Record Turnover at Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale

Notably strong trade on the second day of the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up drove the sale to a record turnover of 15,357,500 guineas led by two co-sale topping colts by BLUE POINT and HAVANA GREY respectively at 625,000 guineas and the second highest priced filly in the sale’s history at 600,000 guineas. Twenty-one lots sold for 200,000 guineas or more compared to 15 at the previous year’s renewal of the sale, and 60 lots sold for in excess of 100,000 guineas.

Havana Grey Colt Co-Tops Sale at 625,000 Guineas

Glending Stables enjoyed their best result to date when their HAVANA GREY colt co-topped the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale when knocked down to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock’s Anthony Stroud for 625,000 guineas. Bloodstock agent Alex Elliott led much of the early running before Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown emerged as the eventual underbidder.

"Havana Grey has done really well, he is a legitimate sire and had the good filly win today," said Stroud. "The colt breezed well in good time and looks a two-year-old type."

Glending Stables’ Roderick Kavanagh commented: "Havana Grey has done so well and had the Group 3 winner today and an impressive one at that. You hope all the interested parties are going to pitch up and it has obviously got late in the sale and it is a bit lonely, but they all got there. We had some great judges on him. He is an athletic horse with a bit of scope and I don't think he is just a sprinter type, hopefully he will get seven furlongs or a mile." 

He added: "This easily our best result, most of them make 25,000 guineas! When it happens, it happens. We have had a good week and the two have breezed so well, they are naturally fast horses. We are delighted. Cormac O'Flynn buys most of them with me, he is the brains of the outfit, I just get to hold the reins!"

The colt was purchased by the pair at the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale for 42,000 guineas. His sire HAVANA GREY enjoyed a phenomenal start to his stud career as last year’s Champion First Season Sire, and his first crop of three-year-olds have continued in much the same vein with MAMMAS GIRL claiming today’s Group 3 Nell Gwyn Stakes at Newmarket.

Godolphin Secure Oak Tree Farm’s Blue Point Colt for 625,000 Guineas

Oak Tree Farm offered only three lots at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale but their select draft achieved a combined turnover of 1,185,000 guineas to top the consignors’ table. Following straight on the heels of the co-sale topping HAVANA GREY colt, Oak Tree Farm’s colt by BLUE POINT was secured by Anthony Stroud of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock following a lengthy bidding duel with Dubai based agent Satish Seemar.

"He is for Godolphin," revealed Stroud. "Blue Point has made a great start, this colt comes from a top consignor and he fits the profile. He will go to Charlie Appleby, who has a few by the sire and likes what he has."

The colt will be following in Classic winning hoofprints, as Norman Williamson’s Oak Tree Farm sold the Champion Two-Year-Old and Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas winner NATIVE TRAIL for 210,000 guineas to Godolphin at the 2021 Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale.

A beaming Norman Williamson said: "All spring people have been telling me that they had Blue Points that could run. I kept my powder dry but I knew I had a good one and am thrilled. Although Native Trail went from this sale and won just six weeks later, this is a sharper sort than him and just feels like he is one to point and shoot - he feels fast. It has been a great week. It is what you do it for and the team have done a top job."

Kerri Radcliffe Secures Night Of Thunder Filly for 600,000 Guineas 

An impressive breeze and a Group 1 placed sibling suggested that Grove Stud’s NIGHT OF THUNDER filly would be highly sought after in the sales ring and she did not disappoint, becoming the second highest priced filly ever sold at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale. Agent Kerri Radcliffe secured the filly for 600,000 guineas after seeing off persistent underbidder Saud Al Qahtani of Najd Stud.

Kerri Radcliffe commented: "She has got the pedigree so she has residual value and she comes from a great consignor. She did a lovely breeze, not one of the quickest times, that's not what I buy - I like to buy something that finishes out well. Whenever she hit the rising ground she took off and that is what you want to see them do."

She added: "She is for a new client based in London and we don't know where she is going to go yet – give me 24 hours to think about it! I am getting on a plane to Florida in the morning so I have plenty of time to think of it. Hopefully she will be very good and will be an Ascot filly." 

Grove Stud’s Brendan Holland had purchased the half-sister to Group 3 Molecomb Stakes winner and Group 1 Middle Park Stakes placed RUMBLE INTHEJUNGLE for €90,000 last autumn and was understandably delighted with the sale:  

"It is a great result for the farm. I Ioved her when I bought her as a yearling, Night Of Thunder is a top class sire and she is from a really fast family. It is very hard to buy something with speed all the way through the page, which she has, and to be by such a good sire.  

"I did not dream that we could get a result like that today, but we did think at the farm that she was the best filly we have had since Rosdhu Queen and we really liked her coming into the sale. Her ability all spring was very evident. Even though she is a May filly, and she has to win her maiden first, but there is a chance she could end up at Ascot - she looks like an Ascot horse. She has always been able to run, the running bit has been easy for her." 

ROSDHU QUEEN was sold by Grove Stud for 65,000 guineas at the 2012 Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale to David Redvers and claimed the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes before selling for 2,100,000 guineas at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in 2013.

Kilminfoyle House Stud Sell Blue Point Filly for 350,000 Guineas 

First season sire BLUE POINT has proved popular at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale with the second highest priced lot of the opening day joined in the second session by the 625,000 guineas co-sale topper and Kilminfoyle House Stud’s BLUE POINT filly, who sold for 350,000 guineas to the bid of Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown. Agents Alastair Donald, Anthony Stroud, Ted Durcan and Mark McStay all made determined efforts to secure the filly but it was Brown who emerged triumphant and he commented:

"She is gorgeous and is a beautiful filly. I think she will need a little bit of time, I don't think we will try and make her into a Royal Ascot filly but we will see, we will let whoever is going to train her decide on that. 

"Blue Point has made a tremendous start. She obviously did a good breeze, she did not blitz up but did it in a really good style. I can't imagine she liked that ground as she has a low action. She is from a good Juddmonte family and I think she could be a bit special. I am delighted to get her."

The April foaled filly was purchased for 70,000 guineas by JC Bloodstock at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale from Ballyhimikin Stud and is from the family of Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes winner PROHIBIT. 

Chairman’s Statement

At the conclusion of the 2023 Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale, Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony commented;

“Two Craven Breeze Up Classic winners last year as well as more 2022 two year old Group and Listed performers than any other European two year olds in training sale have been the perfect advertisements for the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale and this year’s renewal has attracted leading international buyers in abundance, all of whom have contributed to notably strong demand particularly at the higher end of the market and a record sale turnover in excess of 15 million guineas.

“There has been a significant rise in the number of lots of selling for 200,000 guineas or more and a number of participants new to the Craven Breeze Up Sale, all of which demonstrates the sale's international reputation as a consistent source of horses which go on to prove themselves at the highest level on the global stage. The largest Craven Breeze Up catalogue for more than 15 years, 25% larger than last year, may not quite have matched the impressive clearance rate of last year’s sale, but the key indicators of average and median have both held up well and there has been no shortage of outstanding pinhooking triumphs with the obvious highlights being the 625,000 guineas sale-topping colts by Havana Grey and Blue Point, consigned Glending Stables and Oak Tree Farm respectively, and Grove Stud's 600,000 guineas filly who is the second highest priced filly ever sold at the Craven Breeze Up.

“Year after year the consignors support the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up with so many of the best breeze up two year olds to be found in Europe and it is wonderful to see their professionalism and confidence in the sale rewarded as it has been over the past two days. Buyers, both domestic and international, have shown similar confidence in the sale and we look forward not only to seeing many of them rewarded with the lucrative Tattersalls bonuses which have proved so popular since their inception, but also to welcoming many of them back to the forthcoming Tattersalls Guineas Breeze Up and Horses in Training Sale."