Timely update leads to Ballincurrig House Stud's Old Persian colt topping Tattersalls Ireland
One Rathbarry Stud sire in particular has been generating many of the headlines at the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale but he ceded a little of the spotlight to another on Wednesday afternoon, when a foal from the second crop of Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic winner Old Persian topped the charts.
Ballincurrig House Stud offered the half-brother to Slade Steel, who just last Sunday made a winning debut over hurdles at Naas for Henry de Bromhead and Robcour.
Kevin and Anna Ross engaged in a bidding battle with Jamie Codd and it was the couple who eventually won out at €60,000, making the February-foaled bay the most expensive foal of the week by the Dubawi horse who also won the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes, the Great Voltigeur and King Edward VII Stakes (both Group 2 contests) for Godolphin and Charlie Appleby.
It was sire power as much as the individual that prompted them to push so hard to secure the foal.
"I really like the Dubawi sire line and I've been keen to buy a foal by Old Persian, so I've been looking out for one for a while now," said Kevin Ross. "Old Persian was a tough and sound racehorse and this foal was a good model with a very nice walk."
Slade Steel's Naas success both enhanced the foal's appeal and increased his price.
Ross added: "His half-brother looks a very promising horse, he was a good maiden hurdle winner so we had to push the boat out to buy him but he is a lovely foal."
The foal, who has older half-siblings by Shirocco, Order Of St George and Poet's Word, was purchased on behalf of an Irish client.
Dream result for O'Donovan
For much of the day it seemed that Blue Bresil would actually sire the session topper as the first lot into the ring on Wednesday morning, a son of the sizzling stallion, brought a winning bid of €55,000 from Peter Vaughan of Moanmore Stables.
A strong bay, like Blue Bresil himself, he is the third foal out of Oi Oi, and will be offered for resale by his Kilkenny-based new owner.
Vaughan said: "The aim is to bring him back for a premier store sale, as long as he stays in one piece! He has a very good pedigree and appears to move well. I bought a Walk In The Park on Monday and a Blue Bresil yesterday, and my son [Paddy] bought a Walk In The Park filly."
The sale was a significant result for the colt's breeder Liam O'Donovan from Kildangan in Kildare, who keeps three National Hunt broodmares and sourced Oi Oi privately from her trainer Jonjo O'Neill.
"You can only dream of things like this," beamed a stunned O'Donovan, who was still processing the sale. "I'm thrilled to bits, just over the moon. It's unbelievable."
Oi Oi is an Oscar half-sister to Alfie Sherrin, who won the Grade 3 JLT Speciality Handicap Chase at Cheltenham and was third in the Irish Grand National for O'Neill and JP McManus.
Her black-type half-siblings don't end there; Kimberlite Candy and Hawkes Point were both victorious in the Classic Chase. Her own second dam, Castlemartin, is a half-sister to Whitbread and Mackeson winner Beau Ranger and to Beau, who won the Reynoldstown Novices' Chase and the Whitbread.
Having produced foals by Shirocco and Harzand, O'Donovan decided to send Oi Oi to Blue Bresil and elaborated on the reasons for doing so.
He said: "He is a very fashionable sire and is a very good outcross for an Oscar mare. I have a filly foal bred on the same cross and her dam is a three-parts sister to the Gold Cup winner Synchronised [made €16,000 to Conor O'Brien]."
Rathbarry on top of the world
The sales capped an incredible week in the ring for the Cashman family's Cork farm and Paul Cashman reflected on the insatiable demand for progeny of Blue Bresil, which saw buyers splash out an astonishing €2,009,500 for 55 foals by the sire, a figure that made him leading sire by aggregate.
"It has been unbelievable, it is the stuff of dreams," said Cashman. "He is a super sire to have and everyone who has one by him, they say how well natured the horses are; he throws a lovely physical and they have great minds. We are lucky to have him."
He was speaking after purchasing a Vadamos colt out of Grade 3 Cork Stayers Novice Hurdle and Shannon Spray Mares' Novice Hurdle winner Well Set Up for €28,000. The third foal out of the mare, who is a Gold Well half-sister to Grade 2 winner On The Blind Side, was consigned by Raheendaw Farm for Emily Kilcoyne.
He is the first foal by Vadamos, who stands at Grange Stud, to join Cashman, and he said: "The stallion is doing nothing wrong and he had a nice bumper winner [Big Dee at Down Royal on Saturday] the other day. For a Monsun stallion he had plenty of speed, he is probably the fastest by the sire and was a champion miler in France, he has every chance."
Cashman knows very well just how talented this foal's family is having won a five-year-old maiden at Kilfeacle with the son of Stowaway.
He added: "This colt comes from a good home, he had a great prep and I'm delighted to buy a nice horse from the farm. We'll be looking to come back here with him."
Well Set Up and On The Blind Side were bred by the late Jean Kilcoyne and it was a bittersweet sale for her daughter Emily, who is keeping the flame burning.
"She passed away three years ago and we have kept the line going, so this means a lot," she said. "The Cashmans bought On The Blind Side from Mum so it has gone full circle. I have just the one mare and a filly in training from a different family, and we are delighted with this result."
Leah Burgess and her partner Stephen Keogh consigned the Vadamos colt for Kilcoyne, who is her cousin, and it was a special achievement for the family, she explained.
"Jean was known among many in the industry and she encouraged us all to be involved," said Burgess. "Emily and her dad Des were lucky enough to race this mare while Jean was alive, and they have kept this family going.
"The mare has made a very good go of it so far and she is back in-foal to Vadamos. The colt is a May foal and has always been a nice sort, with a lovely attitude, a good way of going and always has right from when he was born."
Vadamos stands alongside Walk In The Park, who was the other twin colossus of the sale, and his 33 foals sold over the four sessions generated €1,303,500 of trade, with his average of €39,500 the best of any stallion with more than three foals sold. In total Blue Bresil and Walk In The Park accounted for €3,313,500 sales, which comes in at 33 per cent of the foal sale turnover.
The Dubawi line was doubly represented in the top results of the day with Boardsmill Stud's King George and Prince of Wales's Stakes winner Poet's Word siring a colt from Rockton Stud who was bought by the renowned judge Richard Rohan for €26,000.
Out of La Scala Diva, he is only her fourth foal and already a half-brother to two winners by Getaway, headed by Pats Choice, a winning hurdler and chaser for Gordon Elliott who was second in the Greenogue Novice Handicap Chase at Fairyhouse.
His second dam, Shaping, is a Deep Run full-sister to Lanzarote Hurdle winner Egypt Mill Prince.
Rohan said of his purchase: "He has great movement, and a fresh up-to-date pedigree, the mare is two from two and one has black type and by an improving stallion.
"I just thought that he is a very nice horse, I loved him when he came up to the ring and loved him when he went through the ring. It was a bit more than I thought I'd have to give for him."
That sale contributed to a total of €643,700 spent on 40 Poet's Word foals over the four sessions, the fourth highest amount after Blue Bresil, Walk In The Park and Crystal Ocean.
It was a pleasing sign for John Flood of Boardsmill Stud.
He said: "He throws a very consistent type of foal and it is good to see there is still demand from the big buyers for his stock. They seem to like the yearlings and two-year-olds they have at home, which is why they are coming back and buying his foals."
Poet's Word spent the first season of his stud career at Shadwell and from the resulting 20 foals, now three-year-olds, the results are very promising.
Flood added: "He has six winners and five placed horses from just 12 runners, which gives us lots of encouragement for his first Boardsmill crop who are now two-year-olds and he has 180 of them."
End of an Era
No fanfare was sounded nor was there a solemn announcement, but those dotted in the seats around the Tattersalls Ireland sales ring and standing in the gangway knew they were witnessing a small piece of bloodstock auction history on Wednesday morning with the arrival of lot 782 into the ring.
Offered by his breeder Peter Tyrell, the bay colt is the last son of Doyen to be born and the final colt foal by the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner to come under the hammer.
The April-born foal was the final of 271 offspring of Doyen to be sold in the Fairyhouse ring and those whose hoofprints the foal confidently strode after, include the stars conceived during Doyen's 11 years at the Hickey family's Sunnyhill Stud.
Last season's Grade 1 Manifesto Novices' Chase winner Banbridge was sold by the late Kieran Lennon as a yearling here to Ian Ferguson, while Beacon Edge, who earned his Grade 1 triumph across the road at Fairyhouse in the Drinmore Novice Chase for Noel Meade, had his first visit to Fairyhouse as a foal.
Andy Dufresne, who at £330,000 is the most expensive pointer to come to auction by Doyen when selling at the Cheltenham Festival Sale of 2018, also came through this sale as a foal when bought by Richard Rohan for €10,000.
It was fitting Tyrell's colt would be the one to bring the hammer down for the final time on a Doyen at Fairyhouse as he is bred on the same Doyen - Presenting cross as both Banbridge and Beacon Edge.
"I am delighted to have bred and sold the last colt foal by Doyen," remarked Tyrell, who is based outside historic Abbeyleix in County Laois, not a million miles away from the county's landmark Rock Of Dunamase, from which the colt's dam, Rose Of Dunamase, derives her name.
The beautifully bred son of Sadler's Wells was 22 with his fertility declining last year, so when Tyrell informed Michael Hickey that Rose Of Dunamase had been scanned in foal, Hickey told him that the foal was one of only two conceived by the Royal Ascot winner.
"Michael was great to deal with and very upfront about Doyen," said Tyrell. "I'm involved in point-to-pointing and Doyen had some nice maiden winners coming through, he was a very attractive and commercial proposition so I was really pleased she went in foal."
A timely black-type update for the pedigree arrived last month when the colt's five-year-old half-brother Rock House, by Westerner, was third in the Grade 2 Persian War Novices' Hurdle for Dan Skelton.
He is the first track winner for the mare, who is from the family of Grade 1 winner Latest Exhibition, but she has two more winners between the flags, including Rock On Cowboy, who won for Tyrell and Willie Murphy, Rose Of Dunamase's handler during her successful pointing career.
Tyrell bought the Presenting mare as a foal at the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale and she has a three-year-old full-sister to Rock House and a Snow Sky two-year-old full-brother to Rock On Cowboy.
Her Doyen colt foal made €15,000 to Eoin Lowry on Wednesday, not the highest price of the day but definitely one of the most significant of the week.
Sale statistics
The fourth and final session of foals recorded turnover of €786,100 from 82 sold out of 175 offered, giving a clearance rate of 47 per cent. The session average was €9,587, with the median coming in at €7,000.
Overall, the four sessions amassed €10,185,100, which represents a year-on-year decline of 18 per cent from last year's total of €12,440,400. A major contributory factor in that figure was the fall in the number of foals sold, which was down from 685 last year to 589 this week and from a smaller catalogue than last year; 969 opposed to 1,151 in 2023. The clearance rate of 66 per cent was comparable to the rate from 2022, which was 68 per cent.
The average figure dipped by a single percentage point from €18,161 in 2022 to €17,900, but the drop in median was almost on a par with the decline in the aggregate, with it falling by 17 per cent from €14,500 to €12,000.
Across the four days nine foals made at least €80,000, which is a sale record, while a total of 41 sold for at least €50,000, which equalled the previous best total set in 2021.
Yellowford and Drumlin were the leading consignors of foals across the four sessions, with the Motherway family selling 25 for a total of €715,500 and an average of €28,620. Next in line was Michael Moore's Ballincurrig House Stud with total sales of €574,000 for 27 foals, sold at an average of €21,259. It was also an excellent week for Denise O'Brien's Clonbonny Stud, which was third in the leading consignors list, grossing €452,500 for 17 foals sold at an average of €16,759.
The biggest-spending buyer of foals was Timmy Hillman of Castledillon Stud, who spent €309,000 on seven foals at an average €44,143. Ian Ferguson was the second biggest purchaser with an outlay of €262,000 on 11 foals at an average of €23,818, while Richard Frisby spent €243,500 on half a dozen foals, giving an average of €40,500.
The November National Hunt Sale concludes on Thursday with sessions dedicated to yearlings and mares. The action at Tattersalls Ireland begins at 10.30am.
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Blue Bresil and Walk In The Park dominate Tattersalls Ireland proceedings
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