3 minute read

It was a record breaking turnover of 15,357,500 guineas at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sales on Wednesday and Thursday.

It was a record breaking turnover of 15,357,500 guineas at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sales on Wednesday and Thursday. 126 lots were sold over the course of the two days with an average of 121,885 guineas.

Blue Point  and Havana Grey jointly topped the sale at 625,000 guineas. Twenty-one lots sold for over 200,000 guineas compared to sixteen in 2022 and 60 lots achieved over 100,000 guineas.

Havana Grey had secured a Group Three success with Mama's Girl in the Nell Gwyn on Wednesday and his colt out of an Exceed and Excel mare was popular in the sales ring. Vendors Glending Stables were delighted with the result, having bought the colt for 42,000 at the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale, "Havana Grey has done so well and had the Group 3 winner today and an impressive one at that, " said Roderick Kavanagh, Glendings' representative.

"You hope all the interested parties are going to pitch up and it has obviously got late in the sale and it is a bit lonely, but they all got there. We had some great judges on him. He is an athletic horse with a bit of scope and I don't think he is just a sprinter type, hopefully he will get seven furlongs or a mile."

Blue Point has already produced two winners from four juvenile runners so it was no surprise to see his eight lots sell for an average of 239,375 guineas with the joint-top lot going for 625,000 guineas. Out of Most Beautiful, a Group Three winner as a juvenile, the Oak Tree Farm-consigned colt attracted the attention of Anthony Stroud of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock.

Stroud confirmed the colt's destination as Godolphin. "Blue Point has made a great start, this colt comes from a top consignor and he fits the profile. He will go to Charlie Appleby, who has a few by the sire and likes what he has," he said.

Consignors Oak Tree Farm had tasted success at the previous year's sale when subsequent Irish 2000 Guineas (G1) Native Trail was sold to Godolphin. They will be hoping for the same level of success with this colt.

An impressive breeze-up will attract more potential buyers and this was the case with a Night Of Thunder filly, who was sold for 600,000 guineas to bloodstock agent Kerri Radcliffe and was the second-highest selling filly in the Craven Breeze-Up Sales' history. A half-sister to Rumble Inthejungle, the filly is expected to show plenty of speed and could have Black Type potential as a juvenile.

"She has got the pedigree so she has residual value and she comes from a great consignor." Radcliffe explained. "She did a lovely breeze, not one of the quickest times, that's not what I buy - I like to buy something that finishes out well. Whenever she hit the rising ground she took off and that is what you want to see them do,"

"She is for a new client based in London and we don't know where she is going to go yet – give me 24 hours to think about it! I am getting on a plane to Florida in the morning so I have plenty of time to think of it. Hopefully she will be very good and will be an Ascot filly."

Elsewhere in the sale, there was plenty of pre-race interest in the Kingman half-brother to Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) and Derby Stakes (G1) Golden Horn and the colt sold to Marco Botti for 200,000 guineas.

Consigned by Tally-Ho Stud, the Territories bay filly out of Group Three juvenile winner Roger Sez was expected to be popular with a strong sprinting pedigree and she was sold to Michael O'Callaghan for 240,000 guineas.