Saxon Warrior Kicks Off Craven Sale With 210,000gns Colt

A first crop son of Saxon Warrior provided the first highlight of the Tattersalls Craven Sale, bringing a winning bid of 210,000gns from Dubai-based trainer Satish Seemar.

Seemar outbid strong opposition, including Charles Shanahan and Jonno Mills, before revealing, “He’s been bought for regular client in Dubai, who has a little liking for Japanese breeding, so it was a perfect match. He’s an impressive horse to look at and we could see with the action on him that we would have to pay a premium.”

The Saxon Warrior colt returned a substantial profit for consignor Johnny Collins of Brown Island Stables, who later commented, “He was a big, strong horse with plenty of action who did well over the winter. He did a really good gallop here on Monday, especially for a horse that’s likely to need more than a mile.”

Saxon Warrior made a perfect start with his first runner, with newcomer Ser Sed scoring over five and a half furlongs earlier this month. Though Saxon Warrior himself did not appear until August of his two-year-old career, he made up for lost time by winning all three of his starts in a Curragh maiden, the Group 2 Beresford Stakes and Group 1 Racing Post Trophy. The son of Deep Impact returned to capture the 2,000 Guineas and went on to be placed at the highest level on three occasions.