Godolphin did not get involved on day one of the Orby Sale but Sheikh Mohammed's team got stuck in on Tuesday afternoon when paying just over €2 million for two yearlings from the first crop of their own stallion Modern Games.
Winner of five Group/Grade 1 races, Modern Games (by Dubawi) stands at Dalham Hall in Newmarket. His fee in 2024, his first season, was £30,000 and was reduced to £27,500 this year.
On Tuesday Godolphin paid €1.3 million for a filly by Modern Games with a superb pedigree. She is a half-sister to this year's Group 1 Prix Morny winner Senorita Bonita, the mare's first foal.
The filly was bred and sold by Tom and Michael Gaffney's Hawes Stud/Churchtown House Stud, best known as the breeders of four-time Group 1 winner Alcohol Free, and also the breeders of Senorita Bonita.
Michael Gaffney said: "Unbelievable year. In 12 months, the whole thing has changed so much. This is what makes everything so easy. I have to thank my family and my brother, Tom. It’s just been so brilliant. And I really have to thank Mr Stroud and all the Darley people for having faith in our family.
"It is every breeder’s absolute dream. It is nerve-wracking, and it is brilliant, and it is just the most fantastic feeling of all time. This is what dreams are made of and this is the pavilion for dreams.
"It is unbelievable what a horse can do. In 12 months, I’ve gone from trying to sell her sister - and failing at the yearling sales - to this. It’s unreal. So I’m so thankful to everybody involved, and thankful to my wife and my kids and everybody at home, and the lads with me here, Carl and Rachel, who’ve done a super job altogether. I’m so thankful to everybody.
"When you sell something, if it can win a listed race, you’ve done an amazing job. To say we’ve gone from a maiden, second at Royal Ascot, winning a Group 2, winning a Group 1 and now this, the kick, it’s sky-rocketing. So, yeah, it is just the most fantastic feeling ever.
"It’s brilliant, and I thank everybody who had faith and came in here and bid for our horse, and who have come back to us over the years. People coming back to us, that’s what it’s all about.
"The mare has a Sioux Nation filly foal and is in foal to Camille Pissarro. She’ll probably go back to Starspangledbanner [sire of Senorita Bonita].
Anthony Stroud, on behalf of Godolphin, said: "Senorita Bonita is very good, as she showed when she won the Prix Morny. There was a genuine excuse for her run the other day. She’s undoubtedly talented, and there’ll be other good days for her. She’s a top, top two-year-old.
"The Gaffney family at Churchtown House Stud are fantastic breeders, they do a great job.
"She'll go to Newmarket and the principal will decide where we’re going from there. We’re just delighted to have a half-sister to a very good horse."
Noting that Coolmore were underbidders, Stroud added: "It’s great to see M.V. [Magnier] bidding so strongly on a Modern Games."
€750,000 colt
A short time earlier Godolphin paid €750,000 for a Modern Games colt consigned by Baroda Stud on behalf of Longview Stud in Newmarket who bought the colt as a foal for €255,000 at Goffs. Bred by the Mullins family at Ballinacurra Stud in Co Limerick, this fellow is the first foal out of Awilda, an unraced daughter of Ten Sovereigns who is a half-sister to two listed race winners.
Godolphin representative Anthony Stroud said: "He is a very good mover - I remember him as a foal and he really was an excellent foal. Super nice foal. He was one of the horses we particularly liked at this sale. He is the first Modern Games we have bought - I hope there will be more. He looks like all of our foals and yearlings at home by him. They are very nice. He has all of the credentials to be a very good stallion. It was a strong price but that is what the good ones cost.
"Longview Stud do very well and are very good at what they do. More importantly, they produce good horses who do it on the racetrack.
David Cox of Baroda Stud added: "He was an expensive foal but he was a gorgeous foal. A few people who underbid him came up to see him this week to see what he turned out like and you could see their faces drop as soon as they saw him, as they knew then they’d missed out by not going that extra bid.
"He has a lot of strength and is a really good mover. He has a great temperament too. Bombproof is the word I'd use for him.
"Fair play to Godolphin for supporting their own stallion. If Charlie Appleby is getting to train horses like this one I can imagine the sire is going to have a lot of success. He’s one to watch out for."
Stepping up
Alanood Althani is a relatively new name in racehorse ownership.
At the 2025 Goffs Orby Sale, her name was listed as purchaser of nine lots over the four days for a total of €862,000. That included the Book 2 top lot, a State Of Rest filly who made €150,000 and who subsequently won first time out for trainer Karl Burke earlier this season. In 2024 her Goffs purchases included Sir Albert who won three races as a juvenile for Andrew Balding.
This week at Goffs the Althani family has stepped up its involvement. On Monday Alanood's father Abdullah Ali Althani spent €350,000 on a Dubawi filly and on Tuesday he gave €800,000 for a very well-bred colt by Sea The Stars.
Consigned by Baroda Stud, the colt is out of the Group 1 winner Ambivalent (by Authorized), making him an own-brother to Group 1 Prix Vermeille winner Teona. He is also a half-brother to Al Hilalee (by Dubawi), a Group 2 winner for Godolphin.
Abdullah Ali Althani said: "He looks fine and he’s very well bred, but he has to perform well now. Not every horse with a good pedigree runs well, and not every horse with a bad pedigree will run badly, you have to have luck as well.
"We’ll have to wait and see if this is a good one, and with his pedigree we might have to wait two or three years, but that’s fine. He is bred to win the Derby. Isn’t that everyone’s ambition in this sport?
"I owned horses when I was young, and came back into it with my daughter [Alanood]. We have around 15 horses in training and we don’t expect to buy many more yearlings after Goffs. We’re just hoping to be lucky, like everyone else here.
"The colt is going to William Haggas, I have some unraced horses with him including a colt by Sea The Stars we bought from Germany."
David Cox of Baroda Stud said: "He's a gorgeous horse. We had him on the farm before, then he went back to Ace Stud in England, and came back over in the summer. He was in great shape when he arrived, and then Brian and Max and the lads did a fabulous job on him. He is just cool out.
"He's the same as his brother that we had before here, that Godolphin bought. He has a great temperament, and the mare was very good. He looked like Sea The Stars, and Stephen Collins [the underbidder] liked him too.
"Mr Althani bought off us before, and the horse won a few times for him last year [Sir Albert (No Nay Never) who cost €165,000]. I was joking with him yesterday and said 'you have to buy one after you were lucky before', and he said, 'oh don't worry, tomorrow will do!'. Kia [Joorabchian] loved the horse as well, Stephen was determined."
Lynn Lodge
A day after selling a Wootton Bassett colt for €500,000, Eddie O'Leary's Lynn Lodge Stud sold a son of Night Of Thunder for €600,000.
Ace Stud was the purchaser of the colt, whose dam Zahratty (by Muhaarar) was a winner. Her first foal to race, Asterial (by Sea The Stars) has raced once for Amo Racing and was well beaten.
Megan O’Leary, daughter of Eddie and Wendy, said: “It’s a huge result for everyone, for all the team at home and at the sales. It’s great to get a price like that for a homebred that we’ve had since the day he was born. The last Night Of Thunder we sold to Ace Stud was Evolutionist, so we hope this one is just as good for them."
Eddie O’Leary added: “The mare’s been a bit unlucky. Her first foal was very, very nice but unfortunately got injured in pre-training. The second foal [Poppy Grace] is also very nice; she’s in Ed Walker’s and is actually entered at Ascot on Friday. Fair dues to Goffs. The clearance rate has been very good and the figures look good.”
Ace Stud's Paul Curran commented: "We’re going back to the well with Night Of Thunder. He’s not done us too badly before. This is a nice colt, he’s probably the standout Night Of Thunder in the sale.
"We liked him on first inspection and actually saw him four times; he kept getting nicer every time we saw him. He’s a nice, straightforward colt and he’s going to go to Andrew Balding. He’s heading across to Britain to be pre-trained by George Peckham and then into Andrew’s system.
"We’ve had one Group 1 winner [Gewan] sending the progeny of Night Of Thunder to Andrew and we’re hoping this colt could be the next one."
Murtagh makes purchase
Johnny Murtagh paid €420,000 for a colt by Space Blues from Tom Whelan's Church View Stables. The colt is a half-brother to three winners, including Bear Story, a Group 3 winner for Michael Halford in 2021, and last Saturday's Group 2 Futurity Stakes runner-up City Of Dubai.
George Boughey will train a Frankel colt bought from Baroda Stud for €400,000. The colt's dam Tierra (by Dubawi) was unraced and has yet to have a winner from three foals of racing age. Boughey's former assistant Henry Morshead, now a bloodstock agent, co-signed for the purchase.
A few minutes later the Mariga family's Coolmara Stables paid €400,000 for a St Mark's Basilica filly from Weir View Stud. From the family of Group 2 winner Bocca Baciata, the filly is the first foal out of a maiden mare by Dubawi.
By 5pm on Tuesday 116 of the 145 lots offered had been sold, giving a clearance rate of 80%. The average price was running at just over €150,000 and the median at €100,000.
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