Savvy shopper Adam Wragg welcomes foal out of Anapurna's £2,500 sister

Any lingering regrets that Adam Wragg might have had about not selling a half-sister to Anapurna bought for buttons months before that sibling's victory in the Oaks swiftly evaporated when he welcomed a filly foal out of the mare at his Carlton Stud on Friday.

Wragg sourced Fly To The Top, an unraced Mastercraftsman half-sister to Anapurna, as a three-year-old for just £2,500 when she was being discarded by Meon Valley Stud at a bread and butter Tattersalls Ascot sale in November 2018.

Anapurna was unraced herself at that point, but the daughter of Frankel went on to break her maiden by five lengths, take the Lingfield Oaks Trial by six lengths and notch a battling success over Pink Dogwood in the Oaks.

Trained by John Gosden for Meon Valley Stud, she added a second Group 1 to her CV later in the season when making all in the newly upgraded Prix de Royallieu.

Wragg, who owns Carlton Stud on the Leicestershire/Warwickshire border with father Graham, sent the mare in foal to Mukhadram to Tattersalls in December to test the market. She returned home after failing to reach her reserve when bidding stopped at 72,000gns.

The resultant filly foal by Mukhadram out of Fly To The Top “certainly looks the part”, according to Wragg, who was always happy to keep the mare and insisted long before the sale that he was never looking to turn a quick profit on her.

Fly To The Top and her newborn Mukhadram filly foal

“It didn't bother me at all that she didn't sell,” he added. “I was happy to take her home again as I've always believed I could breed a talented horse out of her.”

Wragg did admit to some disappointment that the hammer price for Fly To The Top was as low as it was, though.

“We were confident that she was worth six figures,” he said. “But others didn't agree with our valuation of the horse and that's fine; she's priceless to us and I suppose that the £2,500 price tag might have come into play – nobody wants to pay that sort of mark-up on anything.

“One good thing about the sales was that we met David Ludlow and his team from Stowell Hill Stud, who were in the neighbouring boxes. They were really kind, they looked after us and showed us the ropes, we were really appreciative of that.

“They sold the sale-topper [Coplow, the dam of Billesdon Brook, for 2,100,000gns] the day after we left, so we were delighted for them.”

It's still very early days for the Mukhadram filly, of course, but Wragg has her future mapped out.

“She'll be leased privately to Carlton Stud and sent into training, and we'll see what she does on the track,” he said. “The plan will be to race the fillies out of Fly To The Top and sell the colts – following Meon Valley Stud's way of doing things.”

The Wraggs have 30 horses in their ownership, including Step To The Top, a Noel Williams-trained daughter of Doyen who finished second to the highly touted Coquelicot in a mares' listed bumper at Kempton just before racing was cancelled last month. She is named in honour of Fly To The Top.

“The plan in the future is to lease the horses to affordable syndicates to get more people like my dad and me into racing and give them the experience of going to the races as an owner,” he said.

“As many people as possible should get a taste of what it's like to be an owner. It was being part of a National Hunt syndicate years ago that got my dad and me hooked.”

The Carlton Stud stock also comprises three other newborn foals, including another by Nunnery Stud resident Mukhadram – a colt out of Merriment, a winning daughter of Makfi from a productive Royal Studs family.

“I can't believe Mukhadram stands at only £6,000 – he's a Group 1-winning son of Shamardal,” Wragg said of the Eclipse hero.

“Both our foals by him are beautiful, big individuals. I wholeheartedly believe in him and hope the filly out of Fly To The Top filly can help get him to where he should be.”

Fly To The Top's next cover will be by Derby winner Masar in his first season at Dalham Hall Stud.

“It's the Galileo family,” said Wragg by way of explanation for the mating. “We can't afford Galileo or Frankel, so he's the value choice to get a bit of those bloodlines.”

Masar, a versatile performer who beat Invincible Army over six furlongs at two and was also a nine-length winner of the Craven Stakes at three, has a double dose of Galileo's family in his pedigree.

He is by Galileo's son New Approach and is out of UAE Derby winner Khawlah, a maternal granddaughter of Galileo's Oaks-placed half-sister Melikah.

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