Forever Together relation sells for €3 million
The Goffs Orby Sale hit the high notes on Wednesday when a daughter of Galileo out of Green Room sold for €3 million to MV Magnier and Westerberg.
Bred by Gill and Vimal Khosla and consigned by Ballylinch Stud, lot 262 is a sister to Oaks heroine Forever Together and Fillies’ Mile winner Together Forever.
The sister to last year’s Orby Sale top lot – named Do You Love Me, bought by Phoenix Thoroughbred for €3.2m and in training (unraced) with Karl Burke – was one of four seven-figure yearlings at this year’s auction.
Turnover for the two days was down on last year by 1.6% at €42,797,500, the average dropped by 11% to €117,899 and the median fell by 23% to €65,000.
The two-day Sportsman’s Sale starts today at 10am.
Dozen set for Arc
Enable will face 11 rivals in her bid for a historic third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe victory at Longchamp on Sunday.
Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck was the most notable absentee, though Soft Light was added to the field, which will be the smallest since Dylan Thomas’s controversial triumph over 11 opponents in 2007.
The bookmakers agree that Enable is by far the likeliest winner of the Paris showpiece and she is odds-on with every firm. Juddmonte International victor Japan, one of two runners for Aidan O’Brien along with Magical, is second best in the market.
Sandown redevelopment plan shot down
Plans submitted by Jockey Club Racecourses to redevelop Sandown Park have been rejected by Elmbridge Borough Council as inappropriate because of its potential impact on the surrounding Green Belt.
JCR had hoped to build a 150-room hotel and upgrade the staff accommodation, stables and paddock area, a project that would be financed by the building of over 300 new homes on the track’s perimeter.
In what amounts to a humiliating rejection, all 17 members of the planning committee voted unanimously to refuse permission for the development, with concerns over harming the environment, air quality and the lack of affordable housing.
New betting superpower
Flutter, owner of Paddy Power Betfair, and Stars Group, owner of Sky Bet, are set to merge to create the biggest betting company in the world.
The combined market value of both groups would exceed £10 billion, more than twice the value of its nearest competitor, Ladbrokes Coral, which is owned by GVC Holdings.
It is thought the merger is partly aimed at cracking the potentially lucrative US market, though there are plenty of hurdles to negotiate before the deal between the two companies can be finalised.
Today’s action
Following the abandonment of Salisbury’s final fixture of 2019 there are four domestic meetings today, on the all-weather at Lingfield, Wolverhampton (evening) and Chelmsford (evening) and over jumps at Warwick. They also race over obstacles at Clonmel in Ireland.
