O'Byrne prominent as Foal Sale concludes

Irish veterinarian Demi O'Byrne, buying on behalf of Coolmore, dominated the

final day of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale, buying the top four lots,

including the session-topping son of the first season stallion Holy Roman

Emperor. Hip No. 1434 was secured by O'Byrne for 425,000 guineas after

attracting some initial interest from BBA Ireland's Adrian Nicoll as well as

German International's Rudiger Alles. Consigned by Tom Gaffney's Churchtown

House Stud, the April 2 foal is out of Irish One Thousand Guineas (Ire-G1)

winner Tarascon (Tirol), dam of stakes-placed Mayano Sophia (Rock of Gibraltar

[Ire]).

Coolmore stallion Galileo (Ire) also brought considerable attention Saturday

with the next three highest offerings on the day. The first to go through the

ring was Hip 1362, a colt out of the Salse mare Sitara, who was consigned by

Robert Pocock's Stringston Farm in Somerset. Sitara is a half-sister to Shouk

(Shirley Heights), the dam of Epsom (Eng-G1) and Irish Oaks (Ire-G1) winner

Alexandrova (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) and Group 1 winner Magical Romance (Barathea

[Ire]). Interest in the colt came initially from bloodstock agents David

McGreavy and Charlie Gordon-Watson as well as Tony Nerses, but none were able to

better O'Bryne's bid of 380,000 guineas.

At the conclusion of the fifth day of selling in the foal segment of the

December sale, 98 lots sold for 3,732,600 guineas, at an average of 38,088

guineas and a median 16,000 guineas. This took the five day total to 562 foals

sold for 14,549,100 guineas at an average of 25,888 guineas and a median of

8,750 guineas.

"These are testing times globally and no period of sharp readjustment, in

whatever sphere, is easy," Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony said. "We have

experienced significant declines this week, in particular at the beginning of

the week when the lesser foals struggled to find buyers, but quality foals have

continued to attract plenty of competition, albeit at lower levels than we have

been used to in recent years. In that respect, this week's foal trade has

mirrored our yearling market where the upper echelons held up remarkably well,

but the heavily populated lower levels looked very exposed to the harsh

realities of the global economy."