Havana Gray Colt Tops Day 2 of Tatts Foal Sale

Bidders practically formed an orderly line to crack a well-connected one Havana Gray colt (lot 650) as evening broke during day 2 of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale on November 26.

High-ranking German pinhooker Philipp Stauffenberg was among those involved in inflating the price, as was agent Sean Grassick.

However, matters ultimately came down to Haras de Meautry manager Nick Bell, who stood next to Tina Rau in the bidding area to the left of the stage, and Charlie Vigors, who was hidden at the bottom of the back stairs. After a protracted battle, Vigors won with a bid of 260,000 guineas ($361,479, 1 guinea = $1.39).

The Whitsbury Manor Stud-bred colt is out of Avengers Queen, a noted 2nd-place winner in Italy and a half-sister to the 2022 Sandy Lane Stakes (G2) scorer The horse which now stands at Culworth Grounds Farm.

“We’ll take him home and make a plan from there, but he could very well come back next year,” the Hillwood Stud man said. “For us, he has the pedigree to match the physicality, and Havana Gray needs no introduction. Everything was right, so I’m very happy to get him. I was hoping not to (spend that much) and we were at our limit. It’s a strong, competitive business here.”

He added: “The stallion has already been quite good for us because he has everyone involved with him. As the better mare books come out you would have to think his profile will only improve. I hope so anyway!”

Another operation to beat Havana Gray and maintain its upward trajectory was Tally-Ho Stud.

The O’Callaghan family secured two six-figure lots from the sire, including the £165,000 guinea pig colt out of a half-sister of stylish sprinter Diligent Harry. He also came from the Whitsbury Manor draw and was joined by a 105,000 guinea colt out of a half-sister to Baroda Stud’s Juniper Berries.

“He’s a good moving horse from a good stallion,” said Tony O’Callaghan after signing for the former colt. “We’ve had stuff from the stallion before. We bought two from him today, but we’re just concerned about the model. We had 150 (thousand) in mind to go there if we wanted to give ourselves a chance to get him.”

Few companies work harder on sales than the O’Callaghan family, as evidenced by Tally-Ho’s name appearing on the list of twenty lots at the recent Goffs November Foal Sale. That €1,443,000 expenditure was quickly followed by the purchase of seven mares at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale for a sum of €768,000.

Although the O’Callaghans are clearly not afraid of hard work, when asked if he was looking forward to this time of year, Tony shook his head before wondering if the sales schedule could be reworked to ease the burden on both buyers and sellers.

“These sales are completely too compact,” he said. “This sale is supposed to be a week later, move it to December. You’ll have the same thing all over again next week, then off to France. For the guys who work, they’re here at 5am and they’ll be here until 10pm. The whole month of December is free and they should use a little bit of it. I’ve been saying this for a few years. It’s too full. December is inactive, why can’t we extend it to later in the month?”