The weather at Goffs might not have been much to write home about Sept. 24, as inspections ahead of the Orby Yearling Sale took place amid squally rain, but the Staffordstown draft was walking on sunshine.
Kirsten Rausing's farm in County Meath consigns five lots to the auction, which it topped in consecutive years in 2006 and 2007 with the Sadler's Wells fillies Albarouche (US$2,540,600 in 2006) and Jane Eyre ($3,417,120 in 2007), and nearly all have benefited from recent upgrades to their pedigrees.
First through the ring Sept. 26 will be the Sea The Moon half brother to Sandrine, who carried Rausing's storied white silks with green hoops to victory in the Park Stakes (G2) at Doncaster this month. He is Lot 78.
Later in the catalog appear two members of the second crop of Study of Man , a Prix du Jockey Club (G1)-winning son of Deep Impact from the family of the magnificent Miesque who stands at Rausing's Lanwades Stud in Newmarket. The sire recorded his first black-type winner on Saturday, and in some style, when Deepone ran out the convincing winner of the Beresford Stakes (G2) at the Curragh.
Lot 203 is a half brother to two individual winners out of Albamara, a listed-placed Galileo mare from Rausing's exceptionally prolific 'Al' family, which yielded her Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) winner Alpinista, while Lot 440 is a half sister to listed scorer Kawida out of Kandahari, a winning Archipenko half sister to Australian superstar Zaaki.
The draft also contains a Sea The Moon filly out of Alma Linda, a winning Invincible Spirit half sister to listed winners Alla Speranza and Altesse descended from Alborada, who offers a rare chance to get into this family at ground level (Lot 212), and an Oasis Dream colt out of the winning Sea The Stars mare Kinaesthesia, a relation to Rausing's British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (G1) victress Madame Chiang (Lot 446).
Rausing is at home in Newmarket this week, as a fractured leg has prevented her from traveling to Ireland to oversee the draft as she usually would, but Deepone's recent success achieved at the expense of Ballydoyle-trained Galileo colts Chief Little Rock and Grosvenor Square has been the perfect tonic for the patient.
"I think what was quite interesting was the jockey Billy Lee's comments after the race, as he said that even if the other horses had come at him, he would have had plenty left in the tank or words to that effect," Rausing says.
"We're delighted because, as you know, it's rather difficult to compete with the giants of this business, and obviously, our horse Study of Man covered around 80 mares in his first season, whereas some of his competitors in the same crop covered upwards of 200 each, which makes life a little difficult.
"He is operating at a good strike rate of around 35% and the season isn't finished yet, so there may be a few other winners lurking about somewhere. There may even be some black-type results to come though. There are only a few opportunities left this season now, but he might have another black-type horse yet; perhaps one of the fillies."
Study of Man has put five winners on the board, the others being Rausing's own useful fillies Francophone and Lingua Franca, James Ferguson's promising colt Jubilee Walk and BBAG sales race scorer Ghorgan. Not bad results, all in all, for a sire who ran only once at 2 himself, and whose tally of 16 runners to date is a small fraction of the 90 who have so far represented leading freshman Blue Point.
Rausing says his performance is on a par with what she expected at the start of the season, and she is taking encouragement from an interesting historical precedent at Lanwades Stud.
"He's ahead of Hernando, another French Derby winner, at the same stage of their careers," she points out. "Hernando went into the October yearling sales with, I think, five first-crop 2-year-old winners having covered a slightly larger book. Of those five, two were in Sweden and two were in the French provinces, but one was a maiden winner in England, who was later unlucky in the Racing Post Trophy.
"That one English maiden winner was Holding Court, who won the French Derby himself by six lengths in the following season, and then soon after came Sulamani, another French Derby winner. It's heartening to think that Study of Man is ahead of Hernando already."
Asked whether she thought the industry appreciated Study of Man's exciting start, she replies: "It's not really for me to say, but I hope the respect is there, because I'm very, very confident in the horse myself.
"He won his only race at 2, and that was rather later in the year than his progeny who have been winning this season, and he's such a good-looking horse who had plenty of racing ability and an outstanding pedigree."
Study of Man certainly should be on buyers' radars this yearling sales season, especially now that he has shown considerable promise as a sire, as his stock will likely perform over the distances that boast the biggest prize money and have the most resale value for international markets.
Rausing says of the two homebreds she is sending to Goffs this week: "We have a nice colt out of Albamara selling tomorrow. He's a brother to Almudena, who has run three times and been thereabouts but is more of a 3-year-old in the making, which you would expect on paper.
"The filly out of Kandahari selling Wednesday is the most lovely individual, she really is. The dam has rather upgraded herself by breeding a stakes winner (Kawida), and her second foal Khinjani has become a winner since the catalog was printed.
"She herself is a half sister to Zaaki, who is the highest-earning imported runner in Australia ever. I believe Black Caviar and Winx might have earned more than him, but no others who were imported there."
It should be a good week for Staffordstown, although Rausing is disappointed to be missing her regular trip to Goffs Orby.
"I've been selling at Goffs since its inauguration at Kill in 1975, when I sold a Swedish-bred yearling who did rather well for Gavin Pritchard-Gordon, which shows it's going back a bit," she says.
"I think I've attended every yearling sale there ever since, except this year, which is a source of great sadness. I could probably have hung around at the sales with my fractured leg, but I couldn't have coped with Ryanair and all that."
