The first day of the sale features a sister to 2022 Arc heroine Alpinista

Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book One preview

By John Ingles

16:19 · MON October 07, 2024

John Ingles identifies some of the top lots due to go through the ring this week at Europe's premier yearling sale.

A total of 448 choicely bred yearlings are catalogued to go under the hammer at the Book 1 session of Tattersalls’ October Yearling Sale between Tuesday and Thursday this week. Here is our pick of six lots to look out for who should attract plenty of interest.

Tuesday, lot 72 – filly by Frankel out of Alwilda

This time two years ago, Alpinista had just ended a superb career for Sir Mark Prescott in the colours of Kirsten Rausing by winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. That was the grey mare’s sixth Group 1 success in a row after three such wins in Germany the previous season and further successes at five in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and Yorkshire Oaks. Lot 72 is therefore a very rare opportunity to acquire a full sister to an Arc winner. Their dam Alwilda was a listed winner in Germany for the same connections, and she has produced another listed-winning filly in Germany, Alpenblume, besides Alpinista. This filly is catalogued as a bay, but Prescott and Rausing have enjoyed Group 1 success with other grey fillies from this excellent family, with grandam Albanova also a triple Group 1 in Germany and a sister to dual Champion Stakes winner Alborada.

Tuesday, lot 107 – filly by Siyouni out of Cabaret

This is another full sister to a standout performer in recent seasons, St Mark’s Basilica. After ending his two-year-old season with victory in the Dewhurst Stakes which made him Timeform’s top-rated juvenile that season, St Mark’s Basilica was unbeaten in a further four Group 1 contests at three when he was champion again. Wins in the two colts’ classics in France followed by the Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes earned him a top-class rating of 132. He’s not the only Group 1 winner, either, out of Galileo mare Cabaret who won the Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes at Leopardstown at two. Her six winners to date also include Magna Grecia who added the 2000 Guineas to the Futurity Trophy he’d won at two. St Mark’s Basilica, incidentally, was a 1.3m guinea purchase by Coolmore at this same sale and has 16 of his own first-crop yearlings due to sell this week.

Lot 107 is a sister to top-class colt St Mark's Basilica, pictured winning the Eclipse

Wednesday, lot 183 – filly by Dark Angel out of Futoon

Once again, this lot is a full sister to a Group 1 winner and one from the current season this time, Charyn. The Nurlan Bizakov-owned son of Dark Angel, bought for 250,000 guineas as a yearling from Book 2, has made into a high-class miler this season for Roger Varian, making his Group 1 breakthrough in the Queen Anne Stakes and gaining his fourth win of the year in the Prix Jacques le Marois. Charyn’s useful dam Futoon was a listed-placed sprinter and has produced another good winner by Dark Angel in Wings of War. Successful in the Mill Reef Stakes at two when trained by Clive Cox for whom he showed useful form, he’s now in Hong Kong where he was successful earlier in the year. Further back in what was essentially a family of sprinters and good two-year-olds before Charyn came along is another Mill Reef winner Galeota.

Wednesday, lot 188 – colt by Dubawi out of Glass Slippers

Among the Group 1-winning fillies and mares whose first foals will be going through the ring this week is Bearstone Stud’s very smart sprinter Glass Slippers. Trained by Kevin Ryan, the daughter of Dream Ahead won seven races, producing her career best effort when running out a three-length winner of the Prix de l’Abbaye on her final start at three. Beaten a neck from a less helpful draw in the same race a year later, she added two more notable wins to her cv in the autumn of her four-year-old season in the Flying Five and the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, becoming the first European-trained winner of the latter contest. Kept in training at five, she was third in both races when bidding to win the Flying Five and Abbaye again. Glass Slippers is the best of seven winners out of her own dam Night Gypsy, with the others including two-year-old listed winner Electric Feel.

Wednesday, lot 242 – colt by Dubawi out of Lady Bowthorpe

Dubawi was also chosen as the stallion to start Lady Bowthorpe’s broodmare career. As her owner Emma Banks put it, ‘she deserves to go to the best…it would be wrong not to give her the very best chance to show she can do the same from the paddocks as she did on the racecourse.’ The likeable Lady Bowthorpe progressed through handicaps with William Jarvis to become a very smart mare at five, winning the Dahlia Stakes and Nassau Stakes and outrunning odds of 40/1 to finish third behind Baaeed and Palace Pier in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on her final start. An 82,000 guineas purchase from Book 2, Lady Bowthorpe is by Nathaniel out of the Italian winner Maglietta Fina and is a half-sister to two other winners, including the smart sprinter Speak In Colours.

Lot 242 is the first foal out of Nassau Stakes winner Lady Bowthorpe

Thursday, lot 371 – filly by Pinatubo out of Reem Three

Champion two-year-old Pinatubo has eight members of his second crop of yearlings due to go through the ring this week, with the filly out of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum’s tremendous broodmare Reem Three sure to be popular. The exploits of Reem Three’s ten winning foals take up most of the page in the sales catalogue, among them last season’s Queen Anne Stakes winner Triple Time, another Group 1 winner Ajman Princess, winner of the Prix Jean Romanet, and further Group/listed winners Ostilio, Cape Byron, Third Realm and Captain Winters. However, it’s Reem Three’s grandsons Inisherin and Rosallion who have made the most headlines this year, including winning the Commonwealth Cup and St James’s Palace Stakes respectively at Royal Ascot. It’s worth noting that Pinatubo is by Shamardal, also the sire of Inisherin and grandsire of Rosallion.

Notable graduates

Among last year’s graduates of Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale are a couple of this season’s leading two-year-old colts. Whistlejacket, bought for 500,000 guineas by M. V. Magnier and Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm, won the July Stakes and Prix Morny and was recently second in the Middle Park Stakes, while Scorthy Champ has proven a relative bargain buy for Joseph O’Brien at 155,000 guineas, recouping that and more with victory in the National Stakes.

Ballydoyle’s two-year-old fillies Fairy Godmother, winner of the Albany Stakes, and Bubbling, recent winner of the Rockfel Stakes, were also Book 1 purchases last year at 425,000 guineas and 320,000 guineas respectively.

A couple of this year’s European classic winners to have gone through the ring at Book 1 in 2022 were the Ralph Beckett-trained Irish Oaks winner You Got To Me, bought for 200,000 guineas, and Devil’s Point, a 475,000 guineas purchase who won the German 2000 Guineas for David Menuisier.

Other graduates of Book 1 in years past to have won in Group 1 company in Europe this year are Coronation Cup winner Luxembourg, Khaadem who won the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot for the second year running, and Al Riffa who won the Grosser Preis von Berlin after running City of Troy to a length in the Eclipse.

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