Salute The Soldier Makes Six Figures at Tattersalls

A six-figure showdown between Oliver St. Lawrence and Saudi Arabian owner Khalid Mishref resulted in Salute The Soldier topping trade during the third day of the Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale Oct. 30, with St. Lawrence winning the battle for the 109-rated son of Sepoy at 380,000 guineas (US$513,367).

The rival bidders locked horns at the back of the auditorium as evening set in at Park Paddocks, with an increase of 5,000 guineas sealing the deal for the agent.

"The auctioneer did well to get another bid out of us as we definitely weren't going any further," St. Lawrence quipped. "He's a nice type of horse who seems to go on firm ground so should suit the Middle East. He's been bought by Fawzi Nass, who'll train the horse himself, although I don't know whether the horse will go to Bahrain or Dubai."

Offered by Beechdown Farm Stables, Salute The Soldier has won four times for Clive Cox and has been placed a further seven times.

He achieved his career-high Racing Post Rating of 109 while winning an Ascot handicap on his penultimate outing and was last seen adding black type to his record with a third in a Newbury listed event.

"He's a horse Fawzi has been following for a while," added St. Lawrence. "Clive's a good trainer and has been bringing the horse along nicely and taken great care of him."

St. Lawrence has signed for 18 lots across the three days of trade, with Salute The Soldier his priciest purchase and his cheapest being the 1,500 guineas ($2,019) Global Challenger.

"There's been a bit of a lack of horses after the usual large amount of withdrawals, which has been the same for the last few years," he said when asked about this week's market. "That's meant the nicer horses have been tougher to buy, so I'd say trade has been pretty good. I've been buying for places like Greece, Pakistan, and Hungary, and trade at the bottom end has seemed strong, too."

Mishref may have filled the role of underbidder on the session topper, but he enjoyed better fortunes earlier in the day, notably when he picked up the rapidly progressive Dramatic Device, who will now head to Saudi Arabia after the owner and bloodstock agent Paul Harley struck the winning bid of 220,000 guineas ($297,212).

The 4-year-old son of Dansili rattled off a hat trick for Chris Wall, joining the trainer's Induna Stables after he was purchased by Durcan Bloodstock for just 20,000 guineas ($27,534) in February.

His winning run has seen his official rating rise to 93, with his latest success coming in a handicap at Newmarket last month.

Just three lots before Dramatic Device jumped to the top of the list of prices, Mishref and Harley also landed Rock The Cradle at 200,000 guineas ($270,193) when the improving sort was offered by Ed Vaughan's Machell Place Stables.

"They'll both go well in Saudi Arabia," Mishref said. "I like both as individuals, and I think they'll go on the dirt surface in Saudi. Dansili has a good record there. I hope Rock The Cradle will run in the King's Cup and then go on to the Saudi Cup. My son will train both horses."

The free-spending Mishref was also busy outside the ring, as he added the talented stayer Mekong to his string in a private deal at 400,000 guineas, less than 24 hours after the son of Frankel was bought in for 425,000 guineas ($573,740).

Just last week, it was announced that Mishref had bought into Phoenix Thoroughbreds' Saudi Cup contender Gronkowski, who was last seen going down by just a nose to Thunder Snow in this year's Dubai World Cup Sponsored By Emirates Airline (G1).

Of the 305 lots offered Wednesday, 270 were sold for an 89% clearance rate. The aggregate of 8.206 million guineas ($11,086,016) was down 21% year-on-year, while the average and median declined 18% from 2018 at 30,395 guineas ($41,059) and 16,500 guineas ($22,291), respectively.