The top four European sale moments of 2018, according to Racing Post:
Heartache
This filly may have been named Heartache, but her story is the stuff of fairy tales.
She was bred when Whitsbury Manor Stud sent Place In My Heart to Kyllachy, who stood for £15,000 in the year Heartache was conceived.
Whitsbury Manor director Ed Harper decided to swerve the yearling sales with the filly and instead leased her to the Hot To Trot Racing syndicate, which placed Heartache under the expert care of Clive Cox.
During a memorable 2-year-old campaign, Heartache broke the track record when making a winning debut at Bath by no less than six lengths before she stormed to another wide-margin success in the group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot, prompting scenes of wild jubilation from the Hot To Trot Racing team.
Heartache also added the group 2 Wainwrights Flying Childers Stakes to her race record, meaning she arrived at this year's Tattersalls December Mare Sale with three wins to her name and a career-high Racing Post Rating of 110.
After an opening offer of 500,000 guineas, Heartache's price quickly surged into seven-figure territory and continued to climb until the gavel came down following a 1,300,000gns (US$1,736,690) bid from Coolmore's M.V. Magnier.
Some 12 months earlier, Magnier secured Marsha to top the Tattersalls December sale at 6,000,000gns ($8,491,140), with the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) winner having since been covered by Galileo. The same path looks certain to be taken by Heartache.
"She was a very fast filly and is from a great nursery," said Magnier after signing for Heartache. "Pivotal (sire of Kyllachy) clicks very well with Galileo, so I'd say that's where she'll be headed."
Heartache may have come from relatively humble beginnings, but the latest chapter of her story is the kind of outcome that should inspire breeders at all levels.
Lily's Candle
By rights, Lily's Candle should feature on this list twice, such is the storied tale of her sales history.
The daughter of Style Vendome was first sold as a yearling by Elevage de Tourgeville at Arqana in October 2017, when she fetched a final bid of just €15,000 ($17,681) from Bertrand Bourez.
However, that price was quickly made to a look a bargain when, having gone into training with Fabrice Vermeulen, she duly won two of her first four starts, including a listed contest at Vichy. She then appeared at Arqana's boutique Arc Sale on the eve of the meeting of the same name, where she sold to Martin Schwartz through Oceanic Bloodstock for €390,000 ($449,397).
Lily's Candle rewarded that considerable investment in spades less than 24 hours later as she overcame trouble in running to land the group 1 Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac-Criterium des Pouliches at Longchamp.
After a lackluster effort in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T), the filly returned to France and was a late addition to the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale. After a frenetic round of bidding, Lily's Candle drew the highest price at this year's sale when Narvick International stretched to €1.1 million ($1,252,570) to secure the filly on behalf of Northern Farm's Katsumi Yoshida.
Immediate plans for Lily's Candle were yet to be decided in the aftermath of her sale, with Narvick International's Emmanuel de Seroux saying: "There are no plans for the short term. We'll wait and see what Katsumi Yoshida wants to do with her. It's likely she will race on next year, but we will have to discuss that later on."
Whatever she goes on to achieve on the racecourse, she will retain enormous residual value, not least to Yoshida, who has already enjoyed success breeding from this family previously, having bred Lys Gracieux, who is out of Liliside—a half sister to the dam of Lily's Candle.
Lot 112 at Book 1 (unnamed)
Pinhooking a foal for 135,000gns is quite a gamble given how fickle the market can be and the challenges involved in raising them, as buyers can go off a sire's progeny seemingly overnight, while youngsters are prone to finding ways to injure themselves.
But when the stars align, the results can be stunning, and that was precisely the case with this colt from the second crop of Kingman who had been bought as a foal by Michael Fitzpatrick's JC Bloodstock for 135,000gns ($191,774).
It did the youngster's credentials no harm that his sire proved himself one of the most exciting recruits to stud in recent years. Kingman had sired four stakes winners, including the promising Calyx and Sangarius, by the time the colt out of Shemya came under the hammer at Park Paddocks.
Coolmore's M.V. Magnier was among those to be taken by the colt and duly parted with 1,050,000gns ($1,443,504) to add him to the ranks at Ballydoyle.
"He's a lovely horse and a great mover," said Magnier after he had signed the seven-figure docket. "He's an exceptional-looking horse, and Michael had a very high opinion of him, and he's sold a lot of good horses in his time."
"As a foal, he was a good physical with a great walk," added a stunned Fitzpatrick. "It was a lot of money to give, and it was our last bid, but it's worked out—I have to thank my staff."
Legends of War
It was not all plain sailing for vendors at this year's breeze-up sales, with increased catalog sizes compounding the effects of a polarized marketplace.
There were, however, still numerous high points, including when Legends of War became the highest-priced European breeze-up horse of the year.
The sale of Legends of War also encapsulated another of the breeze-up circuits' running themes: the hunger for the progeny of Scat Daddy's final crop.
The colt out of Madera Dancer was the fourth-highest-priced lot at the inaugural edition of Fasig-Tipton's Kentucky Turf Showcase Yearling Sale, where he was pinhooked by Hunter Valley Farm for $200,000.
Having been switched across the Atlantic and placed under the care of Mayfield Stables, the youngster arrived at Tattersalls as the demand for Scat Daddy's sons and daughters was reaching fever pitch.
Following an eye-catching breeze, a host of major players registered their interest when the colt entered the ring, and he was eventually knocked down to Stephen Hillen for the sale-topping sum of 900,000gns ($1,350,405) to provide a monster return on the price he had cost as a yearling just seven months earlier.
"I've seen the horse at Mayfield a couple of times," said Hillen after outbidding John Gosden. "He was a bit small to begin with, but he really developed, and the second time I saw him, I loved him."
Legends of War went on to win twice for Gosden in the colors of Qatar Racing and also finished a fine second in the group 2 Al Basti Equiworld Gimcrack Stakes.
He was one of 13 six-figure lots supplied by Scat Daddy across the European 2-year-old sale circuit, a number that also includes Western Frontier, who topped the Arqana breeze-up sale at €825,000 ($985,215).