Dam of Mildenberger the star of London Sale at £720,000

Despite the Goffs London Sale failing to match the dizzying heights of 12 months ago, Henry Beeby, Goffs group chief executive, seemed upbeat at the end of selling at Kensington Palace on Monday evening.

At the close of trade, Goffs reported 13 lots sold for an aggregate of £3,740,000 at an average of £287,692 and with a median of £300,000. Those figures were down on 2017 auction, where 12 lots made £4,525,000 at an average of £377,083 and a median of £340,000.

"It didn't match last year, but such are the vagaries of all horses-in-training sales," said Beeby.

"You rise and fall with the catalogue you have and the market. Stats year-on-year are less relevant, and of course we benefit when they are up and play them down when they are down.

"The top price of £720,000 was very good, we’ve sold 13 horses for nearly £3.8m and some of those have very good chances over the next few days [at Royal Ascot] – and we’ve had a wonderful party.

"That side of it is evolving and we've always wanted it to be a social event. From Goffs' point of view, the central point is to have a horse auction but the ripple effect of that is to position Goffs in the heart of London on the eve of Royal Ascot."

The top-priced lot of Monday was Belle Josephine, the dam of leading King Edward VII Stakes contender Mildenberger, was the headline act of a six-lot spending spree for Leicester City FC chairman, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, buying the mare for £720,000.

Sackville Donald signed all six lots on behalf of Srivaddhanaprabha, whose horses race under the King Power banner.

Mildenberger is one of two winners for the daughter of Dubawi, and she herself a half-sister to Listed winner Marsh Daisy, and from the family of Group 2 winner Bella Colora and Listed winner Hyabella.

Ed Sackville said he was pleased to be taking the mare home, finding the fact she was offered in foal to Siyouni an attractive prospect. The Aga Khan-owned stallion had his credentials further enhanced on Sunday with his daughter Laurens winning the Prix De Diane.

"She's by a very good stallion in Dubawi and Mildenberger is running at Ascot and he's favourite for that race. She also had a very nice Pivotal foal at foot and on top of that she is in foal to Siyouni, who we saw on Sunday is a very good stallion," said Sackville.

Sackville and Donald confirmed that all five of the horses in training they purchased with Royal Ascot entries would head to the meeting.

Coventry Stakes entrant Shine So Bright and Main Street, who holds entries in the King Edward VII Stakes and the Hampton Court Stakes, were purchased for £375,000 and £300,000 respectively.

"He's bought some very nice horses to run at Ascot and they will all go there. Three of them go with a very good chance and they should all give him good run for his money," said Donald.

"Main Street is a lightly raced, good-looking middle-distance horse, who will definitely do a job in the future."

Miss Beatrix sells for £400,000

Later on Monday afternoon, Group 1-winning mare Miss Beatrix was purchased by Ann Marshall, who went to £400,000 to secure the Ballintougher Stud-consigned daughter of Danehill Dancer.

Goffs: Miss Beatrix sells for £400,000 at the London Sale on MondayCredit: Sarah Farnsworth/Goffs

A winner of the Moyglare Stud Stakes, Miss Beatrix has produced three winners, who are all black-type placed and breeder Bill Durkan said that he knew the time was right to sell her.

"I thought that if I was going to get any decent money for her it was the time to sell her," said Durkan.

"I have a lot of the fillies out of her, I sold all the colts, I've kept the fillies.

"I bred her, took her to the sales to qualify her for the £1 million race. She won the and million and the Moyglare."

Durkan said that while he was happy with the result, he did expect her to make slightly more: "I decided this sale because we thought there would be loads of money here, we expected a bit more - that was her reserve," he said.

Moroney brings international flavour

Australian-based Bloodstock agent Paul Moroney brought an international flavour to the evening, leaving the sale with a Listed-winning son of New Zealand-bred stallion So You Think, Marathon Man.

A four-time winner in France, Marathon Man will now head to Ed Vaughan's yard before heading to Australia and will be aimed at the Cantala Stakes at Flemington on Derby Day.

Moroney hopes history can repeat itself with Vaughan helping prepare Fiorente before he headed to Australia where he subsequently ran second in the Melbourne Cup.

"We will send him to Ed Vaughan, who will get him ready and we will run him off the plane and I he won’t race here before," said Moroney.

"The timing of the sale is perfect - you can get hold of a horse, back off them and bring them over. People don't realise that Ed did a lot of the work with Fiorente before he ran second in the Melbourne Cup - he will get hold of this horse and do the work with him.

"The plan is to run him off the plane in the Group 1 mile on Derby day. He will ship out in October, will be ideally placed outside there on the weights and he should make the field," he said.