Enigmatic Princess

Race entries

Arguably, the Premier yearling sale of the entire season is The Tattersalls Book 1 Sale at Newmarket. It’s where most vendors send their very best-bred bloodstock to be sold. Prices are always exuberant and it’s our job at the sale to hunt for value for our owners, to unearth a precious gem, on our middle market budget.

We’re pretty sure that’s precisely what we’ve managed to achieve here. Given the strength of the market, throughout the week, we’d, wrongly it turns out, assumed that this filly would make way over our middle market budget of 40-100k and didn’t follow her through the ring as she went in. We’d been to see her three times and had our vet check her out - she vetted very clean. Led out unsold (vendor buyback at 60,000gns) we asked what reserve she’d had on her, - the answer came from Julian Dollar, who runs the Newsells Park Stud - “we’d been hoping for 100-200,000gns all week, however the would-be buyers at that level never materialised come auction ring time. The owner certainly wasn’t going to let her go for 60,000gns.” Following a little negotiation, we agreed to buy her privately for 77,500gns which was the very very lowest figure the vendor would accept.

We think she represents exceptional value, she’s a pedigree to die for, being by the all-conquering sire MEHMAS, who stands for a fee of €60,000 at Tally Ho Stud. She has very active pedigree too, the eldest racing progeny from the mare is only 4yo (she was a listed winner as a 2yo and finished 4th in the Italian 1000 Guineas), and the 3yo won the Italian Derby and will probably go off favourite for their big middle distance Group 2, later this month. The mare is in foal too and has a gorgeous No Nay Never filly foal at foot. Regardless of anything we achieve on the track, this filly will retain significant residual value for the paddocks. Read a story on her pedigree from The Racing Post, here: https://www.racingpost.com/bloodstock/news/italian-derby-hero-goldenas-shining-bright-for-austin-curran-and-his-blackberry-road-stud-aX4OT4j4LfSj/

Watch her walk, here:

Anyway, all these factors are pertinent, but a bonus, we actually bought her to be a serious racehorse, on the track for us. She’s speedily enough bred and qualifies for the Weatherbys Super Sprint that both we and Rod have done so well in, in the past. She qualifies for the £25,000 Book 1 Bonus and the €10,000 Irish incentive scheme. This means that in winning a simple Class 4 maiden or novice race, next year, she could earn around £42,000, around half of her initial purchase price.

She should be fine for 5 or 6f earlier on in her career, as a 2yo, but she could easily eke out to 7f or a mile, later on, depending on how her gene pool pans out.

A gorgeous filly with a great walk and a great pedigree, she looks exceptional value for money, at this stage, at least. She’ll be in some of the very best hands in the business down at Rod Millman’s - she’s precisely the sort of filly he’s tended to thrive with.

We can’t wait for next year, already!

Exciting to have been sent this Mehmas filly from @MprUpdates

Our first ever Book 1 yearling with a pedigree that increases your chances of competing at Stakes level which is always the aim with a filly

Also our first Mehmas so a filly to really look forward to in 2024 https://t.co/wja2FHaZff

— James Millman (@jrmillman) October 8, 2023

She is now at pre-training with Richie McGrath, where we send all our yearlings each year and the updates on her progress will be added below. 

24th October: