This Saxon Warrior colt was purchased at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale – the same sale we sourced Sir Busker (a €25,000 purchase) in 2017. Graduates of this sale are eligible for their €250,000 Super Auction Sales Race, a race we finished second in a few years ago with Flashcard (a €36,000 purchase).  Saxon Warrior is a son of the Japanese wonder sire Deep Impact and out of the Group 1 winning Galileo mare, Maybe. Saxon Warrior won the Racing Post Trophy (Group 1) as a juvenile before going on to land the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket as a three-year-old. At stud, his first crop of two-year-olds included the Breeders Cup winning Victoria Road, which soon sent his stud fee soaring to a high of €35,000 last year. He has gone a bit quieter commercially since but Group horses like King’s Gambit, Lumiere Rock and Rage Of Bamby prove he is a sire very much to be interested in.

The dam, Sense Of Humour, was a winner over seven furlongs herself and hails from an outstanding Anthony Oppenheimer pedigree. She is by one of the best European sires in Dark Angel, who is also now becoming a smart broodmare sire with Havana Grey, one of the hottest young sires around, being out of one of his daughters. Sense Of Humour is out of a Bernardini (another outstanding maternal influence) half-sister to the 2,000 Guineas winner Footstepsinthesand and the Group 1 winning two-year-old Pedro The Great, both of whom have tasted good success at stud so one could say this is a stallions pedigree!

Luke Lillingston commented: “When we sat down with Emma Balding to look at our second day lists at Fairyhouse this horse was our nap selection for the entire day. You will see a colt with a beautiful head and expression and excellent balance and movement. There are so many great sires and broodmare sires in this horses pedigree; while the top of the page might appear a little light there is great genetic potential in his equine veins. He comes from the famous McCalmont family’s Norelands Stud in Co Kilkenny and we have every confidence he will outrun his price tag and prove himself to be another Tattersalls Ireland /Kennet Valley bargain.”