The colt was purchased Tuesday for 2.6m guineas (£2.73m.) A guinea is equivalent to $1.5 and is an amount used during horse auctions.

He was sold on day one of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale on the strength of his pedigree out of sire Dubawi, the Irish 2000 Guineas winner and Epson Derby third, and Group Two Coronation Stakes winner Fallen for You.

Lot 39 attracted interest from bidders in Australia, Qatar, South Africa and the UK, but it went to John Ferguson, a former trainer and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed's bloodstock adviser for Godolphin racing.

Ferguson also bought the second highest-priced lot, another Dubawi colt out of Group Two winner Giants Play, for $1.6m (£1.26m or 1.2m guineas.)

The record for a yearling at Tattersalls was the $6.7m (£5.25m or 5m guineas) paid for Galileo filly Al Naamah in 2013. She has scored place results in a number of Group races but will be very valuable for her breeding, according to Tattersalls spokesman Jimmy George.

Ferguson said of the horse known as Lot 39: "He is a lovely strong individual with a great pedigree and it is important for an organization such as ours to try and buy the best bloodstock available.

"This sale has, due to the breeders in Great Britain and Ireland, become the best source of bloodstock in the world. Breeders deserve to be getting this sort of money for the very best they produce - they have created valuable broodmare bands and invested in the very best of stallions. It is so hard to breed a good horse.

"There are two stallions in the world getting the best mares, Dubawi and Galileo, and the produce from Dubawi's better mares are starting to come on stream now."

The 2016 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Found is a four-year-old mare out Galileo and Red Evie.

A total of 136 lots sold for the sum of $41,773,260 (£32,802,000 or 31,240,000 guineas) at an average of $307,000 (£241,000 or 229,706 guineas) at the Newmarket auction.