Kia Joorabchian © Photo Healy Racing
Kia Joorabchian is now the owner of the most expensive yearling colt ever sold in Europe after parting with 4.3million guineas for a son of Wootton Bassett on the final day of the Tattersalls Book One sale.
Having spent over eight million on the opening day in Newmarket, the man at helm of Amo Racing often found himself the underbidder on day two as Godolphin entered the fray and snapped up the top lots.
On Thursday Joorabchian was back in the stands surrounding the famous Park Paddocks sales ring and stood alongside bloodstock agent Alex Elliott as Lot 332 entered the ring.
The youngster is out of Park Bloom, a Galileo mare who shares a dam with the producer of Oaks winner Was and stakes-level performers Douglas Macarthur, Amhran Na Bhfiann, Al Naama and Janood.
After a long back and forth with Coolmore the winning bid was a record price and just shy of the 4.4m guineas Joorabchian paid for what proved to be a sale-topping Frankel filly on the day one, an afternoon he also secured a Frankel full-sister to Arc heroine Alpinista.
“I think if you wanted to paint a horse, you’d try to paint a physical (specimen) like that,” Elliott told Tattersalls.
“He’s faultless, the horse is faultless, from the top of the page to the bottom of the page. The farm he was reared on (Lodge Park Stud), they’ve had the family for however many generations.
“He was one of the most spectacular horses I’ve ever seen. I said to Kia when I showed him the horse, ‘Kia, you’ve been second in two Derbys. There’s every chance this horse can take you one place more’.
“I suppose you could call him a bullseye, when everybody has the same opinion it doesn’t take much judgement to find horses like that.
“He was a spine-tingling horse, there wasn’t much more to say about it! Hopefully he can get it done.
“He’s (Wootton Bassett) one of the elite sires in the world and that horse has every chance of standing in a stallion shed one day.
“Kia will digest what’s happened today, it’s a colossal price for a horse but he deserved it I’m afraid! There wasn’t a horse on the grounds that could compete with this horse.”
Amo Racing were also the winning bidders of Lot 402, a Camelot filly out of Sense Of Style who is closely related to the Coronation Cup winner Luxembourg.
Joorabchian said: “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. 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 (purchased on Tuesday) – 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 Ones 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.”
Godolphin – leading buyers over the three days in spending in excess of 22,000,000 guineas, Sheikh Mohammed’s second-highest spend at Book One – had another a fruitful day, buying a Siyouni half-sister to Ylang Ylang for 3.7m guineas, a full-sister to Group One winner Sea Silk Road (Sea The Stars x Oriental Magic) for 1.6m guineas and a Mehmas half-brother to Perfect Power for 1m guineas.
