Coolmore goes seven figures for Galileo filly

Coolmore Stud became the first buyer since 2007 to pay seven figures for a European auction yearling Tuesday when agent Demi O’Byrne paid about $2 million for a filly by Coolmore sire Galileo.

The bay filly cost 1.2 million guineas at the Tattersalls October yearling sale’s Book 1 opening session in Newmarket, England. She is out of the stakes-placed Green Desert mare Alluring Park and is a three-quarter-sister to 2008 Epsom Derby winner and champion New Approach. That five-time Group 1 winner is a son of Galileo now standing at stud for Coolmore’s rival, Darley Stud owner Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum.

The opening session in Book 1, the October sale’s first segment, grossed about $24,910,609 for 146 yearlings. The average price was about $170,620, and the median was approximately $110,187. Year-to-year comparisons in the local currency show that the 2010 gross fell 11 percent, the average slipped by 8 percent, and the median was down 18 percent.

Galileo got a pair of Group 1-winning fillies just days before the auction with Misty For Me and Lily of the Valley, winners of the Oct. 3 Prix Marcel Boussac-Criterium des Pouliches and Oct. 4 Prix de l’Opera, respectively.Galileo yearlings accounted for five of the session’s top 10 prices.O’Byrne bought five yearlings Tuesday for a total of about $3.3 million.Among other buyers active on Tuesday was Robert Ogden, who picked up Glenvale Stud’s Dansili-All My Loving colt for about $626,000 and a Galileo-Dedicated Lady filly from Camas Park Stud for about $584,000. American-based buyers Tuesday included agent Cecil Seaman, buyer of a $275,000 Galileo-Brazilian Bride filly from Castlemartin and a Dylan Thomas-Vadsa Honor filly from Jamie Railton, agent, for $92,000, as well as agent Ben McElroy, who bought Castlebridge’s Galileo-Agnetha filly and Castlemartin’s Invincible Spirit-Blue Sail colt for $142,000 each.– Glenye Cain Oakford