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04/09/10 Galileo Colt A Highlight
GESTÜT Wittekindhof's son of Galileo out of champion mare Elle Danzig – dam of this season's Preis der Diana runner-up and Group 3 winner Elle Shadow – looked a highlight of Friday's opening session to the BBAG yearling sale on paper, and he proved to be one in the ring, with Dirk Eisele of BBA Germany going to €170,000 to secure the colt.
The colt, the only representative of his sire in the sale, was purchased for a new owner and will be trained by Wolfgang Figge, who has overseen the career of last season's German horse of the year and another BBA Germany purchase, Night Magic.
Eisele said: "Look at the page - he's by Galileo, out of a Group 1 winner and is a half-brother to a Classic-placed horse. I think I got a bargain! Naturally, we hope he will make up into a horse for the Classic races."
Eisele also purchased Gestüt Karlshof's Oratorio half-brother to Group 1 Preis von Europa heroine Baila Me for €110,000, the joint-second most expensive purchase of the evening.
He said: "I went to see him at Gestüt Karlshof two months ago and I think the horse has made enormous development since then. He is a big, strapping colt - a real machine and the nicest-looking horse in the sale in my opinion."
Sylvain Vidal also played a leading role in the early exchanges of the sale, in his pursuit of bloodstock to race for Gerard Augustin-Normand's Haras de la Cauviniere, whose colours were carried to glory in the Prix du Jockey Club by the stud's new stallion Le Havre.
Vidal, stud manager of La Cauviniere,went to €110,000 to secure a filly bred along very similar lines to Group 1-placed filly Infallible, as they are both by Pivotal and out of sisters by Cadeaux Genereux.
Vidal also struck for a filly by Amadeus Wolf out of Listed winner Dancing Flower for €51,000, and another filly by a first-crop sire, a €52,000 Three Valleys daughter who received an eleventh-hour catalogue update when her three-year-old half-brother by Seattle Dancer, Golden Whip, won the Listed Baden Baden Cup just down the road from the sale ring hours before the start of the sale.
All of Vidal's purchases are on behalf of the Haras de la Cauviniere, and he suggested that all of his filly purchases at Baden Baden wouldbe destined to be mated with Le Havre at the end of their racing careers.
Vidal said: "We like to buy from good breeders and we are keen to support Germany. The German blood of many of our purchases should cross well with Le Havre, who is out of a mare by Surako and from a German family."
Vidal also bought Gestuet Roettgen's Kallisto half-brother to this season's Preis der Diana heroine Enora for €90,000, and a Verglas colt for €22,000, taking his total spend on day one of BBAG to €325,000 for five horses.
A first-crop son of Monsun's world champion son Manduro and a half-brother to Deutsches Derby third Toughness Danon sailed past the €100,000 marker but was bought back by Andreas Jacobs on behalf of the colt's vendor Gestüt Faehrhof, who had the winning bid at €120,000.
Faehrhof also elected to buy in its Dansili colt - a one-off by his sire at the sale - for €100,000.
BBAG managing director Carola Ortlieb was left to reflect on "a great start" to the sale, after turnover, median and average increased from last year's opening session.
The receipts were buoyed by the fact that three horses this year made six figures in the opening session, and nine in total sold for in excess of €50,000, compared to last year when it took just €61,000 to secure the top lot of the first day's trade.