THE eagerly anticipated Niarchos Draft at the November Breeding Stock Sale at Goffs did not disappoint on Friday evening.

Buyers from around the world descended on Kildare Paddocks for the sale of 40 fillies and mares owned by the Niarchos family, but M.V. Magnier of Coolmore Stud saw off all challengers for the top four lots, spending a total of €19 million on the quartet of Alpine Star, Alpha Centauri, Albigna and That Which Is Not.

Alpine Star, a Sea The Moon half-sister to Group 1 winners Alpha Centauri and Discoveries, was consigned by Kiltinan Castle and is in foal to the mighty Frankel, having also given birth to a Frankel colt earlier this year.

“She was a very good racemare and it is an incredible family. Along with our partners we are just delighted to be able to buy these mares from Maria [Niarchos],” Magnier said. “Maria has been a huge supporter of ours for as long as I’m alive, she is godmother to my brother and it means a lot to us to give something back to her after all these years. These are special mares and this one, Alpine Star, could be one to send to Auguste Rodin, when that time comes.

"When he won the Derby, 30 seconds later Dad rang me and said ‘this is the most important thing to have happened Coolmore since Galileo won the Derby’. He is everything we have been looking for and when the time comes for him to go to stud we will be getting behind him in a big way,” he added.

An hour later, the four-time Group 1 winner Alpha Centauri entered the ring and, as a half-sister to Alpine Star, might have been expected to fetch a price in excess of that made by her sibling. But once again the opposition to Magnier fell away when bidding reached the €6 million mark.

Earlier in the session fellow Group 1 winner Albigna made a good effort of being the session topper when also selling to Magnier for €3.7 million. Offered by Baroda Stud in foal to Coolmore stallion St Mark’s Basilica, Albigna has already foaled a yearling colt by Wootton Bassett that sold for €460,000 as a yearling and a filly foal by Dubawi.

The Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner was the subject of bids from Japan’s Northern Farm, Al Shira’aa Farm’s Kieran Lalor as well as the Juddmonte team but it was Magnier who held them at bay when the hammer dropped.

“She is a lovely mare and these types of horses don’t come on the market very often. We are very lucky to have such good partners to enable us to buy horses like this. We’ve been impressed with the St Mark’s Basilica foals so far and if she produces a nice foal by him we could potentially send her back to him next year,” Magnier said.

Rounding out the top four prices achieved on what was a very memorable night at Goffs, Magnier secured the 10-year-old mare That Which Is Not for €3.3 million.

A listed-winning daughter of Elusive Quality, That Which Is Not is out of the champion mare Shiva and has already produced the stakes winner Piz Badile, trained for the Niarchos Family by Donnacha O'Brien.

When Foniska won the Listed Navigation Stakes at Cork in September for Jessica Harrington she suggested she could hold her own in higher company before retiring to stud and the daughter of Galileo was knocked down to the online bid of Bassingham Equine for €775,000.

Consigned by Kiltinan Castle, Foniska is out of Group 2 winner Bocca Bacciata whose yearling by Kingman made €400,000 at the Orby Sale in September.

THE Niarchos family’s long-serving racing manager Alan Cooper admitted to mixed emotions after the last lot from the Niarchos Draft, the exceptional Alpha Centauri, went through the ring.

“It’s a great tribute to decades of building these bloodlines,” he said. “I’m sure the family would like to thank everyone who’s contributed to their success, from foaling right through to training and back to breeding: the great cycle.

“As we said at the start, it’s a restructuring and that’s now been accomplished, in the sense that the bloodlines have spread out, and we still have access to all the pedigrees in the draft through foal, yearling, two-year-old and three-year-old fillies. So, even though we’ve separated from the great racemares, we have their blood.”

The Niarchos family still have Alpha Lupi, the dam of stars of the show Alpha Centauri and Alpine Star, in their care, as well as Alpha Centauri’s daughters Earth and Proxima Centauri.

“We also have fillies from all sorts of different branches of the Miesque family,” said Cooper. “Her influence lives on.

“We looked it up the other day, and discovered that 91 blacktype winners descend from Miesque’s dam Pasadoble, which isn’t bad for a $45,000 yearling who was picked out because Mr Niarchos, Francois Boutin and Philip Payne-Gallwey liked the French influences in her family.”

FOR a number of years now Japanese breeders have been prolific in their accumulation of high-end breeding stock, both in Europe and America, and the stakes-placed Dubawi mare Forever Be is destined for Japan after selling to Champions Farm for €625,000.

She was consigned by Norelands on behalf of the Niarchos family and was offered in foal to Wootton Bassett, having foaled a Kingman colt foal earlier this year.

Forever Be is a full-sister to stakes winner Ghostwatch, from the family of Curtain Call.

Takashi Kodama, who trains on the Curragh and saddled Pineapple Island to win a maiden at Cork in the spring, spoke on behalf of the buyers: “It’s for a Japanese owner who was looking to buy into a Niarchos family. She’s a good filly, by a good sire in Dubawi and she’s in foal to Wootton Bassett, who is just top class.

"We tried to buy two or three already and ended up as underbidder. All of the Niarchos pedigrees are very expensive but they tried hard on this mare and thankfully we got her.

"The Niarchos family are very close to the Japanese industry. They used Deep Impact and bred Study Of Man, and we are big believers in their families. We really believe this pedigree should be successful in Japan.”

Having bid strongly on Albigna earlier Simon Mockridge and the Juddmonte team landed Diaphora for €720,000. The Pivotal mare was a stakes winner in Germany and was offered by Kiltinan Stud in foal to New Bay.

Her first foal Yuzu won her first race since the catalogue was published and she has fillies by Wootton Bassett and Frankel on the ground.

The same price of €720,000 was given for the next mare, Phaenomena, a Galileo mare already the dam of two stakes winners. She was sold in foal to No Nay Never and was signed for by Prospect Partnership.

THE first section of the Niarchos draft was headed by Humankind who sold to Prospect Partnership for €440,000.

A three-year-old daughter of Frankel, Humankind is a half-sister to German stakes winner Lunar Maria but, possibly more significantly, is a granddaughter of the mighty Miesque who spawned such a dynasty for the Niarchos family.

The next lot into the ring, the unraced War Front filly See, was knocked down to Japanese buyers Tanikawa Stud for €300,000.

Out of the high class Faufiler, who won stakes races in both France and America, See has younger siblings by Quality Road and Into Mischief waiting in the wings.

Aside from the Niarchos draft there were plenty of other highly sought-after broodmares on offer and one from the Aga Khan draft that lit up the ring was Suwayra. This four-year-old was offered in-foal to Sea The Moon and was bought by Jill Lamb and Childwickbury Stud for €410,000.

Winner of a two-year-old maiden at Leopardstown, the mare has younger siblings by Sea The Stars, Kingman, Pinatubo and Night Of Thunder working for her. Speaking afterwards the owners of Childwickbury Stud, Paul and Sally Flatt, said: "We are trying to restore the stud to its former glory and we are starting from scratch, really. This is our first time in Goffs and we are very excited as this was the mare we really wanted today. Our aim is to breed classic types, so we are looking for families with a bit of distance.”

The sale ends on Saturday.