TATTERSALLS in December 2002 was most memorable for the sale, from the Irish National Stud, of a Giant’s Causeway filly foal, a half-sister Galileo, to Live Oak Stud for a world record 1,800,000gns. Next best among the foals was a Danehill colt for 510,000gns.

The main feature of the mare sale was the dispersal of stock from Newgate Stud, following the death of Prince Fahd Salman, and they included four of the top seven lots among the broodmares. The draft was consigned by Voute Sales, and their top two prices were 875,000gns and 825,000gns, paid respectively by Anthony Penfold (Salman’s former racing manager) and John Ferguson for Velvet Moon, in foal to Daylami, and Last Resort, carrying to Mozart.

Sixteen mares sold for 300,000gns or more that year, among them the four-year-old Cephalonie (Kris S) in foal for the first time to Green Desert (Danzig). She had been purchased at Keeneland as a yearling by Andreas Putsch’s 6C Racing, and put in training with Francois Rohaut. She had limited ability, but was well-placed by her trainer to win on her debut in October of her three-year-old season at Mont-de-Marsan, and finish fourth at Toulouse the following month.

Cephalonie was sold by Putsch through Loughbrown Stud and Martinstown Farm, the consigning entity of siblings Robert Griffin and Geraldine MacCann. She realised 300,000gns, and her covering fee that year to Green Desert, based at Nunnery Stud, was £40,000. Cephalonie was sold to Nawara Stud, owned by Prince Faisal, where today Ted Voute is the Prince’s racing and bloodstock advisor. While Prince Faisal sold Cephalonie for 50,000gns in 2015, he retains much of the family.

Group-placed

The colt Cephalonie was carrying, Tell (Green Desert), failed to sell as a yearling, won four times and was group-placed. The mare did better with subsequent offspring, and bred two stakes winners sired by Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) who was raced by Prince Faisal. They were Arctic Gyr in France and the Royal Ascot winner Festivale, successful in the Listed Sandringham Handicap.

Nestled among the seven winners out of Cephalonie is Simple Magic (Invincible Spirit). She won on Wolverhampton’s artificial surface at two, ran third in the Group 3 Sirenia Stakes on Kempton’s all-weather next time out, but failed to do any better. Being a full-sister to a pair of stakes winners, and with some blacktype, she was worth retaining for stud, though she did sell last year, at the age of 13, for 115,000gns with a filly by Earthlight (Shamardal) inside her.

How delighted her new owners must be, as they now have a half-sister to a Group 1 winner. This follows last weekend’s Prix Maurice de Gheest which was won by Sajir, a son of Make Believe (Makfi) who is another racing star who carried Prince Faisal’s colours. This is Make Believe’s second Group 1 winner, after Mishriff who, you might have guessed, was another to sport Faisal’s maroon silks with grey epaulettes.

Understandable

The sale of Simple Magic last year was perhaps understandable. At the time she had produced two winners and three placed horses with her first five foals, and her two-year-old had been gelded, and would sell shortly afterwards for 3,800gns.

Sajir was ‘only’ a Group 3 winner, but now he has doubled his score of victories to six, also adding the Group 3 Abernant Stakes at Newmarket, and become a stallion prospect with his Group 1 triumph at the age of four.

If all of that was not enough, Simple Magic’s only other winner to date, the filly First Kingdom (Frankel), is the dam of a very smart prospect with her first foal. He is Nahraan, another son of Make Believe, who has been carefully nurtured by John and Thady Gosden to remain unbeaten in three starts, all this year, including a listed race over 11 furlongs. Clearly well regarded, Prince Faisal’s three-year-old holds a number of Group 1 entries.

Winner of the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas and Group 1 Prix de la Foret, Make Believe stood this season at Ballylinch for a most affordable €8,000.

Eleven of his 18 stakes winners to date have achieved their biggest success at group level, and this year’s classic crop includes his son Lazio, third in the Group 1 Deutsches (German) Derby, and since then third behind Tornado Alert and Map Of Stars in another Group 1 at Munich.

HEREDIA gets a special mention in Dark Angel’s list of achievements, as she was the Yeomanstown Stud-based sire’s 100th stakes winner two years ago this month.

Then trained by Richard Hannon for her breeder, Andrew Stone of St Albans Bloodstock, she won six times in England, following up her win at three in the Sandringham Handicap at Royal Ascot, with success at four in the Listed Dick Hern Stakes at Haydock and the Group 3 Atalanta Stakes at Haydock Park. She rounded off her career in Britain with a third-place finish behind Inspiral and Mqse De Sevigne in the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes.

Acquired by Wathnan Racing, and sent to be trained by Graham Motion in the USA, Heredia missed all of 2024 due to a suspensory issue, and returned to racing this year at the age of six. She has faced the starter three times, in May running third in the Group 3 Beaugay Stakes at Belmont, following up in July with a similar placing in the Listed De La Rose Stakes at Saratoga, and at the weekend she became Dark Angel’s eighth stakes winner of 2025 when landing the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap at Del Mar, providing jockey Juan Hernandez with his sixth win on the card.

Heredia has followed a similar path to her dam, Nakuti (Mastercraftsman), as that mare also won the Group 3 Atalanta Stakes a decade ago, again at the age of four. The Eamonn McEvoy-bred mare then joined Graham Motion, but the best she achieved stateside in four starts was to finish third in the Grade 2 Dance Smartly Stakes at Woodbine on her swansong.

Most important

This latest and most important win of Heredia’s career will be a boost to the sale prospects of her half-brother by New Bay (Dubawi), who comes up in the Newsells Park Stud draft in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Sale. Two of Nakuti’s three winners are listed on the catalogue page, though surprisingly, in my view, the one left out is her two-time winning daughter, Vasilissa (Kingman).

Nakuti was the first foal of Sheba Five (Five Star Day), and was in utero when McEvoy bought the dam for 26,000gns through Ringfort Stud. Sheba Five’s half-brother Amade (Casamento) went one better than she did, and gained his biggest win at Grade 2 level in the USA, capturing the two-mile Belmont Gold Cup Invitational Stakes the year after it was upgraded from Grade 3 status. Later sent to Australia, Amade won the Group 3 Geelong Cup there at the age of nine.

Sheba Five raced eight times for owner Pat Garvey, trained by Noel Meade, and the best she managed was a fourth-place finish at two in a Dundalk nursery for which she started favourite. Her half-brother Arch Rebel (Arch) did much better for Garvey and Meade, winning four listed races, finishing second in a Group 2 in France, while his two hurdle victories included the Grade 2 Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown. Foaled in Ireland, Heredia will surely now make a determined effort to secure a Grade 1 win before she heads to the paddock.