John Ingles looks ahead to Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale featuring siblings to stars such as Battaash, Field of Gold and Ghaiyyath.
Expect a flying start from Frankel
The way the catalogue is arranged this year means that Frankel has three potential stand-outs among just the first 30 lots of the more than 500 yearlings due to be sold over the three days. Lot 15 is a colt out of Duke of Cambridge Stakes winner Aljazzi which makes him a full brother to the filly, since named Partying but yet to race, who topped last year’s sale when going to Amo Racing for 4.4 million guineas. Not long afterwards, lot 20 is a full brother to the 2022 Arc winner Alpinista whose sister Alpinara, also yet to race, was another big-money purchase for Amo last year when selling for 2.5 million guineas. And then there’s lot 28, a filly out of Anna Law. Her mating with Frankel was a marked departure from the speed influences she’d mainly been sent to previously, resulting most notably in champion sprinter Battaash, by Dark Angel.
First crop of yearlings for Baaeed…
Among stallions with members of their first crop of yearlings going through the ring at Tattersalls this year is Baaeed, Timeform’s highest rated horse in Europe in 2022. After a career in which the son of Sea The Stars was beaten for the only time in the last of his 11 starts, six of his wins coming at Group 1 level, he began his stallion career for Shadwell at a fee of £80,000. With 23 yearlings catalogued in Book 1, he won’t lack for opportunities to make his mark and he has already had a filly sell for €800,000 at Deauville in August. Among Baaeed’s lots to look out for are lot 205, a half-sister to Be Your Best, winner of the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes in the States this year; lot 357, a son of Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner Queen’s Trust; and lot 405, a half-sister to Middle Park Stakes and July Cup winner Ten Sovereigns.
…and for Stradivarius
Another son of Sea The Stars with his first crop of yearlings is top-class stayer Stradivarius, the winner of a record 18 pattern races in his lengthy racing career. He’s represented by just two colts in the sale and they’re quite a contrast in terms of their female families. Lot 271 is out of the Kodiac mare Misscall, a six-furlong winner who has champion sprinter and top sire Danehill down the bottom of her catalogue page. More intriguing though is lot 504 as his pedigree doubles down on stamina which is a rare thing these days. He’s out of the Lingfield Oaks Trial winner Vow which makes him a close relative to Pledgeofallegiance (by Sea The Stars) who won last year’s Ascot Stakes over two and a half miles. Vow is also a half-sister to Beaten Up and Harris Tweed and to the dam of Hamish, all good middle-distance/staying types for William Haggas, so this colt will be a longer-term project for whoever buys him.
Pedigree boosts from two-year-old siblings
A feature of this year’s Book 1 sale are several lots whose pedigrees have received major boosts in recent weeks and months thanks to the Group 1 exploits of their two-year-old siblings. Those updates are so recent that they have all come since the catalogue was printed. Therefore, there’s likely to be plenty of interest in lot 203, a Kodiac half-sister to Prix Morny winner Venetian Sun; lot 393, a filly by Mehmas who’s a full sister to Middle Park Stakes winner Wise Approach; lot 499, a half-brother to Phoenix Stakes winner Power Blue, and, one of the very last lots to go through the ring, 534, a Ghaiyyath half-sister to National Stakes winner Zavateri. Eve Johnson Houghton had picked up Zavateri for just 35,000 guineas from Book 2 of this sale last year, but his half-sister will surely be no such bargain. Wise Approach, on the other hand, had been bought for a million guineas by Godolphin 12 months ago; his dam Sagely had already produced a Middle Park winner in Perfect Power, also successful in the Prix Morny and Commonwealth Cup.
Candidates for top lot?
Between them, Amo Racing and Godolphin were responsible for nine of the top ten lots from Book 1 of last year’s October Yearling sale, and with Coolmore sure to be very active again too, there are a couple of lots in particular who could result in an expensive tug of war between the bloodstock superpowers. The first of those is lot 71, a filly by Dubawi who is a half-sister to Coolmore’s top-class colt St Mark’s Basilica, a champion at both two and three who had fetched 1.3 million guineas at this same sale. St Mark’s Basilica has made an excellent start with his first two-year-olds this year, notably as the sire of Diamond Necklace, winner of Sunday's Prix Marcel Boussac. He has ten yearlings of his own catalogued at this sale, including lot 54, a half-brother to Ballydoyle’s 2019 Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck. Lot 71’s dam Cabaret, a Group 3 winner herself, is also the dam of 2000 Guineas winner Magna Grecia.
Another lot sure to appeal to both Godolphin and Coolmore is lot 304, a son of Wootton Bassett. His sire’s stock has never been higher with the likes of Henri Matisse, Camille Pissarro and Whirl among those winning at the highest level for him this year, though there will be poignancy too surrounding the 30 yearlings in the catalogue by Wootton Bassett whose sale will come just a couple of weeks after their sire died in Australia. Wootton Bassett owes much of his success to matings with daughters of Galileo and lot 304 is another such example as he’s out of Irish 1000 Guineas winner Nightime who was Galileo’s very first Group 1 winner. Nightime has gone on to further fame as a broodmare as she’s the dam of not only Godolphin’s top-class middle-distance horse Ghaiyyath but also Man O’War Stakes winner Zhukova among her eight winners. Ghaiyyath is another young stallion with yearlings of his own in the sale, among them lot 341 who is another with a red-hot pedigree, being a half-sister to this year’s Irish 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes winner Field of Gold.
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