Kingman's Sparkling Plenty sets a new record

There were fireworks in the Deauville sales ring on Saturday when a new record was set (€5 million) by Kingman filly Sparkling Plenty for the most expensive horse ever to be sold at auction at Arqana.

Taken from the European Bloodstock News, 8th December 2024, by Lizzy Sainty:

Place Du Carrousel, the Gr.1 Prix de Diane heroine Sparkling Plenty (Kingman; Lot 200) was sold for €5,000,000. She will be heading stateside to continue her racing career after being sold to Michel Zerolo, who was sitting with M V Magnier and breeder and co-owner of the filly, Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois.

“She’s a very nice mare and a very good race filly,” said Magnier. “The plan is we’re going to send her to America; she might go to Chad Brown and we’ll have a look at a couple of those races for her at Keeneland. In the meantime, we’ll cover her with Justify. He deserves to get a mare like that. He’s looking like he could be one of the best sires in the world right now, so we’ll look forward to racing the progeny out of her."

"We’ve bought her for a new partnership. It’s very rare to get the chance to buy a mare like this and we’re very lucky to have the people that we have to enable us to do it.”

The filly was previously owned in partnership by Dubois and Al Shaqab Racing, which had purchased 50 per cent of the filly from Dubois at the Goffs London Sale in June outside of the ring when she was sold for £5,000,000. Following the sale, she went on to finish third in the Gr.1 Nassau Stakes and third again in the Gr.1 Prix de l’Opera. She is from the brilliant family of Dubois that has produced the champion filly Stacelita, who herself won the Gr.1 Prix de Diane and then excelled in the US at four, winning the Gr.1 (then) Beverley D Stakes and Gr.1 (then) Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes. She is also a full-sister to Noble Truth, winner of the Gr.3 Jersey Stakes and second in the Gr.1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere.