Somerville Statistics: Day 1

Catalogued: 234

Offered: 214

Sold: 161

Aggregate: 4,391,500gns

Median: 22,000gns

Average: 27,239gns

% Sold:76%

Leading consignor (by agg, cumulative over the sale): 1. Tally-Ho Stud, 2. Whitsbury Manor Stud, 3. Barton Stud

Leading purchaser (by agg, cumulative over the sale): 1. Clive Cox Racing, 2. Oliver St Lawrence Bloodstock, 3. Rabbah Bloodstock

Leading sires (by agg): 1. Starman, 2. Sergei Prokofiev, 3. Ardad

Leading sires (by av, two or more sold): 1. Hello Youmzain, 2. Sioux Nation, 3. Dark Angel

Top five lots

Lot 154: Starman (GB) / Get Up And Dance (GB) B.F. (IRE) >> Tally-Ho Stud, Ireland >> Richard Ryan >> 100,000gns

Lot 200: Sands of Mali (FR) / Island Drive (IRE) B.C. (IRE) >> Barton Stud >> Clive Cox Racing >> 85,000gns

Lot 2: Acclamation (GB) / Adelante (FR) B.C. (IRE) >> Loughtown Stud, Ireland >> Oliver St Lawrence Bloodstock >> 75,000gns

Lot 224: Showcasing (GB) / La Puntalina (IRE) Ch.C. (GB) >> Whitsbury Manor Stud >> J & A Young (Leicester) / Quirke Bloodstock >> 75,000gns

Lot 90: Havana Grey (GB) / Deep Impression (IRE) B.C. (IRE) >> Pier House Stud, Ireland >> Powerstown Stud >> 72,000gns

Lot 174: Wootton Bassett (GB) / Helvezia (IRE) B.F. (IRE) >> WH Bloodstock >> SackvilleDonald / Tom Dascombe >> 72,000gns

Lot 119: Sergei Prokofiev (CAN) / Enchanted Linda (GB) B.C. (GB) >> Whitsbury Manor Stud Avenue Bloodstock / Alice Haynes >> 70,000gns

Lot 159: Dark Angel (IRE) / Global Light (IRE) B.F. (IRE) >> Kildallan Farm, Ireland >> Paul Corrigan >> 70,000gns

Lot 176: Starman (GB) / Herb of Grace (IRE) B.F. (IRE) >> Ballyvolane Stud, Ireland >> A C Elliott, Agent / Meg Nicholls >> 70,000gns

Lot 183: Blue Point (IRE) / Holy Cat (IRE) B.F. (IRE) >> Grangemore Stud, Ireland >> Kevin Ross Bloodstock >> 70,000gns

Lot 219: Invincible Army (IRE) / Khaleesi Wind (IRE) B.C. (IRE) Loughmore Stables, Ireland Middleham Park Racing / Alice Haynes 70,000gns (19:07)

Lot 224: the Big Eves and Big Mojo team of trainer Mick Appleby, sporting a Big Evs baseball cap, and agent Conor Quirke spend 75,000gns on this colt by Showcasing from Whitsbury Manor Stud. The pair are with owner Jeremy Young, who has the 98-rated Shagraan, a winner at Goodwood at the Qatar Festival, in training with Appleby, the purchased signed under the J & A Young (Leicester) / Quirke Bloodstock buying partnership.

"I love Showcasing," said the trainer, adding: "He is very much a favourite sire. We have waited for this horse, we all picked him out. His full-sister looks to have ability and he comes from a great farm."

That sister Fondest Dream, a 2023 graduate of this sale, is the winner of one race from one start and is entered in the 7f £150,000 Tattersalls Auction Stakes for horses sold at this sale and in Book 3 and Book 4, due to be run on October 4.

Big Evs and Big Mojo are both Tattersalls graduates, bought at the October Sale and the December Sale respectively. (18:33)

Lot 200: "I liked him when I saw him and I liked him even more when he came into the ring, he showed himself off really well," said trainer Clive Cox after going to 85,000gns for the Sands Of Mali colt out of two-year-old winner Island Drive (Kodiac) and sold by Barton Stud.

"He is out of a Kodiac mare and although I have not yet had any by the sire, I remember him running well and often against Harry Angel. He has been bought for an owner, which needs a call to confirm!" said Cox. "There is plenty of stock around, and it is being able to pick and buy the ones you are pleased to take home, and this fella certainly fits the bill."

The mare has produced one winner from one runner and she is out of the Group 3 Brownstown Stakes winner Redstone Dancer (Namid). (17:29)

Lot 159: 16-year-old Ruairi Kilmartin gets a dream start to his career as a pinhooker – the young man sells his filly by Dark Angel for 70,000gns having bought her, signing as RK Bloodstock, for just €7,000 last November.

"It is unbelievable, when I bought her as foal I thought I might be able to double my money, I never thought she would make that today, I am over the moon," he said of his first foray into the world of buying and selling horses.

Going on to explain why she appealed to him last November, he said: "She is by Dark Angel, her dam is a half-sister to Mehmas so it is all speed, and she is a bulky sort, I thought she looked like she would be able to run fast. Her full-sister had been placed in a Listed race and we hoped she would go on to get some more black-type, and luckily she did. It is the stuff of dreams, really."

Coming to Tattersalls with his father Dermot to sell under the family's Kildallan Farm banner the young man kept his hopes in the "realistic" category, proving that he is somewhat wise beyond his young years.

"Our expectations were high, but they were low at the same time, you never know in this game what is going to happen. To be honest, it was emotional watching her sell, and I am just so happy," he said, remembering, like all successful consignors, to acknowledge his purchasers and bidders: "I want to thank buyer Paul Corrigan and the underbidder Roger O'Callaghan, without Roger it wouldn't have happened, we got lucky."

Of future career plans there might be some family debate, especially as the young man is going into his transition year: "We will see, but my Dad tells me to stick to the books. I have been going around with Roger and he has been really helpful, I expect I will end up at Tally-Ho Stud."

He also admitted that he has had to skive a day off school to be at Tattersalls today and is heading back on Wednesday – he will have plenty to tell his schoolmates and his teachers about how to make money selling horses.

It could be a decent couple of days for Kildallan Farm as tomorrow the team is consigning the Inns Of Court half-brother to the Group 2 winner and the recent Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes runner-up Believing (Lot 279); and our young man reports that the colt is going "down very well" with the viewers.

And so, to sign off, what plans does young Kilmartin have with today's profit?

"We'll see you back here at Tattersalls at the foal sales in December!" he says with a smile. (16:43)

Lot 154: Richard Ryan buys for Teme Valley, going to 100,000gns for the Starman filly out of Get Up And Dance (Makfi), sold by breeder Tally-Ho Stud.

"She is a lovely filly, the mare is proven and she will be the first Teme Valley horse with Karl Burke," said Ryan. "I have been looking for a nice horse for Karl for some time and she fits all the criteria – she is out of a proven mare, is a half-sister to a Palace House winner [Seven Questions], Karl trained Boogie Time and felt this was a step up as an individual, she has a great mind and a lot to like with a fabulous walk."

He added: "I like the sire and I quite like them as a bunch and think he has got every chance."

Of having to spending a six-figure sum on the filly's purchase, he said: "A good model and a half-sister to a stakes winner is going to cost this sort of money, I was hoping for a bit less! We will race, her and she might be in the shop window in future, but she has a great residual value, which helps."

It is fast family throughout – dam is a half-sister to the Temple Stakes (G2) winner and King's Stand Stakes (G1) third-placed Pearl Secret, and the extended family includes Palacegate Episode, the granddam of Dutch Art. (15:53)

Lot 119: "The first thing to say is that he is for sale!" laughed Mark McStay of Avenue Bloodstock after going to 70,000gns for this colt by the Whitsbury Manor Stud-based sire Sergei Prokofiev, and bred and consigned by Whitsbury, too.

"He has been bought by trainer Alice Haynes, he looks a very fast horse, he without an owner but hopefully by the next couple of days someone will ring and buy him<' added McStay. "He is a very sharp-looking horse an is going to a trainer we all know is very good at getting these two-year-olds out and having lots of success. He has been well presented by Whitsbury and is out of a mare who has done it already."

McStay, who was sat on the far acorn with Haynes, continued: "He looks every inch a two-year-old. Sergei was a fast horse, seems to be getting fast horse and seems to be holding his own. We had to push the boat out, there were five or six different bidders at different stages, and think Mark Grant was our direct under bidder – he produced Bradsell whom he bought at this sale, so that tells us all that we need to know about his judgement."

Haynes added: "Enquiries to me!"

At this sale last year Grant went to 52,000gns for the 2022-born Showcasing colt out of this dam Enchanted Linda (Charm Spirit). She was a winner at two and three and is dam of Havana Ball (Havana Grey), a Listed winner in Germany over 7f in May for trainer Archie Watson.

Enchanted Linda was bought by Whitsbury Manor for 11,000gns at the Tattersalls December Sale in 2019. (14:35)

Lot 90: Powerstown Stud's Tom Whitehead goes to 72,000gns for the Havana Grey colt, the first foal out of the Footstepsinthesand mare Deep Impression and offered by Pier House Stud.

"He is from a fast family and has been bought to breeze," said Whitehead. "I have not had any to breeze by Havana Grey so far, but have bred to him and he has been lucky for me."

The dual winner Deep Impression is a half-sister to the nine-time winner and South African Group race winner Gorongosa (Montjeu), dam of the South African black-type winner Shangani and Chitengo. (13:43)

Lot 64: this colt by Sergei Prokofiev, who has had such a good time of it with his first crop of runners and is the leading European first-season sire by winners and prize-money earnings, sells for 52,000gns and is bought by Karl Burke.

Dam Clouds Rest, the winner of three races at two, is the dam of five winners from six runners, including Tenaya Canyon (Due Diligence), who has two Listed placings to her name.

Gilt Edge Girl, a half-sister of granddam Ahwahnee (Compton Place), boasts Group 1 success as the winner of the Prix de l'Abbaye, her half-brother Godfrey Street won the Flying Childers Stakes (G2) and half-sister Tamora is granddam of Arabian Dusk, winner of this year's Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes (G2). (12:58)

Lot 47: "George has had a lot of luck with Dandy Man," said Billy Jackson Stops after signing with trainer George Scott for this colt by the sire, consigned by Barton Stud.

"He is an athletic sort, the mare has already proved that she can do it, and I think he is good value."

The colt is a half-brother to this year's Listed Royal Ascot Windsor Castle Stakes winner Ain't Nobody (Sands Of Mali) and out of the mare Burmese Waltz (Showcasing), the winner of two races at two and four and placed four times, including in the Silver Wokingham Handicap.

That luck that Scott has enjoyed with the sire has come courtesy of the speedy Rocket Rodney, whom he trains for Victorious Racing. The four-year-old has won three races, including the Listed Dragon Stakes as a juvenile and the Al Riffa Cup in Qatar in December. (12:03)

Lot 37: Peter and Ross Doyle Bloodstock go to 40,000gns for the Norris Bloodstock-consigned colt by A'Ali, whose first-crop are yearlings of this year.

He is out of the unraced Berkshire Honey (Sakhee's Secret), the headline performers in the pedigree being Bomb Alaska, winner of the Listed Ben Marshall Stakes and placed 14 times including in the Gordon Richards Stakes (G3), and his dam So True, a runner-up in the Musidora Stakes (G3) and the St Simon Stakes (G3).

Berkshire Honey has had one winner so far – Jojo Rabbit who won six races and achieved a BHA rating high of 89.

A'Ali, by Society Rock and standing at Newsells Park Stud, won five stakes races, four times at Group 2 level – the 5f Flying Childers Stakes (G2), the Sapphire Stakes (G2), the Prix Robert Papin (G2) and the Norfolk Stakes (G2). (11:53)

Lot 8: the first of two lots due through the ring by Lope de Vega makes 62,000gns and is bought by Andrew Oliver.

He is out of Alienate (Oasis Dream), a half-sister to Logician (Frankel), the champion three-year-old stayer in Europe of 2019 and winner of the St Leger, and to Suffused, a Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed in the US.

It is the Juddmonte-developed family of Cityscape, Bated Breath and Equilateral.

The May-born colt is a half-brother to the Group 2-placed Lmay (Frankel), who finished fourth in the Group 2 T.von Zastrow Stutenpreis over 1m4f on Saturday. (10:52)

Lot 2: the very first lot in this morning gets us off to a flyer... the colt by Acclamation, out of Adelante (Zoffany) and from Loughtown Stud in Ireland is bought by Oliver St Lawrence Bloodstock for 75,000gns.

Adelante is a winner and was black-type placed in a Listed sprint in Germany and has had one runner from one foal of racing age.

Buyer Oliver St Lawrence, said: "He is a nice horse from good vendors in the Burns family. He is a nice honest colt by Acclamation, and he ticks the boxes, and is for Fawzi Nass." (10:33)