Frankel Fever continues on Day 3 of Book 1

Sire power is often key within the higher echelons of the market and for those with a Frankel yearling to sell in Book 1, it was for the most part a rewarding week.

Taken from European Bloodstock News, 7th October 2022

Banstead Manor Stud’s champion stallion wound up with an average of 749,800gns, a figure buoyed by the remarkable achievement of siring the top four lots.
In addition to the 2,800,000gns sale-topping colt out of So Mi Dar, Frankel supplied yesterday’s top two colts in a youngster out of Bold Lass (Sea The Stars) (Lot 381) who sold for
2,000,000gns and another out of Blue Waltz (Pivotal) (Lot 379), who realised 1,900,000gns.
The sale of the 2,000,000gns colt to Richard Knight contributed to an outstanding week for Watership Down Stud, also vendor of the So Mi Dar yearling among 8,780,000gns worth of yearlings.
While the sale-topper was a stud homebred, Thursday’s leading light was bred by Bjorn Nielsen out of Bold Lass, herself a daughter of the breeder’s successful producer My Branch (Distant Relative), whose eight winners include Wafic Said’s top sprinter Tante Rose (Barathea) and Rosie’s Posy (Suave Dancer), dam of the Classic-winning sire Make Believe (Makfi).
Four-time winner Bold Lass has already done her bit to maintain that tradition at stud as dam of the Listed-placed Amniarix (Speightstown).
Godolphin made a bold play for the colt but they came up against a determined rival in Richard Knight, whose investment on behalf of an undisclosed owner this week consisted of 16 yearlings worth a total of 10,455,000gns.
“He’s obviously a Frankel,” said Knight. “We tried to buy the filly [out of Shambolic] yesterday by the stallion. They’re as hot as anything and they’re hard to buy. We were well aware we were going to have to pay a good price to get him. “He’s a really quality colt, I went down to see him again this morning and he’s a very athletic horse who vetted well. The dam has already produced a 100 rated horse and comes from a nice family. He’s just a lovely colt. I thought that we would probably have to take on Godolphin - they were never going to be easy to beat and he came in at the top of our budget but we did think that we’d have to go to around that.”
He added: “There are a beautiful bunch of horses here. It is the best catalogue of horses as individuals that I’ve seen at a yearling sale. You can get into some of these sales and the individuals don’t match up to the pedigrees. But here they do and there are some lovely horses. The yearling sales have been very strong so far, breaking records everywhere, and when you get the level of individuals that are here, then it is no surprise that Tattersalls are having such a good sale “The world is all over the place. But top end bloodstock always seems to be in a bubble, and that has always seemed to be the case.”
Frankel was also responsible for a colt out of Listed winner Evita Peron (Pivotal) (Lot 471) who sold to Godolphin for 750,000gns. From the immediate family of top sprinter Equiano (Acclamation), the colt formed part of another outstanding Book 1 for Newsells Park Stud, who ended the week as leading vendor for the fifth consecutive year, in this instance thanks to the sale of 21 yearlings for a total of 10,485,000gns.