The 73-10 chance, who had previously finished last of seven runners in her July 16 debut over seven furlongs at Chantilly, employed patient tactics from flagfall in this 10 1/2-furlong distaffers' test and settled off the tempo in sixth for the most part. Inching closer on the home turn, the daughter of Cala Violina (Fr) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) cruised to the front on the bridle passing the quarter-mile marker and was not for catching thereafter, lengthening clear under minimal urging inside the final 300 metres to easily outclass Wootton Zi (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) by an impressive 3 1/2 lengths. Gala Real becomes the sixth Rising Star for Wootton Bassett, whose existing quintet of inductees is headed by last term's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf hero and G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere runner-up Unquestionable (Fr).

“I was devastated when she lost first time out, but she won very well on her second start and I am not surprised she won so easily today,” admitted trainer Alessandro Botti. “She enjoyed a good winter, she worked with [Christophe] Soumillon and he said she sent him great vibes. The idea, and it was already the case before she ran today, is to have her at her best for the [June 16 G1] Prix de Diane [at Chantilly] and we will try to find a race for her between now and then.”

Gala Real is the first of three foals produced by a winning half-sister to multiple stakes-winning G2 Grand Prix de Deauville third Fenelon (Fr) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}). Her dual Grade III-winning second dam Aigue Marine (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), a daughter of G3 Prix Fille de l'Air victrix Aiglonne (Silver Hawk), is a half-sister to four black-type performers headed by G1 Prix d'Ispahan-winning sire Mekhtaal (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), G2 Prix Hocquart winner Democrate (GB) (Dalakhani {Ire}) and G3 Prix Thomas Bryon victor and G1 Criterium International runner-up Normandy Bridge (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}). The February-foaled bay is kin to the unraced 2-year-old colt Ipso Facto (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and a yearling filly by Camelot (GB).

2nd-Saint-Cloud, €28,000, Cond, 4-12, 3yo, f, 10 1/2fT, 2:30.89, hy.
GALA REAL (GB), f, 3, by Wootton Bassett (GB)
1st Dam: Cala Violina (Fr), by Lope De Vega (Ire)
2nd Dam: Aigue Marine (GB), by Galileo (Ire)
3rd Dam: Aiglonne, by Silver Hawk
Sales history: €270,000 Ylg '22 ARQAUG. Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-0, €25,500. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Video, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
O-Scuderia Dei Duepi, Ballylinch Stud, Ecurie des Charmes & Hisham Abdulwahed; B-Noir et Or Elevage SA & Ecurie Skymarc Farm (FR); T-Alessandro & Giuseppe Botti; J-Christophe Soumillon.

That look from Christophe Soumillon!

Wootton Bassett filly Gala Real, who holds an entry in the Prix de Diane, bolts up at Saint-Cloud… pic.twitter.com/3BipkX9Qw4

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) April 12, 2024

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Graduates of the sale have been flying high in recent years, with G3 Anglesey S. winner Kairyu (Ire) (Kuroshio {Aus}), listed winners Ballymount Boy (Ire) (Camacho {GB}) and Fun With Flags (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), all alumni of the 2023 edition. 'TDN Rising Star' Purple Lily (Ire) (Calyx {GB}) is also a 2023 graduate, and she is entered in both the G1 1000 Guineas, and the Irish equivalent, as well as the G1 Oaks at Epsom.

Among the lots on offer are: a Ribchester (Ire) half-brother (lot 6) to GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Twilight Gleaming (Ire) (National Defense {GB}); Group 3 winner Jaameh (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB})'s Mehmas (Ire) half-brother (lot 176); a half-sister (lot 14) by Starspangledbanner (Aus) to Group 1-placed Rohaan (Ire) (Mayson {GB}); and a Persian King (Ire) half-brother (lot 3) to G1 Prix Jean Prat hero and stallion Territories (Ire). Wootton Bassett (GB)'s lot 78 is a half-brother to Group 3 winner Cairo (Ire) (Quality Road); American Grade I winner Sophie P (GB) (Bushranger {Ire}) is the dam of a colt by No Nay Never (lot 240); and there is also a Vino Rosso colt (lot 89) out of Grade III winner Dreaming Of Liz (El Prado {Ire}). A 2-year-old with a Classic connection is a Blue Point (Ire) filly (lot 12) out of a sister to multiple stakes winner and G1 Irish Oaks second Venus De Milo (Ire) (Duke Of Marmalade {Ire}); while Earthlight (Ire) is represented by a filly (lot 62) out of a sister to multiple Group 1 winner Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}).

Tattersalls Ireland CEO Simon Kerins said, “The Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Up Sale is Ireland's only breeze-up sale, and I'm confident the quality of this catalogue will meet the expectations of our clients. The quality on offer at this sale has risen year on year, with stakes class performers and Classic contenders among our graduates in recent editions. I'm certain our purchasers will be satisfied with the choice, diversity and depth of the catalogue. We look forward to working alongside the team at Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, and extending a warm welcome to our clients from Ireland, the UK and further afield in May.”

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Formerly owned by the Rogues Gallery, who picked her up for 35,000gns at the Tattersalls Mare December Sale as an unraced 2-year-old in 2021, the now-5-year-old mare was fifth in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. on QIPCO Champions Day last out in October. She was knocked down for 1.65 million gns at that same sale in December, with Lanigan/Durcan agent on the ticket on behalf of Heider Family Stables.

“She gives the impression that she'll always appreciate better ground and she shows plenty of pace,” said O'Brien. “We won't be shy about travelling her and have a long list of potential options for her in America where we think the style of racing will suit her. She's a very exciting prospect to have in the yard.”

O'Brien also had updates on several other stable stars, among them G2 Blandford S. winner Lumiere Rock (Ire) (Saxon Warrior {Jpn}). A good third to Blue Rose Cen (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) in the G1 Prix de l'Opera last October, she was not disgraced in the colours of Michael O'Flynn when sixth to Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf a month later in California. The G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup in May is first on her assignment sheet this term.

“She had a busy campaign last season, but never let us down and kept improving,” said O'Brien. “We all got a real thrill from her win in the Blandford S., and it was great that her owner Michael O'Flynn was there on the day to enjoy it with us.

“We are looking at the Tattersalls Gold Cup as an early-season target and will drive on from there.”

Group 1-winning juvenile Al Riffa (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), a winner of the 2022 G1 National S., enjoyed a brief campaign at three in 2023. Second in the G3 International S. at the beginning of July, he filled that spot again in the wake of undefeated G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe hero Ace Impact (Ire) (Cracksman {GB}) in the G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano in August. The 4-year-old entire is also pleasing O'Brien, and has been handed French targets, including the G1 Prix Ganay in April.

O'Brien said, “We are delighted with him. He was always a tall, rangy horse and has filled out into a magnificent athlete now.

“We were very sweet on him for the Irish Champion S., but a little issue the day before meant we couldn't run. Everything has gone very smoothly with him this preparation and we are steadily stepping up his work.

“We are working him towards the Prix Ganay at ParisLongchamp in late April. Longer term, I could see him stepping up to a mile and a half.

“He won a Group 1 over seven furlongs as a 2-year-old and has never looked short of pace, but he has the most lovely, relaxed way of going and it will give him a great chance to carry his pace over further if we ask him to. I'd be very hopeful he can win another Group 1.”

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“Everybody needs to keep trading for the bottom line,” O'Brien told The Irish Field. “We're lucky to have had 2-year-olds who could compete in those top juvenile races and now it's all about looking forward to the next generation.”

Formerly owned by Islandsinthestream Partnership, the dual winner is out of A Mist Opportunity (Aus) (Foxwedge {Aus}), herself a half-sister to three stakes winners. Bred by Haras d'Etreham and Katelanis Bloodstock, the bay brought €135,000 as an Arqana October yearling in 2022. For O'Brien, he broke his maiden at the Curragh, before running second in both the G2 Futurity S. and G1 National S. to Henry Longfellow (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}). Successful in an allowance at ParisLongchamp in September, he finished his year with a close second in the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud in October.

Sold for 62,000gns out of Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Mythology made 320,000gns as a juvenile during the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale last April before racing for a Coolmore partnership which included Teme Valley. The second foal of Rely On Me (Ire) (Kyllach {GB}), he was bred by E. Smith and Cloneymore Farm. Second to Henry Longfellow at the Curragh prior to that colt's group heroics, the bay won a maiden at Galway and ran second in the G3 Prix Francois Boutin in his fifth start and 2-year-old finale. Mythology is kin to G1 Italian Oaks heroine Menhoubah (Dixieland Band).

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The seven figure mark has been broken again at the #VentedElevage as CHANNEL (lot 2⃣1⃣5⃣), Prix de Diane (Gr.1) winner in foal to #WoottonBassett @coolmorestud was sold to Katsumi Yoshida/ Narvick International by @La_Motteraye for €1,200,000. pic.twitter.com/zvgsukZWas

— ARQANA (@InfoArqana) December 9, 2023

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According to Amo's Kia Joorabchian, the massive grey is likely for the GI Breeders' Cup Turf, of which the Champion S. was a “Win and You're In” on QIPCO British Champions Day.

“We've been monitoring him all week, I've spoken to Roger [Varian] almost every day and I went to see him this week,” Joorabchian told Nick Luck's Daily Podcast on Friday.

“To be honest Roger has said the same thing every day, he can't fault him and he's in great shape. He's come out of the race really well.

“Roger would always err on the side of caution, but he's very happy with him so he's going to travel today to Santa Anita so fingers crossed he should be running in, I'd say, most probably the Turf, but we haven't completely ruled anything out yet.”

The Varian trainee caused a stir when a game second in the G1 Derby behind fellow Turf aspirant Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) earlier this year, and he went on to prevail at Royal Ascot in the G2 King Edward VII S. Later in the summer, the colt was third in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. prior to a fourth in the G1 Irish Champion S. in mid-September.

He added, “The reality is, Roger and his team probably feel much more comfortable on the turf, as a 3-year-old I think we would edge towards the Turf. He's never run on dirt and the only factor is if he gets out of the gates a little bit slower he'd get a lot of dirt in his face. That is edging us more towards the Turf.

“The jockey [Frankie Dettori] arrived there yesterday, he sent me a video of himself working out.”

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A winner of the G1 Prix de Diane, the 7-year-old is a daughter of the G1 Cheveley Park S. winner Magical Romance (Ire) (Barathea {Ire}). Carrying to Wootton Bassett (GB), the daughter of Love Magic (GB) (Dansili {GB}) is also from the same line as standouts Alexandrova (Ire) (Sadler's Wells), Magic Wand (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), Chicquita (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}), Philomene (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Pacifique (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}). Her eldest foal is the 2-year-old filly Million Miles Away (Fr) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), while her yearling colt is by Kingman (GB) and she has a Wootton Bassett filly born this year.

Bred by Kilcarn Stud, the €18,000 Goffs Orby yearling turned €70,000 Arqana May juvenile won half of her six starts and over $670,000 for Francis-Henri Graffard and Samuel de Barros.

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He gestures towards a rose in a vase. “That's the best analogy, you know,” he says. “Beautiful, but it doesn't last forever. I look at the wonderful broodmares we've been blessed with–these living, breathing creatures–and they're the same. That's part of what makes it so alluring, so intoxicating. Because it's about persistence.”

He remembers what his father used to tell him, and his brother: “Nothing worthwhile is easy, boys.”

Not, he acknowledges with a smile, something you necessarily wanted to hear when young.

“But for sure, as you mature and experience life lessons, you see that it's true,” he says. “If something's given to you, it's probably not going to mean as much.”

He points to shelves displaying some of his racing trophies.

“But I can promise you… That Park Hill? The Debutante, at the Curragh? These are things that I can't tell you how much they mean to me. That's why you do it.”

Both those Group races were won by fillies trained in Ireland by Joseph O'Brien–instructive samples, then, of a program that manages to combine a rigorous focus on quality (barely a dozen mares between Kentucky and Ireland) with an unusual range of application. That is no less than we should expect, perhaps, in one whose own perspectives and engagement have uncommon breadth by the standards of our insular sport. We should duly take heart that for all his passion for art and film, all his success as a real estate developer, nothing animates Heider quite like the animals that bring him here from his principal residence in Omaha.

Cindy and Scott Heider | courtesy of The Heider Family

“My wife and I love cinema,” he says. “In fact, we just got back from the Telluride Film Festival. But I have never seen anything like the Thoroughbred industry. Art, film, these are wonderful things. They can fill your soul, stimulate your mind, hopefully open you to things that you didn't think about or believe before. As my Jesuit friends say, 'Always be open to growth.' So those things are important to me. But the Thoroughbred business? To me, it's just absolute, unlimited possibilities.”

True, he feels that some of these have not been adequately realized. He is dismayed, for instance, that we cannot achieve the same media traction for Cody's Wish (Curlin) as for less edifying news from the racetrack.

“We have such a unique, beautiful, unbelievably passionate industry,” he reflects. “Sometimes I think we don't know how good we have it. There's so much potential.”

In his own case, the magic was first ignited by boyhood visits to Ak-Sar-Ben. During high school and college summers he even worked there as an usher and mutuel teller. Attending the University of Southern California allowed Heider to sample Santa Anita and Hollywood Park, another level again from Nebraska-breds. And soon after he had launched his own career in business, father and son were also exploring this avenue of pleasure together.

First a friend introduced them to the veteran trainer Lyman Rollins. “And that,” says Heider, “was the luckiest thing in the world–because Lyman was just an upstanding guy.”

In 1987 they bought a $14,000 yearling colt from TaylorMade by To-Agori-Mou (Ire), a miler imported from Europe but pretty much a disaster at stud.

“And, as the racing gods would have it, that yearling turned out to be a Californian champion sprinter that won the Hollywood Turf Express three years in a row,” says Heider.

Answer Do, who also won three graded stakes, raced six seasons.

“Back then you'd race until September, October, and then you'd turn them out and bring them back in March,” Heider recalls. “You just stopped, let Mother Nature do her thing. And they lasted forever.

“Anyway, because of Answer Do, we came across all these wildly interesting people that were around at the time: Allen Paulson, John Mabee, Margie Everett, R.D. Hubbard. And we realized that you could put Allen Paulson, founder of Gulfstream, together with a jockey, a trainer, a groom—and everybody would just want to talk horses. It didn't matter what your background was. This was the great leveler, and that's a beautiful thing.”

The Heiders could not have got off to a better start; nor, of course, a more misleading one.

“When that horse finally retired, we spent probably six or seven years trying to find one that could run a third as fast!” says Heider ruefully. By that stage, however, they were hooked. “And, in hindsight, it became a really important bond with my father. I was getting married, having a family, life takes over. But boy, did we enjoy our time traveling around the country together.”

Losing his father in 2015 confirmed Heider in his hope that he might yet share a similar journey with his own children, Grant and Courtney, both recent college graduates. However their interest proceeds, Heider has long felt grateful for the indulgence of their mother Cindy–right back to when she ordered a wedding cake in the shape of a chocolate horse head, iced with a Lukas white bridle.

“As a lot of people in this business know, when someone's horse-crazy, their spouse has to learn to live with it,” Heider says. “But God bless my wife, she has learned to like it, especially the breeding. And she's very involved in the philanthropic side. In the horse business we've found some really talented people and organizations that might be relatively small, but that are definitely punching above their weight and making a real difference.”

These “small but mighty” operations include the Eddie Gregson Foundation, New Vocations, Bluegrass Farms Charities and, most recently, Stable Recovery.

“If you're fortunate, you're born into a situation where you're going to get a couple opportunities to right mistakes,” Heider observes. “But a lot of people don't get that opportunity. And I think the Thoroughbred industry is uniquely positioned to work with some of these folks–not only to give them a second and third chance, in a profession, but because horses are therapeutic. Some of the programs created for children are amazing. At first, they're scared to death of these animals, but just a few days later you see a remarkable bond develop. And it's the same with some of the people that have been incarcerated, or that have other life challenges.”

But if privilege brings duty, do we also owe a certain obligation to the breed itself: to consider its best interests, in how we try to make a living? Or is that a luxury in such a precarious walk of life?

“The Thoroughbred industry is a pretty decent microcosm for society,” Heider replies. “For sure, we have people that every day come into work, do a great job, and you know what, they've got bills to pay, they've a family to raise. They might be struggling day to day. But I think those of us in a position to do so can hopefully lead by example, and be involved.”

Accordingly he renounces the question that dictates so much commercial breeding: “What have you done for me lately?”

“We have a lot of stallions that would have been successful if given a chance,” he remarks. “That shorter-term mentality unfortunately permeates every aspect of the business. But then we're in a disposable society. Everybody leases a car, everybody replaces their phone every couple years. But this business is different, or should be anyway. Because the bloodlines that we're entrusted with go back 100, 200, 250 years.”

To that extent, he implies, it's not so much a question of who can afford to do the right thing as whether anybody, in the longer term, can afford not to?

“To me, do the right thing means: be respectful to the horse,” Heider specifies. “And to those working with them. The commercial market's going to have its influence. I'm all for the people that want to find the next stallion: there's plenty of risk, and we need that investment, we need to put those horses in the proper hands to determine their potential. But I think there's a limit. Because we want people to play this game long-term, right?”

The Heider program, then, is all “long ball.” One example has been his cultivation, over recent years, of a transatlantic presence. Whenever he's asked what drew him to Ireland, Heider always ends up—besides the heritage and horsemanship–by pointing to the passion and sheer caliber of the people he deals with. Certainly his admiration for the O'Brien family is not confined to their extraordinary professional accomplishment. But nor did he embrace the experiment merely in some altruistic spirit of adventure: Heider is clear that diversification of bloodlines is not just wholesome for the breed in general, but can also benefit his stable in particular.

“We have a young mare at Mill Ridge, Zofelle (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}),” he explains. “A Grade III winner here, she ran second in the [GI] Matriarch on her final start. She's beautiful, and from the family of Listen (Ire) and Sequoyah (Ire) [both Group 1 winners by Sadler's Wells]. The kind of thing that I could just lie awake thinking about! But I didn't send her back to Ireland when her racing was over. This spring she had her first foal by Into Mischief, and I bred her next to Not This Time.”

Zofelle | Lauren King

Heider views such stallions as influences for brilliance, rather than any particular surface or distance. Conversely, the class and soundness of the mare's family can also transcend its recent European setting.

“I have no doubt that she's going to throw something on dirt along the way,” Heider vows. “If you look back to the '50s, '60s, '70s, the transfer of blood from Europe to the United States, and vice versa, has taken place for a long time. There's been far less lately, but now we're seeing Justify throw some brilliant horses in Europe. I don't know how many others are out there doing it. But again, it's about trying to do the right thing–in this case, about invigorating the breed.”

Heider stresses that he still loves the dirt racing on which he was raised. At some stage, however, he would enjoy testing convention. Had he bought out his partners in Mia Mischief (Into Mischief), for example, he would have been mighty tempted to have her bred in Europe. (As it is, of course, she was sold to Stonestreet.) “So I'm just as intrigued by having Irish mares over here as by maybe sending something the other way,” he says. “Time will tell whether it's going to look brilliant, or whether people end up saying, 'What's wrong with this person?'!”

Some aspects of the program remain perfectly orthodox. Heider likes his trainers to develop fillies with pedigree, such as the $750,000 daughter of Nyquist and GI Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can (Proud Citizen) bought from Airdrie at Keeneland in September, with a view to promotion into the broodmare band. But that, again, is laying up rather than trying to drive the green.

“I was raised in the investment business,” Heider remarks. “And you'd probably think that I'm always looking at the quotes in the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, checking my phone all the time. I do read the financial papers every day, but really don't pay any attention to daily or weekly fluctuations in values. Those don't matter to me because I'm not selling today or tomorrow. I'm more likely adding to existing positions over time. It's a share in the business that I own. If you're fortunate to own a piece of a really good business, you don't listen to what the next fad is. You make decisions only to benefit the business. You let good grow.”

Sure enough, he isn't going to fret about which stallion or nick might be hot today and abandoned tomorrow. “We don't care about any of that,” he says. “I want good, reproducing female families. If the mare has racing ability, even better.”

Heider shows a catalogue page for which he's responsible, and accepts that he invited market wariness with a stallion prone to produce a turf horse. But he felt the match ideal, both physically and in terms of the sire's versatility and temperament.

“Because a brilliant horse is what you're looking for, right?” he says. “Doesn't matter if it's turf or dirt, short or long. I think people like John and Tanya Gunther, who I have so much respect for, get that. They understand long ball, without a doubt. It's tough. A lot of times you stand at the plate and miss but, my goodness, they've bred more than their share of amazing horses. So, no, we really don't breed for a market darling. We breed to improve a family. Eventually, the page will prove out.”

One of his most cherished examples is the dynasty of Jude (GB) (Darshaan {GB}).

“Through four generations, you lose track of all the Grade I performers,” he says. “Well, that's because somebody nurtured it. That's because of Richard Henry. And that, I can tell you, is what you do in business as well. You hire the best people, you keep the best close to you. That's our approach in everything we do. It's never about quick returns. We'll give Flying the Colors, a beautiful young War Front granddaughter of Jude, every opportunity to shine. She's in Ireland, in foal to Night of Thunder, and she's returning to the States this fall to be covered by Uncle Mo. We are committed long term to that Coolmore family, and I will move a mare like her if I see it may benefit her.”

Yet even doing it this way soon fills the present moment with fresh cycles of excitement.

“You want to get me going?” Heider asks with a chuckle. “Just ask me about A New Dawn (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), who's a granddaughter of Cherry Hinton (GB) (Green Desert), and I'll tell you about her Kingman (GB) yearling filly that's going to Joseph, or her Wootton Bassett (GB) colt foal. Or our 3-year-old Gun Runner filly, Stunningly, that broke her maiden this summer at Saratoga. I like the balance we have going on. There'll be some interchangeable parts here, some moving back and forth. Time will tell how it all works out. But it's all long-term thinking, and that's what excites me. It's what I know best.”

Stunningly | Sarah Andrew

Yet while his ultimate legacy remains an unknowable horizon, each step on the way emulates the one that first embarked Heider on this journey.

“In the end, for me, it's the same thing as it was day one,” Heider says. “That love and respect for the horse. But I think our true job in this sport is to leave it better than we found it. Now, that may mean trying to improve the breed: introducing new blood, sounder blood, faster blood. Or it may mean a gentleman like Ron Winchell saying, 'I'm going to make Kentucky Downs something like the Cella family has done at Oaklawn.'

“That's long ball. I can relate to that, in the investment world. But then we have everything else. The families on the farms, on the backside. The horses, after their track careers are over. So, if nothing else, by the time I'm ready to run my final furlong, I hope people don't say, 'Boy, he had fast horses,' or, 'He raced Mia Mischief; and he did this and that in Ireland.'

“What I hope they say is, 'There's somebody that tried to do the right thing; tried to improve the sport itself, including the folks that participate and dedicate their lives to it, especially those individuals that maybe don't get nearly enough attention or support.' In our own small way I hope we can leave this incredible game, that we all love so much, a little better than when we found it.”

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14.15 Thurles, Mdn, €15,000, 2yo, f, 8f 11yT
Aidan O'Brien trainee GUSHING (American Pharoah), a $435,000 Keeneland September graduate, is a daughter of GIII Cardinal H. third Antonia Autumn (Bernstein), herself a half-sister to seven-time Grade I-winning sire Gio Ponti (Tale Of The Cat) and GI Gazelle S. third Bon Jovi Girl (Malibu Moon). She is accompanied by Ballydoyle stablemate and 500,000gns Tattersalls October Book 1 purchase Gleaning (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who is out of a half-sister to G2 Prix Greffulhe victor and G1 Grand Prix de Paris third Ocovango (GB) (Monsun {Ger}). O'Brien won the 2019 renewal of this heat with subsequent G1 Irish 1000 Guineas heroine and G1 Prix de Diane and G1 Matron S. placegetter Peaceful (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

13.52 Salisbury, Nov, £10,000, 2yo, 8fT
Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum's MATSURI (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), a half-brother to G3 Darley S. victrix Feliciana De Vega (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), was the joint-second highest-priced lot at last year's Tattersalls October Book 2 sale when knocked down to Roger Varian for 700,000gns. His rivals include fellow newcomer Promethean (Fr) (Intello {Ger}), who is a David Menuisier-trained half-brother to G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud hero Morandi (Fr) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}).

14.25 Salisbury, Nov, £10,000, 2yo, 8fT
Andrew Balding trainee MACH TEN (IRE) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}), another debutant for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, is kin to dual Group 3-winning G1 Preis der Diana (German Oaks) runner-up Djumama (Ire) (Aussie Rules). He is confronted by 10 rivals here including fellow debutant Sir Galahad (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}), who is a James Ferguson-trained son of G2 Blandford S. victrix and G1 Oaks and G1 Prix de l'Opera third Katiyra (Ire) (Peintre Celebre); and Roger Varian incumbent Joycean Way (GB) (Ulysses {Ire}), who is a once-raced half-brother to this term's G1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee S. runner-up Sacred (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}).

14.57 Salisbury, Nov, £10,000, 2yo, 6f 213yT
INVERSION (GB) (Frankel {GB}), a half-brother of this year's GI Diana S. heroine Whitebeam (GB) (Caravaggio) who hails from the yard of Harry and Roger Charlton, is one of two Juddmonte contenders in this nine-runner contest. Opposition includes the operation's Kempton novice victor Qirat (GB) (Showcasing {GB}), who is a half-brother to Ralph Beckett stablemate and G1 Irish Oaks runner-up Bluestocking (GB) (Camelot {GB}) out of G1 Matron S. heroine Emulous (GB) (Dansili {GB}).

15.27 Salisbury, Nov, £10,000, 2yo, 6f 213yT
Juddmonte homebred INDELIBLE (IRE) (Shamardal) is a Ralph Beckett-trained daughter of six-time elite-level heroine Midday (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) and encounters seven rivals in this first go. She is kin to a trio of black-type performers headed by G3 Sandown Classic Trial and G3 N E Manion Cup victor Midterm (GB) (Galileo {Ire}). Opposition includes Bjorn Nielsen's twice-raced High Handed (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}), who is a half-sister to G1 Coronation S. and G1 Matron S.-winning matriarch Lillie Langtry (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), from the Brian O'Rourke stable.

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1,250,000 million gns for Golden Horde's half-brother at #TattsOctober

This colt by Wootton Bassett has been bought by M V Magnier & White Birch Farm. He was consigned by @ClaraStud pic.twitter.com/fXGUqJYqyG

— TDN (@theTDN) October 4, 2023

The post Wootton Bassett Colt Another Millionaire For Magnier At 1.25m As Tattersalls Session Ends appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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