Goffs UK will still be riding high on the success of last year's breeze-up sale which, at the time, was met with an uncustomarily muted response from Managing Director Henry Beeby as the final hammer fall ushered in a relatively disappointing set of results. But the horse business is all about what happens on the track and, just a few months later, the Goffs UK team received a boost they could hardly have dared to hope for when the joint-top lots, both sons of Kodiac (Ire), became Royal Ascot stakes winners.
Prince Of Lir (Ire) and Ardad (Ire) each fetched £170,000 and while the former's best moment came when winning the G2 Norfolk S. for the Cool Silk Partnership, Ardad added the G2 Flying Childers S. to his success in the Windsor Castle S. at Ascot. Ardad's half-sister is among this year's draft from Tally-Ho Stud (lot 20) and is one of eight catalogued by her late sire Society Rock (Ire), who has been represented by two first-crop winners in the last two days in Rock Of Estonia (Ire) and Corinthia Knight (Ire).
Fifteen withdrawals at the time of writing mean that 137 juveniles will take to the Doncaster ring today from 10am. They include the sole representative (lot 102) of French-based George Vancouver (Ire), the GI Breeder' Cup Juvenile Turf winner who is another young stallion to have already posted a first-crop winner at this early stage of the season. The filly, who is eligible for French premiums, is the first foal of her unraced dam Toile De Soie (Fr) (Peintre Celebre) and hails from a family which reaches back to some classy Ballymacoll Stud winners, including Sun Princess (GB) (English Prince {Ire}) and Conduit (Ire) (Dalakhani {Ire}).
Other first-season sires featured among the collected 2-year-olds include Intello (Ger), whose daughter catalogued as lot 17 is the first foal of the Rachel Hood-bred Gertrude Versed (GB) (Manduro {Ger}), the Cheshire Oaks-placed half-sister to G2 Lancashire Oaks winner Gertrude Bell (GB) (Sinndar {Ire}). Swiss Spirit (GB), who celebrated his first winner on Friday, has three colts in the book, while Havana Gold (GB) is represented by four colts and a filly.
Four juveniles by Kitten's Joy, whose popularity is increasingly trans-Atlantic, feature among the day's offerings, while his fellow American-based sire Uncle Mo is also represented via lot 101, a half-brother to multiple winner Viuda Alegre (U S Ranger).
Withdrawals: 2, 7, 10, 16, 19, 49, 67, 83, 86, 103, 131, 142, 146, 148, 149.
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