Colts by Central Kentucky sires More Than Ready and Arch brought the top two prices at the first session of the Tattersalls Craven breeze-up sale April 17 at Park Paddocks in Newmarket, both consigned by John Egan's Friarstown Bloodstock.
The More Than Ready colt topped the session at 320,000 guineas (US$516,129), and the Arch colt sold for the second-highest price of 270,000 guineas (US$435,484).
Day one was highlighted by 17 six-figure horses and showed double-digit gains in total sales and average price.
Tattersalls reported 51 of 78 horses offered sold for an aggregate 4,007,000 guineas (US$6,462,910), a 16.8% uptick from last year's opening day. Average price was 78,569 guineas (US$126,724) a healthy 24% increase.
The median price of 52,000 guineas (US$83,871), marked a 5% decline. The clearance rate was 65%, compared with 71% on the corresponding day in 2012.
The session-topping More Than Ready colt was bought by Anthony Stroud Bloodstock for an established, but undisclosed, client.
The bay or brown colt is out of the winning In Excess mare Mary Ellise, a full sister to multiple U.S. graded stakes winner Spring Awakening, who was grade I-placed. The family includes Belmont Stakes (gr. I) winner and sire Editor's Note and French group I winner and sire Hold That Tiger.
More Than Ready, who has been a leading sire in two hemispheres, was relocated from Vinery Kentucky earlier this year to stand the Northern Hemisphere season at WinStar Farm in Versailles.
"He is a very nice horse, by a top stallion, and on our timings did one of the fastest breezes, if not the fastest," Stroud said of the session topper. "He stays in England, but a trainer has not yet been decided."
Bred in Kentucky by Donald Burke, Egan purchased the colt for $90,000 from the consignment of Longford Farm, agent for Michael Barnett's Blackburn Farm, at the 2012 Keeneland September yearling sale.
Egan also sold a Kentucky-bred colt by Claiborne Farm resident Arch to Richard Frisby for the day's second-highest, enjoying dividends after buying the youngster for $250,000 from the Paramount Sales consignment at Keeneland September.
Out of the winning Storm Cat mare Touch of Truth, the bay colt is half brother to grade III winner Society Hostess and is from the family of elite runners Refuse to Bend, Media Puzzle, Casual Conquest, and Go and Go.
The colt was bred in Kentucky by Paramount principals Pat Costello and Gabriel Duignan along with Pat Holden, Peter Russell, and Donal McKeown.
"He'll be trained in Newmarket," said Frisby. "He is beautifully bred, out of a mare who has proven she gets tough, durable and top-class horses.
"There is an international cast of performers under the second dam. He has a stallion's pedigree, if it happens."
A Royal Applause half brother to the Hungarian sprint star Overdose brought the third-highest price of 215,000 guineas (US$346,775) from agent Oliver St. Lawrence and Overdose's owner Zoltan Mikoczy. The pair prevailed in the bidding from Richard O'Gorman, David Redvers alongside Sheikh Fahad al Thani of Qatar, and Japanese-based Chika Racing.
Out of the Warning mare Our Poppet, the colt was bred by Wolverhampton-based breeders Graham and Di Robinson, who also bred Overdose.
"I thought he'd make more," said Mikoczy, whose Hungarian was translated into English by his daughter Lilla. "I came for him and so had no need to bid early. He will come back to Budapest and go into training with Jozef Roszival. Maybe he will be in the next stable to Overdose.
"He moves a lot like Overdose, who is a hero in Eastern Europe." The sale continues with the second and final session April 18, beginning at 6 p.m. local time.
