- A prominent football agent has set his sights on finally winning the Epsom Derby
- Joorabchian gasped after £4.5m purchase for yearling colt
- In total, Amo Racing purchased 17 of its own lots, plus even more in partnerships
Kia Joorabchian’s extraordinary week at Tattersalls ended in record-breaking fashion when he paid £4.5 million for the most expensive yearling colt sold at public auction.
Under the banner of Amo Racing, Joorabchian, the prominent football agent, and Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis took on the most established blood bank operations and left no one in doubt of their ambition to become major players in the field.
Tattersalls, the famous auction house in Newmarket, hosts the Book 1 auction each October – when the best-bred yearlings go under the hammer – and Joorabchian’s investment of 4.3 million guineas (£4.5 million) for a son of leading father Wootton Bassett drew cheers from the assembled crowd as he outwitted MV Magnier, representing market leaders Coolmore.
Conscious of who he was selling to, auctioneer Alastair Pim – echoing a famous 1966 comment – said as he brought the gavel down with a thud: ‘They don’t make them that often, this is an opportunity of a lifetime… they think it’s all over – it’s now!’
Joorabchian celebrated with a small fist bump and the dream will be that the little colt will be the one to achieve his ambitions of winning the Epsom Derby, after finishing second twice with Mojo Star (2021) and King Of Steel ( 2023). If he is good enough, he will be at Epsom in June 2026.
Prominent football agent Kia Joorabchian paid £4.5 million for the most expensive yearling colt sold at public auction
King Of Steel, ridden by jockey Frankie Dettori (right), was one of two Joorabchian horses to finish second in the Epsom Derby
In total, Amo Racing purchased 17 of its own lots over the three days, plus several more in partnership with Qatar’s Al Shaqab Racing.
The total spend was a whopping £23.5million and included a £4.6million filly on Tuesday, whose sire is the great Frankel.
“Who likes to spend that much money?” said Joorabchian. ‘But you have to do it. We’re trying to buy the best stocks, that’s all we’re trying to do. We can’t compete unless we try to get the best shares. How else do you compete? It’s very difficult.
‘We have tried in recent years, but outsmarting these people is very difficult. This colt and the Frankel mares were our main targets.”