Bidspotters were on their toes when Springbank Way Stud presented the Dubawi brother to Ghaiyyath shortly before 8 p.m. during the Nov. 22 session of the Goffs November Foal Sale.
However, for every bid in the ring there were twice as many online and when the hammer eventually fell at €700,000 (US$762,092, €1=US$1.09) auctioneer Henry Beeby announced the successful party as Lucky Vega, a nom de plume of Yulong Investments. Despite bidding online, the operation's principal, Zhang Yuesheng, stood among his team on the top deck of the auditorium throughout the bidding.
On the other side of the ring stood the colt's breeder, Dermot Weld, who reflected on the sale by saying: "He's a smashing foal and it's been a wonderful family for us. I'm delighted for the farm. I thought that price was about what he'd make, he was entitled to make that.
"A lot of work went into it so I'm very proud of the farm, my son Mark, stud groom Mark Murphy and all the team, they did all the work."
The colt is the 13th foal out of Nightime. The dam not only developed into a superb producer for Springbank Way but she also has the distinction of being the first of 99 group/grade 1 winners sired by Galileo, having won the Irish One Thousand Guineas in 2006.
Since retiring from racing Marguerite Weld's homebred has bred seven winners, including three who achieved black type and two who won at the very highest level.
Ghaiyyath is undoubtedly her best runner to date having won four group 1s in the Godolphin blue. Ghaiyyath himself topped the 2015 November Foal Sale when signed for by John Ferguson at €1,100,000, while another brother, Al Nafir, repeated the feat when bought by Godolphin at €1.2 million in 2019.
Nightime's youngstock have now generated more than £5,350,000 in sales receipts. Weld revealed she still has more to offer too, adding: "Nightime is in foal to Wootton Bassett, she's in great form. Not only have we got the dam, but we still have the granddam, Caumshinaun. Naturally she's retired but she's in great form as well.
"She's the matron of the farm and we're very proud to have her. It's a family we've had for years. I bought Caumshinaun here from the Irish National Stud and we raced her before she became a very good broodmare for us. Nightime was a very classy filly too."
Ghaiyyath's first two crops of youngstock continue to take the sales by storm, and Weld said he was anticipating training the progeny of the Kildangan Stud sire.
"I have a couple of very nice Ghaiyyath yearlings and two nice filly foals by him, so I'm looking forward to those," he said.
Sale Figures
That lot topped a day of trade that generated €12,360,500 in receipts, a 19% reduction compared to the same session 12 months ago. The average was down by the same amount at €71,865, while the median was down by 10 points at €52,000. The clearance rate was 85% as 172 sold from 202 offered.
