'Bittersweet' moment as racehorse fetches £1m after missile attack on investor's Ukraine home

A group of bloodstock investors realised a sum beyond their wildest dreams when they sold a two-year-old for a record £1 million.

Last year the jumper Regent’s Stroll fetched the highest price paid at a Goffs auction in Doncaster when knocked down to ex-Manchester United manager Sir and his pals for £660,000. The figure was smashed on Thursday after Godolphin landed the winning seven figure bid for a colt by Mehmas who had been prepared by former jockey Katie Walsh, sister of Ruby Walsh, on behalf of a Scandinavian group, at the breeze-up sale.

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The Nordic Partnership includes Danish-born businessman Jakob Dalhoff and his Ukrainian partner Maria, who live in war-torn .

Dalhoff said: “I said to our agent Filip Zwicky two years ago that I wanted him to find a new, interesting project for us, and so he and Anna Sundstrom bought two foals for us to pinhook at the Goffs November Sale – this Mehmas colt and a Blue Point filly, who made a nice profit as a yearling last year. All the credit has to go to them for finding such lovely horses.

“Never in our wildest dreams did we think the Mehmas colt would make that much money today. We were thinking £400,000 or £500,000, so we’re over the moon."

He went on: “It’s very bittersweet, though, as we’ve had a lot of joy here but we face horrors at home in Ukraine. Life is so odd now. We were in the middle of enjoying a cosy meal with friends in Doncaster last night and our mobiles started bleeping to alert us to an air-raid attack at home.

“We own a couple of horses in Denmark, and a percentage of any winnings goes to renovation work after the bombing of Ukraine. It helps a lot, and we’ve seen the difference it makes. We do humanitarian work in Ukraine and help as much as we are able in any way we can. We’ll be back home to Ukraine next week.”

Walsh has become a successful bloodstock consignor, preparing horses for the breeze-ups, since retiring from the saddle.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “I’m delighted for my clients. It’s very different [to being a jockey], I’m not going to lie. Financially, this makes an awful lot more sense of course, but they’re two completely different things. It’s a different thrill, a different buzz, a different adrenaline rush.”

The colt will go into training with Charlie Appleby.