Records continued to be shattered in the Tattersalls sale ring on the third and final day of Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale with a colt by Coolmore shuttler WOOTTON BASSETT selling for 4,300,000 guineas, the highest price for a yearling colt in the world in 2024 and a European record for a yearling colt.
A total of seven lots realised 1,000,000 guineas or more on the final day, taking the three-day total to sixteen with godolphin narrowly edging out Amo Racing to be the leading buyer by aggregate.
Wootton Bassett Colt Sets European Record at 4,300,000 Guineas
Consigned by the Burns family’s Lodge Park Stud, the colt by WOOTTON BASSETT out of the GALILEO mare PARK BLOOM was the talk of Park Paddocks before entering the ring and he did not disappoint, selling for 4,300,000 guineas to Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing with Coolmore’s MV Magnier the underbidder. The sale represented the highest price for a yearling colt in the world in 2024, and a record for a yearling colt at a European auction.
It is a feat that the Burns family are very familiar with as PARK BLOOM’s sister, subsequently named AL NAAMAH, set a European record at this sale in 2013 when selling for 5,000,000 guineas. The pair are sisters to the Oaks winner WAS out of a daughter of Champion filly PARK EXPRESS, and the sale means that the Burns family and farm hold the records for the highest-priced yearling colt and filly ever sold at auction in Europe, both at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.
After the sale Jamie Burns, who led up the colt himself and was surrounded by family including his mother Patricia, said: "He is a beautiful horse and the family has always done us well, and, hopefully, he will be the next one to enhance the pedigree. I was not expecting that! I was not really thinking when it went over four million - emotion took over, it was surreal. I am coming down from the clouds a bit now and it was all pretty special."
He added: "He has been busy all week and has never turned a hair once. We have bred four generations on this colt's page and we also had Park Appeal, who is in Wootton Bassett's pedigree, too."
Bloodstock agent Alex Elliott, who was stood alongside Joorabchian, said: "If you were going to paint a racehorse, he is as close to perfection as you can get. From the top to the bottom - from the farm he came from, the amount of time and money and love that the Burns family has put into that page, it just does not take any explaining to anyone.
"To get a physical like that, that is a lifetime achievement for anyone. For us to be part of that, to buy into that, it is just phenomenal that Kia has done it - you don't really find people who can do that. I said to Kia when I first showed him the horse, it did not take a genius to find the horse, we all said that you can't get better than that.
"I said, 'Kia you have been second in two Derbys, this is the horse who could take you one place better.' He has got every right, if he can run how he looks he’ll have a spot in a stallion shed one day. It was always going to take that sort of bidding to buy the horse, Coolmore was never going to let that horse out of its sight so to beat them, they are the best in the game. What Kia is doing is just refreshing and it is huge, it feels new and has reinvigorated it again. No trainer has been decided yet."
Joorabchian said: "We have a lot of stock, for us to get to the next level we have to target the best stock. We have targeted this sale and every member of my team when we saw this colt said we can't leave without him, and it was him and the two Frankel fillies - they were our three main targets and we have managed to get all three, so we are happy."
He added: "To play at the top is very hard, we have run the stats and if you look at all the Group 1s over the last four years, they are either homebreds or extremely well-bred. Of course you get the odd one come through, but really to get to the next level, the stallions and mares have got to be strong."
Godolphin Buy Ylang Ylang’s Half Sister by Siyouni for 3,700,000 Guineas
Newsells Park Stud’s tremendous sale continued on the third day of Book 1 when their SIYOUNI half-sister to the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile winner YLANG YLANG sold to Godolphin for 3,700,000 guineas, the third highest price for a filly in the history of Book 1. The daughter of the SHAMARDAL mare SHAMBOLIC was bred in partnership between Newsells Park Stud and Merry Fox Stud, and the battle to secure her was a head to head between the Coolmore team and Godolphin’s Sheikh Mohammed, with the latter prevailing.
Joint breeders Graham Smith-Bernal from Newsells Park Stud and Craig Bennett from Merry Fox Stud answered press questions in tandem, jokingly calling themselves Morecambe and Wise.
"It is tremendous. Graham's team has done a brilliant job," said Bennett. "The dam just keeps on giving, and we are very lucky to have her. We are delighted with that result, it is onward and upward."
Smith-Bernal added: "It is hard to believe where this market is at, it is very strong. We knew she was very special, reflected by the fact that we had so many vettings and scopes, and the way she has conducted herself here. She is a beautiful, beautiful filly and we wish the new owners all the very best."
He continued: "We are very happy because we have a lovely Frankel filly foal on the ground, a full-sister to Ylang Ylang and we will keep her, and Shambolic is in-foal to Frankel.
"I also still retain a stake in the Kingman colt with John Gosden. He is called Kaizen – watch out for that name because the recent feedback from jockey Oisin Murphy after a piece of work was that he could be a special colt."
SHAMBOLIC was bought for 800,000 guineas by Hadden Bloodstock at the 2019 Tattersalls December Mares Sale as part of the Floors Farming dispersal and Bennett added: "It is a hard game to make money at but when you do, you can make it big. When we bought the mare she wasn't cheap, but she was quality and I remember the bidding as clear as day - we had another bid and managed to get her, thank god we did!"
Leading purchaser Anthony Stroud commented on purchasing the half-sister to Ylang Ylang: "She is an exceptional filly to look at, a half-sister to a Group 1 winner, she looked like she has a wonderful temperament as well. She moves well, and she is by a wonderful stallion and out of a mare who has produced a Group 1 winner, and from a great farm.
"The market for fillies has absolutely ballooned, when the market is up 100 percent it is very difficult to anticipate what value these horses will make. All these top fillies were all beautifully bred and so well presented. I am surprised how buoyant the market is, but when you get all these organisations in, it propels the market to a different stratosphere. There has been a very good cross-section of horses here, and I also think the smaller catalogue was a positive move."
Amo Land Three-Parts Sister to Luxembourg for 2,900,000 Guineas
Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing have spent the week securing beautifully bred fillies and they added another on the third day when securing the CAMELOT three-parts sister to the multiple Group 1 winner LUXEMBOURG. The daughter of the Group placed ZOFFANY mare SENSE OF STYLE was offered by Camas Park Stud on behalf of breeder Ben Sangster.
When Sangster was asked if he was tempted to keep the filly and race her, he said: "Very! And I have a young man who is training [Ollie Sangster], but we will look for him next week.
"It is a strong market and she is a beautiful filly, and when you get two to tango, well I am just the lucky recipient! It is a lovely family, and mum has a filly foal by Camelot," said Sangster.
"I hope she goes to a good home and lives up to expectations. I am a bit gobsmacked, it is amazing.
"I think anyone coming here before this week started, everything that has happened this week has exceeded expectations. I have been lucky, and Camelot has had a great year and his daughter winning the Arc has just put him right up there."
For the seventh consecutive year Newsells Park Stud was the leading consignor for the week and enjoyed record turnover of 17,185,000 guineas.
General Manager Julian Dollar said: "It has been an amazing sale and I wish I had more horses to sell! I am not that long in the tooth, this is my nineteenth year doing the Newsells draft, and I worked for Cheveley Park Stud before I then went to America for a spin, and I have never known a market like this, I really have not.
"I will be the first to congratulate Tattersalls on the job they have done bringing international buyers to this sale this year. It is the premier European sale, and Tattersalls has done a marvellous job bringing people in. We will enjoy it, I am not sure I can really believe it, but we will enjoy it."
Dollar continued: "People like buying horses, and sometimes on a wet January or February night and you have a problem with a mare foaling and you think 'God, this is not much fun', but then you come and watch these lovely horses walking around the parade ring on a sunny afternoon and you think 'God, this is some job' and it is a pleasure to look at beautiful horses. There is something about the horse that is magical - the dream of buying a top-class racehorse is alive and well in all of us."
Chairman’s Statement
At the conclusion of Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony commented;
“Every year Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale produces the highest percentage of superior racehorses of any European yearling sale and that simple fact has played out in spectacular fashion over the past three days at Europe’s premier yearling sale.
"The breeders and consignors consistently send the cream of the European yearling crop to Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and the outstanding quality of the yearlings they send to this very special sale year after year is the key to attracting so many of the world’s most successful and influential racehorse owners to Tattersalls. They come in confidence, knowing that they will find an elite collection of yearlings, more of which will go on to achieve great things on racecourses around the world than from any other European yearling sale.
“All in all it has been an extraordinary yearling sale. The statistics tell a remarkable story with massive year on year rises in average, median and turnover. The sale turnover has risen year on year by around 30 million guineas, the average price well in excess of 300,000 guineas is unprecedented as is a median which has surpassed the previous record of 200,000 guineas by a very significant margin and all of this has been accomplished alongside an enviable clearance rate in excess of 85%. Newsells Park Stud’s 4.4 million guineas sale topping FRANKEL filly out of ALJAZZI is the highest priced yearling to be sold in the Northern Hemisphere this year and Lodge Park Stud’s 4.3 million guineas WOOTTON BASSETT colt out of PARK BLOOM is not only the highest price for a yearling colt in the world this year, but also a new European record for a yearling colt. The very top of the market has been outlandish with an unprecedented eight yearlings selling for 2 million guineas or more, 16 selling for seven figure sums and almost 70 yearlings realising 500,000 guineas or more.
“The buyers who have made all of this possible have come from far and wide. The contribution from throughout the Gulf region has been such a feature of sales at Tattersalls for a very long time and their continued support should never be underestimated. This year they have been joined by an almost overwhelming number of overseas buyers with the large contingent of American buyers making a massive contribution alongside buyers from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and throughout Europe, all of whom have been competing with strong domestic demand, most notably from Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing which has become such a force on the global racing scene.
“There are so many people that can take an enormous amount of satisfaction from this sale and to see so many being so richly rewarded has been a huge boost to the British and Irish breeding industries. Every breeder, every consignor, every handler and all the teams back at the farms throughout Britain, Ireland and further afield who have raised these yearlings; they have all played their part and they should be proud of the collective achievement which is phenomenal.
“We will turn our attention very quickly to Books 2, 3 and 4 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, which starts on Monday 14th October, but in the meantime we can reflect on a week which has shone a bright light on a great industry.”
