Lady Lloyd-Webber was celebrating yesterday (6 October) after her home-bred colt by Sea The Stars became the sales topper at the Book 1 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in Newmarket, when the hammer came down for 1.2 million guineas (£1.26m).
The bay colt out of the Group 3 Tattersalls Musidora Stakes winner So Mi Dar was the first in the three-day Book 1 sale to reach the seven-figure mark, with the sale due to conclude later today (7 October).
Lady Lloyd-Webber of Watership Down Stud was at Tattersalls to see her colt sell, and husband Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber arrived at Newmarket just to time to catch the sale, too.
“We never expected to break the million guinea barrier, because no one ever does, maybe Andrew is our lucky omen!” smiled a delighted Lady Lloyd-Webber. “It is very difficult to do that. The Dar Re Mi family is carrying on, and that is what it is all about from a foundation mare. We are now in the third generation, it is really wonderful to see this family keep going.
“He is a beautiful horse, hopefully he will win the Guineas. And then will carry on winning Group 1s like the rest of the family.”
Lord Lloyd-Webber, who arrived just in time to see his wife’s colt sell, said: “I walked in at the 600,000gns mark.”
So Mi Dar, a daughter of Dubawi, is a full sister to Lah Ti Dar and champion two-year-old Too Darn Hot. Lady Lloyd-Webber revealed she is “excited” as the mare is now in-foal to Lope De Vega.
This colt was purchased by Charlie Gordon-Watson on behalf of Bill Farish’s Woodford Racing, the result of a last-minute phone call from the US.
“Bill Farish rang me just an hour ago and said, ‘What about this horse? What do you think?’ I told him that I thought he was the best horse I have seen at the sale,” explained Charlie Gordon-Watson. “I know the family backwards, as Bill does, and he is a great friend of Simon’s [Marsh, general manager Watership Down Stud], but he did not want Simon to know anything about it – Simon had no idea.
“It all happened in the last hour-and-a-half. I think I got the valuation right as I told Bill that I thought he’d make between 800,000gns and 1.2 million. I have been involved in the family all the way through, I bought Darara [third dam], and this colt is very typical of the family, perhaps a bit bigger because they are all slightly smallish, Darara was quite small. He is a very athletic horse, I have been going on about him for a long time.”
Of Farish’s plans for his new colt and reasoning behind the purchase, Gordon-Watson said: “Bill liked the pedigree and the mare, everything is so international now. The horse will stay here, and no trainer has been decided as yet. He is not a horse to go to the US as a two-year-old. I think Bill probably saw an opportunity in this market.”
So Mi Dar has had three foals, with her oldest named Astrologia, a 2019 Galileo filly, who is yet to run. So Mi Dar is a daughter of Dar Re Mi who won six races, including the Yorkshire Oaks (Group One), the Pretty Polly Stakes (Group One) and the Dubai Sheema Classic (Group One).
Dar Re Mi is dam of four black-type runners, headed by the champion two-year-old and champion three-year-old miler Too Darn Hot, a three-time Group One winner, now a Darley sire and a full-brother to So Mi Dar.
The foundation mare Darara is dam of five black-type winners, including three Group One winners, and the family stretches to Darshaan, a champion of 1984 and winner of the Prix Jockey-Club (Group One).
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