A Galileo filly named Peace of Love commanded 600,000 guineas ($973,111 in U.S. funds) to top the second session of the Book 1 portion of the Tattersalls October yearling sale. The average price was up 13.9% from a year ago Oct. 6 in England and the median price increased 40.8%.
Charlie Liverton, represented by Grant Pritchard-Gordon and Tom Pritchard-Gordon of Badgers Bloodstock, purchased the session-topper after outlasting Coolmore Stud managing partner John Magnier in the bidding for the bay yearling.
“She is lovely,” Liverton said. “She is from a really tough German family, is very athletic, and has a delightful eye. We are really pleased to have picked her up. She will go in training with John Gosden.”
Gestut Etzean of Germany consigned Peace of Love. She is a half sister to German champion Peace Royale (by Sholokhov), German group III winner Peaceful Love (by Dashing Blade), and Pate (by Dashing Blade), who was a champion in the Slovak Republic (Slovakia). Their dam, the winning Surumu mare Peace Time, finished second in the 2000 Robert Pferdmenges-Rennen in Germany.
The second- and third-most-expensive horses that were sold during the second session were also were females. A Cape Cross–Model Queen filly brought 500,000 guineas ($810,926) and an Oasis Dream–Politesse filly commanded 400,000 guineas ($648,740).
Charlie Gordon-Watson Bloodstock bought the Cape Cross filly for Craig Bennett’s Merry Fox Stud from Highclere Stud. Amanda Skiffington, representing Americans Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Lael Stable, acquired the Oasis Dream filly from Barronstown Stud.
The second session’s results included a gross of 15,797,000 guineas ($25,620,420) for the 123 yearlings that were sold. The average was 128,431 guineas ($208,296) and the median was 100,000 guineas ($162,185). Compared to last year, the number sold and gross declined 23.1% and 12.4%, respectively.
The clearance rate was 83.1%, up from 77.7% in 2010.