South Africa’s Mayfair Speculators have already made their presence felt this summer at Arqana’s August Sale and they were the dominant buying force at the BBAG Yearling Sale at Iffezheim when signing for eight lots, including the sale-topper at €500,000.
Sea The Stars – sole yearling attracted the attention
Sea The Stars (Ire) has already been responsible for a German Derby winner in Sea The Moon (Ger) and his sole yearling in the auction lot 173 – a half-sister to Gr1 Preis von Europa winner Empoli (Ger) (Halling) – stole the show when offered through Ronald Rauscher’s draft for breeder Gestut Ebbesloh.
“I love coming to this sale, it’s the best-kept secret,” said Mayfair Speculators’ Markus Jooste, who, as usual when buying in Europe, had engaged the services of agents Peter and Ross Doyle.
“We were pleased to be able to buy some nice horses here – the last time we bought at Baden-Baden was four years ago, when we bought [Listed winner and Group 2 runner-up] Simba (GB) – so it’s good to be back.”
He added, “I’ll be going to Goffs’ Orby Sale in Ireland for the first time later this month. We have so many friends in Ireland so I’m interested to see what that sale is like, then it will be on to Tattersalls in October.”
Andreas Jacobs, Markus Jooste and Peter Doyle at the BBAG Yearling Sale
Jooste and his buying partners have previously had horses in training in Germany with Andreas Wohler, while they also use Andre Fabre and Nicolas Clement in France, Aidan O’Brien in Ireland and William Haggas in Britain.
Mayfair Speculators also added two Exceed And Excel colts, lots 80 and 160, to its European team for 2017 and beyond, paying €180,000 for a son of Listed winner Nianga (Ger) (Lomitas {GB}) form the Fahrhof draft and €140,000 for Gestut Schlenderhan’s colt out of Gr1 Preis der Diana winner Amarette (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}).
As well as an existing partnership with Coolmore, which was reinforced with the purchase of two Galileo fillies at Arqana last month, Mayfair has also entered into a partnership with Gestut Fahrhof for lot 151, the only yearling by Siyouni (Fr) in the catalogue, which had travelled to Germany from Normandy’s Haras de Grancamp.
The second foal of the unraced Doyen (GB) mare Sassicaia (Ger), a half-sister to Gr2 Premio Ribot winner Santiago (Ger) (Highest Honor {Fr}), sold for €110,000.
For years, Monsun (Ger) has been a dominant force in European bloodstock and nowhere more so than in his native country.
His death almost exactly four years ago robbed the German stallion ranks of its star performer but Monsun’s name lives on through his exciting young son Maxios (GB), whose first-crop yearlings made an explosive debut at BBAG. Three made it into the top ten while a total of 16 sold for an average just shy of €74,000.
A colt named Woodmax (Ger), lot 156, a half-brother to last year’s €400,000 BBAG sale-topper Woodkid (Ger) (New Approach {Ire}) was the leading light at €240,000 and was one of a number of purchases by Mayfair Speculators and Peter Doyle & Ross Doyle Bloodstock.
The son of the Listed-winning Oasis Dream (GB) mare Waldtraut (Ger) was the highlight of another good draft from Gestut Brummerhof.
A partnership between Maxios’s owner-breeder, the Niarchos family’s Flaxman Holdings, and Andreas Jacobs’s Gestut Fahrhof, which stands the stallion, was responsible for two noteworthy purchases of Maxios yearlings, with Alan Cooper leading the bidding to claim lot 133 Mystic Sunshine (Ger), a filly out of the winning Sholokhov (Ire) mare Ma Coeur (Fr) at €130,000.
“We had a bit of a battle for her but she’s a nice-moving filly from a very good breeder,” said Cooper of the Gestut Etzean consignee. “We’ve bought her in partnership with Andreas, who is a great believer in Maxios, as is Maria [Niarchos]. We’ve sent him a lot of mares and will be putting plenty into training. We’ve been thrilled to hear from a number of breeders that he seems to be betting horses with very good temperaments and they are all good walkers. Jonathan Pease, who trained Maxios, is here with us selecting some horses and he says that he can see a lot of Maxios in his offspring.”
The top-class Maxios in action
Pease, who guided Maxios to five Group wins, including the G1 Prix du Moulin and G1 Prix d’Ispahan, and also trained his Gr1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe-winning half-brother Bago (Fr) (Nashwan), concurred with Cooper’s comments, saying, “He really does seem to be stamping his stock. Some of them are on the smaller side, as he was as a young horse, but he has sired some lovely yearlings.
Andreas Jacobs confirmed that Maxios was sent 110 mares this season and has covered more than 100 in each of his first three seasons at stud.
The same partnership also bought lot 126 , Stauffenberg Bloodstock’s colt out of La Reine Noir (Ger), a Rainbow Quest (GB) half-sister to Gr1 Prix de l’Opera winner Lady Marian (Ger) (Nayef) for €80,000.
Extract with kind thanks to www.thoroughbreddailynews.com
