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Day Two of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale on November 29 saw the sale of two-time Gr.1 winner Saffron Beach for 3,600,000 guineas ($4,520,718) to Prince Faisal bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz's Najd Stud. The filly is staying with trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam so she can reach her international goal.
Chapple-Hyam remarked, "It's a tremendous delight and a big honour, and we've got a fantastic winter to look forward to." "The way she was bopping around in the parade ring, I suppose she was just killing time until the saddle was put on. I think she will finish the nine furlongs in Saudi since she is in fantastic shape and tough. It's risky to venture out onto the dirt surface, but we'll try anyhow."
Chapple-Hyam mentioned the Saudi Cup as the new primary goal after being offered participation into the US$4 million Gr.1 Hong Kong Mile race.
We'll get her ready once she rests for a while," she replied. As her trainer put it, "I'll have to have a very good racecourse gallop with her, as when I sent her to the Dubai World Cup meeting, although we ran well in fourth, all of the ones in front of us had had a run, so I'm conscious of it."
"Without these owners buying her, she would have gone to stud at Northern Farm, but because to them, I get one more dance, and it's a big one! To put it simply, I couldn't be more ecstatic," she said.
In addition to the Gr.1 Prix Rothschild at age 4, Saffron Beach also won the Gr.1 Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes as a 3YO. In addition to those victories, she has four others, the finest of which was a 3-and-a-half-length victory in the Gr.2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot this year, for which she received a Racing Post Rating of 121. She was successful in her first three races at age 2, winning twice and placing second in the Gr.3 Oh So Sharp Stakes and the Gr.1 One Thousand Guineas behind Mother Earth.
Saffron Beach, bred by China Horse Club, hails from New Bay's first foal crop at Ballylinch Stud. She has been a genuine flagbearer for the son of Dubawi, who will stand the 2023 breeding season for a career-high fee of €75,000, up from the introduction price of €20,000 at which Saffron Beach was bred.
She is John Gosden and Princess Haya's second foal out of the dam Falling Petals, a daughter of Raven's Pass who won a Lingfield maiden race for the trainer's owners. Out of the listed-placed dam Infinite Spirit comes Falling Petals, making her a full sibling to seven stakes winners. Among them is Huntdown, who finished third in the Middle Park Stakes. Cotai Glory, winner of the Molecomb Stakes and a stallion at Tally-Ho Stud, comes out of another sibling, the unraced Continua.