Frankel filly latest part of ‘long-term project’ for Shadwell

Daughter of Cheveley Park winner sells for 1.6million guineas at Tattersalls.

Sheikha Hissa’s Shadwell operation went to 1,600,000 guineas to purchase a Frankel filly on the final day of the Book 1 sale at Tattersalls in Newmarket.

Consigned by Watership Down Stud, the chestnut is out of the Group One-winning Millisle, who took the Cheveley Park Stakes for Jessica Harrington in 2019.

It is the second-highest figure commanded by a yearling over the three-day sale and the buyers were delighted to get their hands on such regally-bred young stock.

“She is a lovely first foal, I saw her on the farm and loved her, I loved her every time we saw her here as did Sheikha Hissa,” long-standing Shadwell racing manager Angus Gold told Tattersalls.

“We knew she’d make a lot of money, but we need some fillies for the stud and a first foal out of Cheveley Park Stakes winner and by a great stallion, it was sort of fairly self-explanatory.

“She seems very athletic, very well-balanced and has a very good mind, so now she has got to be able to run!”

Shadwell have achieved notable on-track success this season with Hukum, Mostahdaf, Al Husn and Anmaat all registering Group One victories in the famous blue with white silks.

All four of those horses are aged five or six, showing a willingness of Shadwell’s Sheikha Hissa to extend a horse’s career beyond the typical three or four.

Their latest buy is part of the Shadwell rebuilding process and Gold added: “It is a period of rebuilding, it is a long-term project for Sheikha Hissa.

“We have been lucky this year with the older horses, and Sheikha Hissa is happy to take a different route to her father Sheikh Hamdan who did not like to keep the older horses and she is prepared to if we think there is more to come, and she has been rewarded with a Group One winner.

Sheikha Hissa with Mostahdaf and Frankie Dettori at York
Sheikha Hissa with Mostahdaf and Frankie Dettori at York (Mike Egerton/PA)

“It is exciting times for the stud, but you have to keep regenerating.”

He added of Sheikha Hissa’s ever-growing passion for the sport: “She has loved coming here, she can stand looking at the horses all day if someone did not come and move her!

“She loves coming to see the yearlings, we saw them all Monday and she has been back over the three days to see horses again. She is picking it up very quickly, like her father, and really enjoys the business.

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