'Justify deserves a mare like her': Coolmore swoop for Sparkling Plenty at Arqana

Cover image courtesy of Zuzanna Lupa

Few will forget the drama that unfolded with Sparkling Plenty (Fr) (Kingman {GB}) earlier this summer. Scarcely has there ever been a greater form update, with the Patrice Cottier-trained filly winning the Diane on the eve of the Goffs London Sale.

After she was was vendored at £8.1 million (AU$16.16 million), Al Shaqab Racing hammered out a deal with owner-breeder Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois at £5,000,000 (AU$9,973,000), with Sparkling Plenty carrying those famous silks to finish third in the Nassau S. before ending her season by filling the same placing in the Prix de l'Opera.

Her racing days are far from over, according to MV Magnier, who explained that a visit to Justify (USA) is on the cards but that connections would be targeting races at Keeneland in the early parts of next season as well.

He explained, “She's a very nice mare and a very good race filly. The plan is to send her to America and she might compete in some of those races in Keeneland next year.

“In the meantime, we're going to cover her with Justify. She's been bought for a new partnership. She's a nice filly and Justify deserves to get a mare like her. He's one of the best stallions in the world now so hopefully we can look forward to racing the progeny out of her.”

Despite a significant number of scratches, turnover climbed by 9 per cent to €41,999,000 (AU$69.5 million) while the average was up by 16 per cent to €264,145 (AU$437,000) and the median by €35,000 (AU$57,900) to €155,000 (AU$257,000).

The clearance rate was up 11 per cent to 83 per cent. All of this was achieved despite desperate weather and a smaller book by 33 lots.

“I'm just getting started” – Stewart strikes back

John Stewart warned his doubters not to undermine the scale of his ambitions in racing after signing for Prix Rothschild runner-up Excellent Truth (Ire) (Cotai Glory {GB}) for €1.6 million (AU$2.65 million) through Goliath's trainer Francis Graffard (Stamford Bloodstock) and bloodstock agent Ghislain Bozo (Meridian Bloodstock).

It didn't take long for the champagne to be corked after Stewart made his mark on his first visit to the French sale ground with the addition of the highest-rated filly in the entire sale to add to his $8 million haul at Tattersalls earlier in the week.

He said, “She was number one on my list so she was going home with me, just like Vertical Blue (at Tattersalls). I'm looking for horses to take to America that will dominate on the turf. I came over here specifically because I've won races all around the world but I haven't won any at Keeneland yet and it's my home track. I'm going to dominate there next year so I came up with this strategy to come over here.

“All of these horses that I'm buying, I'm looking at their pedigrees to bring diversity back to the herd in Kentucky. We just exported, exported, exported for so long and there's really not a lot of people buying horses from Europe and bringing them back to America in large quantities. I think that's very important for all of us because Kentucky is very important to the global industry from a breeding standpoint and so I'm trying to focus on their pedigrees, only looking at horses that I think can win Graded races in America. That's what I'm here to do.”

He added, “I think that's a very reasonable price. The thing about this industry is there's a handful of buyers that are buying these top-of-the market horses so that market has never been stronger.

“I'm an investor, that's what I do for a living. I own a private equity firm. When you're getting into something, it costs more money but it's less risky to buy higher quality assets. That's what I think of these horses as. And I'm indifferent to price on an individual horse because I buy so many horses. I look at this as a portfolio. Like stocks. I may buy one horse and I may end up paying 500,000 more than I wanted, but then I may buy one for 500,000 less, and so then I just look at the overall spend. It's a different way of thinking about it.”

There are plenty of words one could use to describe Stewart, who has blown into the racing game this past year similarly to the hurricane-like weather that took over the sale ground on Saturday evening. Punchy might well be one of those words.

“I'm just getting started,” he said. “I have a really big plan. Anybody that thinks that I did a lot in 2024 has no idea what I'm doing in 2025. I'm just trying to bring attention to horse racing globally. I make a lot of statements about what I'm going to do and things like that. It's not being arrogant, I'm just trying to get people to take notice that there's people investing in the industry when a lot of other people are saying that the industry is dying and all those different things and I just don't believe that.”

In the past week alone, leading American-based owners Mike Repole and LNJ Foxwoods expressed their dissatisfaction with Stewart's all-in approach to bloodstock separately. The 55-year-old revealed that those interactions actually spurred him on to spend more this week.

He explained, “When I started my private equity firm, I didn't (and still doesn't) have a finance degree. So everybody told me that nobody is ever going to invest in you because you don't have a finance degree. I went and had 350 meetings to get 22 people to say yes so I thrive on people telling me no. What has happened in the last 24 hours (with the spat on X), I actually doubled my intentions of what I was going to do.

“Because the way I'm going to do it, I'm going to let my horses speak on the track and I'm going to let them win the races. I got called out by somebody (Repole) last year. He said I didn't know what I was doing - come on, I'll give you a tour of the winner's circle when I come to the track. He didn't know it but I'd bought Pounce at the Fasig-Tipton Digital Sale. Just 10 days later my horse beat his horse in a Group 3. Then I beat his horse in the New York Stakes in a Grade I. Every time my horses have run against his horses, I've won.”

He added, “I'm not trying to bid him up, but at Saratoga I purposely positioned myself right behind him so I could keep an eye on exactly what he was doing. He was the one making statements about bidding me up and you really can't bid me up.”

Stewart also spent a combined €1,050,000 (AU$1.74 million) through his own Resolute Racing on Flamme Rouge (Fr) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and Tazara (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}). His 6,265,000gns (AU$13.12 million) spend at Tattersalls was headed by 3.2 million gns (AU$6.7 million) buy Vertical Blue (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), with the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner understood to be staying in training with Graffard.

Gallery: John Stewart's purchases under his company name Resolute Racing

On plans for his recent additions, he concluded, “I use a variety of trainers. My team will sit down and digest these and then we'll have to take a look at them and see which ones suit them. Village Voice is going to Chad Brown and then Vertical Blue is staying here. Chad Brown wanted that horse bad.”

Asked who was helping him buy at Tattersalls, given all of his bidding was done online, he said, “Francis is checking stuff out for me. I had other people as well. The Coolmore guys. When I'm not there, I'll have someone else looking at the horses and telling me what they think. We're giving them a list and then we have of course the vets and that kind of stuff that help us.

Deserved slice of luck for Gestut Etzean

Sometimes you just need a bit of luck. Just ask Ralf Kredel of Gestut Etzean. Before Tamfana (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {Ger}) burst onto the scene, Kredel gave serious consideration to offloading her dam Tres Magnifique (Fr) and few would have argued against the decision given the pedigree had gone cold.

But something told Kredel to sit tight. Tamfana, who the German outfit sold for just €30,000 (AU$49,600) , stormed to Group 1 glory this year in the Sun Chariot S. Shortly afterwards, the Kevin Coleman-trained juvenile The Palace Girl (Ger) (Areion {Ger}) lit up the Sceptre Sessions of the December Mares Sale at Tattersalls when selling for 1.55 million gns (AU$3.2 million).

Tres Magnifique has made a lot of people very happy in recent times. From Tamfana's ownership group, Quantum Leap Racing, to The Palace Girl's young trainer and his burgeoning syndicate Atomic Racing.

But few would argue that Kredel was deserving of his twist out of the family and it came deep into the sale on Saturday when MV Magnier went to €1.4 million (AU$2.3 million) to secure broodmare Tres Magnifique in foal to a full sibling to Tamfana.

Kredel said, “I am delighted about the sale, obviously. We don't have mares like this come around very often and we couldn't take the risk of keeping such a valuable mare. We have to keep the stud farm going so that's the reason why we sold her. I am very happy with the sale. I am also very happy that she has gone to a very good home. Hopefully she will get many more Group 1 horses.

“From time to time, you need a mare or a horse like this. We are breeding a lot of horses and, sometimes, a star like Tamfana comes along. It updates the pedigree. We have done well from the family and still have some mares from it at home–not from under the first dam but the second and third dam.”

He added, “We were very close to getting rid of this mare to be honest. Before Tamfana came along, nobody wanted her yearlings and they were very cheap. I remember Jeremy Brummit coming back to me after he bought Tamfana. He asked me, 'did I make a mistake because she was so cheap?' I said, 'no, nowadays people don't look at these horses if the pedigree is not very strong'. She was a beautiful model.”

Coolmore underbid The Palace Girl - who sold to Woodford Thoroughbreds - at Tattersalls and revealed that her dam would visit City Of Troy (USA) next year.

He said, “She's a very good producer and we underbid the filly in Newmarket earlier this week and she was a lovely filly as well. What we plan to do now is send her to City Of Troy. We know she's a very good producer and City Of Troy is an exceptional horse; he's very well-bred and he did everything that we asked him to do.

“If he'd won the Guineas I'd say he'd have been hailed as a horse as good as Frankel. Unfortunately he didn't but he's still an exceptional racehorse. He's going down really well, himself and Auguste Rodin are absolutely flying. The sale has been unbelievable. Well done to Arqana for getting everybody here and attracting a very good bunch of mares.”

Thought for the day

Not only are the American buyers important for the market, but they are bloody good entertainment. More of this please.