Qatar-backed investor ‘buys’ own horse at auction after turning down record £8.1m bid

Sparkling Plenty, Sunday’s Prix de Diane winner, drew record £8.1million bids at Goffs London Sale before the owner had second thoughts and bought her back with help from Qatar.

Red hot interest at Kensington Gardens in the filly, fresh from winning a Classic at Chantilly, saw initial bids of £1 million quickly escalate. Kia Joorabchian, the football agent and increasingly prominent racehorse owner, eventually offered £7.8 million before Emmanuel de Seroux, a French bloodstock agent, took the price beyond £8 million.

Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was among backers of the Joorabchian bid, but bidders were then left flummoxed as a final and deciding offer for Lot 11 in the catalogue came from existing owner Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois.

After lengthy discussions, it later emerged, Al Shaqab Racing, owned by the Qatari Al-Thani royal family, had bought a 50 per cent stake of Sparkling Plenty for £5 million.

Goffs’ group chief executive Henry Beeby said afterwards: “I’ve auctioneered for 39 years and worked for an auction house for 42 years, and I’ve never seen anything quite so complicated as this has turned out to be. It’s certainly a day I won’t forget.

“I was bid £8 million by a live bidder, I was bid £7.8m by a second live bidder, but it’s the owner’s prerogative, it’s his horse. If he chooses to buy it back, he’s entitled to do that. The conditions of sale allow somebody to appoint one person to bid for them and that’s what he did.”

Filly’s owner targets Arc

Al Shaqab Racing’s principal, Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani, had been present at the exclusive auction in London but was not involved in the seven-figure showdown of bids.

Sparkling Plenty is not engaged to run at Royal Ascot this week. Al Shaqab’s bloodstock advisor Nicolas de Watrigant told the Racing Post the filly would remain on the same programme with trainer Patrice Cottier.

“She’ll stay with the same trainer and the same team,” he said. “The trainer will target the Nassau Stakes, the Prix de l’Opéra and maybe the Arc at the end of the year. We’ve been following the filly for a long time.

“She probably should’ve won the French Guineas, she was very unlucky in that race [finishing sixth], but she ran some very good split figures. We like her physically; she keeps progressing and won the Sandringham very easily. She’s by a great stallion, she’s got everything going for her.”

Sparkling Plenty’s price comfortably eclipsed the previous high mark at this sale, with two lots having fetched £1.3 million apiece.