A colt from the immediate family of the Riethuiskraal Stud-based Flying The Flag proved the star attraction on the first day of the 2023 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Book 1 on Tuesday.
From the first crop of Dubawi’s four-time G1 winning son Ghaiyyath, the colt (Lot 151) was one of two lots to sell for one million guineas or more in Tuesday’s session.
Consigned to the auction by Ballyhimikin Stud, the colt was knocked down to Anthony Stroud, bidding on behalf of Godolphin, for 1.050 million guineas.
The flashy grey, whose G2 King’s Stand Stakes winning granddam Cassandra Go ranks not only as the granddam of Flying The Flag and his multiple G1 winning own-sisters Rhododendron and Magical but also as the third dam of this year’s dual Derby winner Auguste Rodin, is out of the high-class sprinter Tickled Pink. A daughter of Invincible Spirit, Tickled Pink won three times including the G3 Coral Charge Sprint and G3 Abernant Stakes.
Ticked Pink is best known for producing the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Victoria Road, with all five of her runners to date having won.
Trevor Stewart, the breeder of the pricey Ghaiyyath colt, said of the sale, “I am so lucky, it is the fourth over a million that I have got from the family. I did not expect it, but he was a gorgeous horse and it is wonderful that he is going to Godolphin. The family seems to go on, we were very lucky with Victoria Road and I could not be more thrilled. Some of Tickled Pink’s progeny have been a little on the neat side, so we thought we needed to get a bit more height and length into the foals. Ghaiyyath was obviously a great racehorse and it is risky going to a first-season sire, but time will tell. And then she produced this cracking colt…”
Winner of the 2013 G3 eFlow “You First” International Stakes, Flying The Flag, who shares his legendary sire Galileo with another legendary stallion in the form of Frankel, is best known as the sire of Strawberry Bear, who vanquished champion Cousin Casey when he won the 2023 G3 Byerley Turk.
Other useful performers sired by Flying The Flag include Zimbabwe Derby winner Tigers Eagle, G2 WSB Gauteng Guineas third Electric Gold and last season’s G1 World Pool Moment Of The Day Premiers Champion Stakes third We Are The Logans.