At Tattersalls, Coolmore Lands Harzand’s Dam

By Martin Stevens

Racing Post

Dams of Derby winners rarely come on the open market, let alone a mare who has produced one who also scored in the Irish equivalent, so Harzand's dam Hazariya was always going to sell for a premium when offered in the second select session of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale Nov. 29.

And so it proved when she was knocked down to M.V. Magnier of Coolmore, which stood five winners of the Derby in 2016 and is no doubt keen to produce another one, after he saw off underbidder Sheikh Fahad at 2 million guineas ($2,625,000).

"She's a lovely mare; any mare that breeds a Derby winner is special," said Magnier. "Dermot Weld was also praising her 2-year-old (Haripour) to me. We'll bring her home and she'll go to Galileo. She's for my parents, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, and Mayfair Speculators."

The sale of Hazariya represents a nifty bit of horse trading for vendor Newsells Park Stud, which had bought the 14-year-old daughter of Xaar, also the dam of stakes winners Hazarafa and Harasiya and in foal to Invincible Spirit, for €480,000 ($600,000) at Goffs in 2014.

"She was good commercial business. She's a lovely mare who has been a pleasure and a privilege to look after the past couple of years," said Newsells Park general manager Julian Dollar. "The guys at the farm have done a lovely job with her; she looked a picture. We've got two lovely fillies to race out of her and we wish the team at Coolmore all the best. She's going to good hands.

"The (Investec) Derby (Eng-I) victory changed the whole thing and we felt she was a 14-year-old mare. It was now or never; it was this year or we keep her. We're a self-sufficient operation, we don't get any injection of funds and we have to make it work. As sad as it was, it makes a lot of sense to put her through the ring."

Newsells Park has out of Hazariya a yearling filly by Fastnet Rock and a filly foal by Dansili.

Lyon Lands Zenyatta Half Sister

The presence of a half sister to history-making mare Zenyatta drew a new visitor to Tattersalls in the shape of Jane Lyon, who owns a boutique band of broodmares at her Summer Wind Farm in Kentucky that includes Littleprincessemma, dam of American Pharoah  .

Eblouissante, consigned by the National Stud in foal to Dansili, is a 7-year-old by Bernardini   and is also a half sister to three-time grade I winner Balance as well as Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) winner and Horse of the Year Zenyatta.

Lyon managed to secure her, but was forced all the way up to 1.1 million ($1,440,000) to do so to make it the second time the mare has fetched a seven-figure price, having been bought by St George Farm at Keeneland for $2.1 million three years ago. She has a colt foal by Oasis Dream on the ground.

"The decision isn't totally final but I think for her sake we will leave her here until after she foals as I don't want to take any chances transporting her," said Lyon, who was sitting with Simon Marsh and Bill Farish.

"We're going to put our heads together and determine if we want to breed her to a European stallion, which is a distinct possibility. She is the kind of mare I can take back to America and breed to anyone I want. Obviously it's one of the stronger families in America and I did not have any of them.

"We're very excited and had a plan to buy at least four mares this year to replace stock that I've either lost or I'm going to retire. Now I have six so I'm very happy.

"I haven't bought at Tattersalls before but I've sold two yearlings quite a few years ago who were bred in America but had pedigrees that were interesting over here. It's been a successful day."

Lyon also provided an update on Littleprincessemma.

"She is the love of my life," she said. "She's carrying a brother to American Pharoah. I'm keeping her foal this year, a Tapit filly, and I can hardly wait to see what she can do. The mare is the kindest and most wonderful mare anyone could ever hope to deal with.

"People have given a lot of credit to Pioneerof The Nile   for American Pharoah's disposition, and it's my understanding that he is a superb horse as far is that goes, but I have to say that mare could have done it on her own. She's just the sweetest mare in the world."

Meanwhile, Euro Charline who, almost unbelievably considering her later exploits, was once knocked down for the minimum bid of 800 guineas ($1,050, current conversion rate) as a yearling at Tattersalls, has a date with Japanese kingpin sire Deep Impact on the cards after selling to Shunsuke Yoshida, brother of Northern Farms' Katsumi, for 750,000 guineas ($984,000).

"She will be brought back to Japan," he said. "One of our own racehorses raced against her (Real Steel), so we've known her for a long time.

"There are almost too many Deep Impacts in Japan, so it is nice to buy into a new bloodline. She will likely be bred to him first if he's not too busy! We have been busy at other sales, Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton, and we were represented at Goffs."

A daughter of Myboycharlie, Team Valor's Euro Charline was trained by Marco Botti to win four races, including the Beverly D Stakes (gr. IT) at the highest level, as well as a second in the Dubai Turf sponsored by DP World (UAE-I) and Al Shaqab Lockinge Stakes (Eng-I) this year.

Another horse initially bought at a bargain price, Irish Rookie, purchased as a yearling at Goffs by Ladyswood Stud and Dermot Farrington for €16,000 ($20,000) at current conversion rate), notched a listed stakes win and a classic placing when second in last year's Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (French One Thousand Guineas, Fr-I) for owner and trainer Martyn Meade.

The daughter of Azamour was sold to Andreas Putsch of Haras de Saint-Pair in Normandy for 935,000 guineas ($1,226,720), frustrating the efforts of Julian Dollar and Japanese interests to secure her.

Some 25,512,500 guineas ($33,472,400) was spent on 186 mares during the session, an 8% decrease from last year's total (comparing guineas to guineas). The average fell by 20% year-on-year to 137,164 guineas ($179,959) and the median was down 24% to 60,000 guineas ($78,720).

The clearance rate showed an improvement, though, to 78% from 71%.

For more European racing, sales, and bloodstock news, visit RacingPost.com.