There are few more breathtaking victories than the one that happened at Tattersalls on Wednesday night when the Galileo colt from Glending Stables finished his transition from a 125,000-gns yearling to a 1,000,000-gns two-year-old.
As soon as the bidding started, the price quickly surpassed half a million marks. Chris Wall, the racing manager for KHK Racing, the principal of Amo Racing, Kia Joorabchian, and the Godolphin purchasing team all seemed to be in the running. Wall was the first to look around, but Joorabchian didn't seem to be willing to give up.
Joorabchian appeared to have reached his limit when Godolphin representative Anthony Stroud showed a 900,000gns bid. Agent Alex Elliott was among the group huddled by the doorway with Joorabchian's team.
"You might never get the opportunity again," auctioneer Edmond Mahony threw at the group in an attempt to entice them with a final increase. They appropriately indicated a rise of 50,000gns, demonstrating that the prompt had the desired effect.
Nevertheless, Stroud quickly countered with a bid of his own, bringing the price up to seven figures and a frustrated Joorabchian shook his head and left the ring.
Success at the Craven Sale is nothing new for Roderic Kavanagh; a year ago, he sold Vandeek for 625,000gns. Nonetheless, the Glending Stables man was obviously aware of the significance of this transaction.
“You do start to dream and the last month has been tense because you know you have something special,” he added. “We were disciplined all year and didn’t lose the run of ourselves, but when this horse came up [as a yearling] you could feel there was a possibility to get something unique.”
He continued: “It does help that you’ve sold a horse like Vandeek but I didn’t think this would happen. I have other horses coming here and it didn’t happen for them. But maybe that’s just the attributes of this horse, he just doesn’t disappoint. Hopefully, he won’t disappoint anyone where he goes next.”
When asked what he expected from the ring, Kavanagh responded as follows: “I thought there was a chance he’d make half [a million]. Just because lots of people like a horse doesn’t mean they’ll all turn up. If half of them turned up he might have made only half of what he did, but they all turned up. Everybody could see what I used to see every day. There are no blemishes, so hopefully he’s as good as the last one.”
Out of the Listed-placed Manderley, the colt bred by Coolmore is one of just twelve foals to come from the final crop of the twelve-time champion sire. With this pedigree, the colt is closely related to the Listed winner Hidden Dimples, and Gregorian's sister is the dam, who placed fourth in Miss France's 1,000 Guineas.
“You start looking around and wondering what you’re missing, and maybe that’s why we were able to buy him because people thought something was missing from the puzzle,” Considering how he had discovered the colt at the December Yearling Sale the previous year, Kavanagh said.
The colt went on to become the second most expensive breezer to change hands at the Craven Sale and the third most expensive breezer sold in Europe.