THE third and final day of Book 1 at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in Newmarket saw yet more seven-figure purchases by Amo Racing, Godolphin and Coolmore.

On Tuesday Kia Joorabchian's Amo Racing spent in the region of 12 million guineas on 11 horses while on Wednesday it was Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin who was the biggest spender, shelling out 12 million guineas on just nine yearlings.

Thursday's session saw Amo Racing spend another eight million on just four horses, while Godolphin splashed out more than eight million to acquire seven yearlings. Not to be left out, Coolmore's M.V. Magnier snagged a 1.5 million Frankel colt.

Top lot on Thursday was a Wootton Bassett colt from the Burns' family's Lodge Park Stud in Co Kilkenny.

From the family of Oaks winner Was and Derby winner New Approach, the colt was bought by Amo Racing for 4.3 million guineas. Coolmore was the underbidder for what is the highest priced colt ever sold at October Book 1. Incredibly, Lodge Park also sold the sale's highest priced filly when, in 2013, they sold a Galileo filly from this family for five million guineas.

After Thursday's sale Jamie Burns, who led up the colt himself and was surrounded by family, including his mum Patricia, said: "He is a beautiful horse and the family has always done us well, and, hopefully, he will be the next one to enhance the pedigree. I was not expecting that! I was not really thinking when it went over four million, emotion took over, it was surreal. I am coming down from the clouds a bit now and it was all pretty special."

He added: "He has been busy all week and has never turned a hair once. We have bred four generations on this colt's page, and we also had Park Appeal, who is Wootton Bassett's pedigree, too."

The mare is in-foal to Lope De Vega and did not have a foal this year.

Bloodstock agent Alex Elliott, representing Amo Racing, said: "If you were going to paint a racehorse, he is as close to perfection as you can get. From the top to the bottom, from the farm he came from – the amount of time and money and love that the Burns family has put into that page, it is just does not take any explaining to anyone.

"To get a physical like that, that is a lifetime achievement for anyone,. For us to be part of that, to buy into that is just phenomenal that Kia has done that, you don't really find people who can do that. I said to Kia when I first showed him the horse, it did not take a genius to find the horse, we all said that you can't get better than that.

"I said, 'Kia you have been second in two Derbys, this is the horse who could take you one place better.' He has got every right, if he can run how he looks to have spot in a stallion shed one day. It was always going to take that sort of bidding to buy that horse, Coolmore was never going to let that horse out of its sight, so to beat them... they are the best in the game. For what Kia is doing is just refreshing and it is huge, it feels new and has reinvigorated it again. No trainer has been decided yet.

"I am just very honoured to be a small part of the process, thankfully Kia has faith in his team, I just hope he gets rewarded for what they are doing. We are just trying to find the best stock, that is our role and we are just doing our jobs at the end of the day – hopefully everyone is doing the right job."

Kia Joorabchian said: "We have a lot of stock, for us to get to the next level we have to target the best stock. We have targeted this sale and the US. Every member of my team when we saw this colt said we can't leave without him, and it was him and the two Frankel fillies – they were our three main targets and we have managed to get all three, so we are happy. "

He added: "To play at the top is very hard, we have run the stats and if you look at all the Group 1s over the last four years, they are either homebreds or extremely well-bred. Of course, you get the odd one come through, but really to get to the next level, the stallions and mares have got to be strong.

"We have not had the strength so this year our strategy has been to have the strength in pedigree. I like to follow our own strategy, we speak about, we at around every night, we have gone through the book and every member of the team has been involved, we have all given opinions, we have had a short list and going on."

Joorabchian later revealed that the 4.3 million guineas colt will be trained by Karl Burke. He also confirmed that the 4.4 million guineas Frankel-Aljazzi filly will go to Ralph Beckett while Sir Mark Prescott will train the 2.5 million Frankel full-sister to Alpinista.

Godolphin top buyer

As the three-day sale ended on Thursday evening, Godolphin was the top buyer of the week, spending 22 million guineas on 18 horses. Amo Racing was next, spending 19.5 million guineas on 17 yearlings.

Godolphin's top purchase on Thursday was the half-sister to the Fillies' Mile winner Ylang Ylang who cost 3.4 million guineas. Incredibly this was only the third top price of this week's sale and the 16th seven-figure lot sold this week. She was bred in partnership between Newsells Park Stud and Merry Fox Stud, who also bred Ylang Ylang, bought by M.V. Magnier for 1,500,000gns here in 2022.

Today's bidding all took place outside the ring, between Godolphin and Coolmore, the former the successful party with Sheikh Mohammed in attendance.

Graham Smith Bernal of Newsells Park said: "We are very happy because we have a lovely Frankel filly foal on the ground, a full-sister to Ylang Ylang, and we will keep her and [the dam] Shambolic is in-foal to Frankel.

"I also still retain a stake in the Kingman colt with John Gosden. He is called Kaizen – watch out for that name because the recent feed back from jockey Oisin Murphy [after a piece of work] was that he could be a special colt."

Total spending for the three days was a record 128 million guineas, up 12% on last year despite there being fewer horses catalogued.

The average price was 370,501gns and the median price was 250,000gns. The clearance rate was 83%.

Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony said: “All in all it has been an extraordinary yearling sale. The statistics tell a remarkable story with massive year on year rises in average, median and turnover. The sale turnover has risen year on year by around 30 million guineas, the average price well in excess of 300,000gns is unprecedented, as is a median which has surpassed the previous record of 200,000gns by a very significant margin."

"Newsells Park Stud’s 4.4 million guineas sale-topping Frankel filly out of Aljazzi is the highest-priced yearling to be sold in the northern-hemisphere this year and Lodge Park Stud’s 4.3 million guineas Wootton Bassett colt out of Park Bloom is not only the highest price for a yearling colt in the world this year, but also a new European record for a yearling colt.

"The very top of the market has been outlandish with an unprecedented eight yearlings selling for two million guineas or more, 16 selling for seven figure sums and almost 70 yearlings realising 500,000gns or more.

“The buyers who have made all of this possible have come from far and wide. The contribution from throughout the Gulf region has been such a feature of sales at Tattersalls for a very long time and their continued support should never be underestimated. This year they have been joined by an almost overwhelming number of overseas buyers with the large contingent of American buyers making a massive contribution alongside buyers from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and throughout Europe, all of whom have been competing with strong domestic demand, most notably from Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing, which has become such a force on the global racing scene."

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