'You've got to get them early' - Kia Joorabchian reflects on multi-million splurge on extraordinary day at Tattersalls

Kia Joorabchian was front and centre of a record-breaking day of trade at Tuesday’s opening Book 1 session of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, with Amo Racing’s name against 13 lots bought for a whopping 12,010,000gns.

A trio of youngsters by Frankel led the splurge, the top lot weighing in at a lumpy 4,400,000gns, as Amo headed the buyers’ table with an individual spend of 11,045,000gns encompassing ten yearlings. 

The operation also partnered with Al Shaqab Racing on three further acquisitions, with Joorabchian’s spree accounting for a massive 28 per cent of turnover on the day.

Ever since Tattersalls revealed that Kirsten Rausing would be putting the Frankel sister to Alpinista on the market, industry insiders and bloodstock aficionados had speculated over what such a rare offering might fetch. 

At 2.11pm on Tuesday the blue-blooded filly entered the packed Park Paddocks auditorium. By 2.15pm we had our answer: 2,500,000gns.

However, there had been a significant plot twist just minutes earlier when another Frankel filly, this youngster out of Duke of Cambridge Stakes winner Aljazzi, rewrote the script when bringing a jaw-dropping 4,400,000gns. 

Both fillies were signed for by Amo after contrasting rounds of bidding.

When Newsells Park Stud presented the filly out of Aljazzi, Joorabchian found Japanese trainer Mitsu Nakauchida in his way. Rather than slowing down, the pace of the bids increased in line with the price, with the rival camps exchanging hefty raises with rare gusto in front of a transfixed audience.

Joorabchian, standing in the bidders’ area opposite the rostrum, had his back to auctioneer John O’Kelly, but signalled his bids by breaking from the huddle with adviser Alex Elliott and Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis and nodding at the man with the gavel. But when Nakauchida, taking instructions on the phone in the bidders’ area directly to the left of the rostrum, pushed the price to 4,300,000gns with another assertive nod of the head, there was no movement from his rival.

"Turn around one more time,” pleaded O’Kelly. “For the heck of it!”

The remark not only drew a stifled laugh from the audience, but also had the desired effect. The Amo man looked impassively in the auctioneer’s direction before another subtle nod. Nakauchida responded with a dejected shake of the head, and the hammer duly fell on the second-most expensive yearling ever sold in the Park Paddocks ring.

The price has been bettered only by Al Naamah, a sister to Oaks winner Was, who brought 5,000,000gns from Al Shaqab Racing in 2013. The session-topper's price has been surpassed elsewhere this year, however, with the Pierro filly out of wondermare Winx bringing A$10 million (approximately 4,950,000gns) from co-breeder Debbie Kepitis’s Woppitt Bloodstock at Inglis in April.

Kia Joorabchian (right) was on a mission on the first day of Tattersalls Book 1Credit: Edward Whitaker

“I’ve never been in that rarefied atmosphere before,” said a shell-shocked Elliott after signing the docket. “We didn’t expect the filly to make that, but with Kia and partners we very much honed in on her. She’s going to be part of team Amo, although no trainer has been decided yet.

"They’ll all be fighting for her as she’s a Frankel filly with a fantastic physique. With that pedigree, we’ve seen Ylang Ylang come from the same farm and bred on the same cross; we just very much need history to repeat itself.

“I keep saying to people, good horses will pay you back. Now she’s got a lot of paying back to do. Our valuation was a good bit below that, but when Kia and Mr Marinakis decided they wanted the filly, they wanted the filly.

• Recap: relive all the news as it happened from the Tattersalls Book 1 Sale with Kitty Trice's live blog and check back in from 10.30am Wednesday morning for all the latest on day two

“Japan were the underbidders and it’s great that she’s staying here. It’s great for British racing that these men are around to buy these horses. We all understand how difficult the product is to promote at the minute, and for what bloodstock costs. To have two men stand up and say they want to keep her here, kudos to them.”

Asked what this headline purchase signified in terms of Joorabchian’s strategy, Elliott said: “I think you can say that his sights have been raised and he wants to compete at the top level.

“He knows you’ve got to buy them at the top level. All the top teams select the best horses, it’s just a case of who blinks first. Fair play to Kia and Mr Marinakis, they certainly didn’t blink, although I think I might have done a few times!”

Alex Elliott: "I think you can say that his sights have been raised"Credit: Tattersalls

Despite attracting more of the pre-sale hype, the sister to Alpinista filled the runner-up spot on the sale's list of prices. It seemed for all money that the hammer would fall at 2,400,000gns, but, just before gravity took over, Joorabchian raised his catalogue from the back of the packed gangway.

The Group 1-winning owner stood besides trainer George Scott, who sought clarification from the auctioneer that the bid was indeed Amo’s. “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t miss you!” quipped O’Kelly before bringing the gavel down at 2,500,000gns.

“A sister to an Arc winner, there’s not an awful lot to say that people don’t already know about her,” said Elliott.

“Kia has been in the game for a number of years now and he realises to compete at the top table, you have to have the best pedigrees. That’s the only way to compete at the top consistently. Amo has got to a level now where it’s ready to try to do that, and that filly has just about the best pedigree around. It doesn’t get any better than that.

“She’s a fine, big scopey filly. She’s worth a hell of a lot residually. We’ll take our time with her as it’s very much a late-developing family. She very much looks like that physically.”

Alpinista's sister before her 2.5m guineas sale to Amo RacingCredit: Edward Whitaker

Elliott added: “Kia’s got some horses who are going to stand at stud. We’ve obviously got King Of Steel, although I’m not saying these fillies will necessarily go to him down the line until he proves himself good enough. We’ve got an awful lot of proving to do, but Kia is ready for the operation to prove itself at the next echelon.

“That’s where we’re trying to get to and that’s why we need to get into these families. As I said before, the fact these fillies are staying here is huge for British racing. We should all be cheerleaders of that.”

Of course, Alpinista’s race record runs much deeper than simply winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. She retired to the Lanwades paddocks with Sir Mark Prescott having saddled her to ten victories, six of which came at the highest level.

Her Group 1 spree began in the Grosser Preis von Berlin in 2021, in which she defeated that year’s Arc winner Torquator Tasso. Then came wins in the Preis von Europa and Grosser Preis Von Bayern before she returned at five to annex the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. She proceeded to give weight and a beating to Epsom heroine Tuesday in the 2022 running of the Yorkshire Oaks, before her crowning moment in her Longchamp swansong.

Similarly, the filly’s pedigree is built on much firmer foundations than just one illustrious sibling. She hails from her breeder’s flourishing ‘Al’ dynasty, which traces back to Alruccaba, a daughter of Crystal Palace from the family of Mumtaz Mahal who was purchased with Sonia Rogers for 19,000gns in 1985. All manner of black type performers and numerous significant producers descend from Alruccaba, with the first three generations of the seven-figure filly’s pedigree containing 64 pieces of Group 1-winning and placed form.

Kirsten Rausing with her Frankel yearling, a sister to Arc heroine Alpinista, ahead of Tattersalls Book 1Credit: Tattersalls

But none have done more to further the family’s standing than Alouette. The daughter of Darshaan and Alruccaba won the Listed Oyster Stakes during her time on the track and went on to breed four black-type performers at paddocks. These are headed by Rausing’s champion siblings Alborada and Albanova. The former won back-to-back runnings of the Champion Stakes while the latter landed a hat-trick of German Group 1s, namely the Rheinland-Pokal Stadtsparkasse Kolnbonn, Deutschlandpreis and Preis von Europa.

Albanova has added five black-type performers to the family since she retired to Rausing’s broodmare band, including Group 3 Dubai Duty Free winner Algometer, the Listed-winning All At Sea, who is now better known as the dam of St Leger hero Eldar Eldarov, and Alwilda, winner of a Cologne Listed contest before finding fame as an Arc-winning broodmare.

And, moreover, the filly is far from the only member of the family with the potential to add to the proliferation of stakes form on the page. Alwilda is in foal to Sea The Stars, delivered a full-brother to Alpinista in March this year and also has her two-year-old Iffraaj filly, Alpetta, in training with Prescott, who will take delivery of Tuesday's sales-ring stunner.

Alpinista’s Listed-winning half-sister Alpenblume has also joined the broodmare band, and visited Frankel for her first covering.

And there's more . . .

The brace of seven-figure fillies was far from the extent of Joorabchian’s investments on day one of the October Yearling Sale. Amo Racing also signed for the Baroda Stud-consigned Frankel colt out of a winning sister to Midday at 1,100,000gns and a son of Sea The Stars out of a half-sister to Dubai Mile from Lynn Lodge Stud at 750,000gns.

The Frankel colt out of Atone who sold to Amo Racing for 1,100,000gnsCredit: Tattersalls

The trio bought in partnership with Al Shaqab Racing included a 425,000gns Wootton Bassett colt out of a sister to Found from WH Bloodstock.

Reflecting on the rationale behind his headline purchases, Joorabchian said: “We need strong-pedigreed fillies. We have a lot of horses going to stud in the next year. Bucanero Fuerte will end up at stud, I don’t know this year or next year, and King Of Steel will go to stud, I don’t know this year or next year yet. Soon we will have to make a decision.

“We have Persian Force at stud and we just need to back them, otherwise we’re just going to get left behind. The kind of investment we have made in the last few years, we’re going to have to change that a little bit and we have to back our stallions to have a chance at winning.”

He added: “It’s very hard to buy those mares because Juddmonte, Coolmore, Shadwell, all the big guys own all the big mares. We went after fillies with strong pedigrees. It’s very hard to buy them after they have won a Group 1. You’ve got to get them early and we hope they will do well.”

Salhia Stud step up to buy Dubawi relation to Waldgeist

The sibling to Alpinista was not the only yearling with an Arc winner high up in their pedigree as Newsells Park Stud presented the Dubawi filly out of Waldlied, a three-parts sister to Waldgeist. The filly was knocked down to Richard Knight, agent for the up-and-coming Salhia Stud operation, at 925,000gns.

“She’s a filly who, to be honest, I absolutely adored when I saw her,” said Knight. “Newsells Park has a fantastic group of horses; I thought they were beautifully prepared. Herself and one other were my favourites. She's just a beautiful physical, a lovely strong filly.

"She’s been bought for Salhia Stud, who are looking to build a racing string that we can breed from at the end of the day, and she’s exactly the type of broodmare we’d love to have.”

The Dubawi filly out of Waldlied takes her turn in the Park Paddocks ring on TuesdayCredit: Tattersalls

Knight added: “I don’t know who’ll train her yet, but we’ll get her broken in and get her going, then we’ll make that decision. We have horses with William Haggas, Roger Varian, William Knight and Kevin Philippart de Foy.”

The dam, who landed the Group 2 Prix de Malleret during her racing days, has bred one winner from one runner, with her first foal Equitize, a 425,000gns son of Kingman, also placing in stakes company for Chad Brown and Klaravich Stables in the US.

Waldlied was bred in partnership by Newsells Park and Gestut Ammerland, with Jill Lamb going to 2,200,000gns to keep the daughter of New Approach in Graham Smith-Bernal’s broodmare band when the partnership was dissolved at Tattersalls in 2021.

Tuesday’s purchase saw Salhia Stud pick up where they left off at Book 1 last year, where ten yearlings were purchased for a combined spend of 2,555,000gns. That investment has already started to reap rewards, with the outfit's colours being carried to three victories this season.

“We have ten fillies in training and two colts,” said Knight. “We had a nice winner at the weekend, a Dark Angel colt called Binhareer won for William Haggas on Saturday, and we had a nice Too Darn Hot filly called Bintjeddah finish second under a penalty to one of John Gosden’s at Yarmouth yesterday.

"Quite a few of these were bought to be nice horses next year and there’s a few to come through.”

Facts and figures

A truly remarkable session of selling not only bucked even the most optimistic pre-sale predictions but also posted some hefty year-on-year gains in the key market indices. Turnover climbed by 39 per cent against the comparable session 12 months ago, reaching 42,680,000gns by the time the last lot exited the ring. That gain was made despite seven fewer lots changing hands.

The average and median prices were both records for a single session at the October Yearling Sale. The former hit a whopping 364,785gns, which was up 48 per cent, while the latter rose by 27 per cent to 260,000gns, having been 260,000gns on day one last year. The clearance rate was also remarkably strong, with 117 lots selling from 130 offered at a clip of 90 per cent.

Read these next:

Stars aligning as Sheikh Mohammed and co arrive at Tattersalls ahead of potentially momentous Book 1 

‘A rare pearl to be put through the sales ring’ - Kirsten Rausing on Alpinista’s sister and more 

'He should go down a storm with potential buyers' - prominent picks from Park Paddocks 

Photo gallery: the calm before the Book 1 storm at Park Paddocks 

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