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Now Or Never tops opening day of Tattersalls February Sale when selling for 250,000gns

Australian Group 3 winner and Group 1 placed mare Now Or Never (Bushranger) topped the opening day of the Tattersalls February Sale on Thursday when bought by Tweenhills Farm & Stud for 250,000gns. 

The ten-year-old mare, who was sold with a late cover to Kemeko and was bought by the BBA Ireland's Michael Donohoe. 

Placed third in the Group 1 Irish 1,000 Guineas (1m) and a Group 3 winner in Australia, Now Or Never is a half-sister to dual Group 1 winner Fairyland (Kodiac). Her second dam also produced Group 1 winning sire Dream Ahead (Diktat). 

"She is for an existing client, she will be foaled down in Ireland and then we can decide what to do with her," said Donohoe. 

"She might be covered southern hemisphere time or could head to Australia. My client has mares in Europe and Australia, so can look at options. 

"She was obviously a high class race filly herself and she is from a proper fast family. Her late cover and the fact that she missed a year might be the reason why she has not made quite what she might have, hopefully she might be a bit of value." 

Of stallion options, he added: "With her pedigree she could go to any stallion, she is an outcross. She is a good type and a strong mare, physically she will suit most stallions, she is a neat mare. We will probably breed her back to speed, she had plenty of speed herself even though she stayed a mile." 

Queenhope to Blue Diamond Stud for 140,000 Guineas 
Two lots earlier Hugo Merry, buying on behalf of Blue Diamond Stud, secured the six-year-old mare Queenhope (Kendargent) for 140,000gns. Sold in foal to New Bay (Dubawi), Queenhope is a sister to Group 3 winner Kenhope. 

"This mare is a complete outcross and will be a very easy mare to mate. We have seen her Galiway yearling at Barton Stud and she is a very, very good first foal. Queenhope is a very commercial mare, and I know the family well through my client Dr Poonawalla," said Merry.  

He added: "Blue Diamond was keen to buy into this Grey Sovereign line. It is so hard to buy interesting pedigrees now, and ones that are a complete outcross. This family also goes back to Pat O'Kelly's wonderful Flame Of Tara line. Physically, Queenhope is correct and she has plenty of room to carry a good foal - but really it is the quality of her first foal that really sold her to us. She is carrying to New Bay now and he is a €75,000 cover." 

Galileo colt sells for 140,000gns
The Barton Sales consigned two-year-old Galileo (Sadler's Wells) colt, offered on behalf of Lady Ogden, was purchased by the father and son team of Con and Neil Sands under their Bronsan Racing banner for 140,000gns. 

They secured the April born colt despite a determined effort from underbidder Tony O'Callaghan of Tally-Ho Stud.

By champion sire Galileo, the colt is out of the winning mare Messias da Silva (Tale Of The Cat), making him a half-brother to the late Sir Robert Ogden-owned Group 1 winner Amazing Maria (Mastercraftsman). 

After the purchase Neil Sands said: "They are becoming a rare breed these Galileos, obviously he has been one of the greatest stallions of the modern era and my father, who is the principal of our team, has had this type of horse as a target for a long time. We are really delighted to have been able to close out at the price we did, he could have made double that in Book 1! We have a fantastic network of helpers and Hubie de Burgh of De Burgh Equine assisted us with this purchase. 

"The plan is to get him home, we have great trust in Irish trainers. We have a good body of our stable with Joseph O'Brien and we will make a plan over the next few weeks. We are very excited to add him to our stable, which is growing exponentially." 

Of the Bronsan Racing equine string, Sands outlined: "We have horses in training in Australia and Britain, though the majority are in training in Ireland. We also have a couple of National Hunt prospects, and we are excited about them for the coming season and are looking ahead to Cheltenham, but the primary focus for us is flat racing. We have about forty horses in training, horses both owned in partnerships and fully by ourselves." 

Sands concluded: "The dream for this horse is for him to become a top racehorse and then a stallion prospect - you have got to have that dream, but sometimes we can all be afraid to dream!" 

Overall on Thursday, 141 lots sold for 2,265,500gns. The average was 16,067gns and median finished at 6,500gns. 

The second and final day of the sale will be held on Friday.