Colt by Coolmore’s star shuttler Wootton Bassett takes centre stage
After being forced to play second fiddle for a lot of the action on Wednesday, Amo Racing’s Kia Joorabchian got back in the thick of the action at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale when he outlasted Coolmore to take home a youngster by their star shuttler Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) for 4,300,000gns (approx. AU$8,771,400), making him the most expensive colt sold during Book 1 of the auction.
“We have a lot of stock, for us to get to the next level we have to target the best stock. We have targeted this sale and the US,” said Joorabchian. “Every member of my team when we saw this colt said we can’t leave without him, and it was him and the two Frankel fillies – they were our three main targets and we have managed to get all three, so we are happy.
“To play at the top is very hard, we have run the stats and if you look at all the Group 1s over the last four years, they are either homebreds or extremely well-bred. Of course, you get the odd one come through, but really to get to the next level, the stallions and mares have got to be strong.
“We have not had the strength so this year our strategy has been to have the strength in pedigree. I like to follow our own strategy – every night, we have gone through the book and every member of the team has been involved, we have all given opinions, we have had a short list and going on.
The colt was offered by the Burns family’s Lodge Park Stud and after the sale Jamie Burns, who led up the colt himself and was surrounded by family, including his mum Patricia, said: “He is a beautiful horse and the family has always done us well, and, hopefully, he will be the next one to enhance the pedigree. I was not expecting that! I was not really thinking when it went over four million, emotion took over, it was surreal. I am coming down from the clouds a bit now and it was all pretty special.”
He added: “He has been busy all week and has never turned a hair once. We have bred four generations on this colt’s page, and we also had Park Appeal, who is Wootton Bassett’s pedigree, too.”
The colt is out of the winning mare Park Bloom (Galileo) and she is herself a sister to Epsom Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winner Was, Group-winning duo Amhran Na Bhfiann and Douglas Macarthur, while she counts Listed scorer Janood (Medicean) among her half-siblings.
Park Bloom is in foal to Lope De Vega (Shamardal) and did not have a foal this year.
Towards the end of the session, Joorabchian etched his name on the score sheet once again, signing for a filly by another Coolmore Stud-based sire Camelot (Montjeu), paying Camas Park 2,900,000gns (approx. AU$5,915,600) for the youngster.
Wootton Bassett was in the headlines earlier in the day when William Haggas invested into a family he knows well, parting with 1,700,000gns (approx. AU$3,467,800) for the filly out of Group 3 winner My Titania (Sea The Stars).
The filly hails from a family cultivated by the Tsui family, helped by Haggas who has trained all three of My Titania’s winners to stakes glory, starting with Listed scorer My Astra (Lope De Vega), before saddling her half-brother My Prospero (Iffraaj) to four black type wins, while My Oberon (Dubawi) won two stakes races in the Newmarket trainers care. The latter is now trained in Australia by Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald and won the Crystal Mile (Gr 2, 1600m) at The Valley fresh off the plane in 2022.
“She has been bought for Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy,” said Haggas. “We have had lots of the family before and she is fairly typical of them.”
At time of going to press, three other lots had made seven figures on the third and final day of Book 1, with Godolphin paying 1,600,000gns (approx. AU$3,263,700) for a filly by Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) and 1,000,000gns (approx. AU$2,039,800) for a colt by Mehmas (Acclamation), while Coolmore’s MV Magnier forked out 1,500,000gns (approx. AU$3,059,700) for a filly by Frankel (Galileo).