November is the end of turf racing in Europe and the shift from yearling sales to foals and breeding stock. The Championship Breeders’ Cup weekend was as thrilling as always and certainly produced good results for me.
PACHATTACK has been nothing if not consistent this year and turned-in another top performance to come third in the $2 million Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic beaten a neck for second spot. This tough filly has 5 wins & 17 placings in 26 runs so far, with prize-money of just short of £500,000. It was decided by trainer Gerard Butler & owner Michael Deegan to send her to Fasig-Tipton November sale where she was bought for $1.2 million – not bad for a $270,000 yearling purchase. The new owners are the Niarchos Family who will race her another year before retiring her into their amazing broodmare band. So this lovely filly has given much enjoyment and turned a profit of $1.65 million for connections.
Another big result on that weekend for Pachattack’s connections was MARISTAR’s third in the Grade 2 Chilukki Stakes on the BC support card at Churchill Downs. This very well bred filly (Giant’s Causeway out of Champion Jewel Princess) looks like a decent Grade race, on the dirt, is well within her abilities in 2012. If she can do this then her value will probably at least match that of Pachattack’s and Maristar was only a $200,000 yearling purchase.
Group 3 winner SHUMOOS had her last run for trainer Brian Meehan in the new Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint. They went a crazy early pace and Shumoos made up an enormous amount of ground in the home straight to be a fast finishing length behind the winner at the line, with 4.5 lengths back to the third. She now joins Ben Cecil in California, still in the ownership of Fawzi Nass.
The Goffs November sales starts off the European breeding stock sale season. I bought three nice prospects including Polish Belle (€50,000), who was carrying a Royal Applause full-sibling to Gr.2 placed Jairzihno, and Group 3 winning Cursory (€60,000), carrying to the mighty Acclamation – both for Newsells Park Stud. I also bought a Darshaan mare for only €6,000 for Nelson Farm in Devon.
At the Tattersalls December Yearling sale I bought a very sharp looking Choisir colt to go to Bryan Smart for Fawzi Nass and a Baltic King colt for Italy. In the Tattersalls Foal sale I bought a Compton Place & Mount Nelson weanling that will be reoffered as yearlings.