Record price breeze-up filly Al Raya set for Nottingham debut

Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale top lot Al Raya will bid to justify a record-breaking price-tag when the daughter of Siyouni lines up in the EBF Maiden Fillies' Stakes at Nottingham (12.00) on Wednesday.

Owned by Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamad Al Khalifa and trained by Simon Crisford, the filly was signed for by Stroud Coleman Bloodstock at £450,000, a price that makes her the most expensive Flat horse ever sold in the Doncaster ring.

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As well as having recorded a notably quick time during the pre-sale breeze, Al Raya also boasts an eye-catching pedigree, as she is the second foal out of Listed-winning sprinter Fig Roll.

Bred by Des Anderson, Fig Roll was a smart juvenile for Richard Hannon snr who finished a narrow runner-up on debut before breaking her maiden at the second time of asking. She went on to run fourth behind Rizeena in the Queen Mary Stakes before claiming the Listed Empress Stakes at Newmarket.

Al Raya: the £450,000 Siyouni filly in the Goffs UK sales ringCredit: Sarah Farnsworth

Juvenile success runs throughout the family as Fig Roll is the first foal of Cake, a daughter of Acclamation who won three times at two, including the Listed St Hugh's Stakes. Cake also produced Tomily, who won twice as a juvenile and also finished runner-up in the Scott Dobson Memorial Doncaster Stakes.

Al Raya not only broke the Doncaster record for a Flat horse, but also provided Longways Stables with a healthy pinhooking profit after Mick Murphy and his fiance Sarah O'Connell sourced the filly for £95,000 at last year's Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale

"We're massive fans of the sire," said Murphy in the aftermath of the record-breaking sale. "We've had Siyounis every year since his first crop and they've been very lucky for us. She looked very racy as a yearling, albeit she was small, but then she's from a small family; Fig Roll was small and so was the granddam Cake.

"At the time £95,000 looked a brave shout for her, and if she wasn't by Siyouni I probably wouldn't have done it. I thought she might double her money and a small bit more because all the good judges were on her - there was talk that she'd top the sale - but we did not see that coming."

Siyouni's progeny have been in fine form of late, with Sottsass supplying the sire with his third Group 1 winner when landing the Qipco Prix du Jockey Club on Sunday.

Al Raya will be bidding to become the second European breeze-up sales-topper to get off the mark this year after Divine Spirit, the 850,000gns Kingman filly who topped Tattersalls Craven Sale, broke her maiden at Windsor last month.

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