Tattersalls business in Newmarket concludes for the year with a fortnight of the most significant action in the calendar as this week's Foal Sale leads into the multi-million guinea feeding frenzy of the December Mare Sale.
Before either of those begin, however, there is the final opportunity to purchase a potential runner for next year, with the Nov. 24 December Yearling Sale boasting a particularly impressive recent graduate.
At the end of 2023, Conor Quirke made the bold move to pick up a Mohaather colt from Ringfort Stud for 175,000gns, making him the second most expensive member of the session.
Quirke, fresh from finding the RP Racing team the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1T) scorer Big Evs, would be signing for another group 1-winning speedball in Big Mojo, conqueror of this year's Haydock Sprint Cup (G1).
Among well over 150 yearlings likely to go through the ring during the session are those who missed earlier engagements for one reason or another. Chief among them is a Sea The Stars brother to brilliant middle-distance mare Emily Upjohn (Lot 75), bred by Piercetown Stud and Sunderland Holding and offered by The Castlebridge Consignment. While the Coronation Cup (G1) winner was a canny 60,000gns Book 2 purchase, her Starman half sister then made 240,000gns as a yearling.
Sea The Stars and Castlebridge are responsible for an equally interesting individual one lot later (76), namely a brother to Irish and Yorkshire Oaks (G1) winner Sea of Class. That their dam, Holy Moon, is one of Italian breeding's highest achievers is illustrated by the fact that the feats of her progeny runs to fill the entire catalog page.
Meanwhile, only a few days after selling the New Bay half sister to group 1 star Dreamloper and Park Hill Stakes (G2) winner Santorini Star for a jet-setting €650,000 at the Goffs November Foal Sale, Mount Coote Stud and Olivia Hoare bring her Sea The Stars older half sister (95) to the market here.
A Pinatubo half sister (28) to another Irish Oaks heroine, You Got To Me, and the Kingman siblings of Pearls Galore (124) and Jannah Rose (160) would all have the potential to set the ring alight in the right circumstances.
Other notable offerings include Hazelwood Bloodstock's Frankel half brother to Queen Mary (G2) and Temple Stakes (G2) winner Dramatised (85), Shadwell's Mohaather colt out of champion Taghrooda (177) and Baroda Stud's Cracksman half sister to Melbourne Cup (G1) winner Cross Counter (196).
