Frankels on top as buyers get Gold Coast Home Affairs in order
Colt by European champion sire bought by Clarke, Baker and Cunningham Thoroughbreds for $500,000
Two years ago Jim Clarke paid $560,000 for a colt by Frankel (Galileo), “statistically the best stallion in the world”, and after being buoyed by the juvenile colt’s progress, the agent doubled down on the champion European sire on day one of the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale on Sunday.
Clarke, Sydney trainer Bjorn Baker and Cunningham Thoroughbreds once again pooled their resources to purchase the Frankel son out of MRC Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Amicus (Fastnet Rock).
The syndicate paid $500,000 for the Coolmore-bred and sold early September-born colt who will be retained to race, just as the group-owned other Frankel now named Viktor, an unraced two-year-old, who was out of the same Gold Coast sale in 2022.
Catalogued as Lot 15, the youngster was one of 32 six-figure weanlings sold at Sunday’s opening session which averaged $76,417 at a median of $45,000 for 114 horses sold. The clearance rate was 75 per cent.
Clarke suggested that a colt with the session-topper’s credentials would almost certainly be out of his clients’ reach at the yearling sales hence their decision to target horses of his ilk at the weanling sales.
“First and foremost, he’s the best-bred horse in the sale by a margin. Frankel’s a freak – statistically he’s the best stallion in the world, his mother’s a Thousand Guineas winner and she’s got two very good horses racing at the moment,” Clarke said.
“Pedigree wise he’s very hard to pick holes in and we’ve had a little bit of luck buying these types of horses before.
“We’ve got a really nice Frankel colt that we bought out of this sale two years ago that’s not too far away from going back [into training] and heading towards the trials.”
The September 8-born Frankel colt is a three-quarter brother to the stakes-placed Okita Soushi (Galileo) and Chief Little Rock (Galileo) who ran X in the Gallinule Stakes (Gr 3, 1m 2f) at the Curragh on Sunday night.
Clarke and Cunningham Thoroughbreds later went to $200,000 for a daughter of the now pensioned champion sire Exceed And Excel (Danehill). The Amarina Farm-consigned filly is the fourth foal out of the Group 1-placed Happy Hannah (More Than Ready).
Coolmore also sold a filly by Frankel later in the day for $450,000 to North’s Mick Malone who was acting on behalf of a group of clients.
Malone said options were open for the filly, who could be retained to race or be retraded as a yearling.
“She’ll probably just go in with a group that will be going to Easter or even Magics and we’ll just see how she comes along in a constant group where you can have a really good look at how she grows out and goes forward,” Malone said.
“They’re a different breed, the Frankels. You look at them with a different set of glasses on, but I really think they may put her back through.
“I hope they do because I want to be her vendor, but it doesn’t matter if they do or they don’t.
“With that sort of pedigree, they can race her and enjoy her for the rest of her life or they can put her through and they’ll probably get a nice turn.”
The filly is the first foal out of Kapralova (War Front), an unraced sister to two-time US Grade 1 winner Avenge, Grade 3 winner Liguria and a half-sister to Listed winner Lira (Giant’s Causeway).
Agent James Bester, acting for Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier, paid $1 million for Kapralova carrying the Frankel filly in utero at last year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.