'She gave us some amazing days and we'll never forget her' - record-setting Marsha dies aged ten

Marsha, the Nunthorpe and Prix de l'Abbaye winner who holds the record price for a thoroughbred sold at auction in Europe, has died aged ten.

At the end of a hugely successful racing career highlighted by those Group 1 strikes, she was offered as a breeding prospect at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale and was bought by Coolmore for 6,000,000gns.

Trained by Sir Mark Prescott for owner-breeders the Elite Racing Club, the daughter of Acclamation proved a tough and talented performer over three seasons of racing.

She was a dual winner at two, including on her second start at Catterick, while she blossomed into a stakes filly the following year.

Listed wins at Ayr and York on her third and fourth starts of 2016 were followed by a first Pattern placing when second in the Group 3 Prix du Petit Couvert. On her next start she became a Group 1 winner at Longchamp when driven out by Luke Morris to win the Abbaye from Washington DC.

Marsha beat the same rival on her seasonal reappearance in the 2017 Group 3 Palace House Stakes at Newmarket, which she followed by finishing third behind Lady Aurelia in the King's Stand Stakes.

Her career highlight came two months later at York, when under Morris she nosed out Lady Aurelia and Frankie Dettori in the Nunthorpe. Marsha was then runner-up to Baattash in defence of her Abbaye crown, and the curtain came down on a career which yielded seven victories and £650,000 in prize-money when sixth in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar.

Marsha: smashed the European auction record for a broodmare when selling for 6,000,000gns to MV MagnierCredit: Laura Green / Tattersalls

Elite Racing Club manager Dan Downie said on Monday: "It's devastating news. She gave us some amazing days and we'll never forget her; we hoped she'd go on and enjoy a long and successful career as a broodmare, but that's been cut short, which is tragic.

"Probably the Nunthorpe, as it was on home soil – it was her Group 1 in the UK – was the most special moment. That whole year was incredible, including when she took us to the Breeders' Cup and ran really well over there. She never put a foot wrong."

Marsha's first foal, the Galileo filly Tender Kiss, was seventh on her debut for Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore partners this year. She has a yearling filly by Frankel and produced a colt by the Juddmonte heavyweight this term.

Marsha was the second foal out of the fine producer Marlinka, also dam of the prolific Group-winning sprinter Judicial, who remains a fine servant for Elite in what is his tenth season of racing.

Marlinka, a Listed winner who died aged 12 in 2020, was out of Baralinka, a winning Barathea half-sister to the top-class Soviet Song, who put Elite on the map, and to Sister Act, dam of Prix Jean Romanet winner Ribbons. Kalinka, a winning daughter of Soviet Star, was Elite's foundation mare.

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An in-depth look at the amazing history of Galileo at Book 1