Business up at Tattersalls

Five six-figure lots helped Tattersalls' December Yearling Sale bounce back

from a disappointing 2008 renewal to produce a solid trade in Newmarket Monday,

led by the sale of a Galileo (Ire) filly (Lot No. 159) for 275,000 guineas. The

full sister to Aidan O'Brien's recent Criterium de Saint-Cloud (Fr-G1) second

Mikhail Glinka is out of Lady Karr (Mark of Esteem [Ire]), a full sister to

Epsom Derby (Eng-G1) hero Sir Percy. She was bred by Paul Makin's Paulyn Ltd and

sold through the Castlebridge consignment. The Duke of Bedford, a Tattersalls

director who owns Bloomsbury Stud in partnership with his mother Henrietta,

Duchess of Bedford, had the successful bid with Blandford Bloodstock's Tom Goffs

the underbidder.

"She's going to John Hammond. You can't buy a more exciting page and let's

hope she's as good as her brother, who looks a very exciting prospect," the Duke

said. "My partner in the stud is not best pleased and I suspect in time I'll be

looking for another partner!"

Andrew Tinkler, CEO of the Eddie Stobart haulage firm, has made a splash at

this year's horses-in-training sales and he paid 210,000 guineas for another

well-bred filly (Lot 212) through agent Dwayne Woods. The daughter of High

Chaparral (Ire) is out of Diamonaka (Akarad) and is a sister to three black-type

winners from a top Lagardere family.

"She was a really nice filly," Tinkler said. "It's a good page and she will

be not just for racing but hopefully we can breed from her in the future. We

picked out a few and Dwayne has helped us narrow down the list and this filly

was top of the tree. She's going to Tom Dascombe, whose Cheshire yard we

sponsor, and I also have a Kyllachy yearling colt there."

Adrian Nicoll of BBA Ireland, standing with Paul Shanahan, was underbidder on

the filly who had been bought in utero by vendor Maurice Burns' Rathasker Stud

for €110,000 at Deauville in December 2007.

Trainer Amanda Perrett outbid Tom Goff to get a Pivotal colt who had cost

16,000 guineas as a foal, but 190,000 guineas as a yearling when offered through

Brendan and Ger Morrin's Pier House Stud. The colt missed the October yearling

sale because of an elevated temperature.

"He's for John Connolly, who has been a great supporter and gets a couple of

nice young horses each year," Perrett said. "This was a lovely big, rangy horse

and I'm delighted to get him. We'd been looking at the earlier yearling sales

for something by a good stallion from a decent family but unfortunately we kept

meeting Sheikh Mohammed and Sheikh Hamdan and I think we'd have had trouble

buying this colt at those sales."

The brilliant Sadler's Wells has no foals on the ground this year, so his

final three yearlings to be offered at public auction were sold Monday. They

were headed by a 160,000 guineas colt out of Group 1-placed L'Ancresse (Ire) (Darshaan)

knocked down to Tom Goff.

"He's for an owner who keeps horses with John Gosden and was as nice a

middle-distance colt as I've seen here today," Goff said. "He was the best model

out of the mare and he's out of a Darshaan mare, so it's a stallion's pedigree."

The sale's 3,486,700 guineas turnover was up 75 percent on last year. The

11,000 guineas median increased by 29 percent, while the 22,789 guineas average

rose by 18 percent. There was a solid 78-percent clearance rate.

The December Foal Sale begins Tuesday.