News Top lot Belle Josephine sells for £720,000 at Fifth Goffs London Sale

Top lot Belle Josephine sells for £720,000 at Fifth Goffs London Sale

breeding

The combined attraction of in-foal broodmare Belle Josephine and her colt foal by Pivotal proved the top draw at yesterday evening’s fifth Goffs London Sale (Monday, 18 June), in association with QIPCO, when topping the standings at £720,000.

The 10-year-old mare, who has already bred this year’s Dante Stakes runner-up Mildenberger, and is in foal to Siyouni, was one of six lots purchased by agents Alastair Donald and Ed Sackville on behalf of Leicester City Football Club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
 
Srivaddhanaprabha’s other purchases all hold entries at Royal Ascot this week and are expected to line up there for their current trainers before decisions are taken as to their future.
 
The most expensive of the Ascot entries to be sold was the Karl Burke-trained Shine So Bright, who will carry the owner’s blue-and-white King Power Racing colours in the Coventry Stakes on the opening day of the meeting after being sold for £375,000.
 
On behalf of his client, Donald also paid £300,000 for John Gosden’s Hampton Court Stakes-bound Main Street, the same for French-trained colt Junius Brutus and £280,000 for Norfolk Stakes contender Vintage Brut, the winner of the National Stakes at Sandown on his latest start.

Reflecting on his purchases, Donald said: “Two or three of them will go to Royal Ascot with leading chances and they have all got bright futures after Ascot too.
 
“Vintage Brut will go to the Norfolk Stakes as second-favourite and for the price he made, you could spend a lot of money on a lot of yearlings and not end up with much, so he made a lot of sense.”
 
One horse sold who will not be going to Ascot is Marathon Man, knocked down to Kiwi bloodstock agent Peter Moroney for £380,000. Reflecting the international nature of the sale, the colt instead heads to Newmarket to join Ed Vaughan, where he will be conditioned to run in a Group One over a mile on the Victoria Derby card at Flemington in November.
 
Other leading lots to sell included another in-foal broodmare Miss Beatrix, sold for £400,000 by Irish breeder Bill Durkan to Ann Marshall, for whom Johnny Murtagh was doing the bidding.

A total of 13 lots sold on the evening, with total turnover reaching almost £4million.
 
Speaking afterwards, Goffs CEO Henry Beeby commented: “Although the sale didn’t match last year, such are the vagaries of Horses In Training sales and we’re perfectly happy with the trade for the horses that sold.
 
“This is a unique sale in many ways in that many vendors are happy to keep their horses and go to the Royal Meeting, so if they get a good price they’re delighted but they’re also content to keep the horse and see it race at Ascot.
 
“We’d like to thank all of our official partners in the sale, our title supporter QIPCO, along with Selfridges, Château Léoube, Select Mobile, JetSmarter, Bowland Brewery and Rosemary Water.”
 
Further information can be found at http://www.goffslondonsale.com
  
Offered:  30
Sold:  13
Aggregate: £3,710,000  
Average:  £285,385         
Median:  £300,000          
Top lot:  £720,000

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