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DONCASTER PREMIER SALE 2012 BONNIE RESULT FOR BYRON COLT
published EBN FRIDAY, 31ST AUGUST 2012
Sheikh Hamdan’s spend at this sale accounted for four horses that cost a total of £337,000, although trainers he utilises also bought yearlings that could end up running in the blue and white of Shadwell.
Yesterday the Sheikh’s investments were limited to a half-brother to this year’s Bunbury Cup winner Bonnie Brae by Byron (Lot 312), resulting in another happy pinhook for the O’Sullevans’ Cooneen Stud, which bought him through Henrietta Michael for 10,000gns at Tattersalls’ in December. With Angus Gold en route to the BBAG sale of yearlings in Germany, Johnny Peter-Hoblyn was left with instructions, and his bid of £75,000 proved decisive.
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Published in sales talk EBN Thursday, 1st December 2011
MICHAEL GAINS HALO FOR MIDDLEBROOKS
Henrietta Michael’s fledgling bloodstock agency showed teeth yesterday when gaining the day’s first six-figure mare.
Newmarket-based Michael put 100,000gns into the ring and brought the hammer down for Mambo Halo (Lot 1821), a Makfi-covered daughter of Southern Halo with a host of stories relating to her catalogue page.
Second-dam Myth To Reality has been a breeding- shed goddess with ten winners including super-class Divine Proportions and her three-parts brother Whipper, while boldly imprinted under Mambo Halo’s dam, Mambo Jambo, was Ocean Silk. Four years ago that filly lined up in this ring and topped the December Sale with a valuation of 3,200,000gns.
Gary and Lesley Middlebrooks’ Wood Farm Stud, based near Bowness in the lovely Lake District, will be Mambo Halo’s new home, said Michael. The Middlebrooks bred that grand sprinter Reverence, who won the Gr.1 Haydock Sprint Cup in 2006 and was still racing at the age of ten last summer.
Michael said: “Gary was very keen to get back into this family, for he owned Magic Spin [a half-sister to Divine Proportions]. It was the family that mattered in this instance, but she is in foal to hopefully a very hot sire and it will be fascinating to see what she produces. I would imagine it will be offered for sale.
“The Middlebrooks sold Acquainted [Lot 1398] on Monday [for 130,000gns] through Highclere, and this mare will go there to board.”
Buying horses for other people can be a nerve-wracking business, but Michael spent nine years with Charlie Gordon-Watson and three with McKeever Bloodstock – in addition to a four-year stint at Darley – so should be comfortable with the cut and thrust of bloodstock trading. “I set up on my own in August and love it,” said Michael