Pursuit of Love colt brings 40,000gns at DBS

Trainer Andrew Balding took home the

top-priced yearling of the second half of the DBS St Leger Festival Sale

Thursday after his mother Emma paid 40,000 guineas for a son of Pursuit of Love. Hip

No. 178, consigned by Peter Balding's Throckmorton Court Stud, is out of

Society Rose (Saddlers' Hall), herself a half-sister to the 2000 Cheveley Park S.

(Eng-G1) winner

Regal Rose (Danehill) and Saturday's St Leger (Eng-G1) contender Regal Flush (Sakhee). The February

16 foal is from the extended family of the 1989 Irish Two Thousand Guineas

(Ire-G1) and St James's Palace S. (Eng-G1) scorer Shaadi.

Three lots were sold for 32,000gns on the

night, with the first falling to trainer Bryan Smart after a bidding battle with

David Minton. Hip 142, from the draft of Robert Chugg's Little Lodge Farm, is a

colt by Bertolini, the sire of Smart's King George S. (Eng-G3) winner Moorhouse Lad.

Bobby O'Ryan matched that figure when outbidding Peter Doyle for Hip 150,

a son of Elusive City out of a half to the 2004 Somerville Tattersall S.

(Eng-G3) winner Diktatorial (Diktat) from Willie Browne's Meadowlands Stud. Later in the

session, O'Ryan paid the same after a tussle with James Stack for Woodtown House

Stud's Hip 183, a daughter of Johannesburg whose dam is a close relative of the

listed scorer Hymn of Love (Ire).

"We reintroduced the St Leger Festival Sales this year to provide an

alternative for the large number of yearlings who could not be accommodated at

the end of August and that has resulted in a solid commercial catalog of typical St Leger Yearlings," DBS Managing Director Henry Beeby commented. "There is absolutely no doubt in our mind that this sale has a

real future and will do what we have always done this week, which is pump out

value-for-money winners."

Full results can be found on www.dbsauctions.com.