Barberini secures Zeelander for £52,000 at November Sale

Zeelander, a winning four-year-old Dubawi colt previously trained by Roger Varian for Godolphin, is bound for the UAE after selling to Federico Barberini for the sale-topping sum of £52,000 at the Tattersalls Ascot November Sale on Thursday.

"He was bought for a client in Dubai and will be trained by Helal Al Alawi," said Barberini. "He's bred to stay and to mature, and hopefully he will be good enough for the Meydan spring carnival.

Al Alawi, who trains from the National Stables in the UAE, trained Shillong to win the Listed Jebel Ali Sprint in February and posted 32 wins during the 2017-18 season.

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Zeelander is a brother to Group 3 and six-time winner Danadana and was twice placed as a juvenile with an official rating of 75.

Nostrovia, a two-year-old daughter of Alhebayeb, will return to the care of her trainer Richard Spencer after he teamed up with Phil Cunningham of Rebel Racing to buy the promising filly for £22,000.

Godolphin, consistently leading vendors at this venue, were responsible for the next top lot as well with Sunshine Coat - an unraced three-year-old colt by Kyllachy from the family of stakes performers such as Sunshack, Raintrap and Meteor Storm - knocked down to trainer Jamie Osborne for £20,000.

Richard Pugh, director of horses in training sales, said: "A diverse selection of customers were present here at the Tattersalls Ascot sales ring mostly competing for form horses and this was evident from the healthy and increased clearance rate of 78 per cent.

"Today's catalogue offered predominantly form horses and looking towards the Ascot December Sale, we are confident that we will be offering a larger variety of horses, both form and point-to-pointers with the season now in full swing, available for auction on Monday, December 10."

The sale concluded with an increased aggregate of £434,650, average of £3,908 and median of £2,000. The clearance rate stood at 78 per cent, ten points higher than last year.

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