Sparkling Plenty (Fr) (Kingman {GB}), winner of the G1 Prix de Diane at Chantilly just over 24 hours previously and billed as the headline act at Monday's Goffs London Sale, was knocked down for a whopping £8,100,000 only for it to emerge that the filly had been brought back by owner Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois.
Eventually it was revealed that a deal was struck by Al Shaqab Racing to buy into the Patrice Cottier-trained sister to G3 Jersey S. winner Noble Truth (Fr) for £5 million.
It was reported that Sheikh Joaan Bin Hamad Al Thani had been in attendance at the sale and it is understood that Sparkling Plenty will remain with Cottier following the part-sale.
Out of the Frankel (GB) mare Speralita (Fr) and closely related to the Japanese Classic winners Soul Stirring (Jpn) (Frankel {GB}) and Stars On Earth (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}), Sparkling Plenty was sold in absentia.
She achieved the ultimate update when swooping to claim Survie (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) and Tamfana (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}) in a pulsating edition of the Prix de Diane on Sunday.
While Sparkling Plenty was the undoubted star of the show, an unraced Kingman (GB) daughter of six-time Group 1 winner Laurens (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) was predictably popular with agent Hamish Macauley striking the winning bid for the Oaks Farm Stables-drafted two-year-old on behalf of Amo Racing at £650,000.
Amo boss Kia Joorabchian has a number of high-profile horses to look forward to at Royal Ascot this week and warmed up for the meeting with a net spend of £1,130,000 after adding the Dermot Weld-trained Taraj (Ire) (Churchill {Ire}) to his team for £480,000.
A 14-1 chance for Thursday's G3 Hampton Court S., Taraj was last seen finishing third behind subsequent Derby-placed Los Angeles (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) in a Group 3 Derby Trial at Leopardstown. The colt was bred by Weld's Springbank Way Stud.
There were a number of notable buybacks throughout the session which led to just 13 of the 23 lots offered being sold. The most high profile buyback of them all was Nurlan Bizakov's unbeaten Lazzat (Fr) (Territories {Ire}) at £2,250,000 while Adrian Keatley elected to hang onto leading G2 Coventry S. contender Francisco's Piece (GB) (Mayson {GB}). For the 13 lots sold, it generated £8,040,000 at an average of £618,462 and a median of £200,000.
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