Tattersalls Book One: Three who could prove bargain buys

Lot 104 Wootton Bassett x Simply A Star – 280,000gns to Highclere

What’s seldom is wonderful and the opportunity to acquire a filly from the Urban Sea dynasty is as seldom as it gets. Add to the fact that agents everywhere are frantically trying to get their hands on a Wootton Bassett, and Simply A Star’s filly may have just slipped through the cracks.

Relatively speaking, a winning bid of ‘just’ 280,000gns represents immense value for a filly who is a valuable commodity no matter what she achieves on the track. Her dam Simply A Star is rightly retained by her owner breeders so this filly’s new connections can rest easy knowing she will continue to be given every chance at stud.

Simply A Star is already proven as a broodmare having produced the highly tried and multiple stakes placed A New Dawn (Zoffany) who raced in the colours of Scott Heider. An ambitious owner breeder, it should come as no surprise Heider has selected elite mates for A New Dawn’s first two covers. A yearling filly by Kingman is heading into training with Joseph O'Brien and a weanling by the stallion poised to have his best season yet and the sire of this very value pick, Wootton Bassett, only enhance this filly’s prospects in her second career. Her second dam Cherry Hinton, a daughter of Urban Sea and therefore a half-sister to Galileo, Sea The Stars et al, has bred seven winners. Six of them have earned black type. The best part? All six are fillies. However, let’s not retire her before she has had a saddle on her back. Given her parentage, there’s every chance this filly will prove another star in her great grandam’s galaxy.

Lot 267 Teofilo x Bizzi Lizzi – 100,000gns to Sheikh Rashid al Saud

Unbeaten Champion Two Year Old Teofilo needs no introduction in these columns but just in case – Subjectivist, Havana Gold, Nations Pride, Tawkeel, Pleascach, Cross Counter. Not convinced? His daughters to date, from just 8 crops, have produced six Group 1 winners each one worthy of a mention – Dreamloper, Mac Swiney, Coroebus, Anisette, Cachet and Toskana Belle. What do they have in common? Very little bar their G1 accolades which makes Teofilo even more exciting as a broodmare sire prospect in turn making this filly a valuable broodmare prospect herself regardless of her racing career.

This filly has it all on the sire’s side but what about her dam? From the very first crop of Champion Sprinter Muhaarar, Bizzi Lizzi only managed three career starts but two were wins with the first coming at the expense of Listed winner Declaring Love. It’s safe to assume she possessed more ability than she had the opportunity to show for whatever reason but regardless, her pedigree is enough to warrant selection as a bargain buy. Bizzi Lizzi’s first three dams are all Group One winners with her third dam being Meon Valley’s decorated foundation mare Colorspin.

The story goes that class can skip a generation and this filly is bred on the lucrative Teofilo x Oasis Dream cross which operates at a 24% strike rate for stakes winners to foals (her damsire Muhaarar is by Oasis Dream). If 100,000gns can ever be considered a safe bet, this might be it.

Lot 499 Kingman x Model Guest – 57,000gns to Johnston Racing

The first foal out of a Group 3 placed juvenile, this filly’s dam Model Guest was just half a length behind Shambolic (Shamardal), most recently of Ylang Ylang (Frankel) fame. Shambolic’s very own yearling by Kingman (a colt) sold for 425,000gns earlier on the ‘card’. What difference half a length makes. There are multiple variables of course, not least the stark trajectories both mare’s racing careers subsequently embarked on. Shambolic held her form earning small black type but retired OR96, while Model Guest dropped to an official rating of 79. That said, sire power is supposed to count for a lot and Kingman could hardly be having a better season. Second in command to only Frankel at Juddmonte, he would be worthy of anchor status on any roster.

A substantial stud fee of £150,000 is enough to indicate this filly’s ‘lowly’ price tag of just over a third of his fee could represent a serious bargain in due course. Model Guest’s admirably consistent form over 23 starts is indicative of a filly who had more tenacity than talent but her Group 3 placing tells us she possessed enough class to warrant a 330,000gns price tag carrying this filly. This filly is only her first foal, so there is ample time for her breeders to lament her departure yet still reap the rewards if she proves to be the one that got away.

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