'He can get any type of horse' - popular Galiway's progeny lead the way at Osarus

Thunder and lightning crackled in the skies above La Teste-de-Buch from the early hours of Tuesday morning, the accompanying deluge transforming the ribbons of tarmac into rushing streams.

The rumbles and flashes persisted as the sale time passed but, in that great tradition, the show just went on, with the second session of the Osarus Yearling Sale providing more highlights than Monday's opener.

With the lightning passing out to sea eventually, It was left to Haras de Colleville's Galiway to create the excitement and the sire of Sealiway and Vauban stepped beautifully into the spotlight. The only two yearlings in the session by the son of Galileo commanded two of the highest prices of the entire sale. 

Two of Ireland's finest breeze-up exponents have unearthed this sale's best graduates and both, regular returning purchasers, were among the players on Tuesday. 

Thomond O'Mara found Trueshan here in 2017, picking up the subsequent Prix du Cadran and Goodwood Cup winner for €8,000 before selling him at the following spring's breeze-ups for 31,000gns. 

His purchase of a Galiway colt from MM Stud on Tuesday came from the other end of the market, costing more than five times that sum at €41,000.

Named Maaz, the April-born colt is the second foal out of Exceedingly Diva, who won as a juvenile for Marcus Tregoning. It was that precocity, allied to Galiway's undoubted prowess, which emboldened O'Mara to strike the winning bid.

Thomond O'Mara: bought Trueshan as a yearling at OsarusCredit: Patrick McCann

"We try to find a precocious horse if we can," he explained. "He is out of an Exceed And Excel mare who won over six furlongs at two and was placed over five furlongs as well, so there is speed and precocity in there."

Although Galiway's most famous son so far is the triple Grade 1-winning hurdler and Melbourne Cup favourite Vauban, Galiway is also the sire of Prix Jean Luc Lagardere and Champion Stakes winner Sealiway. They are two of the seven individual Group winners sired by Galiway.

"I've bought him to breeze," added O'Mara. "And it's possible he could come back here next spring. The sire is in a good place, and he can get any type of horse."

His dam's first foal is a two-year-old Galiway colt named Yellow Brick Road, who was running over a mile at Lyon Parilly for Carlos and Yann Lerner at around the same time his younger sibling was preparing to come under the hammer.

Exceedingly Diva was bred by Shadwell and is descended from the farm's foundation broodmare Height Of Fashion. His fourth dam, Sarayir, won the Virginia and Oh So Sharp Stakes, both Listed contests at the time, and is a daughter of Height Of Fashion and Mr Prospector. Sarayir herself is the dam of 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes winner Ghanaati, by Giant's Causeway, Cumberland Lodge Stakes winner and Champion Stakes runner-up Mawatheeq and the Listed winner and Oaks third Rumoush.

They are just three of the myriad black-type horses directly descended from Sarayir.

Galiway at the double

About an hour later, a daughter of Galiway bred along similar lines to Vauban was knocked down to Didier Guillemin, trainer of, among others, Poule d'Essai des Poulains winner Tin Horse. The son of Sakhee was also second to Wootton Bassett in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and filled the same position behind Dream Ahead in the Prix Morny.

Guillemin made the hour's drive down from his stables in Mont Marsan and was among the busier purchasers over the two days, with the €35,000 Galiway filly the most expensive of them.

One of the leading dual-purpose trainers in France, Guillemin was acting on behalf of Pierre Pilarski the owner of brilliant trotter Bold Eagle who has become ever more engaged by thoroughbred racing, both on the Flat and over jumps, in recent years with Grade 1 Prix Alain du Breil winner and multiple Grade 1-placed Feu Follet a star for him.

Sealiway: dual Group 1 winner is a son of GaliwayCredit: Edward Whitaker

Pilarski has already been in the winner's enclosure with a son of Galiway, as Guillemin explained.

"Mr Pilarski had a good Galiway named Gregolimo who won the Prix Nureyev and was second in the Prix Hocquart," he said. "He was sold to race in America."

Named Bai Tu Long, the filly is out of Halong Bay, who won the Listed Premio Pietro Bassero and is by Montjeu. Vauban's dam Waldfest is a daughter of Montjeu's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and King George-winning son Hurricane Run.

Guillemin added: "We like the pedigree and it is a family of sound horses. The mare produces good racehorses."

Both Galiway yearlings in the session were consigned by MM Stud, an operation based in Normandy and run by Laura Pilard and her partner Michael Douget.

The yearlings were owned by a client of the farm but Pilard, a former showjumping groom, and Douget, who is a farrier, are the breeders of the Galiway gelding who topped the Goffs Arkle Sale in June when making €250,000 to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins.

They sold King Rasko Grey to Tony Costello for €18,000 at the Osarus National Hunt Sale at Maisons-Lafitte as a weanling in January 2021.

In addition to their own breeding interests, foaling is their main business, with 23 mares boarding at the farm and 60 foaling there this year. They also have a small consigning element to their work.

Early fireworks

The very first lot in the ring had to brave the crashing clouds above her to get the sale under way, and after a number of abortive attempts the daughter of Al Wukair consented to take her turn in front of the rostrum.

It was well-worth the cajoling of her handlers and the team from Elevage de Traou Land as the filly made €38,000 to trainer Manon Scandella Lacaille, on behalf of Trotting Bloodstock. 

Al Wukair (silver silks) sired the first lot in the ring on TuesdayCredit: racing.com Staff

Prior to the sale, she had been touted as one of the potential star turns as she is a half-sister to the Listed Prix de l'Avre winner Winter Pudding, and that expectation surrounding her only grew when a relation was one of the joint session-toppers on Monday. Her dam, Darling Traou Land, is a half-sister to the dam of the Golden Horde colt who made €30,000 to Equos Racing International. 

It was another excellent result for Jean-Claude Ollivier, who bred and sold both horses, and Winter Pudding, who was purchased at this sale in 2021 for €18,000 by Trotting Bloodstock which was founded in 2012 by Florent Fonteyne.

"It is a family of real racehorses, and we hold the Goken two-year-old half-brother in high regard," remarked Scandella Lacaille. "She is a good-looking filly and has been bought for a partnership. She will go to Normandy for a rest and then come to Marseille to be trained."

The Goken juvenile she referred to is Louis De La Klauss, who is in training with Scandella Lacaille, and made €21,000 to Trotting Bloodstock as a yearling. He made his debut at his home track last week and finished an encouraging fourth..

Another member of Marseille's training community was in action at the upper end of the market early on Tuesday; Christophe Escuder snapped up a son of Haras de Boquetot's first-season sire Romanised for €32,000.

A pinhooking project, the sale represented a pleasing return on the €10,000 that the colt cost as a foal last December, helped by the success of his two-year-old City Light half-sister, Blue Ribbon, who won a maiden for Henri-Francis Devin at Saint-Malo since the catalogue was compiled. Escuder was quick to point to the work done by The Channel Consignment in preparing him for the auction.

Escuder commented: "He is a very balanced colt who has good legs and seems to have a good mind too. The Channel Consignment prep their yearlings well and he is the pick of the sale."

The colt is a half-brother to five winners including the Tiger Hill gelding Kashmir Peak, who won the Grade 2 Summit Juvenile Hurdle for John Quinn. His best sibling on the Flat is Unabated, a daughter of Bated Breath who was trained by Marco Botti to be third in the Group 3 Sirenia Stakes and the Listed Queensferry Stakes.

His dam, Elhareer, by Selkirk, was a winner at two for Brian Meehan, and Escuder was determined to nab her yearling.

"I really loved him and would have made a big effort to get him," said Escuder. "I am lucky I have clients who followed my instinct and supported me to buy this colt."

Don't forget Kendargent

Kendargent has been a little upstaged recently by the younger residents at Haras de Colleville, not least Galiway, but the elder statesman at Guy Pariente's Normandy stud remains one of the best sires in France and the only yearling by the sire of Skalleti, Goken and Restiadargent, among 14 individual Group winners, was one of the highlights of the day.

Consigned by Haras des Faunes, she also had pedigree and looks to recommend her as a half-sister to Cosachope, a daughter of Soave, who won the Group 3 Prix du Bois for Philippe Sogorb.

Leonard Ducass and Jean-Daniel Manceau joined forces to acquire the filly, who is also related to another winner of the Prix du Bois in Livachope, a daughter of Goken. She cost €40,000, which was the second highest price achieved over the two days.

Speaking after signing for her, Ducass was effusive in his praise for Kendargent and the cross which the filly, named Fi Chope, is bred on.

He said: "She is well-bred and we really like Kendargent. The cross with a mare by Indian Rocket is excellent, producing horses like Goken. The dam has already produced a good filly, Cosachope, and the family are precocious. 

"We liked this yearling's physique. We have bought her for a syndicate with an association between some clients of mine and some of Jean Daniel Manceau."

Manceau is part of the management team at Haras des Capucines and involved now in the stud career of Muhaarar, and added: "The filly will stay in France to be trained but we haven't yet decided who will be her trainer."

Family favourites

From one Irish breeze-up consignor returning to the scene of a great find to another, with Con Marnane back among the buyers on Tuesday for a horse whose family he knows inside out.

Marnane was the eagle-eyed purchaser who discovered the sale's other Group 1 winning graduate – Sands Of Mali – and the Bansha House Stables maestro was not leaving La Teste-de-Buch without the half-brother to the horse he holds dear.

Con Marnane returned to Osarus for Sands Of Mali's half-brotherCredit: Laura Green

From the first French crop of Gutaifan, the colt has an impressive name to live up to as well as the exploits of his half-siblings as breeder Simon Urizzi, who works closely with Alain Chopard at the farm to the east of Bordeaux, christened him Man Of Steel. 

Offered by Haras des Faunes, where Gutaifan has stood for the last three seasons following his move from Yeomanstown Stud, he was knocked down to Marnane for €23,000, a little more than the €20,000 it cost him to buy Sands Of Mali here seven years ago.

"I've had all the family and they are really tough horses with great hearts, they just want to go and do it," said Marnane. 

Marnane has bought all three of the winners produced so far by Urizzi's Indian Rocket mare Kadiani, and he also bought her winning Soave half-brother Such A Maj. 

Sands Of Mali, winner of the British Champions Sprint and the Gimcrack Stakes, was a successful graduate of the Bansha breeze-up academy, making £75,000 to the Cool Silk Partnership, but Marnane also bought his older Hurricane Cat half-brother Kadrizzi, who became a four-time winner, and his younger Kheleyf half-sister Flawless Jewel.

She was the most expensive of the siblings as a yearling, costing €70,000 at this sale just days after Sands Of Mali's Gimcrack success. Flawless Jewel was also purchased by the Cool Silk Partnership as a two-year-old, an although she won just once at two, she has made a bright start to her broodmare career. Her first foal. Pillow Talk, by Kodiac, won the Listed Marygate Stakes last season for Karl Burke and the Clipper Logistics crew, while her two-year-old son of Churchill, named El Bodon, runs in the famous silks of Peter Harris. 

Trained by Jane Chapple-Hyam, he was second on his debut at Yarmouth and stepped up to win a Lingfield novice on his second start. He holds an entry in the Middle Park Stakes at the end of the month.

But Sands Of Mali remains the family favourite and the son of Panis, who was a narrow second to Eqtidaar in the Commonwealth Cup, has been impressing buyers with the quality of his first crop at the yearling sales.

Sands Of Mali defeats Harry Angel to win the Group 1 QIPCO British Champions SprintCredit: Edward Whitaker

"Sands Of Mali is a legend of a horse and his yearlings are fabulous; I have a few of them at home and I'm delighted with them," was Marnane's enthusiastic response to questions of a horse who is something of a superstar in these parts.

And as for his half-brother?

Well it's a path that his siblings have trodden successfully.

"He could be a very nice horse next year and will go to a breeze-up in England," added Marnane.

End-of-sale statistics

As the clouds parted and the sun returned to the skies over La Teste-de-Buch, it was totted up that a total of 144 yearlings from the 224 offered during the two sessions had changed hands for an aggregate sum of €1,423,950. With the clearance rate hovering at the 64 per cent mark, it was almost identical to that recorded last year, when 89 of the 132 yearlings offered were sold.

The average and median suffered a decline year-on-year, with the 2023 average of €11,069 dipping four per cent from last year's figure of €11,595, while the median dropped by ten per cent from €10,000 last year to €9,000.

Related story 

Golden Horde and Goken offspring shine on opening day of Osarus Yearling Sale