Just 24 hours after a High Chaparral colt set a European record for a breeze-up sale, the high water mark was moved again when a 2-year-old War Front colt from Willie Browne's Mocklershill was sold for 1,150,000 guineas.
Trainer Mike de Kock's undefeated South African champion Soft Falling Rain tops a full field of 14, along with four also-eligible contenders, entered for the $110,00 United Arab Emirates Two Thousand Guineas Trial Jan. 17.
Piste Noire, a 3-year-old unraced daughter of Diesis, was the most expensive horse sold on the Tattersalls December mare sale's third day, bringing 340,000 guineas ($594,161 in U.S. funds). The median price for the session, which was held Dec. 2 in England, was up 23.1% from 2008. The gross revenue and average price dropped 17.6% and 18.1%, respectively.
The key business figures fell short of their 2007 equivalents on the opening day of the Goffs Million yearling sale in County Kildare, Ireland.
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.
An electric day's trade in Newmarket at the December Sale yesterday produced an aggregate of over 36 million gns ($70,718,740), the highest turnover ever seen in a day at a European bloodstock auction with no less than three lots making 3 million gns ($5.89 million) or more.
John Ferguson purchased a quartet of 3-year-olds for a total of 10.1 million gns ($19,840,540) on a lively opening breeding stock session of the Tattersalls December Sale in Newmarket yesterday. He also set a new European record for a filly when he bought Satwa Queen for 3.4 millin gns (nearly $6.7 million).
A colt by Rock of Gibraltar was easily the top lot when he brought 240,000 euros (about $355,000) at the Nov. 21 penultimate session of the Goffs November foal sale in Ireland.
The only Sadler's Wells catalogued topped a furious day's trading at Tattersalls' December Foal Sale in Newmarket Friday when selling for 470,000 guineas to Demi O'Byrne on behalf of the Coolmore team.
Beckys Shirt brought $850,000 Tuesday to get the second session of the Keeneland January horses of all ages sale off to a fast start.
Ten-year-old Lady Carla, the 1996 Epsom Oaks (Eng-I) heroine, topped the penultimate day's business at Tattersalls' December Sale Wendesday when selling for 1,050,000 guineas ($1,896,300) to Timmy Hyde, owner of Camas Park Stud in Co Tipperary, and Coolmore Stud's Paul Shanahan.
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