On the last occasion Stephen Hillen bought a sales-topping chestnut filly from Katie Walsh's Greenhills Farm at the Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale, his purchase turned out to be East, who won the Prix Thomas Byron (G3) and was third in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (G1).
The agent will hope lightning strikes twice as four years after buying East for €315,000 (US$333,235), he returned to the same source for another chestnut filly and so determined was Hillen to secure the first-crop daughter of Saxon Warrior that he smashed the sale record price, just as he had done on the final occasion the auction was staged in Goresbridge May 19.
Hillen of his €520,000 ($550,373) purchase, who will be going into training with Kevin Ryan: "She is a different sort of filly to East but she reminded me of her in the way she breezed, it was almost freakish. She is bred to stay at least a mile, or a mile and a quarter, so she should not have been able to do that on pedigree."
She posted one of the fastest times of the day, and the effortless manner in which she breezed the two furlongs at Fairyhouse on Wednesday morning caught the attention of everyone present.
Hillen added: "The style of the breeze I think is important; it's the horses who are galloping quickly but don't look like they are going fast who are the ones."
The agent bought her for a new client, on whose behalf he was active at the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale in Deauville last week, and provided some insight on what the immediate future holds for the sale-topper, who is also the most expensive filly sold on the European breeze-up circuit this spring.
"She will probably get a month off and then start cantering, but with the speed she showed yesterday, if she can do that over a mile it will be massive," he said.
"I am hoping she is a freak."
A half sister to Italian listed third Surbett, the March-born filly is out of the Giant's Causeway mare Causeway Queen, who is an unraced daughter of Ask for the Moon, victorious in the Prix Saint-Alary (G1) of 2004.
The Dr Fong mare is the dam of Dee Stakes (G3) winner and Cazoo Derby (G1) third Astrology and the listed Esher Stakes winner Sandro Botticelli, both sons of Galileo.
Her Saxon Warrior filly was bred by James Hanly, who then sent her to Walsh to prepare for the breeze-ups as her size and scope mitigated against her for the yearling sales, consignor Walsh explained.
"I think she was growing and developing all the time last autumn and is quite a big filly, so she was one that James decided to miss selling as a yearling," she said.
Walsh felt that her previous record-breaking sale was a factor in Hanly's decision to send the filly to her.
"I think he felt that as I had sold East at this sale and that Goresbridge has always been good to me, he just matched the two of those facts up together," she said.
"And it has worked for him! It was always the plan to come to this sale with her; the thinking was she would stand out here, and she certainly did.
"It is fantastic, she is a gorgeous filly, a cracking filly with a lovely pedigree and she just filled the eye for everyone."
Despite being bred to excel over a lot further than the two furlongs of Wednesday's breeze, the Saxon Warrior filly displayed speed to burn, as Hillen alluded to, and Walsh knew she had a special filly on her hands long before they arrived at Fairyhouse.
"I think everyone was quite surprised with the time that she did with the physical that she is," she said. "I knew coming here that she was going to clock well, I had a fair idea that she is a tasty filly; all she had done is please me since I have had her.
"She has always been a straightforward filly with a great galloping stride and a great attitude.
"With those sort of fillies it just comes so naturally to them. It is just different gravy. Whatever gallop you went, whatever distance you went, it was never a problem to her, whether it was a canter on the sand on a Monday morning, or a piece of work, everything was so easy, and that is the difference."
No Longer the One That Got Away
Fillies accounted for three of the four most expensive horses on Thursday, with Joe Foley finally getting his hands on the Night of Thunder filly out of Gadwa who had slipped through his fingers as a foal when she was sold by breeder Plantation Stud to Elton Lodge Stud for 72,000 guineas ($101,176 ).
Her unraced Oasis Dream dam is a half sister to the listed Height Of Fashion Stakes winner Lady of Dubai, who was also third in the Oaks (G1), and her second dam, Lady of Everest, is a Montjeu half sister to listed Vintage Crop Stakes winner and Irish Oaks (G1) second Roses For The Lady.
The crosses in her pedigree and the multiple strains of Dancing Brave were cited by Foley as two of the reasons why he was keen to purchase her on behalf of Steve Parkin, who will put her into training with Karl Burke.
"I loved her as a foal," said Foley, who signed the docket at €270,000 ($285,754). "I was standing beside David Ryan when he bought her and I've regretted not buying her ever since.
"She is bred on that lovely Night of Thunder—Green Desert cross and there are three strains of Dancing Brave in her pedigree. She is a gorgeous filly from a really deep family."
Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock struck late in proceedings at €210,000 ($222,205) for a Gleneagles filly, from Hyde Park Stud, who bred and breezed this year's Qipco One Thousand Guineas (G1) winner Cachet .
The second foal out of Heartlines, a daughter of the brilliant broodmare sire Bernardini, who was a winner at 3 in France, she has a strong American pedigree as a granddaughter of Arlington Oaks (G3) winner Marietta.
It was a massive return on the investment John Bourke laid out for her at Book 3 last year, with the filly costing just 12,500 guineas ($17,948) when bought from Houghton Bloodstock.
Brown also struck for a colt from the first crop of Sioux Nation , who has made a scorching start to his stud career. The Blandford Bloodstock man secured Folistown Farm's colt out of the Mujadil mare Dorothy Parker for €130,000 ($137,555).
O'Callaghans Excel Once More
Tally-Ho Stud has regularly topped the list of vendors at this year's European breeze-up sales and the O'Callaghan family sold an Exceed And Excel colt who interrupted the procession of fillies selling for in excess of €200,000 ($211,664).
Billy Jackson-Stops, acting on behalf of owner Michael Blencowe, who has Imperial Fighter in Saturday's Irish Two Thousand Guineas (G1), went to €260,000 ($275,194) to secure the half brother to group 3 winner Dibajj and listed winner Black Sea. It was a plan that was a long time coming to a successful conclusion.
The agent said: "We have been waiting to buy a horse at the breeze-ups as Michael wanted a breezer, and we have been at three sales and haven't quite got there.
"Michael loved him, Andrew (Balding, trainer of Imperial Fighter) loved him too and we had to go slightly over what we intended to pay."
Out of the Royal Applause mare Goleta, a half sister to the King's Stand Stakes (G1) winner Chineur and to the dam of group 3 winner and Prix du Jockey Club (G1) and Poule d'Essai des Poulains (G1) second The Summit, the chestnut son of Exceed And Excel was a 56,000 guineas ($80,332) buy from Whatton Manor Stud at Book 3 last October.
Facts and Figures
The sale was almost that old footballing cliche of a game of two halves, with a pedestrian opening half overtaken by a barnstorming second half.
Of the 204 horses offered, a total of 174 were sold, giving a clearance rate of 85%. That gave an aggregate figure of €6,634,000 ($7,020,497), which was a minor increase of 1.5% on the 2021 figure.
This year's average climbed by 3% to €38,155 ($40,371) from €37,156 ($39,321), while the median dipped by four points to €22,000 ($23,282) from €22,989 ($24,329).
Both turnover and average figures were the highest recorded since the sale transferred to Tattersalls Ireland from Goresbridge in 2019, while the median was the second best in that time.