Son of Frankel sells for 1.3 million guineas at Tattersalls

Delius, a three-year-old Group-winning son of Frankel, set a new record at Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale when selling for 1,300,000 guineas yesterday.

Taken from the Thoroughbred Daily News, 30th October 2024, by Brian Sheerin:

Another record was broken at Tattersalls yesterday when Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe eighth Delius (Frankel) became the most expensive horse ever sold at the Autumn Horses-In-Training Sale when knocked down from Coolmore to Hubie De Burgh and a range of other buyers to join Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.

A delighted De Burgh explained that Delius, who has won three of his six starts and was beaten a little under nine lengths by Bluestocking in the Arc, had been on his radar for a long time. By teaming up with owner Sir Owen Glenn of Go Bloodstock, along with the buying team of Johnny McKeever and Claudia Fitzgerald, he landed the potential Melbourne Cup candidate.

"It's a joint-venture and he goes to Gai Waterhouse and the team," De Burgh said. "He's been bought for Sir Owen Glenn of Go Bloodstock. He's had a lot of great horses, including Lady Of Camelot, who Gai trained for him. He wanted a Cup horse for next year, and obviously Gai did as well, so it's a joint venture between Gai and Sir Owen."

Deep into the bidding, auctioneer Alastair Pim described Delius as: "a Group 1 horse who can run in any Group 1 race anywhere in the world." That statement wasn't lost on the Australian buyers, with Chris Waller and Ciaron Maher involved in the bidding war along with one unnamed bidder online. "What else can I say? He's a Frankel, has raced six times and has a 118 Timeform rating and he's won over 1m2f and 1m4f. He has the perfect profile for Australia and the only bad run he had came in the Arc on ground he hated. It was a lot of money but unfortunately that's what they are making."

De Burgh was decisive in his bidding and it paid off. Explaining how Delius had been on his radar ever since he made a winning debut for Coolmore and trainer Jean-Claude Rouget at ParisLongchamp back in April, and that any deal to source the colt was put on the back burner due to the handler's poor health, the agent said: "I had Stevie O'Connor on [the phone]. He's Sir Owen's racing manager and we've been trying to buy this horse for a long time. I actually tried to buy him after his first and second starts and we really wanted the horse but unfortunately Jean-Claude wasn't very well and MV [Magnier] didn't want to sell the horse."

He added: "It was only after the Arc when Jean-Claude was happy to let the horse go. It was hard to buy the horse on our own - it was a lot of money - so joining forces gave us the opportunity to bid against Chris Waller, Ciaron Maher and all of the other people who were involved in the bidding."

Delius was purchased by Magnier for 675,000gns from breeders Furnace Mill Stud at the Tattersalls December Foal Sales. It wasn't the only good piece of trading carried out by Coolmore on the day as Johnny McKeever also sourced Irish Cesarewitch winner The
Euphrates (Frankel) on behalf of Waterhouse and Bott earlier in the session for 250,000gns.