28 Dec Spectacular horse trades that shaped 2023

Rogue Millennium

Dubawi – Hawaafez (Nayef)

Bought by JS Bloodstock for 35,000gns

Sold to David Lanigan and Ted Durcan, agents for Heider Family Stables, for 1,650,000gns

Shadwell’s decision to reduce their numbers during the 2021 sales season was always going to present opportunities for others, but few have capitalised to quite the extent that Tom Clover and The Rogues Gallery syndicate have with Rogue Millennium.

She was bought as an unraced two-year-old in training from the December Mares Sale, where she cost agent Billy Jackson Stops just 35,000gns. That price could have probably been identified as good value at the time considering she is by the great Dubawi and out of the Group 3-winning Hawaafez, which made her a sister to the seven-time scorer Khatm. But it wasn’t long before she looked a very shrewd signing indeed.

Rogue Millennium was out by the April of her three-year-old year and landed a Wetherby novice before claiming the Listed Lingfield Oaks Trial on just her second start. She continued to add black type to her CV with podium finishes in races like the Hoppings Stakes and Middleton Stakes, before she gained her third – and most memorable – victory at Royal Ascot.

Plenty of major owner-breeders and big-money buys were among the ten-strong field in the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes, but Rogue Millennium proved most determined and prevailed by a neck. Later that season she showed she was capable of cutting it in top company by finishing second to Tahiyra in the Group 1 Matron Stakes.

She will likely get the chance to add a top-flight success to her record as she is set to join Joseph O’Brien in 2024 having been bought by Ted Durcan and David Lanigan, agents for Scott Heider, for 1,650,000gns – more than 50 times her initial cost.

Clover and The Rogues Gallery arguably deserve a second entry on this list having also sold the Listed-winning sprinter Rogue Lightning, a 42,000gns breeze-up buy with Jackson Stops, for £1,000,000 at the inaugural Goffs Champions Day Sale. Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock signed the ticket on behalf of Wathnan Racing.

Rogue Millennium and Rogue Lightning cost a combined £80,850 and netted connections a cool £2,732,500 in sales receipts, along with £455,475 in prize-money.

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