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Teona, Via Sistina, Cachet and Lezoo were among the star attractions going through the ring at Park Paddocks on Tuesday evening, as the December Mares Sale in Newmarket entered day two.
With both Cheveley Park Stakes winner Lezoo and Qipco Champions Day scorer Poptronic going under the hammer for 2.2million and 1.4million respectively, the stage was set as the blue-blooded Teona entered the ring.
The Roger Varian-trained 2021 Qatar Prix Vermeille winner was always likely to attract huge interest, being by Sea The Stars out of the Group 1-winning Ambivalent and the purchasing powerhouses pushed each other all the way as the five-year-old walked the ring.
Representatives of both Coolmore and Godolphin looked to have it between them after a prolonged protracted tussle on either side of the auctioneer, but it was Juddmonte's Simon Mockridge, who spoiled the party with a final bid of 4.5million guineas.
"She is the best mare in the sale, she is a Group 1 winner out of a Group 1 winner, and they are very difficult to find," Juddmonte's Simon Mockridge told Tattersalls.
"She is a beautiful addition for us, she has a great pedigree. She is by Sea The Stars, who has made a fantastic start as a broodmare sire and has had five Group 1 winners – she will fit in very well.
"She is an outcross to Frankel, which is ideal and what we are looking for. And, yes, she will be going back to Frankel!"
When questioned about the final purchasing price, he added: "You always have to stretch when you want to buy the best, it is competitive. It was very strong bidding for her, I did think that around about 3.5 to 4million [might get her].
"You have to make that extra stretch – that is something we have learnt; it is all very well trying to value them before but when you come to the moment you have to be a little stronger."
One of the stories of the night certainly came when Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes winner Via Sistina, who only cost owner Stephen Hillen just 5,000 guineas as a yearling, went under the hammer for 2.7million guineas as she sold to Evergreen Equine.
Speaking with Tattersalls following the sale, Hillen said: "It was amazing to watch! It has been tremendous from the day one. She was with Jamie Magee to be broken in and he has a lot of good stock through his hands, he rang me in February and said she is the biggest, but she gets up the gallop better than all anything else!
"It has been a dream! I thought that she'd bring in 2million guineas plus, that cross is sensational. She was a Group 1 winner, but arguably she ran great in the Champion Stakes, and she was still improving all the time. It is nice now to see her almost certainly be retired sound and go to stud.
"I was fine watching her sell – I thought that if we don't get what we want for her, we can still race her, so it was a celebration either way."
Via Sistina's stablemate Cachet was one of ten lots to fetch a seven-figure sum, with the George Boughey-trained 1000 Guineas heroine selling to Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Farm for 2.2million.
Elsewhere, Get Ahead [2.5million], Prosperous Voyage [2.4million], Rogue Millenium [1.65million], Geocentric [1.2million] and Primo Bacio [1.1million] all passed the million guineas barrier.
