Kia Joorabchian’s £3.78m ‘early strike’ for colt shows big b...

The first seven-figure buy arrived within an hour on the opening day of the elite Book 1 sale at Tattersalls auction, and so too an early contender for the most tongue-in-cheek remark of the week. “An early strike,” said Kia Joorabchian, football super-agent and founder of the Amo Racing operation, after splashing 3.6m gns (£3.78m) on Lot 15, a bay colt by Frankel. “Hopefully, no more.”

Joorabchian left last year’s Book 1 about £25m lighter in his wallet, but with 25 new yearling recruits as additional ammo for Amo. He has made no secret of his ambition to buy in at the top table of global Flat racing, and challenge the old money of John Magnier’s Coolmore Stud operation and the sovereign wealth of Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin, so he was never likely to stop at a single purchase this time around.

But there was less of the sense of a trolley dash about Joorabchian’s activity, on the opening day at least, and a willingness too to back out of a bidding duel when his ceiling price had been reached.

Having beaten off Coolmore to secure Lot 15, a Frankel full-brother to a filly bought by Amo at this sale last year for 4.4m gns (£4.62m) that has yet to race, Joorabchian shook his head at 3.7m gns (£3.9m) for Lot 90, a colt by the Derby and Arc winner Sea The Stars, when it became clear that Godolphin was determined to have him.

“The horse we wanted today was the Frankel,” Joorabchian said. “For us as an operation, that was important. We bought the sister, we wanted to strengthen the family.

“The Sea The Stars was a beautiful horse, a very good walker, strong and tall, but he wasn’t a must-have for our operation at this stage, so we just decided to step away.

“You’ve got to be disciplined, and at some point you’ve got to step away. We were up against Coolmore in the first one and Godolphin in the second, so it’s not an easy fight. You’re up against the two biggest in the world.”

Another Frankel colt, for a relatively modest 440,000 gns (£462,000), was the only other significant Amo buy on day one, as Joorabchian continues to search for a horse to compete with uber-stallions in the biggest bloodstock operations.

Greg Wood's Wednesday tips

Nottingham 1.28 Hello It’s Me 1.58 Loving Look 2.28 Edaari 2.58 Sea The Power 3.28 Good Heavens 3.58 Urban Sprawl 4.30 Hinchinbrooke 5.00 Shark Two One

Ludlow 2.05 Percy Shelley 2.35 Sergeant Fury 3.05 Kate O’Riley 3.35 Another Day Out 4.08 Versace Twentyone 4.40 Chestnut Pete 5.15 Noonetellsmenothin

Sedgefield 2.15 Jolie Coeur Allen 2.45 Pescatorius 3.15 Dickens 3.45 Obsessedwithyou 4.15 Captain Cool 4.50 Opale De Maine

Kempton 4.03 Rapid Force 4.35 Seventy 5.07 Siren Suit 5.40 Title Roll 6.10 Art Lover (nap) 6.40 Kosometsuke (nb) 7.10 Bear Island 7.40 Best Rate 8.10 Equalised

“When you’re talking about trying to create stallions and buying good pedigree broodmares for the future, they are 30 or 40 years ahead of us,” he said of Coolmore and Godolphin.

“So we’re playing catchup after they built their stock for many, many years, and you can see what they breed. Godolphin have done an unbelievable job this year with home-breds.

“Everyone has the same strategy, to create the best stallion you can, and you’ve got to go for the big colts. You can’t accelerate the process. The top stallions are not for sale so you need to create your own stallion, and the big colts are making the big numbers.”