Bloodstock agent Charlie Gordon-Watson went to 320,000 guineas ($549,068 in United States funds) for a Sea The Stars half sister to group I winner Spinning Queen at the Tattersalls December foal sale Nov. 28.
The London-based agent bought the two highest-priced horses on day two, with the price for Sea The Stars filly the highest at the session as trading ratcheted up two days into the four-day auction and drove financials upward in key indicators. Gordon-Watson also secured a Teofilo half brother to globetrotting group I winner Red Cadeaux for 220,000 guineas ($377,484), the day's second-highest price.
Total receipts were up 24% to 6,825,700 guineas ($11,711,809) for the 202 horses sold at the session, and the average price and median rose 27% and 35% to 33,791 guineas ($57,979) and 27,000 guineas ($46,327), respectively.
The session-topping Sea The Stars filly, offered by Newsells Park Stud, is the most expensive filly foal sold in Europe this year, and Gordon-Watson said he had his eye on her.
"This is one for the long-term," he said of the youngster, who is out of the unraced Arazi mare Our Queen of Kings. "She is a beautiful filly, one of my picks of the week, a great mover, and there is everything to like about her."
Our Queen of Kings is a half sister to four stakes winners, including U.S. grade I winner Labeeb, 1994 Arlington Million (gr. IT) runner-up Fanmore, and Irish highweight and sire Alrassaam. She has produced seven winners from eight to race. Spinning Queen won the 2006 Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes (Eng-I) and is the dam of Gallipot, a listed stakes winner at Newmarket last year.
"It's a lovely family; the half-sister Spinning World is in good hands, as is Gallipot," Gordon-Watson said. "I also really believe in Sea The Stars and feel that he will come good."
Sea The Stars, Europe's 2009 Horse of the Year, currently ranks fifth among first-season sires in England and Ireland. The 7-year-old Cape Cross half brother to leading sire Galileo stands at the Aga Khan's Gilltown Stud in Ireland.
Gordon-Watson bought Red Cadeaux as a yearling for 55,000 guineas in 2007 at Tattersalls and the horse has become an elite performer on the international stage for Hong Kong businessman Ron Arculli, for whom he purchased the Teofilo half brother.
"Red Cadeaux has paid for him," said Gordon-Watson, who outbid John Ferguson to land the colt. "I also feel that Teofilo is a top sire."
Consigned by Drumachon Stud, the youngster is out of the Peintre Celebre mare Artisia, a half sister to Hong Kong group I winner Military Attack from the family of European champion Haafhd and Irish champion Al Bahathri.
Teofilo, who has three crops racing, stands for Darley in Ireland and currently ranks fourth on the Racing Post general sire list for England and Ireland.
The Tattersalls December foal sale continues Nov. 29.