Opportunities in abundance at the Tattersalls Mares Sale
Lots with southern hemisphere covers to Too Darn Hot headline ‘special’ catalogue
Australian breeders were dealt a bitter blow when Darley announced that international sire sensation Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) would not be shuttling to the operation’s Kelvinside base this spring.
Connections have stated that they remain open to travelling the son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) again in future, but given the hunt is already on for the next big stallion to emerge from the pack, time is very much of the essence.
However, a solution to the problem of Too Darn Hot’s absence presents itself on the opposite side of the world this week as Tattersalls hosts the December Mares Sale, just a stone’s throw away from the stallion’s stable at Dalham Hall Stud.
The catalogue for the four-day event features 15 lots in foal to Too Darn Hot, including five who have been covered to southern hemisphere time.
None catch the eye more than Blessed Truly (Souper Speedy) (Lot 1485B) who is being offered by Culworth Grounds Farm during the first of the blue-chip Sceptre Sessions that take place on Monday and Tuesday. The seven-year-old has a profile that could have been precision engineered for the Australian market, as not only is she in foal to Too Darn Hot, but she is a half-sister to Ms Bad Behavior (Blame), dam of last month’s Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) hero Switzerland (Snitzel).
“I think she’ll be ideal for Australia,” said Culworth Ground’s Sophie Buckley. “She’s a big, strong, scopey mare who looks all about speed from a physical perspective; she’s got a lovely, big, strong hind end on her.
“Then obviously she’s in foal to Too Darn Hot, who’s proving incredibly successful in the southern hemisphere and is one of the hottest names in Britain and Ireland at the moment as well. His foals are proving very hard to buy at the breeding stock sales. On top of all that she was a stakes winner over six furlongs herself, so as a profile for Australia I think she has everything.”
Buckley reported that Blessed Truly’s demeanour stacks up just as well as her credentials on paper. “She’s got a lovely temperament too,” she said. “She’s very relaxed and easy to do anything with. She was sent over to me from America to get in foal and she couldn’t have been more straightforward, she went in foal first time.”
Buckley knows only too well that a mare in foal to Too Darn Hot is a rare commodity, having attempted to book a nomination for 2025 without success. His fee for the upcoming northern hemisphere covering season has reached a career-high £90,000 (approx. $175,860)
“I know that after trying to get into Too Darn Hot myself for his next northern hemisphere book, it was already a ‘no’ so I think he’s very much fully booked,” she said. “You really are very restricted in your options to get into him.”
Southern hemisphere participation is far from a new phenomenon at this sale, and Buckley said she expects the bloodstock world to feel that bit smaller during the upcoming four days.
“This is always an international event and I think more and more people are buying horses to go back to Australia,” she said. “It’s lovely to be selling something with a really current pedigree and I’m expecting her to be very popular.
“The plan was in place for her to visit Too Darn Hot all the way along, but the timing of the update from Switzerland couldn’t have been better. Hopefully she’ll be very attractive to people in Australia.”
Too Darn Hot’s 27 stakes performers include the three-time Australian Group 1 winner Broadsiding, the Godolphin homebred who struck in the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), JJ Atkins (Gr 1, 1600m) and the Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m), while he also finished third in the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m).
The stallion’s other top-level winners are Fallen Angel, who landed the Moyglare Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 7f) at two and this year’s Irish 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m), and Hotazhell, who claimed the Futurity Trophy Stakes (Gr 1, 1m).
Too Darn Hot has already supplied two seven-figure lots at the Australian yearling sales. His sales results in the southern hemisphere are capped by Ciaron Maher and David Redvers’ $1.9 million purchase of a well-bred colt from the Segenhoe Stud draft at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale.
The first mare in foal to Too Darn Hot on southern hemisphere time being offered in Newmarket this week is Zoinnocent (Zoffany) (Lot 1367), who is being presented by Mark McStay’s Avenue Sales.
The four-year-old was talented on the track and boasts a pedigree page replete with black type. She is a sister to Hannibal Barca, who landed the Gallinule Stakes (Gr 3, 1m 2f) for Joseph O’Brien and was not beaten far into fourth in the Futurity Trophy Stakes won by Luxembourg (Camelot). Three of her siblings have already bred stakes horses, while global Group 1-winning names Proportional (Beat Hollow), Folk Opera (Singspiel) and the top-class Hong Kong performer Romantic Warrior (Acclamation) appear beneath her second dam.
“Too Darn Hot has done so well and his rise and rise is very much equal in both hemispheres,” said McStay. “There’s huge demand for him in Australia and there’s huge demand for him in Europe. At the Australian yearling sales they’re beating themselves up to buy his yearlings, as they are up here in Europe. Realistically he’s a sire I can only see getting better, and Zoinnocent affords Australian breeders a rare opportunity to get a nice mare in foal to him.
“She was second in the Silver Flash Stakes, which is always a very good race at Leopardstown, and she’s a full-sister to a very high-class horse in Hannibal Barca. It’s a fantastic family and a really international pedigree with Romantic Warrior and Folk Opera in there. She’s a lovely individual and being out of a Galileo mare she’s been well covered. The cross between Galileo and Dubawi is one of the best there is and putting Too Darn Hot on top of it is exciting.”
McStay added: “I think she presents a huge opportunity for Australian buyers. I don’t know if Darley will shuttle Too Darn Hot again, but at the same time it’s fantastic that he’s covering these southern hemisphere mares. I don’t think there’s a dual-hemisphere sire in the world that’s more appealing.”
McStay echoed Buckley’s sentiments about the international nature of trade at Tattersalls this week.
“I was actually talking to an Australian client today who’s looking forward to seeing her,” he continued. “She’s a really exciting prospect and it’s fantastic to have these mares covered to southern hemisphere time in the sale. The world is a small place these days. We saw what happened last year with Via Sistina. It doesn’t get more international than her because she’s gone from being a Group 1 winner in Europe to a superstar in Australia.
“There’s always been a huge international presence at this sale, that’s what makes it so special. Tattersalls have assembled another really strong catalogue, particularly in the Sceptre Sessions. I also have a half-sister to four-time Group 1 winner Porta Fortuna [Sorella Carina, Lot 1755] who might be appealing to people who want to breed. She’d be ripe for breeding on southern hemisphere time as well.”
As well as bona fide broodmare prospects, each year the December Mares Sale features a host of fillies capable of further enhancing their race record before they retire to the paddocks. Arguably none have done more to highlight the bounty on offer at the December Mares Sale than Via Sistina.
The daughter of Fastnet Rock (Danehill) was offered 12 months ago with a Group 1 win besides her name having struck in the Pretty Polly Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 2f) for trainer George Boughey.
That profile prompted Zhang Yuesheng of YuLong Investments to bid 2,700,000gns to add Via Sistina to his Australian racing stable. But even that punchy seven-figure sum, signed for under the name Evergreen Equine, has quickly been made to look like money well spent as Via Sistina has gone on to land five more elite-level races under the expert care of Chris Waller.
Her top-flight spree began in the Ranvet Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), rolled on to the Winx Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and then the Turnbull Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m). Her most visually impressive performance was undoubtedly her eight-length romp in the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m), and she backed that up with another comfortable victory in the Champions Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m). That latest effort took her prize-money earnings to a cool $8,557,239.
While there are surely more races to be won, Via Sistina is now just about the hottest broodmare prospect in the southern hemisphere.
Those on the search for this year’s equivalent offering need look no further than You Got To Me (Nathaniel) (Lot 1753), the first Irish Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winner to be offered at Tattersalls in the year of her Classic victory for more than 40 years.
She was bought by bloodstock agent Alex Elliott as a yearling for 200,000gns before being sent into training with Ralph Beckett. She is offered during Tuesday’s Sceptre Session by Newsells Park Stud, who bought into the filly after her winning two-year-old debut.
“She’s danced every dance from her maiden to when Newsells joined us, then being a tearaway but hanging on to win the Lingfield Oaks Trial then to the Irish Oaks,” said Elliott, representing co-owner Anthony Ramsden, who races under the Valmont banner. “She’s been very special and it’s hard not to think she’ll be even better next year.
“But Anthony’s bought a lot of yearlings, he’s won a Classic with her, and he’s not necessarily into breeding yet. The best time to dissolve the partnership is at the end of her three-year-old year, and that’s the whole model Valmont is built around. We sell everything. Graham Smith-Bernal [owner of Newsells Park] was very respectful of that and understood Anthony’s position. Graham owns a leg of her and the Newsells Park Bloodstock syndicate own a leg. Anthony thought this was the time to sell and hopefully she can pay for some of the yearlings he’s bought.”
Despite some banner results on the track, the Valmont operation is essentially a trading entity, and there is already a growing association with the Australian scene. Through Elliott’s Imperium Sales consignment, Valmont’s classy colour bearer Balance Play (Lope De Vega) topped last year’s Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale thanks to a 575,000gns bid from McKeever Bloodstock and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott Racing. This year the outfit sold the progressive Hutchence (Frankel) to Chris Waller Racing for 460,000gns.
Imperium Sales is also offering a dozen lots at the December Mares Sale. The draft includes the Duke of York Stakes (Gr 2, 6f) winner Azure Blue (El Kabeir) (Lot 1733); the Listed-winning Gather Ye Rosebuds (Zoffany) (Lot 1745); Lillie Langtry Stakes (Gr 2, 1m 6f) victress Terms Of Endearment (Sea The Moon) (Lot 1757); as well as Moraless (Churchill) (Lot 1486B), an unraced half-sister to Hunting Horn (Camelot) and David Livingston (Galileo) offered in foal to Too Darn Hot on southern hemisphere time. There is no mistaking the apple of Elliott’s eye, though.
“You Got To Me can do anybody proud, from the Japanese, Australians, she could run in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf next year,” he continued. “I think she’s going to get better next year, with her pedigree and her physique you’d have to think it’s all about next year. And these Classic-winning fillies, they almost never sell, it’s very rare. I’m looking forward to selling her, even if there are some disappointed faces in the camp because she’s such a special filly. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to keep the wheel turning.”
Elliott drew comparisons with Via Sistina, and highlighted how that seven-figure purchase has quickly repaid connections’ faith thanks to the bumper purses on offer in Australia.
“Look at what Via Sistina has done and what she has earned,” he said. “She was five, this filly is only three. She wants fast ground, she’s got enough speed to have Ralph thinking of starting her back over a mile and a quarter in the Middleton Stakes, like he did with Bluestocking. She vets clean, she has never let us down when it’s gone right. If you were going to buy a horse to race in Australia, she’d be one of the best to head there in recent years.
“She should appeal to all the top outfits. She’s a Classic winner and she’s by Nathaniel, who’s becoming an influential broodmare sire. I couldn’t recommend her highly enough and part of me wishes we were keeping her. But the other part of me is working for Anthony and you need to keep these things going.”
You Got To Me is far from the only filly with top-class form in the book. Highclere Stud presents the Group 2-winning sprinter Believing (Mehmas) (1,740), who has also been placed in four elite-level contests, including when second in this year’s Nunthorpe Stakes (Gr 1, 5f)
There is also Paddy Twomey’s Group 3 scorer and Irish 1,000 Guineas runner-up A Lilac Rolla (Harry Angel) (Lot 1735), while European Sales Management presents the US Graded stakes winners Idea Generation (Dubawi) (Lot 1762) and Royalty Interest (Le Havre) (Lot 1728). Godolphin presents a stallion prospect in Cold Case (Showcasing) (Lot 1507), whose four victories include the Commonwealth Cup Trial Stakes (Gr 3, 6f). The four-year-old was not beaten far when fourth in the last year’s Prix Maurice de Gheest (Gr 1, 1300m).
A strong selection of wildcard entries includes the aforementioned Blessed Truly and Whatton Manor Stud’s Zero Gravity (Dansili) (Lot 1485A), dam of recent Champion Filly & Mares Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winner Kalpana (Study Of Man). Top two-year-old Vertical Blue (Mehmas) (Lot 1770A) also looks set to prove in high demand. Francis-Henri Graffard’s filly was last seen winning the Prix Marcel Boussac (Gr 1, 1600m]), making her the only Gr 1-winning juvenile to be offered anywhere in the world this year.
The four-day December Mares Sale begins on Monday at 9.30am local time (20:30 AEDT).