'I had never met the man before yesterday' - Sir Mark Prescott 'thrilled' to be asked to train Alpinista's 2.5m gns sister for Kia Joorabchian

Sir Mark Prescott met Kia Joorabchian for the first time only after the owner had purchased Alpinista’s yearling sister for 2.5 million guineas (£2.6m/€3.1m) on Tuesday and the trainer is “thrilled” to have been selected to oversee the filly’s career.

Prescott and Ralph Beckett were the recipients of the two most expensive horses purchased at Tattersalls on Tuesday by Joorabchian, who also paid 4.4 million guineas (£4.62m/€5.51m) for a Frankel filly out of Royal Ascot winner Aljazzi as part of a £12.6m spending spree with various partners on day one of the sale.

The two priciest fillies are set to run for Joorabchian’s Amo Racing and Evangelos Marinakis, the Greek shipping and media billionaire who owns Nottingham Forest FC and Olympiacos FC.

Prescott has enjoyed considerable success with the family of Joorabchian and Marinakis’s new filly. As well as sending out Alpinista to win six Group 1s for owner-breeder Kirsten Rausing, including the 2022 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Prescott landed the Champion Stakes twice with Alborada and three German Group 1s with Albanova.

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

Speaking at Tattersalls on Wednesday, he said: “I had never met the man [Joorabchian] before yesterday. Someone suggested I might be the man to train her for him. I mark my catalogue with the horses I’ve trained in yellow so when I opened the page when he came over at least it looked like I knew what I was doing.

“I’m lucky to get her. I’ve been lucky to have the best ones from the family so I hope she can be the same. I’ve seen her all the way through and it’s interesting that she doesn’t look like Alpinista, but she’s better looking than her. I’m thrilled to get her.”

The Frankel filly out of Aljazzi is the second-most expensive yearling ever sold at Tattersalls, with bloodstock agent Alex Elliott, who signed for the filly, saying “we owe it to her to put her into one of the best operations”.

Ralph Beckett (centre): selected to train Amo Racing's most expensive yearling purchaseCredit: Edward Whitaker

Beckett said: “Kia approached me after the sale and asked if I’d train her, it was as simple as that, and I was delighted to do so. I’d seen her before so I knew the shape of her.

“We’ve trained plenty of expensive horses over the years so it doesn’t work any different in terms of how you approach them or any pressure there is training them.

“She’s a lovely filly and plenty of people wanted her. For me, I find it hard to judge how much a horse will make once it gets above a certain level because it comes down to people and what they want as much as anything.”

Joorabchian’s decision to send his priciest purchase to Beckett marks the conclusion of a turnaround in the relationship between the trainer and the owner. In 2021, he removed ten horses from Beckett, telling the Racing Post that “I just felt Ralph and I weren’t seeing eye to eye, so I felt it might be better if we did a change”.

Joorabchian added: “I think he’s a very good trainer. A lot of the old-style trainers have different ways of training and maybe we’re a younger, newer type of company that has a slightly different method and sometimes it doesn’t work with everybody. It’s okay, there's nothing wrong with that. He did a great job with everything he’s had from us, but sometimes you don’t see eye to eye and that’s that. I wish him the best.”

Amo Racing reunited with Beckett last year, and Angelo Buonarroti won the Convivial Maiden at York’s Ebor festival for the partnership in August.

Read these next:

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

'I love his mum and I love him' - owner Emma Banks thrilled as Lady Bowthorpe colt fetches 2,000,000gns at Book 1 

‘Graham’s thrilled and the accountant is delighted!’ - famous farm back in clover after 4,400,000gns Frankel filly stars at Tattersalls 

The Racing Post is now available to follow on WhatsApp channels! Follow Racing Post Insider on WhatsApp and you can now start receiving messages and alerts for the latest news, tips, insights, live reactions and much more. Click the group link and get Racing Post notifications straight to your phone via WhatsApp.