WEDNESDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2020 PREDICTABLY HESITANT HARRINGTON: BREEDERS= CUP IS MORE THAN A RACE MEETING START TO YEARLING SALES The trainer originally best known for many high-class jumps winners that has made an eye-catching advance on Flat racing's top contests in recent years will share her thoughts with the TDN on a monthly basis in this most unusual of seasons. It is an understatement to say that it has been a very strange year. In Ireland we managed a few meetings behind closed doors before racing shut down completely, and we then had some uncertainty over when it was going to start again. We eventually accepted the fact that there was going to be no Aintree, no Fairyhouse, no Punchestown, no Guineas at the right time. For a while it looked like we might get back before the end of May, but then that was scuppered, and that was really like having all your toys taken away from you in one go. It felt like Lot 165 topped the first day of trade | Goffs UK you'd been hit in the stomach and it knocked all the wind out of you. Cont. p9 By Chris McGrath DONCASTER, UKCWell, at least that ordeal is out of the way. It IN TDN AMERICA TODAY was never going to be fun, but it could have been worse. Horses HEAVY HITTERS DRAW OUTSIDE FOR DERBY were sold, some of them even sold well; and other vendors, Heavy GI Kentucky Derby favourite Tiz the Law (Constitution) drew with an 83% clearance rate, were evidently ready to cut losses. post 17 in Saturday’s Classic. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN And soon everybody will at least be able to start figuring out America. how venturesome they can afford to be, once finally bidding good riddance to 2020. Embarking on the European yearling circuit was always going to be extremely challenging for an industry so exposed to catastrophic loss of momentum in a global economy reeling under the pandemic. Sure enough, as an auction that had been on a tremendous roll in recent years, the opening session of the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale registered some sobering returnsCand a very sobering absence, too, with no sign of Shadwell after a five-year streak as leading buyers. An average of ,36,687 was down from ,49,202 on the opening session last yearCbut should perhaps be less randomly measured against the ,46,519 average across both days. The ,30,000 median compared with ,38,000 on day one (and ,35,000 overall) last year. Turnover was down by one-third to ,6,970,500, from ,10,578,500. But perhaps the most instructive index was the number of six-figure sales. In last year's opening session, there were 19Ctopped by the ,440,000 Kingman colt who set a new record for this auction. This time round there were nine, with the session topped at ,170,000. Cont. p2 TDN EUROPE • PAGE 2 OF 15 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • 2 SEPTEMBER 2020 the Maktoum family had been measured, at this particular auction in 2019, by 17 yearlings at an aggregate just shy of ,2 million. It would be premature for those preparing yearlings for elite sales to leap to conclusions about the broader intentions of the various Maktoum concerns. Yes, the industry finds itself in GOFFS UK PREMIER YEARLING SALE DAY 1 grievous need of its greatest benefactors. But if we have learned anything from the travails of 2020, it is to repent of our SESSION TOTALS 2020 2019 $ Catalogued 240 240 complacency in so much that we have always taken for granted. $ Number Offered 229 233 But things could always be worse. As Guy O'Callaghan of $ Number Sold 190 215 Grangemore Stud wisely remarked, after selling a Dark Angel $ Not Sold 39 18 $ Clearance Rate 83% 92% (Ire) colt well towards the end of the session, "Obviously it isn't $ High Price £170,000 £440,000 as strong a market as in recent years but the world's in a $ Gross £6,970,500 £10,578,500 different place compared with six months ago. We're lucky to $ Average (% change) £36,687 (-25%) £49,202 have a market at all. Isn't it good that at least we're able to turn $ Median (% change) £30,000 (-21%) £38,000 up and trade?" Speaking to TDN on the eve of the sale, Goffs Group Chief Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale Cont. from p1 Executive Henry Beeby had said that planning for a financial year that opened with the start of the coronavirus lockdown Certainly the most conspicuous keynote from these opening was predicated on the firm's lowest turnover in recent years. In skirmishes was the fact that Shadwell appeared to have taken the case of its British sales, that was 2013Cwhen turnover at the "social distancing" to an unwelcome extreme. Needless to say, Premier Sale stalled at ,13,310,250 for an average of ,32,464 the absence of Sheikh Hamdan's buying team caused alarm and median of $25,000. Some breathing space, there, if day two among those consignors whose perennial and pervasive debt to maintains Tuesday's levels of business. Cont. p3 TDN EUROPE • PAGE 3 OF 15 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • 2 SEPTEMBER 2020 Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale Cont. So not only could things be worse; they have been, not so long ago. We all know that plenty of very productive racehorses will be picked up cheaply this week. And so, however painfully, the next cycle begins. Senior Vice President Gary King Another Banner Sale for Coulonces with ,170k Star Twitter: @garykingTDN When signing a ,115,000 docket for lot 160, an Acclamation [email protected] (Ire) colt, Richard Ryan found himself responsible for the top + 1.732.320.0975 price of the day to that point. Nonetheless he promised that somebody would be spending a good deal more within the next International Editor few minutes. Sure enough, Ryan himself promptly gave Kelsey Riley Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN ,170,000 for lot 165, a January colt by Starspangledbanner [email protected] (Aus) imported over the Channel by Anna Sundstrom of Coulonces Sales. European Editor This was a happy reunion for vendor and purchaser alike, Ryan Emma Berry having been forced to ,280,000 in last year's buoyant market Twitter: @collingsberry for the Wootton Bassett (GB) colt now known as Legion Of [email protected] Honour (GB). Trained for Teme Valley 2 by Roger Varian, he was a promising second on his Haydock debut this summer. Both of Associate International Editor Heather Anderson these colts were bought in the same interest and will likewise Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN head to Varian. "He was the star of the show," Ryan enthused of the Marketing Manager session-topper. "The best in the sale in our opinion, and in the Alayna Cullen opinion of the trainer. We also bought a very nice horse here Twitter: @AlaynaCullen last year from the same vendor, for whom we have high hopes. [email protected] Starspangledbanner gets winners out of all sorts of mares and all sorts of pages, but only very rarely will they have that kind of Contributing Editors look at this age: that scope and quality, backed up by a top-class Alan Carasso Christina Bossinakis pedigree. It's a beautiful family." It certainly is, with a distinct stamp of Classic quality for a Cafe Racing catalogue that typically majors in speed and precocity. Sean Cronin Cont. p4 Tom Frary [email protected] Irish Correspondent Daithi Harvey Regular Columnists Chris McGrath | John Berry | Kevin Blake Amy Lynam | Melissa Steele IN TDN AUS/NZ TODAY O’BRIEN CONFIRMS MATING PLANS FOR SEGENHOE Peter O’Brien reveals the Segenhoe Stud mating plans to Paul Richard Ryan | Goffs UK Vettise. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Aus/NZ. TDN EUROPE • PAGE 4 OF 15 • THETDN.COM WEDNESDAY • 2 SEPTEMBER 2020 Equally delighted was Dermot Cantillon of Tinnakill House after selling the Acclamation colt so wellCdue reward for his breeders (Tinnakill Bloodstock and Ian Thompson) holding their nerve when he was bought in for 40,000gns as a foal at Tattersalls last December. "That's our first horse through and a really good start at a difficult time," said Cantillon. "He just did really well, foal to yearling, and Acclamation has had a very good yearCincluding with [G2 Prix Robert Papin winner] Ventura Tormenta (Ire), who we sold here last year." Ryan described this as "the best Acclamation I've seen in the ring in recent times: a very tidy, well presented colt." Cont. p5 Anna Sundstrom | Goffs UK Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale Cont. The colt's Classic-placed third dam Agathe (Manila), herself a half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Arcangues (Sagace {Fr}), is the dam of two elite winners in Artiste Royal (Danehill) (dual Grade I scorer in the U.S.) and Aquarelliste (Fr) (Danehill), who won the G1 Prix de Diane and chased home Sakhee (Bahri) in the Arc. Sundstrom was ecstatic that her Doncaster migrations had once again proved so lucrative. This colt was co-bred with Charlotte Hutchinson as the first foal of a Dalakhani half-sister to Lot 160 | Goffs UK G2 Grand Prix de Deauville winner Ziyad (GB) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), cheaply culled by the Wertheimer brothers at the Arqana Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale Day 2 Outs: 331, 356, 358, 360, Autumn Sale of 2017. 373, 400, 407 "Charlotte is my head girl and was leading him up," said an emotional Sundstrom. "She bought the mare out of training, she only cost i16,000.