Tattersalls: Record-breaking War Front colt paces breeze-up sale

A son of red-hot commercial stallion War Front sold for about $2.03 million (1.15 million guineas) on Thursday during the second and final session of the Tattersalls Craven breeze-up sale, which ended with solid gains in gross, average, and median as well as an improved buyback rate.

Tattersalls reported 93 horses sold during the two-day auction for gross receipts of about $18.5 million (10.49 million guineas), a 14 percent improvement compared with last year’s breeze-up sale. The average price of about $199,000 (112,785 guineas) rose 26 percent, and the median of about $123,400 (70,000 guineas) spiked 27 percent. The buyback rate was 27 percent, compared with 34 last year.

Bloodstock agent Jamie McCalmont secured the sale topper from the consignment of Mocklershill Stud. The colt’s price surpassed the European record for a 2-year-old set less than 24 hours earlier at Tattersalls, when a High Chaparral colt was purchased for about $1.41 million (800,000 guineas) by Ross Doyle as agent for Sheikh Joaan al-Thani’s Al Shaqab Racing.

McCalmont outbid John Ferguson, representative for Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, for the War Front colt, who was bred in Kentucky by E. H. Beau Lane II and was a buyback for $245,000 at last year’s Keeneland September yearling auction. He is the first foal out of the winning Dixie Union mare Julie From Dixie, a half-sister to Grade 1-placed She’s Got the Beat.

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