With around 430 yearlings heading through the ring at Tattersalls through Book 1 this week, there are predictably plenty of well-bred fillies among them. Once again, we have assembled a panel of five pedigree experts to select a filly who on paper presents the opportunity to be not just a racehorse but a foundation mare of the future. Here are our judges' verdicts.ALEX SCROPELot 1 Siyouni – Fabulous (Galileo)Consigned by The Castlebridge Consignment“I think I would be mindful on all points that the bullseye on my target will always be Group 1 at 10f to 12f. We may be lucky to win a race but I think that if one does not aim for the bullseye one will be lucky to hit the target.“The filly must have a sire with an established record at the highest level both as a racehorse sire and as a broodmare sire. These are by definition older stallions whose daughters are already producing animals of racing age.“The same goes for the female family. Just over 20% of all European Pattern races are Group 1 so ideally one is looking for a family with a higher ratio than that among the Group winners under the first three dams, and the closer the better.“Bearing in mind that the commission is to buy a filly which could make a foundation mare in the longer term, she may be expensive so she will need to maintain her value. A family which produces high-class fillies as well as colts is important as the family needs to be populated close up with high-class fillies. These will by definition be in good hands and will be mated with leading sires so the family is likely to be building around our filly; if she is not a good racehorse and fails us and eventually needs to be culled from the stud, these others will have been working for her to maintain residual value.“Siyouni: As a sire he has 49 Group winners from 13 crops, 11 are Group 1 winners of 32 Group 1 races, so high class and strong soundness figures. As a broodmare sire he has 13 Group winners from eight crops, one a Group 1 winner in 2026.“Fabulous: Already dam of two Group 1 winners and a Group 3-placed horse. Her progeny have earned over $3m to date and two daughters through the ring both fetched over $1m. Her only downside is that she was unraced but so were several of the other good producers close up in the family.“The family: The third dam is Immense, from whom descend 17 Group winners, of which eight are Group 1 winners of 22 Group 1 races. This gives a ratio of 47% Group 1 winners from the 17 Group winners – a remarkable and rare ratio at top level and roughly equal for sex with no geldings, which can be an indicator of good temperament. Soundness figures are excellent. The Group winners are strongest at two and three years over a distance of 8f to 12f at three. Scandinavia, an outlier, already looks to be a memorable stayer. There are seven Group-winning fillies foaled since 2010, so there is much to come from the close family.”GRANT PRITCHARD-GORDONLot 348 Blue Point-Alienate (Oasis Dream)Consigned by Ballyhimikin Stud“Fishing in familiar waters is high on our recipe for success. This Blue Point filly certainly fits such a formula for I have been involved with this family for six generations since Monroe joined the Juddmonte broodmare band back in 1982. In my opinion, a potential Blue Hen must have a back pedigree with great depth of black-type winners in every generation. We love to see high-class black-type winners close up and also to have as many close female relations getting excellent opportunities at stud. We believe that there should be speed close up in the pedigree, but also appreciate a female line that can produce Classic distance performers. “This particular filly has major appeal when coming from the top nursery at Ballyhimikin Stud. We have followed her dam closely as we were underbidder on her in the ring and had requested to be part of the new ownership – sadly unsuccessfully. Cheveley Park Stud will give her half-sister Estrange every chance at stud, as will her other black-type sister (Lmay, by Frankel). “We negotiated the purchase of Logician for Shade Oak Stud and his early results are very encouraging. “Juddmonte have Sunly and have also brought Whitebeam back to England to visit Frrankel. They also race a recent stakes winner in Repel.“Bated Breath continues to produce top-class progeny. Blue Point is having an exceptional year with his fillies. Oasis Dream is already an outstanding broodmare sire. Importantly, this combination of bloodlines makes it very easy to mate this filly when the time comes for her to go to stud.“It might be too late for me to make plans to buy a Blue Hen prospect for myself, but if I get a large Euro Millions win before the Tattersalls Book 1 sale, then I will be very hard to beat in the ring to leave a legacy for my family. “I am hoping to find a well grown, strong individual with a lovely outlook, correct limbs and a great walk. My heart will beat faster if such a filly comes out of Box 703.”CAMILLA TROTTERLot 1 Siyouni – Fabulous (Galileo)Consigned by The Castlebridge Consignment“My pick is going to look a tiny bit like I didn't actually bother going through the catalogue because it's lot number one.“I started off trying to look for something without either Galileo or Dubawi to make them easy to mate later on but I just kept coming back to this filly. Ultimately, if you're going to have a foundation mare, you need to be really excited about her, and it's an amazing family. There are eight Group 1 winners under the first two dams – its not just stakes winners, it's Group winners and Group 1 winners.“She's only 13 and she's already produced two Group 1 winners and another Group-placed filly who has already produced. And she's going to carry on being well covered.“I think there's six fillies under Fabulous, so even though the page is made, it's hard to imagine it won't keep evolving as well.“On top of that, the Siyouni-Galileo cross has already got Sottsass, St Mark's Basilica and Soreanga, so I'd be really excited about her being a really good race filly. But I thought that even if she wasn't, I'd be excited about mating her anyway.“And then Siyouni is looking like a good broodmare sire. It looks like he works well with a range of sire-lines but definitely well with the Dubawi line, which I think is going to be pretty dominant in the next few years, not through Dubawi himself, but through his sons.“Also, as it turns out, I'm also reasonably familiar with it because of Henri Bozo having Deadly Nightshade, so I know it's all in good hands.”PATRICK BARBELot 233 Wootton Bassett – Sea Salinas (Sea The Stars)Consigned by Haras d'Etreham “If you were looking for a yearling filly to become a foundation mare, it should take at least 25 years, considering that a filly born in 2024, would become a broodmare at the age of five, producing her first foal in 2030, which could race in another five years…to become a foundation mare with her colts and fillies also in another ten years.“My first criterion, looking for a future foundation mare, would be to select a filly which has no more than two or three producing dams on her Tattersalls catalogue page, which means that today's page is full of many recent black-type runners.“My second criterion would be to select a filly out of a young mare, herself a winner, dam of only two or three foals of racing age, as it is now proven that most champions are either first foal, second foal or third foal.“My third criterion would be to select a filly by an outstanding sire who is herself out of a daughter of a chef de race.“All this being considered, only a handful of yearling fillies meet these criteria.“Therefore, I would love to purchase Lot 233, the first foal, by the phenomenal Wootton Bassett, of a daughter of Sea The Stars, who is possibly the best and youngest chef de race of the century.“Her female line includes may champions in Germany, but also all over Europe, including Samum, another chef de race, and superb mares such as Salve Regina, Sanwa and Soudania, to name a few.“Another more sentimental reason would be that this filly was born and bred at the famous Haras d'Etreham, the farm from which I bought Blanche Reine for Mr Zenya Yoshida some 40 years ago, who is, no less, the ancestress of Equinox, today a phenomenal sire in Japan, standing at the Shadai Stallion Station.“Finally, this filly is also qualified for French owners' premiums – just some icing on the cake!”ANTHEA GIBSON FLEMINGLot 185 Kingman – Prize Exhibit (Showcasing)Consigned by Ashtown House Stud for Barronstown Stud“Her dam was a good, tough race mare, and it is a family that we all know well, which has been so well developed by the Johnson Houghton family. Added to that, she comes from Barronstown, who are shrewd breeders. The two-year-old, Noble Exhibit, by Frankel, looks highly promising and recently won the G2 Beresford Stakes for Aidan O'Brien.“But I do particularly like the fact that the mare was so tough. She won six races from 35 starts, including two Grade 2s in America, and raced from two to five, which is always very encouraging.“I remember Prize Exhibit at the mares sales, when David and Diana Nagle bought her, and she was full of quality.“It's just an old-fashioned, hard-knocking family, which you don't really see that much of nowadays. I know that Chris Harper bought a member of the family and so did Corduff Stud, so there's a lot of good breeders involved.” The post Take Five: Building Foundations at Tattersalls October Book 1 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.