It was a true quality catalogue with a high Black type percentage and individuals to match – this year's BBAG Yearling Sale must be seen as a proper success and could mean a turn for the better. Surely the better timing, only one day of selling plus the sale being embedded between racedays very much helped matters along. After a slightly reluctant start, the pace gradually increased and found its first highlight when lot 48, Gestut Fahrhof's Oasis Dream filly as an own sister to the Group I winner Oasis Dream was knocked down for 100.000 Euros. The purchaser is Cologne racetrack new leading figure Eckard Sauren who also secured the next lot, Gestut Wittekindshof's High Chaparral colt bred from the multiple Group and Stakes producing Alkalde mare Salde for 190.000 Euros as well as the sale's only Galileo colt (lot 179) out of the dual Group winning Danehill Dancermare Nordtanzerin from the same consignment for 140.000 Euros.
The sales topper at 220.000 Euros came from the consignment of Gestut Westerberg, a traditional breeding operation which has been through many ups and downs in the past years. In 1985, they sold the subsequent German Derby hero Lebos, and in 2005, they had a filly by Artan on offer. Named Boccassini, she progressed to being the champion-two-year-old filly in Germany a year later and landed the Group II Prix Robert Papin in France. This year, Boccassini was represented by her first produce at this sale, a truly smashing and outstanding colt (lot 153) by the smart young sire Teofilo. This colt was secured by John A Ferguson who also had the last bid at 180.000 Euros for the leading vendor Gestut Fahrhof's lot 235, a Singspiel colt bred from the smart Bertolini mare Limeira, herself a half-sister to the champion Lateral who shares Singspiel as a sire with that yearling colt. Ferguson bought four yearlings for Darley and ended the day as the second leading buyer while Dirk Eisele's BBA Germany accounted for thirteen purchases as the leading purchaser and had the final bid at 200.000 Euros flat for Gestut Etzean's well made Sholokhov colt Night Wish (lot 178) as an own brother to the Group I Grosser Preis von Baden and German Oaks heroine Night Magic.
Other leading foreign buyers included Borje Olsson who went up to 190.000 Euros for Gestut Ebbesloh's lot 70, a Montjeu filly as the first foal out of the Group II Prix de Pomone victrix Avanti Polonia. Barry Irwin's Team Valor, buyer of the Acatenango mare Dalicia as the dam of this year's Kentucky Derby hro Animal Kingdom here some years ago, purchased three yearlings headed by Gestut Karlshof's lot 168, a Shamardal filly bred from a daughter of the Group I Nassau Stakes heroine Zahrat Dubai who produced the Listed scoring filly Modeyra to a mating with Shamardal. The BBAG connections were quite buoyant with the company's managing director Carola Ortlieb stating: „This was a blinder of a sale for us! Our grand total increased by a million Euros for 50 horses less plus the average being up by 24%, and these figures do not include the buy-backs!“ A total of ten yearlings realised 100.000 Euros and more while the general turnover reached 5.470.500 Euros which implies a truly great increase. The sale percentage reached 70% while the median ended at 28.330 and the average price rose by some 7.000 Euros from last year to 33.356 Euros in 2011 which accounts for a healthy middle market with all these figures excluding the buy-backs