'I saw him on Tuesday and I loved him the whole way' - Richard Brown up to the mark again at Arqana

While Godolphin and Amo's seven-figure splashes for sons of Justify dominated the headlines from Arqana on Saturday, the top of the market was also fruitful territory for Blandford Bloodstock's Richard Brown. 

Brown is closely associated with the curation of the growing boutique collection that is Wathnan Racing. Though he was unable to reveal which among his high-end clients was responsible for a quartet of spectacular investments totalling €2,010,000, Brown did confirm that all four are for the same owner. 

At €650,000 and top of Brown's shopping list was a colt from the first crop of Gainesway Farm's McKinzie [lot 40], out of the Ghostzapper mare Belle's Finale and thus a half-brother to the recently retired multiple Grade 1 winner Up To The Mark. 

Consigned by Malcolm Bastard, the McKinzie colt had been one Brown went to the limit to secure.

At €650,000 a colt by McKinzie was the highest-priced among a clutch of purchases made by Richard BrownCredit: Zuzanna LUPA

"That was the last bid," he said. "He was a smashing colt. We probably didn’t expect to have to go that far but that was our final bid and it just fell right. I’m delighted to get him, he was one of our picks of the day. 

"He’ll go back to Newmarket and have a little bit of time off. He’s a horse that will be more of a summer or late two-year-old so he’ll be off to Richard Morgan-Evans and have a little bit of time in the paddock, and then we’ll decide where he’s going to be trained."

Gaybrook Lodge's colt by Not This Time [lot 55] – who among other accolades is the sire of Up To The Mark – fell to Brown for €460,000, with the agent explaining that his interest had been sparked during his initial round of inspections back on Tuesday. 

A Not This Time colt from the Gaybrook Lodge draft made €460,000 at Arqana on SaturdayCredit: Zuzanna LUPA

"He’s by a very serious stallion," said Brown. "When I was looking around the horses before they breezed he was one of my picks, he was an absolutely gorgeous colt. 

"It’s always nice when you see them and then they go and do the breeze, very stylish and very natural. He looks like a quick horse. As I say, I saw him on Tuesday and I’ve loved him the whole way through."

That €460,000 was a fine return on the $62,000 given as a yearling at Keeneland last September for the colt, who is out of the unraced Invincible Spirit mare Cloudy Dancer, herself a half-sister to Gale Foce Ten, winner of the Jersey Stakes and runner-up to Magician in the Irish 2,000 Guineas. 

'When Willie Browne comes out and says that, I was pretty determined'

Standing down in the passage to auctioneer's left, Brown had the final say at €550,000 for Mocklershill Stud's Blue Point colt (lot 138] out of the winning Dark Angel mare, Maggies Angel. 

And the Blandford Bloodstock man revealed that the colt had been on his radar ever since making another purchase off Mocklershill at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up last month. 

Richard Brown (left) speaks to Mocklershill's Willie Browne after purchasing lot 138 at the Arqana Breeze-Up SaleCredit: ZUZANNA LUPA

“Willie Browne is one of the great breeze-up consignors and has sold a lot of good horses," said Brown. "I bought what, in my opinion, was the best Mehmas colt in Doncaster off Willie and he said to me then, ‘I have a Blue Point colt going to Arqana and I think he’s very special.’

"I got a bit of stick from some breeze-up consignors the other day for doing an interview in which I said I don’t listen to them, and that you have to make your own mind up.

"But when Willie comes out and says that, and then the horse looks like he does and breezes like he does, I was pretty determined to be there at the finish."

Brown can count multiple Group 1-placed Light Infantry among his best acquisitions from Mocklershill and is hopeful that this colt will also take high rank. 

"I thought he was an absolutely smashing horse with great strength and scope, and I think he has a lot of his father about him, so we’re delighted," said Brown. 

"We’ve been lucky with Willie. The Mehmas has already done a piece of work and looks potentially very smart. 

Mocklershill Stud's Blue Point colt went to Richard Brown for €550,000 at ArqanaCredit: ZUZANNA LUPA

"This one is quite a big horse but I see him as being quite mature – he was a March foal – and, out of the horses we’ve bought today, I would imagine he might be the first runner. We’ll give him ten days and I would hope he might be out in July."

Reflecting on the various profiles among his four highest-priced purchase across the session, Brown said: "The New Bay [lot 88 consigned by Brown Island Stables] showed speed in his breeze but I see him as a mile or mile-and-a-quarter horse. The fact that the family has shown speed is great.

"I see the others as mile or mile-and-a-quarter horses and this is the first one we’ve bought as a prospective sprinter." 

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