NEWS
Tattersalls set to begin nine-day December sale
Posted: Sunday, November 22, 2009 8:44 PM
by Carl Evans
A leaner format should help prices at Tattersalls’ nine-day December sale, which begins in Newmarket on Monday and comprises sections for yearlings, weanlings, and mares.
Representatives from the final crop of 14-time champion sire Sadler’s Wells add spice to Monday’s single session of yearlings, but bigger money will change hands at next week’s mares’ auction, when three-time Group 1 winner Lush Lashes will be one highlight.
A four-year-old daughter of champion sire Galileo (Ire), Lush Lashes heads to the sale from Irish trainer Jim Bolger’s yard, which 12 months ago sold December sale topper Saoirse Abu for $3,154,993 (1,950,000 guineas).
Another significant offering is Lahaleeb, winner of the E. P. Taylor Stakes (Can-G1) on October 17 at Woodbine (video). Earlier this year, the three-year-old Redback filly finished second in the Bolylesports.com Irish One Thousand Guineas (Ire-G1). Her Mick Channon-trained stablemate Eva’s Request also comes to the ring with a top-level victory in the Premio Lydia Tesio (Ity-G1) on October 25 at Capannelle Racecourse.
Proven mares include 11-year-old Independence, a multiple group winner who produced multiple Group 1 winner Mount Nelson (GB) and Group 2 winner Monitor Closely, who was third in the 2009 Ladbrokes St. Leger (Eng-G1). The Selkirk mare is carrying a foal by 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Raven’s Pass.
Danehill’s daughter Massarra, a multiple group-placed stakes winner, producer, and a half sister to Invincible Spirit, the sire of recent Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) victor Vale of York (Ire), is the only offering in foal to Galileo and should put a significant sum into the pot.
Young stallions as much as their weanlings to be offered will be key factors in the foal section of the sale, which has been reduced to four days from five and starts on Wednesday.
Stellar performers Authorized, Manduro and Teofilo—who all entered the Darley Stud roster in 2008—are well represented, while Dylan Thomas stands alongside Strategic Prince as a first-year sire from the Coolmore Stud team.
The pick of Dylan Thomas’ 17 cataloged foals could be a colt out of Chalice Wells, a full sister to four-time Gold Cup (Eng-G1) winner Yeats.
Among proven stallions, none is more popular than Juddmonte’s Oasis Dream (GB), and his colt out of 2006 Stan James One Thousand Guineas (Eng-G1) heroine Speciosa will be of particular interest.
Catalogs for the yearling, weanling, and mare sales can be accessed here.
Carl Evans is an England-based Thoroughbred Times contributing writer
