Records broken at Tattersalls February Sale.
The Tattersalls February Sale concluded at Park Paddocks on Friday, with a record median, average and aggregate bettered only once previously, following a final session topped by Shadwell Estates' Wquood (Dubawi) at 170,000 guineas.
A Group Three-placed colt, Wuqood was bought by Najd Stud who defeated locally-based bloodstock agent Ted Durcan.
The four-year-old colt was consigned by Barton Sales on behalf of Shadwell Estates and will join the draft of four horses heading to Saudi Arabia for Najd Stud, whose representative Saud al Qahtani said: "He goes to Saudi. We think, inshallah, he might improve on the dirt surface and also for castration and he will go to the leading trainer Abdullah Mishref Al-Kahtani."
Wuqood, who was placed second in the Trigo Stakes (Listed, 1m2f), was offered with an official rating of 102. He is out of the Group Two winner Tarfasha (Teofilo), making him a half-brother to Listed winner Rakan (Sea The Stars).
Sydney Street Bound for California
The three-year-old gelding Sydney Street (Dark Angel), was another lot to attracted spirited competition, with the winning bid of 85,000gns struck by Conall Meegan of Beechmore Bloodstock, bidding on behalf of Shawn Dugan. The three-year-old gelding is a winner of his two most recent starts for Hugo Palmer and was offered by the Castlebridge Consignment with an official rating of 87.
Meegan commented: "We have done a bit of business with Shawn in the last 12 months and we have had some success. He goes to California and looks ready-made for racing there. He was my pick of the sale, let's hope it works out."
He added: "He has a great demeanour, he has plenty of size and he is clean limbed, we have watched his form and liked what we saw, and the trainer has done a great job. Hopefully he will be up to stakes class right away and I think California on the coast is where he needs to be."
Overall during the two day sale, 328 lots sold for 5,849,100gns. The average finished at 17,833gns while the median sat at 10,000gns. With last year's sale conducted as an online sale due to Covid restrictions, direct comparisons are hard.
The leading vendor at the 2022 renewal was Godolphin who sold 43 lots for 1,273,500gns. Blandford Bloodstock was the leading buyer having spent 319,000gns on nine lots.
At the conclusion of the 2022 Tattersalls February Sale, Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony commented; "It is good to have made a positive start to 2022. Last year's Tattersalls February Sale was conducted under particularly trying circumstances so significant increases in all the key indicators were to be expected, but nevertheless for this year's February Sale to produce a record median, turnover and average bettered only once, and a clearance rate of 85% is a clear indication of a robust market.
"The quality consignments from Godolphin and Shadwell Estates have again drawn widespread international participation and it is a tribute to the enduring appeal of stock from these two outstanding operations that all of the top ten highest prices at the sale were owned or bred by either Shadwell or Godolphin.
"The obvious highlight of the past two days was the 175,000 guineas Shadwell-bred Night Of Thunder yearling out of Elshaadin who was the second highest priced yearling ever sold at the February Sale, but as is so often the case at Tattersalls sales of this nature, the remarkable diversity of the buyers has been the outstanding feature."
Click here to view the results. https://www.tattersalls.com/sales/february-sale/4DCGI/Sale/FEB22/Main/Lots
