17th August 2015

Another frustrating evening at the sales. I simply haven’t got enough money to buy the horses that I want. I did push the boat out as far as I could and bid 200,000 euros for a lovely son of Acclamation but he was knocked down to Al Shaqab Racing for 240,000 euros.

I did, however, secure lot 131, a cracking son of Rock of Gibraltar for 100,000 euros. As a sire Rock of Gibraltar has never reached the heights achieved by the likes of Shamardal or Dubawi but he is capable of getting high class horses and, when combined with a mare that has already produced a Group 1 winner by him, you get exactly the kind of horse that can slip through the cracks, satisfy my desire for high-class pedigrees, and fall into my price bracket.

The dam, Princess Sofia, has had four previous foals of racing age and three of those were by Rock of Gibraltar. Two of those have run. The first, Prince of Sofia, won three times in France and achieved a rating of 91 (not bad) but the other was Prince of Gibraltar. His three wins included the Criterium de St. Cloud (Gr.1) and the Prix Greffuhle (Gr.2). He was also placed in the Grand Prix de Paris (Gr.1) and the Prix du Jockey Club (Gr.1). Just the sort of thing I’m looking for and, with the current exchange rate, it hopefully won’t be too long before he finds an owner.