TUESDAY will long remain in the memory for anyone lucky enough to be present at Newmarket for the annual Tattersalls December Sale. When the gavel fell on the last lot of the day at about 8.30pm, an incredible 45,665,0000gns had changed hands, a whopping 79% increase on last year and the most money ever spent on a single day at a European auction.

Inevitably the average and median figures also sky-rocketed, the former up 90% to 260,943gns, while the median of 85,000gns advanced 42% on last year’s figure.

There was everything on the day. The exceptional racemare Marsha brought a new European record price for a horse at public auction when she sold for 6,000,000gns, a million more than the previous best, while the curtain came down on the Ballymacoll Stud dispersal. A total of 10 lots realised a million guineas or more, making the two to do so in 2016 pale by contrast.

Coolmore went head to head with Godolphin for Marsha, and the result of the battle was a six million guineas victory for MV Magnier over John Gosden. A four-year-old daughter of Acclamation, this dual Group 1 winner of the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes and Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp was bred and raced by Elite Racing Club and exceeded her trainer Sir Mark Prescott’s expectation, though he revealed he did dream of her selling for four million!

The previous best price for a filly in or out of training in the Tattersalls ring was 4,500,000gns for classic winner Just The Judge, while the best price in Europe previously in the same category was the €6 million paid for Chiquita at the Paulyn dispersal in Goffs. The best price paid for a broodmare at Tattersalls was 4,700,000gns for Immortal Verse in 2013, while Lodge Park Stud sold a yearling daughter of Galileo for 5,000,000gns four years ago.

“She really is something special,” said Magnier. “Sir Mark has done a great job with her, she was very fast and the lads were very keen to have her. She is the best sprinter of the year and she will go to Galileo.”

Within an hour two other Group or Grade 1 winners sold for remarkable sums. Owners John Murrell and Chantal Regalado-Gonzalez had three fillies for sale this week through The Castlebridge Consignment, and they topped the opening session with Intricately. They would have repeated the feat on Tuesday, but for Marsha.

Dermot Weld trained the Grade 1 Man O’War Stakes winner Zhukova, bred by his late mother, and she sold for 3,700,000gns to the bid of Anthony Stroud, acting for Godolphin. Yet another Group 1 winning daughter of Fastnet Rock for her owners, Zhukova is out of the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas winner Nightime and her Dubawi half-brother Ghaiyyath is a leading classic hope for 2018. “She is a very nice filly and is a logical fit for Dubawi,” said Stroud.

The other filly sold by Murrell and Regalado-Gonzales was the Group 3 winner Only Mine and the daughter of Pour Moi was knocked down to Flaxman Stables’ Alan Cooper for 925,000gns, taking the aggregate for the trio to a remarkable 6,325,000gns.

Marsha was not the only dual Group 1 winning sprinter making waves, and once again it was MV Magnier who was to the fore, securing the Jamie Railton consigned Quiet Reflection at 2,100,000gns in association with Blandford Bloodstock’s Tom Goff who signed the docket.

A daughter of Showcasing, Quiet Refection won the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot and the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup. “She was a brilliant racehorse and wonderful three-year-old; she was very speedy and is very special,” said Goff. “She was very well selected and trained by Karl Burke. It is my assumption that she will not continue racing and is ready to become a mum.”

Railton added: “She came in tremendous condition and is a serious recommendation of Karl Burke, who I believe is a very underrated trainer. It is a wonderful story.”