NEWS
Galileo filly tops first session of Tattersalls yearling sale
Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009 5:04 PM
by Carl Evans
A sister to Group 1-placed Mikhail Glinka topped the bill at Monday’s opening session of the Tattersalls December yearling sale held in Newmarket, England, and the buyer was a director of the company.
Andrew, Duke of Bedford, whose other roles include being a partner in the famous Bloomsbury Stud, paid $475,750 (275,000 guineas) for the filly, who is by Galileo (Ire) out of the winning Mark of Esteem (Ire) mare Lady Karr, a full sister to 2006 Vodafone Epsom Derby (Eng-G1) winner Sir Percy. Lady Karr’s first foal, Mikhail Glinka, was second to Godolphin’s Passion for Gold in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud (Fr-G1) on November 14.
The Duke’s investment helped propel the Monday’s total sales to $6,031,991 (3,486,700 guineas), up 75% on last year’s total when the sale was held at the height of economic uncertainty. The median of $19,030 (11,000 guineas) was up 29%, and the average rose 18% to $39,425 (22,789 guineas) while the clearance rate of 78% was up 42%.
Tom Goff, who was the underbidder on the Galileo filly, had better luck with a colt from the final crop of 14-time champion sire Sadler’s Wells. Goff paid $276,800 (160,000 guineas) for the colt out of L’Ancresse, a listed stakes winner that finished second in the 2003 Darley Irish Oaks (Ire-G1) and the ’03 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1).
“I’ve bought him for an owner who keeps horses with John Gosden,” Goff said. “He’s a lovely horse, as good a middle-distance colt as I’ve seen here today and his dam was by Darshaan, so it is a stallion’s pedigree.”
One of Britain’s biggest freight transport companies, the Eddie Stobart Group, is so famous it has its own fan club, whose members tick off sightings of the company’s transport trucks. Andrew Tinkler, a partner in the company, is becoming a notable new face on the racing scene, and he increased his spending—and his profile—when taking a half sister to Group 3 winner Diamond Green (Fr).
Tinkler paid $363,300 (210,000 guineas) for the High Chaparral (Ire) filly offered from Maurice Burns’ Rathasker Stud. He said his purchase will join another new force in British racing, trainer Tom Dascombe, while Amanda Perrett, whose father Guy Harwood trained the great Dancing Brave, will take charge of a Pivotal colt she bought for $328,700 (190,000 guineas).
Perrett said the colt, who hailed from the family of Fillies Mile Stakes (Eng-G1) winner Red Bloom, will race in the colors of John Connolly.
Carl Evans is an England-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
