A $675,000 Written Tycoon colt stands alone on bumper opening day at Inglis Premier
Spread of buyers and depth of market sets new record for Melbourne yearling sale
The Written Tycoon (Iglesia) half-brother and final sibling to Group 1-winning sprinter The Quarterback (Street Boss), who sold for a day one high of $675,000 in the last half an hour of a record Inglis Premier Yearling Sale session yesterday, will be given the chance to add another chapter to the remarkable career of breeder Rick Jamieson.
The Gilgai Farm founder – best-known as the breeder of unbeaten champion Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) and fellow Group 1 winners All Too Hard (Casino Prince), Jameka (Myboycharlie) and, more recently, Masked Crusader (Toronado) – sold three of the 62 yearlings who made $200,000 or more yesterday, which was up on a then record of 42 achieved at a bumper 2021 Melbourne auction.
Trainer Wayne Hawkes, who trains in partnership with father John and brother Michael, was delighted that the top-priced Written Tycoon colt was joining the family’s dual-state stable even if they had to pay a so-called “Gilgai premium” to get him.
“No one has ever walked out of this place and driven home with a bad one from the yearling sale,” Hawkes said. “But I got here the other day and I saw on the wall that they had 149 yearlings sold for about 14 Group 1 winners, It’s a pretty fair old stat.
“There is Black Caviar, there is Ole Kirk, All Too Hard, Masked Crusader. He is a proper breeder, this guy.
“Whenever you buy a horse off Gilgai, you know you are going to pay a premium. He’s a premium breeder, it’s as simple as that.”
Anthony and Sam Freedman, who won Saturday’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) with Daumier (Epaulette), were underbidders on the prized colt, the last of ten living foals for Soorena. He was catalogued as Lot 251.
“He is just a beautifully balanced colt with a big fat pedigree, and we’ve had some good luck with Written Tycoon in the last few years with Ole Kirk and Dirty Work,” Hawkes said.
“This bloke has a stallion’s pedigree, there is no doubt about that, and I know the Quarterback well. He beat Chautauqua in a Newmarket. He was a very, very good horse, because it was not easy to get past Chautauqua.”
Day one’s top-priced colt was raised on the same farm, is by the same sire and will be trained by the stable as dual Group 1-winning and now Vinery Stud-based sire Ole Kirk and he was also purchased for $675,000 at the 2019 edition of the Melbourne sale.
He is also the final foal out of Jamieson’s grand-producing homebred mare Soorena (Encosta De Lago), whose eight foals to race are all winners; Group 1 winner The Quarterback (Street Boss), Group 2 winner Philippi (Host) and stakes-placed quartet Octane (I Am Invincible), Born A Warrior (I Am Invincible) and The Rude Warrior (Kempinsky).
Octane and Born A Warrior were both sold for $1.4 million each as yearlings and her last foal going through the ring yesterday brings an end to Jamieson’s 20-year association with Soorena, although Gilgai Farm manager Kelly Skillecorn suggested Jamieson was likely to retain an interest in the colt who is set to be raced by similar connections as Masked Crusader .
“He’s the last out of the mare and I always thought he was the best one, not a heavy colt like the last two she’s thrown. He is just a real athlete and as good as we can breed that horse,” Skillecorn said.
“I think they’ve bought him for Rupert Legh. My boss and Rupert are good friends, so hopefully we will be in on him and hopefully we can get a big cheque at the end of it (like we did with Ole Kirk).”
The opening Premier session began with solid trade, highlighted by the fact that after two and a half hours into day one, the average was $163,511 and the median was $160,000.
After the conclusion of the 265-lot opening day of trade, 198 horses changed hands at a record sale aggregate of $32,980,000, an increase year-on-year of 16 per cent, while the average climbed to a new high of $162,980, up 13 per cent on 2021.
The median also increased by $30,000 to $140,000. The clearance rate was 82 per cent, a figure which is expected to climb.
“We were very conscious before the start of the sale that it was up 26 per cent last year. It’s a pretty significant jump. Obviously in the lead-up to the sale you just get excited with the series of sales that have been fantastic,” Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch said.
“We were expecting the sale to be up, but I think we were pleasantly surprised by the extent with which it was up.”
Ciaron Maher and David Eustace were the leading buyers, having purchased eight yearlings for a total of $1.33 million, while fellow training partnership Mick Price and Mick Kent Jnr took home seven for $1.23 million.
“I think the most extraordinary thing has been the variety of the buyers. We have good visibility on who is bidding during the day, not just buying but bidding, and you go through who bid today there is hardly a major participant in Australian racing that didn’t either buy or bid on a horse,” Hutch said.
“People are engaged and looking to buy horses at the sale and obviously a very broad cross-section of major players bought horses on day one. It’s a great sign of the standing of the sale and we have plenty to look forward to (today).”
Ho takes shine to Burrows’ son of Snitzel
The second highest-priced lot sold on day one will be trained in Victoria after Bon Ho continued his 2022 spending spree, purchasing a colt by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) for $550,000.
The colt was initially slated to be offered at the Inglis Classic sale earlier this month, but Willow Park Stud’s Glenn Burrows was convinced by the auction house’s Victorian bloodstock manager, James Price, to wait for the Premier Sale.
“We came here thinking he might have been a $350,000 to $400,000 colt, so to get $550,000 is fantastic,” Burrows said.
“We were going to go to Classic with the colt, but the little bit of extra time did him the world of good and it certainly paid dividends today.
“Bon has had a lot of luck and I hope it continues for him.”
Cranbourne-based Lloyd Kennewell will train the horse for Ho.
“I like Snitzel as a stallion, he has been very good for a long time and I think this horse will be very good for me,” Ho said from Hong Kong yesterday.
“He was a standout on conformation for me, arguably one of the best colts in the sale I believe. A lot of people, including Jonathan (D’Arcy) recommended this colt for me but Lloyd really liked him, so he will train him and hopefully be another great horse for Legend Racing.”
The colt is the fourth foal out of Reply Churlish (O’Reilly), a five-time winner who was sourced by Willow Park Stud’s Glenn Burrows upon her racetrack retirement.
Burrows then sold Reply Churlish, who is herself a half-sister to Group 3 winners Darci Be Good (Darci Brahma) and Babylon Berlin (All Too Hard), to long-time client, New Zealand’s Alan Galbraith, a successful owner and breeder who is also a shareholder in Rich Hill Stud at Matamata.
“We’ve already had one out of her, the full-sister to this guy, and she made $1 million at Easter. She has been very good in that regard and now we keep our fingers crossed that this guy can win a Group race,” Burrows said.
Willow Park completed a clean sheet on day one, selling all three yearlings they offered for an average of $230,000.
“I keep the stats, as everyone knows, and they have just been fantastic,” the studmaster said.
“We thought the Classic sale was unbelievable with inspections, but pound for pound, we’ve actually had a lot more traffic through here and we’ve sold three out of three so far. We’ve got a few good ones (today) and I am feeling pretty confident.”
Another colt by four-time champion sire Snitzel also proved popular on day one, with Hong Kong owner Tony Fung parting with $520,000 for the Sun Stud-bred youngster from the Widden Stud draft.
While the appeal of Snitzel is obvious, the colt’s dam line made Fung’s Australian operatives, chiefly Sally Williams, pay closer attention.
He is the eighth foal out of Prairie Star (High Chaparral), a five-time winner and stakes-placed mare, who has so far produced the stakes-placed Fortress Command (Sebring) and Leotie (Darci Brahma).
Purchased last year from the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale by Belmont Bloodstock’s Damon Gabbedy for $300,000 on behalf of Dorrington Farm’s Robert Crabtree, Prairie Star is also a half-sister to Listed winner and Group 2-placed mare Marianne (Darci Brahma), herself the dam of Group 2 winner Yaletown (Vancouver).
“He was a standout physically. He is a really athletic colt, we loved the way he moved and there wasn’t much to fault about him,” Williams said.
“Prairie Star is a High Chaparral mare and (the Fung-owned) Best Of Bordeaux, who is one of the favourites for the Slipper, is bred on the same cross.
“We had another winner through the week, Williamsburg, with Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou, who was out of a High Chaparral mare by Snitzel as well. Hopefully it can be another good one for the cross.”
Prairie Star has an Exceed And Excel (Danehill) weanling colt and was covered by Yulong’s first season sire Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa).
The colt, who was catalogued as Lot 163, will be sent to Hinterland Thoroughbreds near Canungra in Queensland to be broken in before a trainer is decided.
Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson described the day one’s trade as “solid”.
“Like all the auctions we’ve been to this year, they start slowly while people find their feet but once you get an hour into selling, they really kick on,” he said.
“From the buyers’ point of view, if you’ve bought early, you should be happy with yourself and that’s just a pattern throughout the sales.
“There’s a really solid buying bench for a sale where the (upward) trend continues.”
Fung bought three yearlings on day one for total receipts of $1.19 million.
Boomer’s I Am Invincible colt bound for Hong Kong
Boomer Bloodstock’s Craig Rounsefell seized the opportunity for the Hong Kong Jockey Club to buy a colt by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) for $550,000 on day one of the Premier sale.
Agent Rounsefell reasoned that the Yarraman Park Stud-bred colt’s October 30 foaling date may have swayed some of the powerful colts partnerships who would normally be making a play for a yearling with his pedigree and credentials to look elsewhere.
“Maybe that was why we got the opportunity, with the studs staying away from him,” Rounsefll said.
“He’s more of a three-year-old type. He’s just a great physical, he has scope to grow into a beautiful horse,
“The female line of the pedigree has a lot more distance range as well, so hopefully he can be a nice sprinter-miler.”
Yarraman Park, through Mitchell Bloodstock, paid $600,000 at the 2020 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale for the New Zealand Group 2-placed mare Mark Two (Pins), a sister to Group 3 winner Whistling Dixie and a half-sister to Listed-winning, Group 1-placed Hong Kong gelding Victory Magic (Savabeel). She was carrying the $550,000 colt in utero at the time of her sale. He was catalogued as Lot 78 at yesterday’s sale.
“He’s a later foal, but he was well grown and he’s going to continue to develop. He was a beautiful horse and Boomer obviously saw the upside in him,” Yarraman Park’s general manager Matt Scown said.
“He is going to do really well by the time he gets up to Hong Kong. He’s a suitable horse and he’s got a lot of Hong Kong horses through his family … and Vinnie’s doing really well up in Hong Kong.”
Sent to I Am Invincible again, Mark Two had another October 30-born colt last year and is back in foal to the same stallion, who currently leads the Australian general sires table by earnings and winners.
Rounsefell, who also went to $320,000 for a Toronado (High Chaparral) filly earlier in the session on behalf of client Peter Murray, has been purchasing yearlings to be reoffered at the Hong Kong International Sale on behalf of the HKJC for the past two years.
“Covid has obviously put a bit of a spanner in the works in terms of the sale,” the Gold Coast-based agent said.
“They have had to keep moving it, but we have some nice horses up there and quite a few this year for the sale.
“Hong Kong, it’s a tough time for them with Covid, but the club has done an amazing job to keep racing going.”
China Horse Club, Newgate and Trilogy buy Deep Field colt
While the late foaling date for the son of I Am Invincible was raised by Rounsefell, it was also not seen as an issue for a November-born Deep Field (Northern Meteor) colt, who made $520,000 later in the session.
The China Horse Club, Newgate Farm and Trilogy Racing partnership outlasted Hall Of Fame trainer John Hawkes and sons Michael and Wayne, to buy the Gilgai Farm-bred and sold November 17-born colt, the third foal out of Group 2-placed mare Mossin’ Around (Mossman). He was catalogued as Lot 117.
“It’s a great result and it’s always reassuring when two of the best judges in the game are on him,” Gilgai Farm manager Kelly Skillecorn said.
“He has been so popular and all the right judges were on him and (Deep Field) is an exceptional stallion who can do no wrong. He’s out of a good, young, fast mare and everyone liked him and he made his money.”
China Horse Club’s Michael Smith was at Oaklands Junction yesterday and was in charge of bidding for the colt by Newgate Farm’s sire Deep Field.
“The Deep Fields aren’t always overly early, but they are really fast and really tough and this colt is all man,” Smith said.
“If they are good enough, they are good enough when they are ready and we will take him along quietly.”
Irish agent Dermot Farrington identified the stakes-placed winner Mossin’ Around for Gilgai Farm owner Rick Jamieson at the 2017 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. He sent her to Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) in her first year at stud, Rubick (Encosta De Lago) the following season before choosing to mate her with Deep Field.
After being given a year off, Jamieson sent Mossin’ Around to All Too Hard (Casino Prince) in 2021.
A trainer for the Deep Field colt has not yet been decided. Gilgai Farm sold four yearlings on day one for a sale-leading average of $370,000.
Good karma for Kobritz with Dundeel colt
The racing industry, at times, has a funny way of rewarding people’s generosity and that was certainly the case yesterday when Musk Creek Farm’s David Kobritz sold a Dundeel (High Chaparral) colt to Mornington trainer Matt Laurie for $520,000.
The colt is the second foal out of Personalised (Snitzel), herself a half-sister to 2020 VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Personal (Fastnet Rock), and he was the result of a charity nomination to Dundeel in 2019 auctioned in support of former jockey Tye Angland.
Kobritz paid $100,000 – $40,000 more than Dundeel’s service fee at the time – to gain an opening to the fully booked stallion.
“He is a cracking colt and the mare is outstanding,” Musk Creek Farm manager Scott Williams said.
“It’s a great reward to see him develop on the farm since day one and then to go to a good home like Matt’s and he stays close to home which is good.
“You hope they make that sort of price when you bring them to the sales and he had plenty of interest.”
Laurie was taken with the Dundeel colt, who was catalogued as Lot 154, as soon as he saw him at Oaklands Junction last week and immediately set about putting a syndicate together in order to buy him.
“He’s a Classic style of horse, he’s got the looks to match and the pedigree to go with that. We are pretty pleased to get him to the stable,” Laurie said.
“He’s a very well-balanced horse, a nice moving colt and he’s a very attractive colt to go with it. We think that maybe he might be a stallion proposition. That’s the dream, and hopefully that comes to fruition.”
Musk Creek Farm paid $525,000, in conjunction with Boomer Bloodstock, at the 2019 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale to buy Personalised.
“We bought the mare off the back of buying that charity nom,” Williamson said.
“We bought the mare for $525,000 and she was carrying her first foal and after we bought her, Personal, her half-sister, won the Group 1 so she’d be worth a lot more now.
“And obviously with her first two foals making $575,000 and now $520,000, she is obviously a very valuable mare for us. She has got a Zoustar filly at the farm now and she is outstanding and arguably the best foal that she has had so far, which is very exciting for a small boutique farm like us.
“It’s our aim to build on that quality of mare. We want to be known as breeders.”
Sale statistics – day one
2022 2021
Catalogued 265 265 Offered 241 233
Sold 198 (82%) 193 (83%)
Aggregate $32,270,000 (+16%) $27,813,000
Average $162,980 (+13%) $144,109
Median $140,000 (+27%) $110,000
Top Lot $675,000 $1.1 million