Agents head to South America in search of Argentina diamonds
Two New Zealand agents acting for Singapore-based clients have come away from their first Argentinian yearling sale with a combined six lots in a market the duo believe represents great value, as they look to add South America as a source of high-quality horses.
Pinhook Bloodstock International’s Australian-based agent Dave Mee and compatriot Bevan Smith both made the trip to Buenos Aires for the second Gran Venta Selecta Yearling Sale at San Isidro Racecourse on Sunday.
The auction has been put together by the respective owners of Argentina’s biggest thoroughbred studs, Haras Vacacion and Haras Abolengo, with the goal of attracting international buyers to the continent and build it into a mainstream market.
Mee, acting primarily for a Singapore syndicate of investors, targeted fillies and came away with the highest-priced yearling in the 109-lot catalogue, a US$125,000 daughter of South America’s exciting stallion Fortify (Distorted Humor).
“They will remain in Argentina to be broken and educated and when the time is right they will be sent to Singapore in 12 to 18 months’ time,” Mee told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“If either can gallop and show potential, we will then strongly consider taking them to Australia. With the incredible Aussie prize-money levels and commercial marketplace being so hot for high-quality fillies that can run, there is potentially big upside.”
The most expensive of the yearlings bought by Mee was Lot 2, the already named Joy Rosita (Fortify), who is a sister to the Grade 1 winner Roman Joy and a daughter of the Grade 2 winner The Rosy (Hennessy).
“Joy Rosita, although costing US$125,000, when weighing up the relative prices from around the world with comparable fillies that are built like her with the type of page, in my opinion she still represented excellent value,” he said.
“By the hottest young sire in South America in Fortify, she is a full-sister to very exciting three-year-old Grade 1 winner Roman Joy and a very close blood relation to Grade 1-placed Joy Angus.
“Her purchase tied into the fact that over the past six months or so I’ve been looking at South American horses to fill Hong Kong orders, so I am aware how good Roman Joy is and I think he still has plenty of big-race wins in him.”
Mee also snared Lot 8, an In The Dark (Mutakddim) filly named Laboreana, for US$38,000. She is out of the stakes-placed La Piradita (Salt Lake), making her a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Lenovo (Roman Ruler) and the Listed winner Los Anos Locos (Peer Gynt).
“Laboreana is by a freshman sire, Grade 1 winner In The Dark from a fantastic Argentinian family and a half to champion sprinter and five-time Grade 1 winner Lenovo,” he said.
Smith, in conjunction with prominent Singapore trainer Michael Clements, bought three colts from the Gran Venta Selecta sale as well a son of Fortify privately.
At the sale, the pair secured a Treasure Beach (Galileo) colt named Coordinala, a son of In The Dark named Stay In The Dark and a colt by War Command (War Front) called Impression Digital.
“We had a great guy in Agustin Villamil, who is a bloodstock agent over there, and he organised all the (inspections) and briefed us on all the breeding and we were able to buy three at the sale on Sunday,” Smith said.
“The thinking behind doing it was that the South American breed have had a fair bit of success in Singapore but they have been through the tried market where you pay top dollar – US$200,000 to US$300,000 for stakes horses.”
The young agent said he and Clements also wanted to have more control over the early education of the horses, so they spent more than a week in Argentina inspecting potential candidates to purchase.
“We were pretty strict on conformation, so we were buying horses who were correct, sound horses and they have got to have longevity, so we are getting in there before anyone else touches them and then get them up to Singapore,” he said.
“The idea was to buy horses that we liked and it was great value. I think we paid US$35,000, US$38,000 and US$40,000 for the three of them. We weren’t paying overs and we also bought a horse privately as well by Fortify who is the best stallion up there.
“We thought he was the best horse we’d seen in Argentina, so to get a horse like that by the best stallion, we were rapt to get him.”
South America is not a new hunting ground for Australasia, with Arrowfield Stud securing the then three-time champion Chilean sire Hussonet (Southern Halo) in 2003 who from his first Australian crop produced brilliant sprinter-miler Weekend Hussler, successful seven times at the highest level for trainer Ross McDonald.
The US-bred Southern Halo (Halo) has also proven influential in global bloodlines, in particular, via his sire son More Than Ready while Aquis Farm stallion Husson (Hussonet), best-known for siring Australian dual Group 1 winner Lucky Hussler, was bred in Argentina.
Mee said: “I came over here for a week in December with friend and partner Jesse Davison and we had a really good look around both Chile and Argentina and on numerous fronts were impressed with what we saw.
“The combination of the wonderful natural environment for raising horses, which produces quality horses; the relatively inexpensive cost to purchase nice horses, the world-class horsemanship and very low training costs makes a lot of sense to me to be buying here and to develop things moving forward.”
Smith felt the strong North American influence in the pedigrees helped him gain an understanding of the bloodlines but admitted the trip was a steep learning curve.
“I have always known the obvious stuff that comes out of here and Southern Halo was the champion sire out of there and he has become a really good broodmare sire, so I was looking for that in pedigrees,” he said.
“The American-line horses I knew a fair bit about and War Command is a Coolmore stallion, so he was one that I was familiar with as well.
“I felt like I got up to speed on the racing over there (in South America) very quickly and which racetracks (hold higher class racing) and that some of the stakes races at the lesser tracks just aren’t worth as much.”
South Africa’s Justin Vermaak, who was also active at the inaugural sale, returned this year to buy two fillies by champion South American stallion Equal Stripes (Candy Stripes) for US$90,000 each.
Smith made a mad dash back from Buenos Aires to arrive on the Gold Coast in time for the Magic Millions March Yearling Sale, leaving Villamil to bid on he and Clements’ behalf, while Mee was expected to arrive back in Sydney late yesterday, compelling him to 14 days in isolation due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“Credit goes to Haras Vacacion and Haras Abolengo, the farms who were the backbone of that sale,” Smith said.
“They put it at this time of year trying to attract people like us to the sale. The timing worked well as we went straight from Melbourne Premier to Argentina and it was good thinking by them.
“We will see how we go with these first four horses that we have bought but we have every intention to go back next year.
“It will all depend on results, as everything in this game does, but we are very happy with what we’ve bought and we thought it was great value.
“Going around the farms, the people hosted us fantastically well. They are very accommodating people and they were excited that someone from overseas was coming to buy their horses and to have international buyers at their sale.”