Ireland’s flagship yearling auction, the Goffs Million sale, gets under way at Kill in Co. Kildare Sept. 29. There are 657 lots in the catalog, 49 less than last year.
After a disappointing yearling sale at nearby Tattersalls Ireland last week and following market drops at Keeneland and Doncaster this year, many vendors are resigned to a decline in figures at Goffs.
Pat O’Kelly’s Kilcarn Stud has long made a big impact at this sale, and its offerings this year include lot 265, a first-crop Oratorio colt out of Spirit of Tara, a mare whose progeny have made huge sums in recent years at Goffs.
Lot 370, consigned from Kirsten Rausing’s Staffordstown Stud, is a Selkirk half-brother to last year’s 2.4-million euros sale-topping filly Jane Eyre. They are out of the outstanding mare Albanova.
Standout fillies include lot 276, a daughter of Danehill Dancer who is a full-sister to this season’s group I-winning juvenile Mastercraftsman and a three-parts sister to American grade III winner Genuine Devotion. She is consigned from Paul Shanahan’s Ashtown House Stud.
Those who already have expensive price tags include lot 516, a Sadler’s Wells filly that made 210,000 guineas at Tattersalls last December and is re-offered by Ballincurrig House Stud.
Lot 458, a son of Galileo, is a 280,000-euro foal and is consigned from Eugene McDermott’s Kennycourt Stud. Lot 528, a Rock of Gibraltar colt, was bought for 240,000 euros as a foal by Paul Shanahan.
Meanwhile, lot 365, a daughter of Dubawi, is offered from Goffs chairman Eimear Mulhern’s Abbeville and Meadowcourt Studs after having been bought for 160,000 guineas by Dick O’Gorman as a foal at Tattersalls.
The Goffs Million Sale runs through Oct. 1 and is followed by the two-day Sportsman’s sale.
