By Brian Sheerin
Breeze-up king Willie Browne, who sold G1 1000 Guineas heroine Speciosa (Ire), G1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris (Ire) and many more top-notchers, is allowing himself to believe that recent graduate Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) could be the real deal after he coasted to an effortless victory at Haydock on Thursday.
The 76-year-old bought Sakheer for $65,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sales in 2021 before producing the colt to top the Arqana Breeze-up Sale in May of this year.
Sakheer was bought by Oliver St Lawrence for €550,000 on behalf of KHK Racing Ltd. and went some way in justifying that price tag when bolting up by six lengths second time out at Haydock under David Egan for Roger Varian.
It was a performance that left tongues wagging, with the G1 Middle Park S. entrant earning himself a 'TDN Rising Star' badge in victory, and Browne hopes that Haydock triumph can prove a launchpad for Sakheer's career.
He said, “Visually, it looked very good and we'd like to think he's smart. The third horse was a winner and the time looked good considering he could have gone faster if he [Egan] pressed a button.”
Browne added, “He was always a nice horse and he breezed very well for us. I think he breezed in the top four or five at Arqana and obviously we got well paid for him. He looked a special horse and hopefully he will go on and be that for his connections.”
Operating under the Mocklershill banner, Browne has been breezing horses since 1978 and described the current landscape of the profession as the best it's ever been.
“We're getting old but sure we'll try to keep going for as long as we can. It's hard to stop,” – Willie Browne
Thursday represented a good day for his renowned Tipperary-based operation, not only because Sakheer lived up to the high opinion he had always been held in by Brown, but because fellow Arqana graduate Ensued (Lemon Drop Kid) posted an encouraging debut at Salisbury.
He said, “We get it right a fair bit but we have also had quite a lot of horses through our hands so we need to produce a few good ones. Sakheer is one of them.
“I went out and bought him by chance at Keeneland last year. He was an expensive foal [80,000gns] in Europe and then the vendors brought him to America to re-sell him for whatever reason.
“He did have a sibling [half-sister Lemista (Ire) (Raven's Pass)] who did well out there so maybe that was part of the thinking in bringing him to America but he didn't make his reserve in the ring and we got him outside it [for $65,000].”
Browne added, “He was a beautifully put together horse and it wasn't rocket science. The fact that he could gallop, though, there was a certain amount of good fortune in that. Sometimes you can buy beautiful-looking horses and they might not be able to gallop. He could.
“The plus about Arqana is, even though this horse breezed very well and we got well paid, we'd another horse there, a Lemon Drop Kid, and we got well-paid for him even though he didn't break the clock.
“He [Ensued] actually ran yesterday, was a very good third on debut at Salisbury for James Fanshawe, and he's a good middle-distance horse going forward. He breezed like a middle-distance horse but the people who buy in Arqana can see beyond speed and that's a plus for us.”
👀IMPRESSIVE👀!!
🥇Sakheer🥇 hacks up by 6 lengths in a canter winning at just the second attempt @haydockraces for @varianstable and KHK Racing
The son of @coolmorestud Zoffany is a breeze up from @InfoArqana sold by @Mocklershill1 to @OStLawrence
👏👏 pic.twitter.com/4zaPI0NNR6— Breeze Up Sales (@BrzUps) September 1, 2022
Browne has been breezing horses ever since it was a thing and Mocklershill is recognised as one of the premier consignors of 2-year-olds in Europe. He has overseen a kaleidoscope of change in the industry and admits that, in order to get well paid, you don't always need to break the clock anymore.
He explained, “A fast horse will always get you money, no matter where you go, but the Lemon Drop Kid was a good example of a middle-distance horse making good money at the breeze-ups, as we got €260,000 for him.
“If yesterday's run is anything to go by, he's also an exciting horse in his own right, so there's two horses at the opposite end of the stick. The fast horse, Sakheer, who showed up well, and the middle-distance horse, Ensued, who may not have been as fast, but showed different qualities and made a good price.
“It's a great thrill opening the paper every morning and seeing the percentage of 2-year-old winners who are graduates from the breeze-ups. It's just off the charts. It's unbelievable what's going on in the breeze-ups at the moment. There's a lot of good people breezing horses and they know what they're doing.”
Asked where Sakheer may rank in the pantheon of top-notchers to have graduated from Mocklershill, he replied, “When he wins a group race, come back to me. He needed to do what he did yesterday. It gives you great satisfaction when you produce a good horse, it's as much relief as anything else, but when they cost what Al Sakheer did, you like to see them go on and be good.
“Sometimes it happens and other times it doesn't but the dream looks well and truly alive right now. If he goes and wins a group race, maybe we'll be able to put our chest out a little bit more.”
Browne has already been making his presence felt at the yearling sales and has been busy re-stocking for next year's breeze-ups.
He said, “I didn't go to the August Sale at Arqana this year. Maybe I should have, but I didn't. We went to Doncaster and bought a few there alright.
“We gave a good few quid for a Showcasing (GB) horse, we gave 140,000gns for him, which is plenty of money for a breeze-up horse, but he looks a fast horse to me. I'm hoping the money is well spent.
“We bought a Ten Sovereigns (Ire) for 50 grand as well, so that's the start of it all. We're getting old but sure we'll try to keep going for as long as we can. It's hard to stop.”
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