Frankel on fire with four top lots

A great day for Frankel started with a new two-year-old track record-breaking Group 1 winner in Japan and ended with the four top lots at the Goffs November Foal Sale. 

Taken from European Bloodstock News, 21st December 2020:

A trio of Frankel foals who fetched €440,000 were the star turns of this year’s Goffs November Foal Sale, which concluded yesterday evening.

The last of the Frankel foals to hit €440,000 was a superb colt from Des Leadon and Mariann Klay’s Swordlestown Little and he will race in the colours of Prince Khalid Abdullah after being bought by Juddmonte Farms’ Barry Mahon, who outlasted the efforts of the Oneliner Stables team.

The colt (lot 684) is a half-brother to four winners, headed by Dinozzo (Lilbourne Lad), who created a very good impression during the formative stages of his career with Ger Lyons before then being sold to Hong Kong, where he has won at Gr.3 level in addition to reaching the frame in Gr.1 company. They are out of the Intikhab mare Nisriyna, who is also the dam of the Listed Rous Stakes third Spring Loaded (Zebedee) and this year’s winning juvenile Qaasid (Awtaad).

“Prince Khalid was very keen on this colt and he fits in very well with Prince Khalid’s programme. Frankel is a truly international sire, as we saw again in the last 24 hours with his latest Gr.1 winner in Japan, and he has a great bunch of foals here who are a great credit to the Irish breeders who used him,” said Mahon, who was underbidder on two of the other Frankel foals on offer.

“This colt was beautifully prepared by top breeders and we were delighted to get him. We also underbid the Frankel out of Lily’s Angel and an Expert Eye filly, who earlier made €180,000. She was very nice and we have some lovely foals at home by the sire,” added Mahon.

Huge interest accompanied one of the supplementary entries to the foal sale and justifiably so as a colt by Frankel out of the high class Lily’s Angel appealed as one of the stars of the week at Kildare Paddocks. A son of a now increasingly world renowned sire, and out of a mare who won the Gr.3 Chartwell Stakes and finished second in the Gr.1 Matron Stakes, this colt boasted the sort of credentials which made international appeal and this was borne out by the bidding which eventually finished up at €440,000 with Paca Paca Farm’s Harry Sweeney striking the winning bid after seeing off Barry Mahon.

Lot 663A, who was part of The Castlebridge Consignment, is a half-brother to three winners produced by Lily’s Angel, who was as tough as she was classy, retiring as the winner of 10 races, which also included three Listed victories.

“He’s been bought to go to Japan. Frankel is a proven sire and has done well in Japan, where he has had three Gr.1 winners, including the two-year-old Grenadier Guards, who won a two-year-old Gr.1 in record time in Hanshin earlier today. It was plenty of money for him, but he’s a good colt by a proven sire and he’s got plenty of scope,” reflected Sweeney.

Just a few minutes later another Frankel foal hit €440,000 when a daughter of the Galileo horse presented by Swordlestown Little was snapped up Blackstar Bloodstock. Even a cursory examination of lot 673’s page would have suggested that she was likely to be one of the leading lights of the sale. This February-born filly is a daughter of the Gr.3 Brownstown Stakes winner and Gr.3 Ballycorus Stakes second Marvada (Elusive City), who is already the dam of three winners. This trio is headed by the high class John Gosden inmate Terebellum (Sea The Stars), who won the Gr.2 Dahlia Stakes as well as finishing second in the Gr.1 Queen Anne Stakes and third in the Gr.1 Falmouth Stakes.

The Frankel craze continued with the arrival into the ring of a colt from Neilstown Stud, bred by Nick and Alice Nugent, who cost the Oneliner Stables team €360,000. The colt (lot 685) hails from the same family as the one bought by Harry Sweeney as he is out of the Docksider mare Noyelles, who is the dam of the aforementioned Lily’s Angel (Dark Angel) and the Listed Rosemary Stakes winner and Gr.2-placed Zurigha (Cape Cross).

“This colt and the one prior to him, who was bought by Juddmonte, were our two picks of the sale. Frankel was an amazing horse, a true champion and he’s now an international sire. This colt comes from a proper Gr.1 family and it’s a family that Frankel has already produced a Gr.1 winner from, so he had plenty going for him and he will be back for sale next year,” commented Lowry.