Lot 71, a Practical Joke filly, brings 360,000 guineas at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale.
The Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale got off to a strong start with eight lots selling for 200,000 guineas or more and a top price of 360,000 guineas for Tally-Ho Stud’s Practical Joke filly.
A total of 65 of the 76 offered lots sold for 6,485,000 guineas, at an average of 99,769 guineas and a median of 80,000 guineas, and a clearance rate of 86 percent.
The top lot on the opening session of the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale was the Practical Joke filly out of Purr and Prowl who realized 360,000 guineas to the bid of agent Alex Elliott. The Tally-Ho Stud consigned filly was purchased on behalf of Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm.
“She is a beautiful filly and she is going back to the U.S. and to Chad [Brown], who trained Practical Joke,” said Elliott. “She has been very highly thought of from day one, Roger has raved about her all along. I am delighted to get her, I think she is a perfect filly to go back to the States.
“She is a May foal, she is going to need a bit of time, but she is the one. She did everything. She is a typical Craven Sale type – scopey with quality and will need bit of time, but the more time I think you can give them, the better they can be.”
By the U.S. sire sensation Into Mischief, the Ashford Stud-based stallion Practical Joke was a dual Grade 1 winner as a 2-year-old and finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, whilst at three he won the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at Saratoga.
Consignor Roger O’Callaghan, who previously sold the G1 Natalma Stakes winner La Pelosa at this sale in 2018, commented;
“She is as good a filly as I have had to breeze. She has been a genuine natural from the start. I bought her as a foal with Archie St George, she didn’t make the yearling sale and we brought her here. The sire line through Into Mischief is magic.”
Stroud Coleman’s Matt Coleman and Peter Swann’s Cool Silk Partnership secured the Night of Thunder filly out of Militate for 265,000 guineas, the second highest priced filly on the opening day. The filly is from a classic Juddmonte family with her granddam being the Group 3 winner Orford Ness, dam of the Group winners Weightless and Main Aim, the latter also runner-up in the G1 July Cup.
Swann, who has enjoyed such great success from the breeze-ups, was keen to talk about his purchase:
“We thought her breeze was excellent. She is a real specimen, very strong. She has got a great pedigree – if we can win a race with her we are half way there aren’t we? She did the job well. We are delighted and she is the sort of breeze-up horse we are always looking for – she is just built for it, she is not too long in the leg. We just felt it was worth a go,” said Swann, who was wearing a Scunthorpe United face mask as chairman of the football club.
He added: “We don’t know a trainer yet, we are just going to wait – I haven’t accessed my phone yet, I am sure there will be calls. We have got some great trainers that we use, whoever gets her will do a great job. Of the immediate plans, we will assess her over the next 24 hours and then decide.”
Continuing with plans for the new filly, Swann said: “We hope we can have a go at Royal Ascot, and try and win the bonus before everyone else! That would be nice. We are looking forward to Royal Ascot and hope the filly takes us there.”
Of the success he, Cool Silk and Coleman have enjoyed from breeze-up purchases, Swann said: “I think we have had 62 winners now. We’ve been doing it a long time.”
The sale was a pinhooking triumph for consignors Star Bloodstock who purchased her last autumn at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale for 95,000 guineas.
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