Football agent splashes more than £8million on three new signings for racing team

Kia Joorabchian spent big on the opening day of Tattersalls' top yearling sale, paying seven figure sums for three horses by Frankel for his Amo Racing stable

Football agent Kia Joorabchian splashed more than £8million on three new signings at the yearling sales on Monday.

He spent big on the opening day of Europe’s premier yearling sale at Tattersalls in Newmarket recruiting for his Amo Racing stable. Amo Racing has enjoyed significant success on the track in recent years, notably with last year’s Champion Stakes winner King Of Steel.

During Tuesday’s buying spree Amo bid seven figure sums for three yearlings by Frankel, including a filly who fetched 4.4m gns, the second highest lot ever sold at Tattersalls October Book 1 Sale.

The winning bid was made by bloodstock agent Alex Elliott who was standing in the sales arena with Joorabchian.

He told Tattersalls, "Phew! Kia and partners wanted the filly very badly – a Frankel filly from that family and with that physical, she was always going to be a collectors' item.

“It is a deep price tag and, though we had discussed her at length, obviously I did not see her making that – but we had very much honed in on her.

"But she is part of Team Amo now... wow! She is a spectacular filly, it is a spectacular price, a spectacular bunch of horses here. I'd like to say I was a cool customer when all that was taking place, but that would be a fib – I have never been in that rarified atmosphere before."

He added: "All the teams select the best horse and it is who blinks first, and fair play to Kia he certainly did not blink, I think I did!”

A full sister to 2022 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Alpinista was also knocked down to Elliott for 2.5m gns.

"Kia has been in the game for a certain amount of years now, and to compete at the top table you have to have the best pedigrees – it is the only way to compete consistently.” Elliott said.

"Amo has got to a level now that it is ready to try and do that, and that filly has just about the best pedigree in the book. It doesn't get any better than that. She is a fine big scopey filly, she worth a hell of a lot of money residually.”

He continued: "But Kia is ready for the operation to prove itself at the next echelon and that is where we are trying to get to and that is why we need to get into these families. The fact that these horses are staying here is huge for British racing and we should all be huge cheerleaders for it."

Joorabchian said: "We need strong pedigreed fillies, and we have a lot of horses going to stud in the next year, such as Buccanero and King Of Steel, it will be this year or next year we will have to make a decision soon., and we have Persian Force already at stud.

“We need to back them, otherwise we are just going to get left behind – we have to back our stallions to have a chance of winning.

"It is very difficult to buy such mares because the likes of Juddmonte, Coolmores, Shadwells, all the big guys own all the big mares. So we have to come out here and hope that what we are buying in terms of pedigrees, will make us competitive."