With an average price of nearly eight times his stud fee, matched only by Frankel amongst first-crop stallions, Casamento made a real splash during the Goffs November Foal Sale with his first foals.
His 36 lots sold averaged €38,000 and were headed by a filly who purchased for €210,000, a staggering return of 42 times the €5,000 fee at which she was conceived, the highest return for any first-season stallion. Philip Stauffenberg made the winning bid, having seen off competition from Dick O’Gorman and Cathy Grassick.
“She’s been bought to resell next year. It’s a lovely family and she’s a lovely individual so hopefully she’ll be lucky,” Stauffenberg said.
The filly’s bumper price tag of €210,000 was ample reward for her breeder John Noonan of Cregg Stud in Fermoy, Co. Cork.
“She’s a really gorgeous filly, real light on her feet and very athletic,” Noonan explained after the sale. “She was always a nice type with a great temperament, and she’s a great mover too.
“They’re only foals of course so it is hard to know what they will make, but I am very pleased, really very pleased indeed, with her price.”
An outstanding juvenile himself, with the G1 Racing Post Trophy among his triumphs, Casamento’s first crop of foals have really appealed to the pinhookers at Goffs. His highest-priced colt during the sale was purchased for €105,000, while his 41 lots sold have averaged over €38,000 with a median price of nearly €32,000.
The February-born filly who provided the star turn of the week for her sire, catalogued as lot 848, was bred by Noonan out of the Housebuster mare Ashirah.
Bred by Sheikh Hamdan al Makotum, and hailing from the outstanding family of Height Of Fashion, Ashirah was unraced but has certainly made her mark on the racecourse through her progeny.
Noonan and his family have already enjoyed considerable success with the 19-year-old mare as she is the dam of the electrifying sprinter Hot Streak.
That son of Iffraaj was sold by Noonan for €37,000 as a foal, again at Goffs, and changed hands twice more finally being purchased for Qatar Racing at the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze Up last year.
