Orby switch for Blue Diamond Stud as successful seller turns buyer

Few outfits have had as busy a time of it at the Orby Sale as Imad Al Sagar’s Blue Diamond Stud. The Newmarket farm’s first Goffs draft included a well-bred Frankel colt who brought the hammer down at €780,000 on day one, and day two saw Al Sagar invest €1,090,000 on two eye-catching new recruits. 

The pricer of the pair was the Night Of Thunder half-sister to the US Grade 2 winner California Angel, who fetched €640,000 when presented by the Irish National Stud. Fozzy Stack, taking instructions on the phone, filled the role of underbidder. 

“Imad’s a great enthusiast and he wants to keep restocking as well as selling,” said the Group 1-winning owner-breeder’s agent Hugo Merry. “He’s bought a beautiful farm in America, Stonereath Farm, and he’s stocking that now, but you have to sell some to help keep the thing fresh.

“This is a beautiful filly and the sire’s on fire. The mare is well able to produce and hopefully she’ll be a stakes winner on the track. She could go to Imad’s farm in America one day, or stay here, she can do anything. When he’s here in person he enjoys the bidding process and he calls the shot. I don’t need to suggest where the handbrake is!”

Hugo Merry was on bidding duty for Imad Al SagarCredit: SARAH FARNSWORTH

Just three lots earlier Al Sagar had gone to €450,000 for the New Bay colt out of Screen Star from Ballylinch Stud. The striking grey youngster is a sibling to six winners, most notably the champion two-year-old filly Lumiere and the E.P. Taylor Stakes heroine Sheikha Reika. 

A third black type sibling had been added to the page since the catalogue was released, as the colt’s three-year-old half-sister Rouge Sellier was second in the Listed Oyster Stakes. Lumiere has also developed into a potent producer for Godolphin having bred the Darley Stakes scorer Highland Avenue and the Group 2 Cape Verdi winner Silver Lady. 

“He’s been bought to bolster Imad’s racing stable,” said Merry. “He’s a lovely colt, strong, a good shape and the mare’s still young enough to produce a good one. Imad’s a very brave man and I just hope he’s bought two Graded stakes winners. He has horses with trainers like Andre Fabre, John and Thady Gosden, Andrew Balding, Harry Charlton and Christopher Head, so he has plenty of options on that front. These horses will go back to the farm, be given a break and broken in, then trainer allocations will take place in November.” 

Al Sagar is set for a big Saturday on the track with his homebred star Nashwa poised to make her eagerly awaited return in the Sun Chariot Stakes, while her two-year-old Dubawi half-brother Nebras could make his debut on the Newmarket undercard.

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