TUESDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2020 THE WEEKLY WRAP: SERGEI PROKOFIEV TO STAND AT WHITSBURY MANOR POSITIVES TO BE FOUND IN Group winner Sergei Prokofiev (Scat DaddyBOrchard Beach, by Tapit) will stand at Whitsbury Manor Stud in 2021 after an YEARLING MARKET agreement was reached with Coolmore Stud, the UK nursery announced on Monday. A fee has not yet been set. Bred in Ontario by Anderson Farms Inc., he caught the eye of MV Magnier at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, who went to $1.1 million to secure the son of Orchard Beach. Named a >TDN Rising Star=after graduating by 7 1/2 lengths at Navan at second asking for Aidan O=Brien and a Coolmore partnership in April of 2018, he added a win at listed level at Naas a month later and was a solid third in the G2 Coventry S. behind Calyx (GB) (Kingman {GB}) and subsequent three-time Group1 winner Advertise (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) that June. In October of 2018, he scored in the G3 Cornwallis S. His record stands at four wins from 13 starts and $181,145 in earnings. Cont. p5 IN TDN AMERICA TODAY MV Magnier & Henri Bozo at Arqana | Zuzanna Lupa TAPIT COLT ON TOP AT KEESEP By Emma Berry A yearling colt by Tapit brought $2 million to top the second September ushered in the early rounds of the yearling sales in session of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale on Monday. Europe, with the Goffs UK Premier, BBAG, Tattersalls Ascot and Click or tap here to go straight to TDN America. Arqana Select sales all having taken place within the last fortnight. Three of that quartet have at least been able to take place in their intended venues, albeit Arqana's flagship sale was three weeks later than usual. The one-day Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale was moved to Newmarket, and Park Paddocks will also host the Tattersalls Irelend September Sale next week, which has been reduced to two days from three, presumably because some vendors will be unable or unwilling to ship their horses to Newmarket at significant extra cost. Of the sales to come, Tattersalls October has remained intact and in situ, as has the Arqana October sale which will also incorporate horses from the cancelled Osarus September Sale and will now be held over five days. Further relocations from Ireland will be faced by vendors at the Goffs Orby and Sportsman's Sales, which will now be held in Doncaster from Sept. 24 to Oct. 1. It is fair to say that this year has been a logistical nightmare for sales houses, vendors and buyers, with the need to weigh up varying travel and quarantine restrictions from country to country. Cont. p2 TDN EUROPE • PAGE 2 OF 11 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • 15 SEPTEMBER 2020 the almost recession-proof top tier. At Baden-Baden, last year's record price of i820,000 was matched, once again for a filly by Sea The Stars (Ire), though the number of six-figure lots was less than half of the 2019 tally of 21. Just as Goffs UK missed Sheikh Hamdan, so did BBAG miss Sheikh Mohammed, as well as the Australian buyers who have visited the sale in pursuit of staying-bred yearlings in recent years. Positives to Be Found in Yearling Market Cont. from p1 A number of Irish pinhookers have made their way to Kentucky for the Keeneland September Sale, which is taking place across the next fortnight and has proved such a fertile source of material for the European breeze-ups in the last few years. But almost every trip now comes at the cost of another in a sales season which has become increasingly crowded. It will almost certainly contract somewhat in the coming years as the full economic force of the pandemic is felt and breeders fall by the wayside. One of the very few upsides to the current situation may be that breeders take a keener look at the quality Queen Daenerys | Scoop Dyga of mare they cover, particularly if they have no intention of racing her offspring themselves. International participation is also a cornerstone of Arqana's So how have the yearling sales held up so far in Europe? Given August Sale (which was renamed the Select Sale this year in its the extraordinarily awful backdrop of 2020, the answer has to later slot). Three million-plus yearlings were sold, compared to be not too badly, with positive indicators to be found at each. two last year, and the two highest prices of i2.5 million and i2 At the Goffs UK Premier Sale, which has been notably million both surpassed last year's top price, albeit for collector's upwardly mobile in recent years, a clearance rate of 84% has to items. Of the seven-figure lots, Coolmore and Godolphin took be considered a success, even though average and median home one each, but were otherwise very selective in their figures dropped by 29% and 25%, respectively. This is a level of purchases, buying five yearlings between them. The same reduction that many in the industry had anticipated and which is number was purchased by the sale's emerging Bahraini force of generally being seen elsewhere. the brothers Sheikh Khalid and Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al The clearance rate at both BBAG and Arqana was lower, but Khalifa, two of eight sons of the King of Bahrain. Sheikh Nasser that tends to be the norm for those sales, where the best of owns Queen Daenerys (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), who helpfully won Germany's and France's yearling crops are offered and top-end the Listed Prix Joubert at Longchamp on Thursday just hours breeders in those countries can be selective over whether to sell before the Dubawi (Ire) half-sister to Sistercharlie (Ire) or not. In a difficult year, it is perhaps better to stick than to (Myboycharlie {Ire}) and Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) took to the twist. ring. Through Fawzi Nass and Oliver St Lawrence, the sheikhs But it is worth reiterating that, despite pre-sale nerves from ended up outbidding Sheikh Mohammed for the sale-topper. vendors, each of these auctions saw some decent action within Cont. p3 TDN EUROPE • PAGE 3 OF 11 • THETDN.COM TUESDAY • 15 SEPTEMBER 2020 Positives to Be Found in Yearling Market Cont. Sheikh Khalid's KHK Racing has also enjoyed some success lately with the unbeaten Bahrain Pride (GB) (Kodiac {GB}), winner of the listed EBF Ripon Champion Two Yrs Old Trophy. Furthermore, the most expensive colt at the BBAG Sale, a i260,000 offering by Sea The Moon (Ger), was purchased by fellow Bahraini, Shaikh Duaij Al Khalifa, the owner of four-time Senior Vice President Gary King Group 2-winning sprinter A'Ali (Ire) (Society Rock {Ire}), whose Twitter: @garykingTDN intention it is to buy some more middle-distance types at this [email protected] year's yearling sales. + 1.732.320.0975 The relatively new Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale, which has only been in existence for four years, continues to progress International Editor gradually, and it is no small feat in this year to have improved on Kelsey Riley both the average and the median at the same time as the Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN catalogue has expanded. It is probably fair to say that this [email protected] particular sale was introduced to provide an outlet for lower-tier European Editor yearlings, but some decent horses have emerged from the Ascot Emma Berry Yearling Sale since its inception, most recently the G2 Lowther S. Twitter: @collingsberry winner Miss Amulet (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}). Again, a [email protected] clearance rate of 81% was encouraging. However, when one considers that only around 25% of the yearlings sold will have Associate International Editor covered their production costs, the precarious nature of Heather Anderson breeding at this end of the market is all too apparent. Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN Marketing Manager Believe In Ringfort Alayna Cullen It was perhaps fitting that Derek and Gay Veitch's Ringfort Stud Twitter: @AlaynaCullen topped the Ascot Yearling Sale with a first-crop daughter of [email protected] Profitable (Ire). If any operation deserves to have a profitable year it is Ringfort. The Veitches must by now have a particular Contributing Editors fondness for Yorkshire racecourses. During York's Ebor meeting, Alan Carasso Christina Bossinakis Minzaal (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) became the farm's second consecutive G2 Gimcrack S. winner, and that victory came a day Cafe Racing after the aforementioned Miss Amulet had won the G2 Lowther Sean Cronin S. Tom Frary Ringfort's good year was enhanced further on Friday by the G2 [email protected] Flying Childers S. victory of another of the farm's graduates, Ubettabelieveit (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}). Irish Correspondent As has already been noted in this column, Miss Amulet was Daithi Harvey sold for just i1,000 as a foal before being brought to Ascot by Regular Columnists Rockview Stables, who sold her for ,7,500. Chris McGrath | John Berry | Kevin Blake The good updates on the track this year led to Ringfort Amy Lynam | Melissa Steele consigning two of the top four lots at Ascot. The sale-topper at 58,000gns was a filly out of Sassy Gal (Ire) (King's Best), a half-sister to the dam of Minzaal, while Miss Amulet's half-sister IN TDN AUS/NZ TODAY by another freshman sire, El Kabeir, sold for 45,000gns to Nick and Michael Bell. VINNIE TO COVER STELLAR BOOK OF MARES There's likely to be plenty of traffic to the boxes holding the 22 I Am Invincible (Aus) will cover a stellar book of mares at yearlings for the Ringfort Stud consignments at Goffs Orby and Yarraman Park Stud this season.