There was a poignant subplot to the sale of the Mehmas colt who sold to Godolphin for a record-breaking £1,000,000 during a remarkable renewal of the Doncaster Breeze-Up Sale on Thursday. The youngster was pinhooked as a foal through Anna Sundstrom and Filip Zwicky on behalf of the seven-strong Nordic Partnership, whose members include Jakob Dalhoff and his partner Maria. The couple had travelled to Doncaster from Ukraine, and spoke movingly about the “very bittersweet” contrast between Thursday’s result and the “horrors” they are experiencing at home as a consequence of the Russian invasion. Dalhoff said: “It’s very bittersweet as we’ve had a lot of joy here but we face horrors at home in Ukraine. Life is so odd now. We were in the middle of enjoying a cosy meal with friends in Doncaster last night and our mobiles started bleeping to alert us of an air-raid attack at home. “We own a couple of horses in Denmark, and a percentage of any winnings go to renovation work after the bombing of Ukraine. It helps a lot, and we’ve seen the difference it makes. We do humanitarian work in Ukraine and help as much as we can in any way. We’ll be back home in Ukraine next week.” Explaining how their pinhooking venture began, Dalhoff, chief executive of a finance and accounting firm, said: “I said to Filip two years ago I wanted him to find us a new, interesting project for us, and so he and Anna Sundstrom found two foals for us to pinhook at the Goffs November Sale – this Mehmas colt and a Blue Point filly. “All the credit has to go to them for finding such lovely horses. Never in our wildest dreams did we think he’d make that much. We were thinking £400,000 or £500,000, so we’re over the moon.” Thursday’s result landed the Nordic Partnership a significant dividend as the Mehmas colt was pinhooked at Goffs for €140,000. He was reoffered on Thursday by Katie Walsh after going unsold at the same price at Arqana last August. This was not the only good result the partnership have enjoyed, as the aforementioned Blue Point filly went from €150,000 foal to €500,000 yearling when sold to Al Shaqab Racing. Zwicky was on hand in Doncaster, and added: “We went to the Goffs November Foal Sale in 2023, bought a filly by Blue Point and colt by Mehmas. They went to be reared by Anna Sundstrom and both went to Arqana. The Blue Point sold for half a million to Al Shaqab, but we didn’t sell the Mehmas. “Fair play to the Nordic Partnership, they said ‘Ok, we earned money from the Blue Point so we’ll put some of it into trying to breeze the Mehmas.' Anna suggested we send the horse to Katie Walsh, so a lot of credit goes to them, and fair play to the Nordic Partnership for the bold pinhooking.” Read next ‘They don’t make many like him’ - pinhookers land monster profit as €9,000 Kodi Bear colt sells to Godolphin for £500,000 ‘We felt it was an experiment worth conducting’ - the British breeding powerhouses taking a ‘punt’ on Japanese superstar Equinox Good Morning Bloodstock is our unmissable email newsletter. Leading bloodstock journalist Martin Stevens provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday