By Brian Sheerin
The Middle Eastern buyers held sway on day four of the Tattersalls Autumn Horses-In-Training Sale with German Group 3 winner Aemilianus (Ger) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) (lot 1243) being snapped up by Qatar-based Gassim Ghazali for 250,000gns.
Trained by Markus Klug, Aemilianus carried the colours of Gestut Schlenderhan to victory in a heavy-ground Group 3 contest at Dusseldorf last season. He has carried his form well this year as a four-year-old and arrived at Park Paddocks off the back of finishing third in that same Group 3 contest earlier this month.
The result represented a triumph of persistence for Ghazali, a well-known buyer at Tattersalls, as he revealed afterwards that he had been sticking around especially for Aemilianus.
Ghazali said, “I am delighted. I have been waiting for this horse–three days I have waited for it! Some quality horses have been through the ring, but I have been outbid by Wathnan Racing and Najd Stud. I hope this horse will make it to some good races in Qatar. The pedigree should suit Qatar.
“I like the sire and I won the Qatar Derby last season with a son of Holy Roman Emperor called Emperor Maximus (Fr). The sire's progeny tend to like the track in Qatar and the good ground.”
He added, “I am not too sure of the horse's level and how that will slot in once he gets to Qatar, I know the horses from England and how they will work into the Qatari programme, Germany is a little different. I am hoping this horse will be good enough for either the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cup or the HH The Amir Trophy.”
Gassim Ghazali also went on to purchase the twice-raced Heater (Ire) (No Nay Never) (lot 1351) from Imperium Sales for 75,000gns. Owned by Valmont, Heater arrived at the sales after a promising third on his second start at Wolverhampton.
Najd Stud was responsible for the second-highest priced horse through the ring on Thursday at 100,000gns. Tchaikovsky (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}) (lot 1283), a winner of Kempton novice for John and Thady Gosden on just his second start, was bred by the late Sir Robert Ogden and proved to be one of the standouts on the day.
The juvenile is a half-brother to a winner in Kensington (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) and hails from the family of Islingston (Ire) (Sadler's Wells).
“This horse goes to Saudi. His starts have been good and hopefully he will do well for us in Saudi,” said Saad bin Mishraf for Najd Stud. “We are looking for differing types of horses all the time as we have a variety of races in the country.”
Tchaikovsky's dam Canonbury (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}), herself a daughter of Islington, is due to be sold as part of a complete dispersal of Lady Ogden's stock at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale.
Despite a smaller number (2%) of horses going through the ring on this day compared to last year, the aggregate was up a massive 51% to 2,553,400gns. Furthermore, the median climbed 20% to 6,000gns while the average was up 48% to 12,101gns. The clearance rate stayed the same on 88%.
Buy of the Day
Despite the fact there may not have been as many big-ticket lots compared to earlier in the week, there was still plenty of value on offer, and the 38,000gns Eve Johnson Houghton paid to retain Machiavellian Lady (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) (lot 1317) could prove money well spent.
She should have no trouble finding new owners for this winning juvenile, presuming that's the plan, and judging by that hard-fought victory at Chelmsford, there could be more to come.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
