Don’t forget who’s the daddy

There’s plenty of excitement this sales season about freshman sire Sea The Stars and the son of Cape Cross has had yearlings top sales in France and Italy, but Cape Cross himself continues to be popular with buyers as his figures from Goffs’ Orby Sale show.

Nine of his yearlings sold for an average of €127,555, five of which made six-figure sums. The top price of €320,000 was paid by one of the shrewdest judges of yearlings in the business, John Warren. The Queen’s racing manager selected Castlemartin Stud’s Cape Cross colt out of the Diesis mare Altruiste, the dam of the Listed winner and Group-placed Alpine Snow.

Peter and Ross Doyle went to €270,000 to secure a Cape Cross half-sister to Group One winner Damson out of Tadkiyra (Darshaan) and offered by Denis Brosnan’s Croom House Stud, while Form Bloodstock, who bought a Cape Cross filly out of Sesmen at the recent SGA Sale in Milan, plumped for another yearling by the sire when bidding €100,000 at Goffs for a half-sister to King's Best’s Group Two winner Calming Influence.

New Approach topped the first day of the Orby Sale when Redmondstown Stud’s full-sister to unbeaten Group One winner Dawn Approach sold for €775,000 and she ended the sale as the most expensive of the fillies and the second-top price overall. New Approach’s offspring were in great demand throughout, however, with seven of the eight offered setting an average of €228,857.

Peter and Ross Doyle bought the €775,000 filly, while Charlie Gordon-Watson bid €260,000 and €135,000 for a colt and a filly, the former being a half-brother to Derby runner-up Walk In The Park out of Seamus Burns’ Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Classic Park. Blandford Bloodstock were successful in selecting a New Approach half-sister to Listed winner Light The Fire for €160,000.

Another Darley sire with four yearlings among the six-figure lots sold was Teofilo, whose son out of the Zafonic mare Golthroat – a half-brother to juvenile Group One winner Zafisio – sold for €280,000 from Airlie Stud’s draft.

Shamardal, who sired his eighth Group One winner last weekend, was represented by a colt out of the King’s Best mare Alexander Queen, who sold to Shadwell for €260,000, while another of his colts, from the young Green Desert mare Bee Eater, fetched €220,000.

A filly by Raven's Pass, sire of G2 Royal Lodge Stakes winner Steeler among his first-crop runners, was another to impress the Shadwell team who paid €240,000 to secure her.

Iffraaj, whose 2010 covering fee was just €6,000, enjoyed a good sale with his five yearlings selling for an average of €50,400. The most expensive of these was a colt out of the three-time winner Luxie, who was bought for €42,000 as a foal and represented a pinhooking coup for Richard Knight, who resold him through Cooneen Stud for €130,000.