Bill's Columns

Sheikh Mohammed has always loved shopping at Newmarket, and circumstances did not deter him from supporting Europe’s best yearling sale, Tattersalls October 1, held at Park Paddocks in Newmarket, October 6-8. Godolphin signed for 22 yearlings, totalling 16,430,000 gns; their great rivals Coolmore signed for 14 yearlings for 9,780,000 gns, including the two blockbuster Galileo fillies for 3.4m- and 2.8-million gns.

Between them, Godolphin and Coolmore bought 36 yearlings for a total of 26,210,000 gns, 32% of the sale’s total gross of 82,385,000 gns, which was a 20% decline from last year’s total of 102,429,000 gns. The sale averaged 223,266 gns, down just 13.5%, from 258,008 gns. American trainer Chad Brown and his clients have had great success buying from this sale, and agent Mike Ryan (17), and Demi O’Byrne (8), acting for Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm, bought 25 yearlings between them for another 6,595,000 gns; interestingly, Mike Ryan’s average was 264,118 gns, Demi O’Byrne’s was 263,125 gns. The Godolphin and Coolmore spends, plus the Ryan and O’Byrne spends, add up to 32,805,000 gns, nearly 40% of the gross, and provided a solid underpinning to the October 1 marketplace which allowed it to demonstrably outperform virtually all other auction markets this year. Interestingly, this year’s October 1 totals closely mirrored the sale’s results in 2015, when 372 yearlings (369 this year) sold for 82,744,500 gns (82,385,000), and averaged 222,431 gns (223,266 this year).

Through October 9, according to figures compiled by Brianne Stanley of The Bill Oppenheim Group, there have been 3,244 yearlings catalogued to the principal European yearling sales so far this year, a drop of 5% from last year. There have been 2,113 yearlings sold (down 16%), 65.1% of those catalogued, an 8.2% drop from 73.3% last year. They have grossed £165,678,090, a 26% drop from the corresponding £224-million gross last year (October 1 has actually accounted for 52% of the total gross so far), while the average declined by 12%, from £89,136 last year to £78,409 this year, with yearling sales in Newmarket, Baden-Baden, and Deauville still to take place later this month. The 8% decline in the clearance rate from the catalogue, and the 26% decline in gross are broadly in line with auction sale results just about everywhere this year.

With Coolmore stepping in to buy the sister to Mogul and Japan for 3.4m gns and the filly out of Mohaather’s full sister, Prize Exhibit, for 2.8m gns, and Godolphin buying 10 of the 14 Dubawis which sold, they are comfortably the top two sires by average for European sires: Galileo has had 23 yearlings sell for an average of US $893,930, Dubawi 20 for an average of $756,387. The Juddmonte pair of Kingman (21/$602,397) and Frankel (27/$469,567) rank 3-4 among European sires, with four other sires averaging over US $200,000: Sea The Stars (36/$307,984); Invincible Spirit (15/$273,009); Lope De Vega (49/$266,149); and Siyouni (32/$259,964).

Four first-crop sires have thus far averaged over $100,000. France’s Haras d’Etreham’s Almanzor, from Wootton Bassett’s first crop and the top 10-furlong horse in Europe in 2016, has had 31 yearlings so far average $155,439. Coolmore’s pair of Churchill (41/$121,387), Champion 2-year-old and dual 2000 Guineas winner by Galileo out of a Storm Cat mare, and Caravaggio (49/$115,888) , a devastating 6-furlong sprinter who won the G2 Coventry and G1 Phoenix S. as a 2-year-old, and the G1 Commonwealth Cup as a 3-year-old, have also averaged over $100,000 as has England’s Cheveley Park’s blueblood Ulysses (20/$102,259), by Galileo out of G1 Epsom Oaks winner Light Shift.

For more articles by Bill Oppenheim, APEX ratings, and Brianne Stanley’s Worldwide Sales Ticker, please visit www.billoppenheim.com. Twitter @billoppenheim