John Ingles looks at some of the top lots from the first domestic yearling sale of the year which took place at Doncaster this week.
The first of this year’s domestic yearling sales took place at Doncaster in the past week with 333 lots being sold over two days at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale.
Interestingly, it was the daughter of a sire with his first crop of yearlings this year, rather than one of the more established names, who narrowly topped the sale. Shadwell Estate were the purchasers at £190,000 and it was a case of the buyers supporting their own stallion as the filly is a daughter of their Sprint Cup winner Minzaal who also won the Gimcrack Stakes at two.
The filly’s dam Hateya had a Timeform rating of 103 and won four races at seven furlongs and a mile for Jim Boyle, notably a listed race at Bro Park in Sweden. There’s plenty of black type further back in the family, mainly for Juddmonte, including the one-time smart performer Nostrum, winner of the Somerville Tattersall Stakes.
Owner Phil Cunningham is enjoying a good season, notably with Two Tribes who landed the International Stakes and Stewards’ Cup on consecutive weekends earlier in the summer. Cunningham’s 2000 Guineas winner Cockney Rebel came from this sale, and this year he was the buyer of four of the top ten lots, including the sale’s top-priced colt, a son of Showcasing – sire of shock Sussex Stakes winner Qirat - bought for £180,000. He’s speedily bred as he’s a half-brother to Kevin Ryan’s smart sprinter Washington Heights, a listed winner at York this summer.
Cunningham’s other notable purchases were a filly by Dark Angel, already named Tippytwo – a full sister to 2000 Guineas runner-up Tip Two Win - for £150,000, a colt from the first crop of Perfect Power for £140,000 and a filly by leading first-season sire Starman for £125,000.
Starman was responsible for another of the sale’s more expensive lots, a filly out of useful five-furlong performer Corazon, who sold to Rabbah Bloodstock for £130,000. Starman has had a couple of notable winners in the past week, with Venetian Sun keeping her unbeaten record in the Prix Morny and his son Into The Sky making a spectacular winning debut at Newbury.
Cunningham’s Starman filly is out of a sister to Cornwallis Stakes winner Electric Waves, while his Perfect Power colt is bred to be equally speedy, being a half-brother to Well Done Fox who was runner-up in the Flying Childers as well as the Cornwallis.
Owners Bond Thoroughbred had a frustrating Ebor meeting with Air Force One, Big Leader, Pocklington and Maranoa Charlie all going close in the black and yellow colours in their respective races, the last-named finishing third in the City of York Stakes.
They were the purchasers of a filly by Havana Grey who was jointly the second most expensive lot at £180,000 and a colt by Minzaal’s sire Mehmas for £150,000. The filly, who is due to bet trained by Bryan Smart, is from the family of numerous two-year-old winners and is the first foal out of her dam Cotai Beauty who was herself a five-furlong winner at Lingfield at two from just three starts.
The Mehmas colt, who’ll go to Geoff Oldroyd, is a brother to East Tyrone, winner of a York nursery last year for Kevin Ryan, and a half-brother to this season’s Queen Mary runner-up Flowerhead.
Richard Hughes made his Group 1 breakthrough as a trainer when No Half Measures caused a surprise in the July Cup. Hughes had bought the daughter of Cable Bay for £34,000 at this same sale three years ago but this time was the purchaser of a couple of the top ten lots, a filly by Blue Point for £175,000 and a colt for £135,000 who was another by Minzaal to sell well.
Hughes knows the pedigree of the Blue Point filly very well from his riding days as her dam Fig Roll and grandam Cake were useful sprinters trained by Richard Hannon senior and he was successful on both. Fig Roll’s winners including useful five-furlong performer Al Raya and Hallasan who was one of the most expensive lots at this sale two years ago and won last season’s Weatherby’s Scientific £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes at Doncaster.
Clive Cox won the associated sales race, the Harry’s Half Million, for the third year running at York recently, this time with Middleham Park’s Song of The Clyde, an £85,000 purchase at Doncaster twelve months ago. He has the same race in mind for the colt he bought for the same owners for £105,000. The son of Wootton Bassett (himself a winner of the same sales race) boasted one of the best pedigrees in the sale and one which had a major recent update when the dam’s half-brother Diego Velazquez won the Prix Jacques le Marois.
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