NEWS
Rock of Gibraltar's brother tops early Wednesday Orby returns
Posted: Wednesday, October 10, 2001
A full brother to Group 1 stakes winner Rock of Gibraltar landed a final bid of $675,733 to top the early returns of Wednesday's Goffs Orby yearling sale at the Kildare Paddocks in Kill, County Kildare, Ireland.
Demi O'Byrne, acting as agent for Coolmore Stud, signed the ticket for the son of Danehill. The bay colt came from the consignment of Ashtown House Stud.
Out of the stakes placed Be My Guest mare Offshore Boom, the youngster is a full brother Rock of Gibraltar, who has won four of six starts, including three group stakes, as a juvenile this season for a partnership that includes Coolmore. He captured the Grand Criterium (Fr-G1) at Longchamp on October 7 and earlier in the year took the Gimcrack Stakes (G2) at York and the Railway Stakes (Ire-G3) at the Curragh.
O'Byrne also bought the two highest-priced yearlings during Tuesday's opening sale session.
For $725,462, he purchased another bay colt by Danehill from the consignment of Ballylinch Stud. Out of the Group 3-winning Taufan mare Ingabelle, the youngster is a half brother to1995 Irish champion two-year-old filly Priory Belle and to Group 3 winner Wild Bluebell (Ire).
The underbidder was Skeik Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum.
O'Byrne also bought a Peintre Celebre colt out of the Homing mare Happy Landing for $702,060 from the Knocklong House Stud consignment. The colt is a brother to four stakes winners, including Grade 1 winner Creaking Board (GB) and group winner Dyhim Diamond (GB).
The Tuesday session showed substantial declines in both gross receipts and average price.
The sales company reported sales on 184 of 207 yearlings offered for a total of 14,876,500 Irish punts, a decline of 17.4% from last year when 175 horses were sold for 18,011,000 Irish punts.
The average price of 80,851 Irish punts was down 21.44% from last year's average of 102,920 Irish punts.
Complete results are available at http://www.goffs.com/
