ENOUGH books have been written about breeding Thoroughbred racehorses to fill a library, but the essence of the art was once distilled to a single line: breed the best to the best and hope for the best.

Many of the best of the best, including some of the first progeny of Frankel, will go through the ring at Tattersalls in Newmarket today and tomorrow in the October Yearling Sale Book 1 where dreams can be bought – for a price. A big one.

According to the song from the musical Cabaret “money makes the world go around”. However, just once in a while there is a sum so large that its appearance on the scene is enough to make at least part of the world stop and consider.

Last year 414 yearlings were put up for sale at Book 1 and the cash register finally stopped chiming at an eye-watering 79.3 million guineas. It is a sale that has produced seven Derby winners this century, not including the one that got away.

As Jimmy George, one of the directors at Tattersalls, recalled: “This year’s Derby winner, Golden Horn, went through the sale two years ago but nobody bought him.”

However, the top lots from that sale proved to be less successful. Al Naamah cost her owners a European record five million guineas while Sir Isaac Newton was knocked down for 3.6m. Thus far Al Naamah has only a low-grade maiden win to show from seven starts while Sir Isaac Newton has a record of one from five.

Sheikh Mohammed, the driving force behind Godolphin, remains undeterred despite his share of such reverses and has been cracking open the cheque book to break records for over 30 years.

It was back in 1983 that the bloodstock world first felt the full weight of the sheikh’s buying power when he laid out a world record $10.2million for a yearling whom he named Snaafi Dancer.

The colt was sent to be trained by John Dunlop but proved to be an abject failure. Dunlop said that Snaafi Dancer would not race “before midsummer at the earliest”. Rumours had already began to circulate that the two-year-old had two speeds – slow and slower – and he was eventually retired unraced.

Dunlop summed up the problems rather succinctly when he was quoted as saying that Snaafi Dancer was “quite a nice little horse, but unfortunately no bloody good".

Any prospects that Snaafi Dancer, as a well-bred son of Northern Dancer, might still prove a viable proposition as a stallion were scotched when he proved infertile.

None of which will make the well-heeled shy away from the well-bred which will include a group comprising 18 colts and fillies from the first crop sired by Frankel who was regarded by many as one of the greatest horses in the history of the sport. He retired unbeaten in 14 racecourse starts and having been a champion three years in a row.

George has been with Tattersalls since 1986 so has seen it all before but admits to the buzz that the Frankel stock has brought to this year’s sale. “He was the best racehorse I’ll ever see and there’s bound to be a heightened sense of expectations for his career as a stallion,” he said. “There was a buzz about Frankel from his first appearance on a racecourse and there is a similar expectation surrounding his first yearlings to be seen at public auction.

“There are no guarantees that Frankel will be a successful stallion, but all the right ingredients are there.

"He was a brilliant racehorse, he’s beautifully bred – by Galileo, probably the best stallion in the world, from a top-class female line – and he’s received some very high-quality broodmares in his first year at stud.”

The early indications that the star lot among the Frankel yearlings could be a colt out of Dar Re Mi, a mare who won three Group One races when trained by John Gosden.

As the bidding rockets into the realm of telephone numbers those with the open cheque books will be hoping that the wins of the father will be visited upon the sons and daughters.

As ever, they will buy the best of the best and hope for the best.