Everyone knows Homer Simpson, yes? Good, then you'll probably also be familiar with his well known expression DOH!

The Darley Group could surely be excused for saying DOH! (or the Arabic equivalent) after they bought BACK Alkaased (last weekend's record breaking G1 Japan Cup winner) for a reported sum of £10m.

And why the exclamation of frustration? Well, there's the small matter of the price differential ...

A story in The Yorkshire Times explains it beautifully:

"Meet the £10m super-stallion. This is Alkaased, who is believed to have brought his Yorkshire owner the phenomenal sum of £10m with his sale to one of the world's top studs.

And for Mike Charlton, the Hull-born businessman behind the deal, the sale is particularly sweet – because he's just sold Alkaased back to the family he bought him from originally for just £42,000.

Mr Charlton, now based in Monte Carlo, struck gold when he bought Alkaased in 2003. He purchased the horse for £42,000 from Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, a member of the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates, and yesterday completed the sale of Alkaased back to the Maktoum family's Darley Stud for an undisclosed sum but one which could approach £10m.

Alkaased, bought by the Sheikh as yearling for $325,000, won for the first time at Ripon in August 2003, when he started at odds of 1-8, but then finished only second in a handicap at Leicester and it was decided he was not up to the required standard. Mr Charlton stepped in to buy him and last Saturday, with jockey Frankie Dettori wearing the red-and-black colours of Mr Charlton's house at Hull Grammar School, he earned £1.4m by winning the Japan Cup – a race which carries over £4m in total prize-money – in record time.

Earlier this year he won over £200,000 for victory in the Grand Prix de St Cloud in Paris. The Darley operation is the breeding arm of the massive world-wide racing empire owned by the Maktoum family and Alkaased will stand at stud in Japan".

Full story at the following URL.