Kia Joorabchian splashes out £2million on horse the Amo Racing boss hopes will make his Royal Ascot dream come true
The Amo Racing boss is no stranger to making an impact at public auction and he was elated to finalise a £2million deal for Ghostwriter, a four-year-old trained by Clive Cox who last August got within four lengths of the outstanding City Of Troy in York's Juddmonte International.
It was rated by experts as the best race run anywhere in the world in 2024.
Ghostwriter was put up for sale by his former owner Jeff Smith and his name in the catalogue for the Goffs London sale — an occasion, held in the opulent Kensington Gardens, which has grown in stature since its inception in 2014 — caused a buzz.
Former footballers Shay Given and Tom Cleverley were among the throng, as was Michael Owen.
The London Sale is unique in that it offers big spending owners the opportunity to buy a ready-made horse for the Royal meeting and the action in the ring is always a fascinating spectacle.
The evening started with the chance to buy a 1/60th share of the stallion Ace Impact, who retired in 2023 unbeaten in six races with his haul including the Prix Du Jockey Club and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
One bloodstock agent was prepared to pay £180,000 for it, valuing Ace Impact at £11million.
But Lot 10 was the one the crowd had come to see and the bidding for Ghostwriter, who has been prepared by Cox for a crack at Saturday's Hardwicke Stakes, rose as steeply as a cable car in the mountains.
Auctioneer Henry Beeby is a dab hand at providing a theatrical flourish to the bidding process and the pace of the back-and-forth ensured that it took just two minutes to go from the gasps of the £1million barrier being broken to the price being doubled.
'At £2million close to me,' said Beeby. 'At £2million, it's going now — make no mistake. Nobody else around the ring? I'm going to sell it… At £2million, get ready. At £2million, we are all done. Sold!'
With that, the gavel was brought down with a bang. Joorabchian bought a two-year-old filly at the auction 12 months ago for £700,000 and tried to buy a mare called Sparkling Plenty for £7million but he was thrilled to get this deal done without a hitch.
'This is a nice sale and it's a beautiful atmosphere to buy a horse in,' said Joorabchian, who gave a no-holds-barred interview about some of the concerns he has about racing to Mail Sport last weekend.
'We think this horse has a huge future and fingers crossed we are right. To be honest, my son (Maxi) picked this horse out a little while ago and he said: 'We've got to buy this!'
'He's third favourite for the Hardwicke and I think he's got a chance to go up to Group One level, so we'll see. I don't know Clive Cox but I'm sure I'll meet him and we'll see. At the moment I'm not buying horses to stay [with their trainers].
'I'm buying them to go into our own yard (with Raphael Freire at Freemason Lodge). With this one, I don't know yet because Clive's done a good job with him so we'll have a chat. Alex (Elliott, bloodstock agent) knows him a bit better, I'll get to meet him and we'll see what we do after that.'
Joorabchian's finest moment as an owner at Royal Ascot came in 2023 when King Of Steel ran away with the King Edward VII Stakes; Amo will have three runners on the opening day with Power Blue (305), Mr Hampstead (500) and Crypto Force (610).
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