By Emma Berry
Dual Listed winner Easton Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) set a new record top price for the Tattersalls February Sale, selling for 500,000gns to lead a strong day's trade dominated by breeding prospects at Park Paddocks.
Agent Mick Flanagan had the final say for the 4-year-old filly (lot 100) but he was chased all the way by Arrowfield Stud's Paul Messara who had flown over from Australia for the sale but lost out on the day's star prize, offered by the Castlebridge Consignment on behalf of owners Al Shaqab Racing and Ritchie Fiddes. Messara wasn't Flanagan's only rival in a lively bidding round for the grey sprinter, with Cheveley Park Stud's Chris Richardson also getting involved, along with Easton Angel's original owner Ritchie Fiddes, Jake Warren and Daniel Creighton.
“I came here to buy her as a breeding prospect but the options are open as I'm told there's still plenty of racing in her,” Flanagan said. “She's a good, quick filly with a great physical and she moves like a panther. She's been bought for a new client based in Europe so she will stay here.”
Trained by Michael Dods, Easton Angel won her first two starts for Fiddes and then finished runner-up to Acapulco (Scat Daddy) in the G2 Queen Mary S. at Royal Ascot after being part-sold to Al Shaqab. At three she added victories in the Listed Westow S. and Listed Scurry S. to her record.
Despite being the day's top price by a wide margin, Easton Angel was one of five lots to sell for a six-figure sum, a mark reached by only one horse at this sale last year. It wasn't just the session-topper that set a new record. With another day of action still to come, the turnover of 3,273,300gns was also a February record––up 20% on last year's previous best aggregate––while the average of 20,849gns was up by 92% on 2016 and the median also rose, by 40%, at 7,000gns. A total of 157 of the 185 horses offered on Thursday were sold, a clearance rate of 85% which was also an improvement on last year.
The sole offering from Anna Sundstrom's Coulonces Consignment was Dressed In Fur (Ire) (Excellent Art {GB})––sensible advice in the fierce Newmarket wind––and the Group 2-placed multiple winner (lot 166) made the trip from France a worthwhile one, eliciting a final bid of 155,000gns from Cormac McCormack.
Selling for the first time at the February Sale, Sundstrom was delighted with the result and said she decided to come to Tattersalls “because all the buyers are here”.
Runner-up in both the G2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte and G3 Prix Miesque, Dressed In Fur is out of a half-sister to the Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Araafa (Ire) (Mull Of Kintyre), her grandam Resurgence (GB) (Polar Falcon) being a sister to Pivotal (GB). The 4-year-old filly will be covered this season by new Coolmore sire The Gurkha (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).
Bar one filly from Shadwell, the remainder of the leader-board was dominated by fillies and mares from the Godolphin draft, its 53 lots sold contributing a total of 1,689,300gns to the day's turnover.
Gay O'Callaghan selected the Listed-placed dual winner Masaya (GB) (Dansili {GB}) (lot 68) to join the broodmare band at his Yeomanstown Stud, going to 115,000gns for the 9-year-old who was one of three mares sold in foal to O'Callaghan's homebred stallion Dark Angel (Ire).
Buying through BBA Ireland, Maurice Regan of Newtown Anner Stud picked up another of the trio, Dancealot (GB) (Lawman {Fr}) (lot 167), for 100,000gns and the 6-year-old mare will be covered by Regan's homebred Fascinating Rock (Ire), who is standing his first season at Ballylinch Stud this year.
As the sole mare in the catalogue to be carrying a first-crop foal of the Derby and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Golden Horn (GB), Labise (Ire) (lot 171) had rarity value and the young daughter of the late Azamour (Ire) duly attracted a bid of 110,000gns from Tim Gredley. The 6-year-old half-sister to three black-type performers from Kenilworth House Stud's Peintre Celebre mare What A Picture (Fr) didn't have far to travel home from Tattersalls. She will take up residence at Bill and Tim Gredley's Stetchworth Park Stud––the birthplace of dual G2 Goodwood Cup winner Big Orange (GB) Duke Of Marmalade {Ire})––just a few miles down the road.
“We're building up our broodmare band and trying to improve the quality. She ticked all the boxes,” Gredley commented.
Paul Makin is sending four mares to his first-season sire Marcel (Ire), who is standing in Newmarket at the National Stud. That quartet includes the Australian's latest purchase, Murhibaany (Elusive Quality) (lot 61), a grand-daughter of Sheikh Hamdan's champion filly, the Classic winner Shadayid (Shadeed), out of the Listed winner Alshadiyah (Danzig). The unraced 3-year-old was sold for 80,000gns.
The international cast of buyers at Tattersalls for the first of two days' trade included WinStar Farm, which signed for a Shamardal filly out of Tiznow's Grade 2-winning sister Tizdubai (Cee's Tizzy) (lot 191) at 45,000gns. Named Fancy Day (Ire), the 3-year-old was a winner last year on debut for Mark Johnston. WinStar's David Hanley was back in action just nine lots later, adding the Distorted Humor filly Ribbing (lot 200) to the day's purchases for 50,000gns. Now four and placed on each of her starts, Ribbing is out of the G3 Kolner Herbst Stuten Meile runner-up Contentious (Giant's Causeway), herself a grand-daughter of multiple Grade 1 winner Inside Information.
Three Chimneys Bloodstock also featured on the buyers' sheet via the purchase of lot 193, Beautiful Escape (Elusive Quality), a 3-year-old daughter of Brazilian Grade 1 winner Aviacion (BRZ) (Know Heights {Ire}), for 58,000gns.
The extended February Sale concludes today with a session of horses in training, commencing at 10am.
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