It took until the dying stages of the March Yearling Sale (previously known as Book Two) for the sale topper to emerge.
Captain Al colt Span Die Seile topped the sale at R1.5m. His dam Start Me Up, here seen winning the Listed Syringa Handicap for Geoff Woodruff, is a daughter of Jet Master. Million dollar credentials indeed.
That was a filly by Captain Al out a stakes winning Jet Master mare, showing that breeding the best to the best pays off – certainly in the sale ring. Markus Jooste had to go to 1.5 million to secure the future race commentators’ nightmare Span Die Seile (#278), consigned by Klawervlei, selling as agent. The filly’s dam Start Me Up (trained by Geoff Woodruff) comes from a sprint/miler family, so the youngster should be ideally suited to the 1400m distance of the Million Dollar race for sale graduates early in 2016.
Six yearlings broke the R1 million mark at the Durbanville auction, and another four were also ahead of last year’s R575k sale topper.
Three of the six millionaires were by Var, all selling at exactly one million. Geoff Woodruff got a Var colt (#53) from Klawervlei (as agent), first foal of 4-time winning Argentine middle distance stayer. Dennis Drier, not unexpectedly, secured a Var colt (248) out of a Dominion Royale mare from the family of Gr1 filly Fanciful, again with Klawervlei the vendor, selling as agent. The third Var, a colt (#155) magnificently promoted in these pages before the sale, was signed for by Markus Jooste. The colt’s dam, by Western Winter, is a daughter of champion filly Icy Air. Drakenstein consigned him on behalf of Ian Heyns.
The gallery erupted on a winning R1.1 million bid from Adriaan van Vuuren, who prevailed in a protracted duel to secure a Dynasty filly (#266). She’s the first foal of a winning Spectrum mare from the potent Lily family. She was consigned by Highlands.
The sale average climbed to 145k for 265 yearlings sold, versus last year’s 107k for 253 sold. It seems that the Million Dollar race incentive did have the desired effect.
Interestingly, when the ten yearlings whose prices exceeded last year’s sale topping 575k are excluded, the average goes down to 113k for 255 sold, marginally up on the 107k of the 2013 Book Two sale. This is also reflected in the overall median price of 80k, which is the same as last year’s. The median for colts was up from 100k to 110k, for fillies from 60k to 80k.
Bring on January 2016!
SALE PRICES of the March Yearling Sale 22-23 March 2014 at Durbanville Sales Complex, Cape Town
