£2m for a chestnut May filly

Phoenix paid 3.2 million today for the full-sister to Forever Together. Way above a sensible valuation, imo.

phoenix group investment fund are making some good moves, out bidding coolmore for this filly, they should
concentrate their spending on buying into the right families, few years down the line, could create a new and
powerful breeding operation, before you know it they could get lucky on the race track and have a few in demand stallions too, whatever money they have had to invest to get started, will be money well spent.
they have to avoid spending money on expensive unraced colts, would be throwing money away imo. fascinating
is that other people havent come up with this same idea from the financial world. theres lot of money to
be made in this business.

I don't like the pedigree of the 3.2 million filly.
The pedigree of the 2.0 million filly is slightly better.
Are they buying fillies to race or fillies to breed?
Neither ticks boxes for me.

It was mentioned that the previous record at the sale was 2.5 million.
What wasn't stated was that colt, Ol' Man River, won 2 races (both wins a 2yo, none as a 3yo) from 7 starts and earned £63k (18th of 18 in the 2000 Guineas).

A daughter of Galileo became the dearest yearling to sell at auction in Ireland for 34 years when changing hands for €3.2 million in front of a packed ring at the Goffs Orby Sale on Wednesday.
The sister to this year’s Oaks heroine Forever Together (3f Galileo-Green Room, by Theatrical), bred by Vimal and Gillian Khosla, was always expected to be one of the stars of the sale when offered from Ballylinch Stud.
She was bought by Phoenix Thoroughbreds as a racing and long-term breeding prospect after agent Dermot Farrington eventually saw off M V Magnier.
“The mare has done it time after time. Her first foal was Lord Shanakill and then she’s produced those two fantastic fillies by Galileo. For a mare to breed three horses of that calibre speaks volumes. This filly is very special and everyone else thought so too. You know when you are going to try and buy a filly like this one that you are going to have to pay,” said Farrington.
“Phoenix are bedding in families for the future. This filly comes from a Juddmonte family and normally you can’t get hold of those families.”
John O’Connor of Ballylinch Stud added: “She’s by an outstanding stallion out of an outstanding mare and on top of that she was a very good physical and a great mover who vetted especially well. We hoped coming here that she would sell well and I’m delighted for Vimal and Gillian who are great clients and are very enthusiastic about their horses.”

Forever Togethers & Alice Springs sisters - Who will train them for Phoenix Thoroughbreds ?

K Burke

It makes you wonder what sort of money Laundering was undertaken this outfit.
How can an investment scheme based on short return periods be buying for the long run. You would have thought a Team Valor approach would be more profitable and sustainable.
Based in Luxembourg not a great start is it.
I think this will end in tears at some point in time.

My own view on aiming to breed is that buying PROVEN racemares for 1 or 2m is more sensible than 'speculating' on yearling fillies. A high quality broodmare band of proven racemares WILL generate good sales and very likely a few decent Group horses.