Drama as Cool Silk outbid co-owners Phoenix Thoroughbreds for Sands Of Mali

There was a dramatic end to day one of the Tattersalls December Mare Sale as Peter Swann of the Cool Silk Partnership went to 600,000gns to buy out Phoenix Thoroughbreds' shares in the Group 1-winning sprinter Sands Of Mali.

Swann stood with agent Matt Coleman in the bidders' area and traded sizeable increases with Phoenix Ladies Syndicate manager Pamela Cordina, who took instructions on the telephone on the opposite side of the ring.

Cordina was joined by Phoenix's Tom Ludt, a regular at European sales by the side of Amer Abdulaziz, who has recently been named during court proceedings into the OneCoin scandal in the US. It is claimed that Abdulaziz acted as a key money-launderer for OneCoin before stealing €100 million to fund his racing enterprise, of which Sands Of Mali was a key part.

Phoenix racing fund was never regulated - and is now in liquidation

Swann expressed regret that Sands Of Mali had needed to be offered at public auction to dissolve the partnership between Cool Silk and Phoenix, saying: "It's a shame we've had to bring him here and go through all this but he was our horse in the beginning and he's our horse again now.

"We're delighted to get him back and he doesn't owe us anything at this stage."

Sands Of Mali on the Tattersalls sales groundCredit: Laura Green

Phoenix Thoroughbreds bought into the Richard Fahey-trained Sands Of Mali before he began his four-year-old campaign in the Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan, though he failed to add to his win in the Group 1 Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes.

Having bought out the shares owned by the under-fire Phoenix Thoroughbreds, Swann said he would be speaking to studs in the coming days in the hope of finding a new home for the high-class sprinter.

He said: "It's been a difficult process for all of us and the main thing now is he can go back to Richard's yard and relax. We'll have a chat with a few of the studs and see if we can get him settled in the coming weeks.

"He's a proper pro, he's just had a tough year with a couple of niggling injuries. He got jarred up in Meydan and I don't think he ever really recovered. Even at Ascot I think he was looking after himself a bit, but I gather he's passed all his x-rays and is sound now."

The son of the previously unheralded Panis won five races for Fahey, most notably the Ascot Group 1, in which he got the better of Harry Angel. He also landed the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes, where he showed a fine attitude to see off Invincible Army by a nose.

On Sands Of Mali's stallion appeal, Swann added: "He's got one of those amazing pedigrees; it's quite a clean pedigree being from the Miswaki line. Hopefully he'll go on and do it at stud - an outcross option is what's needed at the minute."

Sands Of Mali was making his third appearance at public auction. He was pinhooked by breeze-up doyen Con Marnane, who picked the colt up for €20,000 at the Osarus Yearling Sale. He was re-offered at the Tattersalls Ascot Breeze-Up Sale, where Matt Coleman and the Cool Silk Partnership went to £75,000.

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