The ongoing buzz of optimism surrounding the first crop of Exceed And Excel continued apace at Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale, when a daughter of the former top Australian sprinter smashed the record for this auction, topping the sale at 470,000 gns. Consigned by Co. Clare-based John Hassett (trading as The Bloodstock Connection), this filly reaped a massive dividend for her vendors, having been one of the least expensive of her sire’s yearlings last autumn at 20,000 gns.
A daughter of the winning Woodman mare Bois De Citron and a grand-daughter of the former Group One-winning juvenile Lemon Souffle, the sale-topper attracted plenty of interest in the pre-sale breeze, clocking one of the fastest times of the day despite doing her gallop towards the end of the session and thus on the worst of the ground on the rain-affected Heath. All the noted judges were duly there for her sale, with Tony Nerses (racing manager for the Authorized team of Saleh Al Homaizi and Imad Al Sagar) and Jamie McCalmont (accompanied by Michael Tabor and Paul Shanahan) among the frustrated under-bidders as agent Richard O’Gorman made the final bid.
This filly was one of several by Darley stallions to feature among the top end of the auction, with six of the top eleven lots being by Darley sires. This select bunch also included another Exceed And Excel filly, as Marcus Tregonning outlaid 150,000 gns to buy the daughter of the Common Grounds mare Common Rumpus, consigned by Emma O’Gorman. Afterwards, Tregonning reported that his purchase would race for his major patron Sheikh Hamdam Al Maktoum, and that the sire had been a major factor in his choice: “I’ve got one by the sire at home whom I like a lot, and this filly breezed very well”.
Another of Darley’s first-season sires got his name well up on the leader-board, when a son of Refuse To Bend was bought by Charlie Gordon-Watson for 120,000 gns. This colt, from the Rainbow Quest mare Flagship, was consigned by Mocklershill Stables and was the most expensive of Gordon-Watson’s several purchases at the sale. The agent’s other buys included an Elusive Quality colt for 90,000 gns. This son of the Halo mare Merion Miss was sold by Yeomanstown Stud and is now destined for Newmarket’s Bury Road, as Gordon-Watson explained afterwards: “The Elusive Quality is definitely going to Michael Stoute, who came to the sale in the morning and picked out a few, including this one”.
Gordon-Watson also ended the day as the purchaser of a Red Ransom colt, having picked up Tally-Ho Stud’s son the Sadler’s Wells mare Reine Wells for 70,000 gns. Another highly respected agent to come away with a Darley-sired purchase was Anthony Stroud, who paid 80,000 gns for Mocklershill Stables’ Street Cry colt, a son of the Singspiel mare White Bridle, for 80,000 gns.
