Sparkling Plenty sold for £5m after dramatic auction

Sunday's Prix de Diane winner Sparkling Plenty was the centre of attention at the Goffs London Sale and lived up to her star billing by initially going under the hammer for an incredible £8.1million (€9.59m), but that wasn’t the end of the story.

It later emerged that she had been bought back by owner-breeder Jean-Pierre Dubois, before being part-sold privately to Al Shaqab Racing in a deal worth £5million (€5.92m).

The daughter of Kingman went into the French Oaks as a relative outsider, despite having claimed a convincing victory in the Group Two Prix de Sandringham at Chantilly at the start of the month.

However, on her return to the same track, Patrice Cottier’s filly belied her big price by staying on strongly to edge out Survie by a head in the hands of Tony Piccone.

Sparkling Plenty’s Classic success was hardly a flash in the pan on pedigree, though, as her dam Speralita had previously produced Jersey Stakes winner Noble Truth, who was also a Group One runner-up at two for Godolphin.

Speralita, a daughter of Frankel, was unraced herself but is a half-sister to Stacelita, who also landed the Prix de Diane among her many elite-level triumphs in Europe and America.