More stars bought at Goffs Orby
The Qatar Racing teamed bought four exciting yearlings at the Goffs Orby Sale this week, a sale that has been a happy hunting ground in the past.
Gr. 1 winners Lightening Pearl and Simple Verse, along with Gr. 2 winner Arod, were all purchased as yearlings at Goffs Orby Sale by David Redvers on behalf of Qatar Racing, and the team picked up a handful of potential future stars at the latest sale.
The marquee signing was Lot 166 (pictured), a bay son of Kingman out of King's Best mare Alexander Queen for €850,000. Alexander Queen won as a two-year-old and is a half-sister to Stakes-winning sprinters Dandy Man and Anthem Alexander, all out of another Stakes-winning sprinter in Lady Alexander.
Many of the family have carried the famous navy and white colours of Noel O'Callaghan, and the colt was consigned by the O'Callaghan's Mountarmstrong Stud.
David said: "He was one of those physicals that takes your eye out when you see them for the first time.
Every time you open a stable door you're hoping it might be the next Roaring Lion or Lightning Spear, but as soon as we saw this colt we realised he was a bit special and luckily Sheikh Fahad liked him as much as we did.
It took a bold bid but there were some very good judges under us and he's come from a very good farm."
Another notable purchase - for €525,000 - was Lot 397, a stunning bay Galileo filly out of Holy Roman Emperor mare Maureen. Many of you may remember Maureen as she was only racing four and five years ago, winning the Gr. 3 Princess Margaret Stakes at two and the Gr. 3 Dubai Duty Free Stakes (Fred Darling) at three for Richard Hannon Snr. She was also beaten less than two and a half lengths in the 1,000 Guineas won by stablemate Sky Lantern
The two-year-old full sister to this filly, named Mary Somerville and trained by John Gosden, was very unlucky not make a winning debut at Kempton recently.
The Qatar Racing quartet was completed by two more bay fillies, namely Lot 240, by Camacho and from the same family as the Kingman colt bought for €145,000, and Lot 35, an Iffraaj half-sister to our Gr. 3-placed filly Special Purpose purchased for €110,000.