🔒 🔒 Lady Of Camelot deal still on the table as date with Extreme Choice looms

Golden Slipper winner Lady Of Camelot will be served by Extreme Choice this spring, with Sir Owen Glenn retaining ownership of the highly valuable mare – at least for now.

Lady Of Camelot, the first Slipper-winning filly publicly offered for sale this century, was put on the market by the Go Bloodstock principal in late July through an expressions of interest process.

However, a deal that would likely have made her the highest-priced mare to be sold in Australasia and in doing so surpass the $6.6 million paid for Imperatriz in 2024, did not eventuate.

Sir Owen’s bloodstock manager Steve O’Connor told The Straight that any potential agreement to sell Lady Of Camelot had been delayed until the end of the breeding season and after she is hopefully in foal to Newgate Farm’s super sire.

“Lady Of Camelot’s close to being mated, as is her mum (Miss Debutante), and her sister Platinum Jubilee was bred to Extreme Choice (on Tuesday) as will Queen Of The Ball,” O’Connor said. 

“The whole family is going to be bred to Extreme Choice, so we’re going to go long on him with that family.”

Asked specifically about the sale of Lady Of Camelot, the 2024 Golden Slipper winner who was also five times Group 1-placed, O’Connor said: “We came close to a deal during the tender process but there were things out of our control.

“Timing was against us with the breeding season approaching, so we remain open to a deal once the breeding season is over … and if a deal doesn’t materialise then we’re more than happy for her to be part of the Sir Delius project.”

And the Sir Delius project which O’Connor refers to takes another step forward on Saturday, when the son of Frankel runs in the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington, one of three Australian Group 1s on his CV.

Redemption is then on the cards for the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Sir Delius in this year’s Cox Plate, having cruelly been denied running in 12 months ago by Racing Victoria veterinarians.

A six-year-old son of champion sire Frankel, who has also won a Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Underwood Stakes at the highest level since being purchased for 1.3 million guineas at the 2024 Tattersalls Horses in Training Sale, is majority owned by Sir Owen.

The octogenarian owner-breeder harbours ambitions to stand Sir Delius, a brother to UK Listed winner Juan Elcano and a half-brother to Group 3 winner Nkosikazi, at stud in Australia as soon as 2027.

“Sir Delius is a really elite racehorse by Frankel who complements all our speedy mares really effectively, so even if the Lady Of Camelot sale doesn’t materialise, her and her mum would be great mares to inject speed into Sir Delius to give him that chance,” O’Connor said. 

“We view Sir Delius as the perfect cross for our mares and those Danehill-line mares, so we’re going to fully get behind him if he retires next year. 

“There’s a few in the shareholder group that are in a similar boat.”

A stallion deal for Sir Delius has not been reached and despite his pedigree and race performance – and a Cox Plate would certainly help his stud appeal – Sir Owen and O’Connor are cognisant of the commercial realities of standing a stallion such as him.

“Sir Owen has been trying to find a stallion to make it as a champion stallion and even though he’s not the typical Australian sprinter, we think we could breed good two-year-olds by him and he’s going to produce good three and four-year-olds,” O’Connor said, 

“Typically, (those style of) stallions will gravitate to New Zealand, but we think he’s a bit special, so we’re very happy to keep him in Australia and prove to everybody that he can be an elite stallion here. 

“We’ve got confidence that we can do that with the mares that we’ve got, and that’s Lady Of Camelot included if no deal is done.”

Sir Owen is a shareholder in the sub-fertile but freakish stallion Extreme Choice, the sire of 20 stakes winners, including seven Group 1 winners, from just 170 runners.

O’Connor, too, has benefitted handsomely from Extreme Choice, selling a colt by the sire out of Giza Goddess at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in late March for $2 million to Yulong and trainer Matt Laurie.

Lady Of Camelot was retired in May as a rising five-year-old after Sir Owen’s Royal Ascot dream was called off due to the daughter of Written Tycoon being stung by a stingray while being swum at a Brisbane beach.