Remarkable things happen in remarkable places and so that old adage proved once more, this time in the stunning surrounds of Kensington Gardens.
The Goffs London Sale is billed as ‘an auction like no other’ and it is said without a hint of embellishment. On the eve of Royal Ascot, in secluded area behind Kensington Palace, staggering sums of money are invested by owners who want to buy a ready made runner for a meeting like no other.
This is event is now in its 10th year. There have been incredible moments during the past decade, such as a bonny little colt called Givemethebeatboys being sold 12 months ago for more than £1million; less than 24 hours later he came runner-up in the Coventry Stakes, a race for two-year-olds on Ascot’s opening day.
But drama was taken to new levels here – levels that are unlikely to be surpassed. Everything revolved around Lot 11 in the catalogue, a filly called Sparkling Plenty, who on Sunday had won the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) in blistering fashion at Chantilly.
Winning a Classic was always going to mean the cost for her prospective new owners was plenty. It was the reason Henry Beeby, Goffs long-serving Chief Executive, asked those around the ring to start the bidding at £1million. Occasionally there can be a delay before someone raises a hand but not this time.
Sparkling Plenty fetched £8.1million at exclusive auction before being bought back by owner
Like bullets coming out of a machine gun, so the price kept rising rat-a-tat-tat. In increments of £200,000, within 30 seconds of setting the ball rolling Beeby was asking the crowd: ‘Who is going to give me two million six? Yes. Ok. Now two million eight? Who will give me three?’
Suddenly, the exclusive crowd, which included former England star Michael Owen and Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis, put down the glasses of Rose they were drinking, stopped eating canapes and absorbed themselves in this live theatre. It was relentless, absorbing.
Soon £3million had become £6million and, then, £6.5million. This meant Sparkling Plenty was going to become a record-breaker, the most expensive horse sold at a public auction. Beeby has brought his gavel down three times for deals at £6million but never he had been into this astonishing realm.
Still, however, the price kept climbing, as quickly as jump jet taking off. Beyond £7million, the increments going up by £100,000 and drawing gasps. Kia Joorabchin, the football agent and racing devotee, made an offer of £7.8million; Emmanuel de Seroux, a French bloodstock agent, took the price to £8million.
‘Now I’m bid eight million one,’ Beeby stated. ‘It’s the lady at the front on the telephone. She raised her finger and I’m going with that. Do I have any fresh bidders? No? Fair warning. That’s it’s then. At eight million, one hundred thousand… we are done.’
There was huge applause but, in a twist from Hitchcock thriller, we weren’t done. The last bid had come from the filly’s owner Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois, to buy her back. So had she actually been sold? Beeby, for one, was flummoxed.
Behind him, Joorabchin, De Seroux and Amanda Zetterholm, the lady who made the final bid and representative for Goffs in France, were locked in discussions, talking to each other then breaking off onto their phones.
Eventually, a breakthrough was made. Privately, Al-Shaqab Racing – owned by the Qatari prince Sheikh Joaan Al-Thani, had done a £5million deal to buy half of Sparkling Plenty, who will now be aimed at the Nassau Stakes at Glorious Goodwood then the Prix de L’arc de Triomphe.
‘I have been doing this for 39 years and I have never seen anything so complex,’ Beeby said. ‘But it was the owner’s prerogative and he was entitled to do that. I don’t think we will ever forget what has happened here.’
Sparkling Plenty won the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) in blistering fashion at Chantilly
Again, there was no hyperbole. It had been a breathless 90 minutes, featuring the £300,000 sale of Rock Hunter, a fast two-year-old who will contest the Norfolk Stakes at Ascot on Thursday and may give his new connections an immediate dividend.
Joorabchin suffered disappointment with Sparkling Plenty but he didn’t leave empty handed, spending £480,000 on a three-year-old colt called Taraj, who will run in the Hampton Court Stakes – again on Thursday – and £650,000 on an unraced two-year-old filly.
Her breeding is impeccable. Her father is Kingman, an Ascot winner in 2014, and her mother is Laurens, a six-time Group One winner. She goes into training with Ralph Beckett and if she has anything like her parents’ ability she will go far.
Will it be as far as Sparkling Plenty? Who knows. But the whole point of the sales ring is investing in dreams and seeing where the journey takes you. It is never anything other than remarkable.
