trio became known as "the Brethren". Their idea was to use Sangster's money to buy up the best yearlings at the Keeneland Sales in Kentucky, cornering the line of horses bred from the stallion Northern Dancer. Trained by O'Brien at his Ballydoyle stables these horses would go on to success on the track and command enormous fees standing at stud. In 1975 they paid just under $1.8 million for a number of young horses, including The Minstrel, a colt by Northern Dancer out of Fleur, who went on to win The Derby in 1977. With the success of The Minstrel, Sangster and his partners established themselves as among the world's leading racehorse owners, going on to extraordinary success. Between 1977-84 Sangster was Britain's leading owner five times. There was a second Derby win in 1982 with Golden Fleece; three Prix de l'Arc de Triomphes, with Alleged, twice, in 1977 and 1978, and with Detroit in 1980; a Melbourne Cup victory with Beldale Ball, again in 1980; and a win in the Breeders' Cup Mile with Royal Heroine in 1984. Initially, these horses were sold to stand at stud for syndicates at vast profits. The Minstrel, who had cost $200,000, was sold to America for $9 million; Alleged, bought for $175,000 as a two-year-old, went to Kentucky a year later for $16 million. These profits funded further purchases but by the mid-1980s, beginning with Be My Guest, Coolmore began to have its own champion sires in residence. Two of Sangster's horses, Caerleon and Sadler's Wells, the latter bred at Sangster's Swettenham Stud, went on to be among the most successful stallions in the world. Sadler's Wells's legacy to Coolmore included Galileo and Montjeu, outstanding sires in their own right. Yearling sales Sangster continued to invest in yearlings in partnership with associates that included Danny Schwartz, who had made a fortune as a builder in California, and, from 1979, Stavros Niarchos, the Greek shipping tycoon and sometime rival of Sangster at the sales. In the mid-1980s competition, largely with buyers from the Middle East, pushed prices to extremely high levels. The average price at Keeneland's July Select Sale rose from $53,000 in 1975 to more than $600,000 in 1984. In the same period the average at Newmarket's Houghton Sales climbed from 7,600 guineas to 92,500 guineas. In 1983 Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum paid $10.2 million at the Kentucky Sales for a yearling