Andre Fabre will train Godolphin’s latest purchase, a Medaglia d’Oro two-year-old colt, after Anthony Stroud went to £675,000 to secure the exciting individual at the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale which was held at Doncaster on Friday.

Staged for the second year in a row at the Goffs UK sales complex due to Covid-19 restrictions in France, the colt was the headline act of the one-day sale and provided his consignor Malcolm Bastard with an excellent return on the $175,000 he paid for him as a youngster.

It was easy to see why Godolphin moved to secure the two-year-old given he is a son of Daley America’s renowned stallion Medaglia d’Oro, the sire of the likes of Talismanic, Astern, Songbird and Elate.

Speaking after signing the docket, Stroud said: “Obviously he’s by a Darley stallion and he did a very nice breeze. Malcolm Bastard does such a fantastic job with these horses – he brings them on very well. We decided this is the one we wanted to have a go on.”

Bastard, who had unearthed the colt at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October Sale, added: “He’s a fantastic horse. He has a superb temperament.

“I don’t get excited, I get realistic, as these horses have to go on and win but there’s a lot of improvement in him to come. The sale being put back a little bit has helped him as he’s immature.”

John Cullinan left speechless after “special” Ribchester filly makes £590,000

Towards the end of trade, long-time breeze-up consignors John Cullinan and Roger Marley of Church Farm and Horse Park Stud were left in disbelief after their Ribchester filly was bought by Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock for £590,000.

Cullinan and Marley had paid just £45,000 for the filly, a half-sister to the Listed-placed Expensive Date, at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale.

“She was always a special filly from day one,” said Cullinan. “When we bought her, we thought that she might be a sharper type, but she grew and she stretched. She has a great attitude; she’s been a pleasure to have in the yard.

“We thought she would sell well as she was well liked. But did I have any idea that she would make that? Of course not!

“I’m delighted Richard Brown bought her – he bought [recent Marygate Stakes winner] Nymphadora off us too and she looks like she’s a decent one.”

Night Of Thunder filly catches Stuart Boman’s eye

Another to hit the six-figure mark was Yeomanstown Stud’s Night Of Thunder filly who went the way of Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock for £500,000.

Originally sourced by Guy O’Callaghan’s Grangemore Stud for €65,000 as foal, the filly is a half-sister to two winners and is out of a half-sister to the Italian Group 1 scorer Ancient World.

Boman said: “She’s for Mr Sartori [owner of Wednesday’s Prix Corrida third No Limit Credit] and will be trained by Andreas Suborics.

“She did an outstanding breeze – she was very natural and was able to maintain her speed right the way through. Yeomanstown don’t breeze with the clock in mind so when you factor that in, it was very impressive.

“There are very few fillies here and she’s an outstanding physical – I don’t know where everyone was last October!”

New owner makes his mark

Earlier in Friday’s session, trade was led by a Kingman half-brother to German Oaks winner Miss Yoda, who went the way of Arqana’s Freddy Powell, acting on behalf of Singapore owner Kuldeep Singh, at £500,000.

Powell said: “He’s been bought by a new owner from Singapore called Kuldeep Singh. I’m not sure where the horse will be trained yet, I need to call him back for all the details. He’s a lovely horse who galloped really well so the owner was really keen to have him.”

He was offered by Brendan Holland’s Grove Stud, which had a productive few minutes, as prior to the Kingman colt he watched his No Nay Never Colt out of the Zoffany mare Mona Vale go to Alex Elliott and Jamie McCalmont for £300,000.

Holland said: “The only problem is it’s all downhill from here! I was hoping they’d sell well and it just so happened they were two exceptionally nice horses being sold back-to-back.

“Both of them are by exciting young sires and breezed exceptionally well. You’re always hopeful when you know they can run but it still has to happen on the day and thankfully it worked out great.

“This is a very international sale now and even though there isn’t as strong an attendance as you need, overseas owners still have people working here.”

On the purchase of the No Nay Never colt, Elliott added: “He’s by an exceptional sire in No Nay Never, he did an exceptional breeze, and he was an exceptional physical. I bought him with Jamie McCalmont for a new partnership and he was a horse that we both honed in on.

“I used to work for Jamie when I first came back to England from the States and it’s nice to link up together and buy a horse. Partnerships are becoming more and more common; it limits people’s risk and if people are prepared to do it, it gives you a great advantage to buy a horse because you can pool your funds.

“We’re very excited by the new partnership; we looked at buying in America at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale, but we didn’t get anything.

“Arqana have done a fantastic job to get this whole thing going and they have produced some top horses. It’s a really good catalogue and the physicals match up to the book and the breezes match up to the physicals and the book.

“Being so close to Royal Ascot is not ideal, but I would just like to commend Arqana and Goffs for getting the whole thing going.”

Sole Dubawi offering goes the way of Oliver St Lawrence and Fawzi Nass

As the only lot catalogued by Darley’s flagship Dubawi, it was no surprise to see Oak Tree Farm’s colt attract plenty of interest, being from the family of Group 1 winner Albanova.

Picked up by Norman Williamson and partners for €110,000 as a yearling at last year’s Goffs Orby Sale, it was Oliver St Lawrence who went to £480,000 to secure the colt out of the Listed winner All At Sea, on behalf of Fawzi Nass.

St Lawrence said: “I looked up my yearling notes and he was a backward yearling, and I was pleasantly surprised with how well he had done over the winter. Norman has done a very good job with him.

“He’s a nice type but still a bit of a baby so we’ll give him some time and go from there.”

Final figures

At the conclusion of trade, the auction had turned over £13,052,500, with 109 lots from 123 offered sold. That aggregate was up 45 per cent on 2020 while the average dropped 15 per cent to £119,750. The median rose 12 per cent to £85,000.

Arqana’s Freddy Powell said: “It shows that the catalogue was so strong that it has been appreciated worldwide. We’ve had people bidding from all over. All things considered we have to be satisfied.

“It’s difficult to compare the figures to last year, when we had far fewer horses, but the figures will be very similar to 2019 and 2018, when we had an aggregate of around €15 million.

“The median is close to €100,000 which is incredible from that number of horses. I think it shows the depth of the catalogue. The vendors have been amazing to adapt again – we had to change the date and change the venue – and when you have horses of that value, for things to change all the time is not easy when you are preparing them for a breeze.

“That is why we had to make our decision early. But today has been very satisfying, especially the clearance rate, and we have had the highest median ever as well as record aggregate.”