Newsells Park to Offer Sister to Japan and Mogul

There have been few mares with the sales ring clout of Shastye, whose offspring already drew an eight-figure total for Newsells Park Stud.

According to general manager Julian Dollar, "a bit of magic happens every time she goes to Galileo," and the tried-and-tested cross with a Danehill mare has produced Investec Epsom Oaks (G1) runner-up Secret Gesture, the high-class Sir Isaac Newton, recent John Pearce Racing Gordon Stakes (G3) winner Mogul, and Japan, who has a Juddmonte International Stakes (G1) among a lengthy list of accolades.

While money talks, it will still be something of a wrench for all those involved at the Hertfordshire farm that Shastye's latest Galileo filly is set to be offered at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

"Perhaps in normal years we wouldn't be offering her, but we feel like with the uncertainty of coronavirus and things, we have to wash our faces. We're a commercial operation," Dollar said. "We did um and aah about it a lot, and I'm sure she won't be cheap, but she is exceptional and we felt we had to put her in the market. That's the long and short of it."

Dollar explained that the pressure was eased in some sense by the fact Shastye, now 19, is back in foal to Dubawi and that Newsells has three daughters already, including the unraced Galileo Secret Gaze.

Mogul, the most recent of this invariably photogenic family to have sold, made 3.4 million guineas at Book 1 in 2018 and was pipped only by Darain as top lot.

"The colts have been the ones to have caught the imagination at the sales, but Secret Gaze did make just over a million and is a nice mare, and personally I think the yearling is as nice, if not the nicest filly we've ever bred out of the mare," Dollar said.

"She's a bigger, scopier version of Secret Gesture, but bar a few little tweaks here and there, every sibling, well, they're all very much in the same sort of mold.

"I know it's not going to be a huge satisfaction from me when she goes to the ring. I can assure you, it'll be more sadness than anything else, but sometimes in business these things are necessary. Hopefully, someone among the world's leading breeders will take the opportunity to buy a collector's item like this because that's what she is."

The Jacobs family-owned Newsells Park is one of Europe's biggest breeders and consignors and ought to be better prepared than most to weather potential storms.

Dollar, one of the industry's reliable voices of sense and pragmatism, is nonetheless wary of complacency, especially as sales such as Book 1 could have assumed any number of forms within the next two months.

"We need to make contingency plans and various scenarios to work out what's going to happen and just hope for the best," he said. "It's just a worrying time for everybody. You hear of trainers that are OK and had horses in training, but as soon as the sales have come along, owners have taken the opportunity to sell horses. I think that's what we've seen.

"There have been buyers, which is good, but the sort of vibe I'm beginning to pick up is that while racing is going ahead, there's no atmosphere and no fun to be had with an owner going to watch their horse running. The attraction for owning a horse with the low levels of prize money that we have is really not there at the moment. My concern is where you'd have an owner that might like to buy a couple of yearlings, they might only buy one, or they might not even buy that.

"But we understand the situation and we're all a resilient bunch. We love the sport, we love the industry, we love the racing, and I think we have the best racing anywhere in the world. We'll get through this, but it's going to be a bumpy ride for a year or two."

The leading consignor of Book 1 for the past couple of years, Newsells has plenty of other interesting members of its draft, including a Sea The Stars half brother to St Leger winner Masked Marvel from the immediate Waldgeist family, a sibling of Oaks winner Qualify by Dubawi, and quality individuals by the likes of Siyouni, Lope de Vega, and No Nay Never.

"They're just a beautiful bunch of horses," Dollar said. "Timing stinks, but it is what it is; hopefully there'll be many group winners among them. Whether we make the money we dreamed we were going to make maybe 12 months ago is neither here nor there. Hopefully they'll go to good homes and we may end up racing a few of them ourselves. We're happy to do that.

"There are all these scenarios and all these uncertainties, but I do know one thing: There's nothing uncertain about this filly. She's an absolute queen. Hopefully, we can keep her in one piece for the next eight weeks."

Marlinka's Last Foal to be Offered at Tattersalls

A final member of the successful and seemingly ever-present dynasty continued by the Elite Racing Club's Marlinka looks set to be one of the stars of the show at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

The saddest of news arrived in March when the broodmare, responsible not only for Qatar Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp (G1) and Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) winner Marsha but the venerable Judicial, succumbed to colic and her filly foal by Showcasing could not be saved either.

Proceeds from the 6 million guineas (US$8,491,140) sale of Marsha to Coolmore at Tattersalls in December 2017 had enabled Elite, which has long run a breeding club alongside its racing operation, to upgrade coverings for Marlinka, and she was booked in for a visit to the mighty Frankel, producing a colt who is being prepped and consigned by David and Trish Brown's Furnace Mill Stud.

"He's going to go through the ring and if he made the sort of money we couldn't turn away from, then he'd go, but obviously if he didn't meet his reserve, we'd be more than happy for him to race for the club," Elite's manager, Dan Downie, said. "He certainly won't go at any price! He's lovely, very athletic, and straightforward. We've had a really good run with him since he was a foal.

"He's quite like his mother—a very strong individual. We like him a lot, and obviously we'd love him to run in our colors, but I'd say he's pretty valuable and we have to make a business decision."

Marlinka won a listed race at 2 for Elite and Roger Charlton and is from its key family as her dam, Baralinka, was a Barathea half sister to its group 1 flagship Soviet Song, Triumph Hurdle winner Penzance, and Sister Act, the dam of Darley Prix Jean Romanet (G1) winner Ribbons.

"It was horrible to lose her, but we do have a few of the yearling's half sisters that can hopefully eventually become broodmares," Downie said. "Marseille, who was a winner, is in foal to Pivotal, and hopefully there'll be something to come."

Judicial, meanwhile, is representing the present. Julie Camacho's sprinter is among the most popular horses in training and in 2020 has added two more stakes races to an ever-increasing haul, beating the likes of Brando in the Betfair Backs Racing Welfare Chipchase Stakes (G3) at Newcastle and then dominating Monday's listed chestertogether Queensferry Stakes at Chester.

"It has been amazing. He's 8 years old and looks as good as ever," Downie said. "We're really thrilled with him. He seems to be in the form of his life. He has a brilliant strike rate, and we obviously won't overrun him.

"He might have one or two more options on the turf, and then I suppose early next year, all being well and it's on, we might aim for the sprint championships on the all-weather. He does like that surface, and that was the plan this year before it all stopped."