Aussies set for busy Tattersalls October Yearling Sale
Book 1 of world-renowned sale to start on Tuesday in Newmarket
All eyes will be on Newmarket this week as Tattersalls, the world’s oldest thoroughbred auction house, hosts the globally-renowned October Yearling Sale. The event may be taking place in Britain but there is plenty of interest from a southern hemisphere perspective, with Australians set to be among the buyers and sellers in action.
Proceedings begin in earnest on Tuesday with the blue-chip Book 1 catalogue, which features 449 supremely bred yearlings. Prior to withdrawals there were siblings to no less than 45 Group 1 winners due to be offered over three sessions, while 20 mares who struck at the highest level have progeny entered. This is very much the best Europe has to offer.
The standout, on paper at least, is the full-sister to Alpinista (Frankel), heroine of the 2022 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m). The blue-blooded daughter of Frankel (Galileo) is being presented by Kirsten Rausing’s Staffordstown operation as Lot 72. Pre-sale chatter suggests the filly will threaten the record price for a European yearling, which came in 2013 when Al Shaqab Racing paid 5,000,000gns for Al Namaah (Galileo), a full-sister to Oaks heroine Was.
The sire index in the opening pages of the Book 1 catalogue reads like a who’s who of northern hemisphere heavyweights. There are 20 lots by Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), 21 by Frankel, 26 by Kingman (Invincible Spirit) and the same number by Lope De Vega (Shamardal), 22 by Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) and nine by Siyouni (Pivotal). And that is merely the tip of the iceberg.
The following week sees Books 2, 3 and 4 run from Monday through to Friday, concluding with Lot 1,873. With such strength in depth there is, quite literally, something for everyone. But for the Australians on deck, there is a specific type in the crosshairs.
“Everyone recognises that Australian sprinters are probably better than the Europeans, but the European stayers are better than Australians,” says bloodstock agent Robert Roulston, who explains the boom in the horses-in-training market prompted his initial foray into the European yearling scene.
“I started buying proven horses – horses like Americain and Puissance De Lune – but in those days I bought them very cheaply because there wasn’t much competition,” he continues. “You had Lloyd Williams and Terry Henderson and not much else. But since then the price of proven horses has gone through the roof.
“The other thing now is, that when you buy a proven stayer they don’t come back here and race against the weaker Australian stayers. All these fields in Australia are full of other good European horses who have been purchased for a lot of money. So the prices have gotten more expensive and it’s much harder to win because the competition is much better.”
Buying European-bred yearlings has already paid dividends for Roulston, who unearthed Sea What I See (Sea The Stars) at Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale in 2021 at a cost of 140,000gns. The filly won six in a row earlier this year and landed the Centaurea Stakes (Listed, 2019m) at Morphettville on her penultimate outing.
“I’ve really shied away from buying proven horses for the last seven or eight years because the value hasn’t been there, in my book,” he says. “But Mark Player and myself had a group of mutual clients who said ‘Let’s try buying a yearling’.
“So we bought a Sea The Stars filly from Book 2 a couple of years ago, and she’s now Sea What I See, who won six in a row, culminating in a Listed race. She’s now a very valuable filly and a lot of those clients have said let’s try it again. We were probably all inspired by Danny O’Brien’s success with Russian Camelot in the first instance, and that’s who we gave Sea What I See to. He’s done a very good job with her.”
I’ve really shied away from buying proven horses for the last seven or eight years because the value hasn’t been there, in my book
Graduates of Books 1 and 2 have won over 300 Group 1 races since the turn of the century. Only a small percentage of the lots sold at the October Yearling Sale have made their way to Australia, but that hasn’t stopped the sale supplying a significant amount of top-level success in the southern hemisphere.
The Book 1 graduates who have struck at the highest level in Australia are Caulfield Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) scorer Cape Of Good Hope (Galileo), Metropolitan (Gr 1, 2400m) victors Opinion (Oasis Dream) and Speed Gifted (Montjeu), the aforementioned Russian Camelot (Camelot), who annexed the Underwood Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m) and the South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m), and Sydney Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) hero Shraaoh (Sea The Stars).
Book 2 has proved an even more prolific source of Group 1 winners in Australia, including multiple top-flight scorers such as Addeybb (Pivotal), Dubai Honour (Pride Of Dubai), Hartnell (Authorized) and Redkirk Warrior (Notnowcato). Four-time elite-level winner Zaaki (Leroidesanimaux) also passed through Book 2 before heading to his current connections via the Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale.
Roulston has already been active on this year’s European yearling sale circuit, signing alongside Player under the PR Thoroughbreds banner for three lots at last week’s Goffs Orby Sale. The trio cost a combined €310,000 (approx. AU$500,630) and comprise a €160,000 (approx. AU$258,390) filly by Sea The Stars, a €70,000 (approx. AU$113,040) daughter of Zelzal (Sea The Stars) and a colt by Camelot (Montjeu) who cost €80,000 (approx. AU$129,190). PR Thoroughbreds also secured French Listed winner Shamarkand (Harzand) for €170,000 (approx. AU$274,540) in conjunction with the Waterhouse-Bott axis at the Arqana Arc Sale on Saturday evening.
Of course, yearlings purchased in Europe are, in theory, at a developmental disadvantage when racing against their southern hemisphere counterparts on account of their later foaling dates. Roulston says his purchases will take varying routes back to Australia, and notes that the value on offer at the yearling sales helps to mitigate against the increased risk that comes with buying untried stock.
“The horses we bought at Goffs are going straight back to Australia but the client I have coming into Tatts will probably leave the horses they buy here and test them out first to see if they’ve got potential,” he says.
“He’ll probably buy fillies because he’s a breeder and he likes residual value, and we’ll be looking for stayers, of course, because Australia is so full of speed horses already.
“Yearlings come with a bit more risk because you already know a proven horse can gallop, and you also have the timing disadvantage. Obviously you look for earlier foals who aren’t so far behind the Australians, but realistically it’s going to be the end of their three-year-old season before they’re competitive with the Australian horses because of the timing difference. But then you’re getting a big discount compared to buying a proven horse. That’s the theory behind it.”
Another way to mitigate risk is by doing your due diligence. Roulston says pedigree study is a key cornerstone of his presale preparations, although ultimately decisions will only be made – and bids potentially lodged – after working his way around the Park Paddocks sales complex conducting physical inspections.
“There are particular stallions’ progeny we’ll be focussing on, obviously ones who’ve had success in Australia will be high on the list,” he says. “There’s certain sirelines that have done well in Australia, and if the female pedigree has thrown up some Australian stakes winners then they’re of appeal as well.
“There’s a lot of information available on the computer and these days all the sales companies put everything online, and obviously we have a pedigree system we subscribe to as well. You have to do your work, but there’s enough information out there now to give you a very good head start.
There’s certain sirelines that have done well in Australia, and if the female pedigree has thrown up some Australian stakes winners then they’re of appeal as well
“Then it’s just a matter of doing the legwork to inspect all the horses yourself. Because of the success of Sea What I See we’re trying to do that again. Whether we’ll be successful, time will tell.”
As well as the intrepid agents on the ground, Australian breeders also look set to make their presence felt at Park Paddocks.
John Camilleri of Fairway Thoroughbreds is responsible for offering two of the sale’s most eye-catching offerings, with Hazelwood Bloodstock consigning a pair of Dubawi colts on his behalf. First up comes a colt out of Via Condotti (31), a daughter of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) and the Australian-bred Danehill (Danzig) mare Hveger, making the dam a sibling to four Group winners. The quartet includes the globe-trotting Highland Reel, who won seven top-level races in three different countries, and Caulfield Stakes scorer Cape Of Good Hope.
Via Condotti won a Compiegne maiden in the Fairway colours after she was added to Camilleri’s string at Book 1 in 2016 at a cost of 625,000gns. She has already more than repaid that investment as her first foal, a colt by Lope De Vega, fetched 550,000gns from Godolphin in 2021. Her second foal, a full-brother to her latest yearling named Kingdom Of Time (Dubawi), went the way of the same buyer for 800,000gns 12 months later.
Fairway Thoroughbreds is also listed as the breeder of the Dubawi colt out of Ring The Bell (376). The dam, a Galileo sister to Group 1 winners Hermosa, Hydrangea and The United States, has already bred two stakes horses in the Listed-winning and Group 1-placed Sounds Of Heaven (Kingman) and the Listed runner-up Voice Of Angels (Dark Angel). The colt’s once-raced three-year-old brother Military Leader was another bought by Godolphin, having been signed for at 1,500,000gns in 2022.
Former Moonee Valley Racing Club chairman Bob Scarborough is another Australian breeder offering a particularly well-bred lot, with Norelands set to consign the Siyouni filly out of Cabaret (Galileo) (107). This lineage makes the youngster a full-sister to champion two-and three-year-old St Mark’s Basilica, a five-time Group 1 winner whose own first yearlings are coming under the hammer this year. The filly is also a half-sister to English 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) hero and fellow Coolmore stallion Magna Grecia (Invincible Spirit).
Despite turnover falling by 25 per cent year-on-year, the 2023 renewal of Book 1 still generated an aggregate of 95,395,000gns and an average price of 243,975gns. The top lot was a Frankel colt who brought 2,000,000gns from Coolmore’s MV Magnier and Peter Brant of White Birch Farm, while Godolphin topped the buyers’ chart with 20 recruits secured for an outlay of 12,030,000gns.
Not every bloodstock auction can claim to be of global consequence, but the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale is one such event. Wherever you are in the world, you won’t want to miss it.