With growing momentum behind ITM’s lucrative IRE Incentive scheme, the annual sales season kicks off on Sept 19 with three-day Tattersalls Ireland September Sale, followed by Goffs Orby Sale Books 1 and 2 (starts Sept 26)
Ireland: Participants in the bloodstock industry tend to be positive folk but even so it’s hard not to be taken by the optimism ahead of this year’s round of Irish yearling sales, fuelled by the ongoing global success of graduates, heightened international interest and momentum behind the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing (ITM) IRE Incentive Scheme.
The Irish yearling sales season opens on September 19 with the three-day Tattersalls Ireland September Sale and follows a week later from September 26 with the two-day Goffs Orby Book 1 Sale ahead of another two days of the rebranded Orby Book 2, formerly known as the Sportsman’s Sale.
Both Tattersalls Ireland and Book 1 of the Orby have received an uptick in entries; the 762 yearlings spread across Parts 1 and 2 at Tattersalls Ireland represents an increase of 25% from last year while entries for the Goffs Orby Sale come in at 543, nearly 30 more than last year.
“The Orby has had a very good year on the track and we’re very pleased with this year’s catalogue,” says Henry Beeby, Goffs group chief executive.
“The stated aim of ITM and Goffs is to persuade more Irish breeders to sell their top tier yearlings in Ireland. There is no need to take them over the water to sell. So we’re delighted to see how the sale has grown. There are definitely more top tier yearlings catalogued this year.”
The success that Beeby alludes to is highlighted by G1 Prix Saint-Alary heroine Jannah Rose, bought by the fledgling operation Al Shira’aa Farm for €650,000 from her breeder Galbertstown Stables in 2021. The daughter of Frankel, who landed a G2 at Deauville in August, wasn’t the only smart purchase made that year by Sheikha Fatima bint Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s Al Shira’aa, which is managed by Kieron Lawlor, since their select haul also included the G3 Ballycorus Stakes winner Ocean Jewel, bought for €230,000 from Whitehall Stud.
Whitehall was also vendor of the recent G2 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes winner Persian Dreamer, a €145,000 purchase by owner Amo Racing with Robson Aguiar last October.
Other established G1 graduates such as Eldar Eldarov, Dubai Mile, California Spangle, Broome and Art Power also continue to hold their own at a high level alongside recent G3 scorers such as Excellent Truth, Insinuendo, Goldana, Magical Sunset and Prosperous Voyage, who also lowered the colours of Inspiral in last year’s G1 Falmouth Stakes.
Of particular note is the growing presence of Orby graduates in the US. The high regard in which American buyers hold European horses is no secret and the teams at Goffs have done what they can to entice such investors over – and with growing success.
In 2021, Florida-based pinhooker Niall Brennan paid €100,000 for the Kingman colt Turf King, who recently made it three from four for trainer Chad Brown with a victory in the G3 Marine Cup at Woodbine. Love Reigns and Twilight Gleaming are also stakes-winning graduates for Stonestreet Farm and Wesley Ward, while those hailing from the former Sportsman’s Sale include cover star Gold Phoenix, the recent winner of the G2 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar.
With an eye on the future, there was also undoubtedly satisfaction over the outcome to the two-year-old turf fillies’ maiden at Saratoga on July 20 in which Kodiac Wintergreen, bought for €160,000 by Mike Akers last year, led home Ever So Sweet and Parade Ring for an Orby 1-2-3.
In recent years, Goffs have chartered a plane to bring American buyers into the sale. That proved to be a seriously successful move – around 35 such investors made purchases at last year’s sale including Jacob West, who also underbid the €2.6 million sale-topping No Nay Never sister to Blackbeard.
Their presence contributed to an overall Orby Sale turnover of €50,354,500 and average of €121,337, up 24% and 11% from 2021. And now Goffs are hoping to extend their reach further this year via a different approach.
“This year we are funding buyers’ travel through our own travel agent,” explains Beeby. “We are saying to people, if you want to come, talk to our agent Eimear Hannon and we will organise your flight from wherever you want. That way, people can be more flexible and I think we’ll be able to get more people in.”
The company’s Tom Taaffe, who has played an integral role in attracting international investors to the complex, concurs. “From what we’re hearing, there’ll be more new faces from the US than ever before,” he says. “The buyers realise the value and quality that’s on offer and as we know, the turf horse in America is gaining in popularity.
“A number have already booked to come over, and we have some very good people coming this year – some interesting trainers and representatives of some of the larger syndicates.
“Vendors have given us more horses than before and they will be rewarded with a big, international buying bench. We’re also expecting an an increased presence from Saudi-based buyers.”
All yearlings offered at Books 1 and 2 will be eligible for the new Two Million Series, which consists of Europe’s richest two-year-old Race, the Goffs Million, on the eve of the 2024 sale. Run over 7f at the Curragh, the race carries a prize fund of €1,000,000. The same card will also feature the Goffs 500, run over 6f with a value of €500,000.
The company has also launched the Goffs €50,000 Bonus Series, which is a programme of ten diverse two-year-old maidens run at a variety of Irish racecourses for sale graduates. Connections of the winning horse in each race will receive a €50,000 bonus.
As to be expected, the catalogue features representation from all of Europe’s major sires including Galileo. The multiple champion sire has just a handful of registered yearlings in his last crop and two of them, namely colts out of the Classic-placed Wind Chimes (lot 179) and the G3-winning Bye Bye Birdie (269) are catalogued to sell.
An eye-catching collection of Wootton Bassett yearlings features a colt out of G1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Albigna (205), a daughter of G2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner Curvy (307) and a half-brother to G1 Prix de Diane heroine Channel (485). Frankel’s quartet of entries includes a half-sister to G2 winner Tilsit who is out of a half-sister to Kingman (525).
Those other entries with Classic and G1 connections include a Sea The Stars half-sister to State Of Rest to be offered by her breeder Tinnakill House (48), a Kingman half-brother to Saxon Warrior (504), a Camelot half-brother to Poetic Flare (500), a No Nay Never half-brother to Mother Earth and the aforementioned Ocean Jewel (498), a Sea The Stars half-brother to Phoenix Of Spain (488), Night Of Thunder half-sister to Lucky Vega (37), a Bungle Inthejungle brother to Winter Power (145) and a New Bay sister to the brilliant Saffron Beach (356).
The Mehmas half-brother to unbeaten G2 Coventry Stakes hero River Tiber (150) should also command attention alongside the Dark Angel three-parts brother to recent G1 Beverly D Stakes heroine Fev Rover (466). American Pharoah is also well represented thanks to a half-brother to French G1 winner Onesto (2) and a colt out of Gleneagles’ top-class sister Happily (397).
Tattersalls Ireland: something for all budgets
The Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale is also on something of a roll as the source of no fewer than 58 two-year-old winners up to mid-August. Five of them, namely Folgaria, Graceful Thunder, Man With The Plan, Myconian and Tiger Bell, are stakes winners, and complement a list of older graduates that includes the G1 American Oaks heroine Rhea Moon, top Hong Kong performer Waikuku and Group-race regular Layfayette, who landed his latest success in the G3 Royal Whip recently at the Curragh.
As a measure of the value on offer at some of these sales, Rhea Moon was bought for just £24,000 by the BBA Ireland at the Newmarked-based edition of the sale in 2021 while Layfayette realised just €4,000 when sold to Emmanuel Hughes in 2018.
That’s not to say it’s a bargain hunters’ paradise, however. As far as trade goes, it’s on an upward curve, with last year’s aggregate of €12,421,000 falling only second to the year before. The median was a record €26,000 while six yearlings made €100,000 or more.
“The numbers we have catalogued for this year are back where we want them after Covid,” says Tattersalls Ireland chief executive Simon Kerins. “It’s always been a sale that been people have enjoyed attending. I asked several last year why they liked it so much and they said that it was a good sale, always fun and there’s always lots of winners to be found in it.
“Some very good horses have come out of it over the years – British trainers have done very well and the breeze-up boys have also done extremely well buying out of it.”
He adds: "We get plenty of forward horses put forward to us. People do send us two-year-old types but we do try to get something for all budgets.
"You have an agent like Paul Moroney, who has done well buying horses here in the past to go to his brother Mike in Australia. And the likes of Dick Turpin. Layfayette, Waikuku, Rhea Moon – they are all good graduates of the sale who were progressive types.”
As ever, there are a number of entries to the sale who catch the eye on paper. Lot 91, a daughter of Inns Of Court, came close to receiving a major update recently when her half-brother Spycatcher fell only a nostril short of victory in the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest.
She is offered by her breeder Tally-Ho Stud, also the vendor of a Mehmas sister to Listed winner Mehmento (209). Taroka Stud sends through a Harry Angel half-sister to G2 winner Buratino (42) while Peter Nolan offers a Dandy Man brother to another high-class 2yo in Dandalla (68).
A powerful draft from Baroda Stud, meanwhile, is headlined a Churchill half-brother to the Arc and King George heroine Danedream (95) and a Wootton Bassett granddaughter of top US racemare Switch (468). A similarly prolific draft from The Castlebridge Consignment includes a Kingman daughter of G2 Lowther Stakes winner Lucky Kristale (272).
Tara Stud also sends through a half-brother to G1-winning sprinter A Case Of You (222) from the first crop of its young sire River Boyne.
Each yearling is eligible for the €250,000 Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sales Stakes, run at the Curragh in September 2024. The longest running race of its kind, prize-money is paid down to tenth place and the winning vendor receives use of an Overlander two-stall horsebox for two years.
Last year’s renewal was won by Streets Of Gold, a mere £27,000 purchase by trainer Eve Johnson Houghton who has gone on to win £260,407 in prize-money.
On top of that, both sales offer ample opportunity when it comes to the popular ITM IRE Incentive Scheme. To recap, the scheme awards a sales voucher of €10,000 to the owners of Irish-bred winners of selected races. Qualified horses have to be nothing more than Irish-bred – in other words, carry the IRE suffix – and Foal Levy compliant.
They are easily identifiable at the sales by a green ‘IRE incentive’ hip sticker and are also noted as 'IRE Qualified' on the sales catalogue page.
In return, connections have the option of numerous scheduled races to pick from in Britain and Ireland. More than 200 were scheduled this year and to date, over €3 million has been awarded to the winners. In light of the quality on offer again at this year’s Irish sales, another sizeable amount is likely to head the way of buyers next season as well.
• Visit the Goffs website and the Tattersalls Ireland website
• Visit the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing website
IRE Incentive scheme a major bonus for owners of Irish-breds
Class and value: why Irish yearling auctions are an attractive option – year after year
Breeders’ Cup Challenge focus: ‘One in a million’ – Kieren Fallon on superstar filly Islington
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