CALIYZA was the star turn on the opening day of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale when realising 850,000 guineas to Ace Stud, one of five lots to realise 600,000 guineas or more. The first Sceptre Session was welcomed by a packed sales ring and saw 20 lots sell for 8,950,000 guineas at an average of 447,500 guineas.
Calandagan’s Sister Realises 850,000 Guineas to Ace Stud
CALIYZA looked a likely highlight of the opening Sceptre Session even before her half-brother CALANDAGAN’s brilliant win in the Japan Cup on Sunday, and the Overbury Stud consigned five-year-old topped the first day of the December Mares Sale at 850,000 guineas to Ace Stud, bidding online.
It was a swift return to the Tattersalls sales ring for the daughter of LE HAVRE, who was offered in foal to CALANDAGAN’s sire GLENEAGLES. She was bought by Blandford Bloodstock for 155,000 guineas at the 2024 December Mares Sale and her illustrious sibling has since added four Group 1 victories to the page in the Japan Cup, the Champion Stakes, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
“That was terrifying!” laughed Overbury’s Simon Sweeting. “I am very lucky, I am on a wonderful farm that was laid down to grass a long time ago. Everything is as it should be, I have a fabulous team and they will do anything for the horses, and they do. I am hugely fortunate, we have got the right horses coming in and we have had some luck this summer.
“She came here a year ago as a wild card and we bought her then. There are few of us involved with her and it is a good team effort. When we were talking about her cover we had no intention of selling her originally, and Richard [Brown, Blandford Bloodstock] just said ‘let’s try and breed a racehorse’ and still until the King George we were not going to sell her, but things then stepped up and changed. And, of course, Sunday morning brought in a different group of people.”
Ace Stud’s Paul Curran commented: “What can you say of her? She has got a three-parts sibling in the belly and it makes a lot of sense after the weekend. In a way that win didn’t change anything, but it did put a different angle on him.
“She has a phenomenal pedigree, and there is commercially a very good horse to come from her no matter what it is. We are delighted to get her – we have no immediate plans for her. We will reassess, digest and sit down with everyone, and talk through plans.”
In addition to CALANDAGAN, CALIYZA is a half-sister to the Group placed three-year-old filly CALAMANDRA and was a talented racemare herself, achieving a Timeform rating of 91. The Aga Khan-bred siblings are from the excellent Lagardere family of French 2000 Guineas winner CLODOVIL.
Sangster Secures Miss Justice at 750,000 Guineas
CALIYZA’s session topping sale was the culmination of a frenetic ten minutes in the Tattersalls sales ring, following hot on the heels of the joint second highest-priced lots. The first of the trio through the ring was the Listed winner MISS JUSTICE who was offered by Barton Sales and realised 750,000 guineas to Sam Sangster Bloodstock.
The daughter of JUSTIFY has been purchased with a visit to Sangster’s Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois winner DIEGO VELAZQUEZ in mind, with the son of FRANKEL set to cover his first book of mares at the National Stud next year.
Sangster revealed: “She’s been bought by the partners and will go into training with Brian Meehan. We’ll carry on with her and probably cover her in training. She’s still lightly raced and she’s a gorgeous filly by Justify with a lovely pedigree, so there’s a lot to look forward to. We really wanted to show the kind of quality we want to support Diego with.
“We’ll regroup with Brian but there’s a couple of Listed races coming up in December, we might target her at those, or we might think further afield. She’s a fast ground filly so we can see if there’s something for her in Dubai and then bring her back. When Diego gets going, hopefully he’ll fancy her!”
MISS JUSTICE was a smooth winner of the Listed Upavon Stakes and finished second in the Group 3 Pride Stakes for John & Thady Gosden and Wardley Bloodstock and partners, earning a Timeform rating of 104. Her dam TIME BEING is a sister to the Group 1 winning fillies TIMEPIECE and PASSAGE OF TIME, dam of this year’s Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas second COSMIC YEAR, from an outstanding Juddmonte family.
Rage of Bamby Heading for Japan at 750,000 Guineas
Kildaragh Stud’s RAGE OF BAMBY equalled MISS JUSTICE’s price of 750,000 guineas but will be heading slightly further afield than the National Stud, having been purchased by Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm.
Trained by Eve Johnson-Houghton for Kildaragh Stud’s Antoinette Kavanagh and Hot To Trot Racing, the five-year-old was an impressive winner of this year’s Group 3 Hackwood Stakes and finished fourth in the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup in September, beaten just a length and three quarters.
Kildaragh’s Peter Kavanagh said: “I bought her in Milan as a yearling – I only saw her on video, I loved her head and outlook. And you could see that again today, she showed liked a champ and behaved perfectly. We bought a fair bit of the family subsequently. We bought the half-sister in Milan the following year, it’s lovely to have some of the family and it’s lovely to have raced her, she’s taken us on a fabulous journey. Hot To Trot were great partners and we had a lot of fun together.”
Northern Farm’s representative Shingo Hashimoto commented: “She is very well bred, she is very athletic and is from the dam line of Miesque, she has a good pedigree. The sire of Forever Young is from the same family. We will take her back to Japan now. We have not decided on stallion plans yet, it will depend on results from this week. We are very excited to have her on the team. Her price is what we had in mind, she was on the verge and it is always tough to buy a good mare here, even on Monday it is tough to buy!”
RAGE OF BAMBY is by Champion Japanese sire DEEP IMPACT’s 2000 Guineas winning son SAXON WARRIOR and is from the outstanding Niarchos family of Group 1 winning fillies ALPHA CENTAURI, ALPINE STAR and DISCOVERIES, all granddaughters of French Champion Three-Year-Old Filly EAST OF THE MOON.
Amazonian Another for Ace Stud at 650,000 Guineas
Ace Stud struck for six lots on the opening day of the sale including the promising Highclere Stud consigned filly AMAZONIAN at 650,000 guineas. The daughter of SEA THE STARS is an own-sister to RIVER OF STARS who sold for 1,650,000 guineas at last year’s December Mares Sale and has since placed twice in Group 1 company in Australia.
Trained by Ralph Beckett for Isa Salman Al Khalifa, AMAZONIAN was purchased by Highclere Agency for 350,000 guineas at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and was Timeform rated 94p after an impressive win on her only start to date.
Ace Stud’s Paul Curran commented: “Amazonian is a half to our own River Of Stars, it’s a family we know well and she ran really well in the Melbourne Cup this year when fourth. We like to buy into the family again and buy immediate relations. Again no immediate plans, and we will probably keep her here. We think a lot of River Of Stars in Australia and she could be exciting for next year.”
On the evening’s work, Curran added: “We have had a busy and quick night, we are delighted to come here, we have the figures in our heads and we were in and around most of them so we are pretty happy. It is good you can concentrate on some good lots in one go.”
AMAZONIAN is also a half-sister to the Listed winning and Listed placed fillies APADANAH and ANCONA and to the unraced AMAZONKA, the dam of Coventry Stakes winner and twice Group 1 placed RASHABAR.
The Tattersalls December Mares Sale continues on Tuesday, 2nd December at 9.30am with the second part of the ‘Sceptre Sessions’ set to take place in the evening.
