seven furlongs looking slightly against him.  

Juddmonte's typically strong draft includes colts and geldings by Kingman, Sea The Moon, Saxon Warrior and Sea The Stars, hailing from some of their most distinguished families. 

Tattersalls Guineas Sale factfile

Where Park Paddocks, Newmarket

When Two-day auction begins on Wednesday at 5pm, with the horses in training section continuing at 9.30am on Thursday, followed at 12.30pm by the breeze-up sale

Last year's breeze-up sale stats From 147 lots offered, 106 sold for turnover of 14,584,500gns, an average of 137,590gns and a median of 80,000gns. 

Notable breeze-up sale graduates Trueshan (sold by Knockanglass Stables, bought by Highflyer and Alan King for 31,000gns); The Platinum Queen (sold by Tally-Ho Stud, bought by Richard Fahey and Middleham Park Racing for 57,000gns); Crypto Force (sold by Tally-Ho Stud, bought by Michael O'Callaghan for 160,000gns); Shantisara (sold by Aguiar Bloodstock Ltd, bought by Federico Barberini for 10,000gns)

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