Casamento Colt Tops DBS Opener

With the high-achieving Shamardal enjoying arguably his best season to date, it's the perfect time for the first yearlings of his Group 1-winning son Casamento (Ire) to be appearing in sales rings and one of the 20 catalogued (lot 63) for the DBS Premier Sale duly led proceedings on Tuesday when selling for £200,000 to the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Gay and David O'Callaghan of Yeomanstown Stud had selected the son of the Bahamian Bounty (GB) mare Three Times (GB) as a foal for €105,000 (£87,500) at Goffs' November Sale and the April-born colt justified their faith in him when reappearing in the ring at Doncaster.

Usually opting to buy the stock of proven sires, Mark Richards of the Hong Kong Jockey Club explained his departure from standard practice, saying: “Casamento is a son of Shamardal and Shamardal is as hot as you can find right now in Hong Kong, thanks to [his multiple Group 1-winning son] Able Friend (Aus). We do usually like to go with proven sires, but this was just a cracking colt and I thought this was a typical Shamardal type. There's enough black type on his page to give us hope that he has some potential.”

Those black-type-earning members of the family include the Sun Chariot S. winner Talented (GB) (Bustino {GB}) and the Queen's Derby-placed and Dante S. winner Carlton House (Street Cry {Ire}), who raced successfully in Britain and Australia.

Richards added, “We cherry-pick a little bit at the sales. We're not just looking for a 2-year-old type, we need a horse who is more than that.”

All nine of the Casamento yearlings offered through the first session sold for an average price of £55,667 from an initial stud fee of €5,000. The G1 Racing Post Trophy winner stands alongside Shamardal at Darley's Kildangan Stud in Ireland.

The session-topper was one of nine yearlings to breach the six-figure mark on day one to boost turnover to £8,286,000, an improvement of 6%. The average rose by 3.9% to £39,085, and the median was also up, by 7.1%, at £30,000. The clearance rate was again very encouraging at nearly 88%, with 212 of the 242 lots offered finding a buyer.

Shadwell Recruits to the Fore…

Shadwell's representative Angus Gold had a busy day signing for 10 yearlings for a total of £956,000. A decent percentage of last year's expenditure at DBS has been recouped by Tasleet (GB) (Showcasing {GB}), whose three wins–including Saturday's DBS Premier Yearling S.–and Group 2 placing have earned Sheikh Hamdan's colt more than £200,000 in prize-money. He was a £52,000 purchase at this sale in 2014 and will eventually be joined in the Shadwell colours by the most recent recruits, including lot 58, a first-crop son of Nathaniel (Ire), who was knocked down for £190,000. Bred by Peter Winkworth from the treble-winning Danehill mare Tesary (GB), he was consigned by Hillwood Stud.

After signing the docket in the company of Nathaniel's former trainer John Gosden, Gold said, “The Nathaniels I've seen I've liked very much and this one is a nice cross with a Danehill mare with a good pedigree behind him. I imagine he'll be trained by John Gosden.”

There's every indication that team Shadwell will be back in action Wednesday, with Gold commenting, “From my first looks at the horses, my gut feeling is that [Wednesday] could be stronger. This is a remarkable sale that just continues to churn out winners. Tasleet is typical of a Donny horse–he's small, but he's very tough.”

Gold later outlasted Matt Coleman and trainer James Given when going to the same price for lot 120, a colt by Dutch Art (GB) out of the G3 Ballyogan S. winner Age Of Chivalry (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) from Highclere Stud. His shopping list also included a Zebedee (GB) half-brother to multiple group winner Kool Kompany (Ire) (Jeremy), whom Tally-Ho Stud had bought as a foal for €72,000 and resold for £140,000.

Leading Lady a Delight for Grangemore…

All bar two of the top 10 lots of the opening day of trade were colts, with the most expensive filly being a daughter of the perennially popular Dark Angel (Ire) (lot 183) and the first offering at DBS by Grangemore Stud.

Various members of the O'Callaghan family again proved their pinhooking prowess throughout the day– father-and-son team Gay and David O'Callaghan of Yeomanstown Stud bought the top lot as a foal–but this time it was another of Gay's sons, Guy, who set up on his own at Grangemore last season, enjoying a profitable result. A 30,000gns pinhook from Tattersalls' December Sale, the filly, out of the Bertolini mare Bun Penny (GB) and from the family of Bahamian Bounty (GB), improved her value dramatically when knocked down to Ross Doyle for £180,000.

“She's a big, strong forward filly and she's done so well this year,” said Guy O'Callaghan, whose family stands Dark Angel at Yeomanstown and bred his daughter, Saturday's sensational G1 Nunthorpe S. winner Mecca's Angel (Ire). “The stallion has had another great year and she was just a wonderful filly with a really good temperament.”

Ross Doyle concurred with this assessment and added, “She was a gorgeous filly by one of the best stallions and one we've been very lucky with. Richard Hannon will train her for Al Shaqab Racing and he was mad about her. She looks really racy.”

Grangemore Stud has another three yearlings to go under the hammer today, including lot 372, a brother to another of Dark Angel's top performers this year in Birchwood (Ire), the winner of the G2 Superlative S. for Godolphin and Richard Fahey.

O'Callaghan continued, “This is the first draft I've brought here, and with this filly today plus Birchwood's brother, I've been looking forward to it and stressing about it at the same time. This is the biggest week of the year for me and I'm delighted with today's result.”

Peter & Ross Doyle topped the buyers' sheet with 18 yearlings bought for £1,256,000.

New Pairing Goes Dutch…

Experienced agent Geoffrey Howson went into business with his young sidekick Matthew Houldsworth in June and the newly christened partnership of Howson & Houldsworth Bloodstock secured one of the session's top lots for owners Tony Wechsler and Ann Plummer.

The hammer came down on the Trickledown Stud-consigned Dutch Art (GB) colt (lot 140) at £140,000 and he will join the Lambourn stable of Charlie Hills, who has tasted success this season with another colt by the same stallion, Dutch Connection (GB), winner of the G3 Jersey S. at Royal Ascot.

Geoffrey Howson commented: “Charlie [Hills] and I both felt that he reminded us quite a bit of Dutch Connection. He's a wonderful walker with a great head and, being by Dutch Art out of an Oasis Dream mare, his pedigree is all speed.”

The mare in question is 7-year-old Apace (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}), who was bought as a yearling for 350,000gns by Cheveley Park Stud and won two of her 10 starts for Sir Michael Stoute. Her first foal, the juvenile Curtain Call (GB) (Acclamation {GB}), is trained for Cheveley Park by Richard Fahey and won on debut over five furlongs at Nottingham in July.

A total of five yearlings by Dutch Art were offered in the session, with all sold for an average of £100,600.

Caspar's Girl to Wentworth…

Caspar Netscher (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) won last season's GII Nearctic S. at Woodbine after returning to training and has only three offspring to show from his aborted stud career at Morristown Lattin Stud.

One of those, lot 81, a French-bred filly out of an Astronomer Royal half-sister to Tagula (Ire), was his sole representative in the Doncaster catalogue and was consigned by Chasemore Farm for Normandy-based Ecurie du Grand Chene. The first foal of the unraced Twin Love (Fr) will eventually be running in the same racing silks as her sire after being bought by Tom Malone on behalf of Caspar Netscher's owner Charles Wentworth for £50,000.

“We were so lucky with Caspar Netscher and she's one of only three yearlings by him so we decided we'd have to have a little go,” said Malone, who bought the five-time Group winner at Tattersalls' Craven Breeze-up Sale for 65,000gns.

“If she's anywhere near as classy as her sire then we'll be very happy indeed.”

A colt by Caspar Netscher out of Win Cash (Ire) (Alhaarth) is catalogued to sell as lot 2 at the forthcoming Goffs Orby Sale Sept. 29.

Hughes Has Inside Line on Sires…

The recently retired champion jockey Richard Hughes, who made his first yearling purchase at the Arqana August Sale, was back in action at Doncaster buying through agents Grant Pritchard-Gordon and Stephen Hillen. His three purchases were all by young sires he knew well: lot 15 fetched £35,000 and is a colt by freshman Sir Prancealot on whom Hughes won the listed National S.; lot 106, who made £10,000, is a filly by Zebedee, the winner of six races with Hughes, including the G2 Flying Childers S., while lot 138, who fetched £35,000, is a colt by freshman sire Harbour Watch (Ire), who posted two of his three wins in the hands of the dual champion.

The DBS Premier Sale continues at 10 a.m. today (local time) and is followed tomorrow by the one-day Silver Sale.