Black Opal winner Autumn Ballet dances into Chairman’s Sale

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Dam of star Kiwi two-year-old Velocious also set to go under the hammer at Riverside

The depth of the Chairman’s Sale has continued to build with a trio of high-quality race fillies and the dam of a Group 1-winning two-year-old among the latest horses set be offered at Inglis’s annual bluechip breeding stock auction.

Black Opal Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) and Silver Shadow Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winning three-year-old Autumn Ballet (The Autumn Sun) – who defeated another high-profile Chairman’s entrant in Kimochi (Brave Smash) when winning the Randwick race – and fellow stakes winners A Very Fine Red (Deep Field) and De Sonic Boom (Spirit Of Boom) were all confirmed yesterday for the May 9 sale.

The dam of New Zealand’s likely champion two-year-old Velocious (Written Tycoon), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) mare Parmalove, was also rolled out by Inglis as another high-class broodmare to go to auction next month.

Inglis had already announced that Group 1 winner She’s Extreme (Extreme Choice) was to be offered, along with, Startantes (Star Turn), Kimochi (pictured below, pink and red cap), Pennyweka (Satono Aladdin) and the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) placed half-sister to Written By (Written Tycoon) in C’est Magique (Zoustar) who was runner-up in the Wenona Girl (Gr 3, 1200m) at Randwick last Saturday.

Despite the growing number of elite mares earmarked for the Chairman’s Sale, Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch predicted the finalised catalogue was unlikely to match the numbers of the past two years of 109 and 100 lots.

“The impression we get at the moment is, there isn’t a tremendous appetite amongst people with nice mares to sell them. They’re hard to accumulate,” Hutch said.

“We’ve had a sequence of years now where a number of the major investors, whether it’s Yulong and Coolmore, etc, being very active in the market, which has made it increasingly hard for people to consolidate quality breeding stock.

“The feeling is that people who have it want to keep hold of it and that I think only increases the value of the stock that will make it onto the market.”  

When Inglewood Stud’s Gus Wigley was considering whether to sell his prized broodmare Parmalove, the temptation became too hard to resist when Velocious earlier this month completed the Karaka Millions 2YO (RL, 1200m)-Sistema Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) double.

If there was any reason to question his likely decision, Wigley only had to look back to 2018 when he first got his hands on Parmalove.

A Willow Park Stud-traded mare, the now 11-year-old Parmalove was purchased by Wigley for $230,000 at the 2018 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale when in foal to Capitalist (Written Tycoon).

Since then she has produced the stakes-placed winner Penvose Lad (U S Navy Flag) as well as this season’s star Go Racing-owned New Zealand two-year-old Velocious.

“Velocious has been a great advertisement for the farm and when we bought her [Parmalove], we bought four nice mares that year,” Wigley told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“It was the year that we had sold down our percentage in Zacinto in a similar sort of move to what we’re doing now with Parmalove.

“It wasn’t an easy decision, but at the end of the day, breeding and selling horses is our bread and butter. We try to invest in a mare or two every year and to do that we have to come from the profits of the stud.”

Velocious’s half-sister by Dundeel (High Chaparral) was bought by Go Racing and Blandford Bloodstock’s Stuart Boman for $300,000 at the NZB Karaka Yearling Sale in January. She has a Per Incanto (Street Cry) weanling filly and is in foal to young Rich Hill shuttle sire Satono Aladdin (Deep Impact).

The emerging southern hemisphere stallion influence, Satono Aladdin is the sire of eight stakes winners in two crops of racing age, including New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) and Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Pennyweka.

Wigley owns Parmalove’s first foal, two-year-old winner Mozzarella (Capitalist), who has a North Pacific (Brazen Beau) colt on the ground, while he will also consider retaining Parmalove’s Per Incanto weanling filly.

Inglewood Stud will consign the valuable mare at the Chairman’s Sale, the first time the Wigleys have sold horses in Australia under their own banner.

“I loved the pedigree when I bought her but I just fell in love with her as a type. She’s a lovely, big strong mare and there’s actually a lot of Dehere in her, I thought. She throws plenty of size and good bone into her foals just like her,” Wigley said.

“I like the mating with Satono Aladdin. He’s Danehill-free and he throws a nice leggy type and he’s a nice tall horse himself.”

Co-trainer Adrian Bott, meanwhile, has little doubt that Autumn Ballet, who hails from the family of Lonhro (Octagonal), can go on to become an exceptional broodmare.

“Autumn Ballet has been a magnificent race filly,’’ Bott said.

“To become the first horse in history to win the Black Opal on debut was instant proof she was a top–level filly and to then progress into her three-year-old campaign and defeat some high quality fillies like Kimochi, Estriella, Lazzago, Mumbai Muse, etc, in the Silver Shadow at Group 2 level was further evidence of that talent she possessed on the track.

“She’s a Group winner at two and three – which is rare in itself – she’s got a mouth-watering pedigree and I have no doubt she’ll make a great broodmare.”

Regular Chairman’s vendor Brett Howard of Glenesk Thoroughbreds – the seller of 2022 $2.7 million mare Shout The Bar (Not A Single Doubt) and last year’s $3.6 million mare Nimalee (So You Think) – will once again present a high-class collection of mares to the market on Inglis’s night of nights.

Among the Glenesk offerings will be stakes winner and five-times stakes-placed former Mark Newnham-trained mare A Very Fine Red (pictured below), Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Steinem (Frankel) and De Sonic Boom. 

The dam of Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) winner Portland Sky (Deep Field), Sky Rhumba (Shrewd Rhythm), and two-time stakes winner Solaia (Toronado), who is in foal to Australian Horse of the Year Anamoe (Street Cry), will also form part of the Glenesk draft.

“We’re thrilled about how our draft for this year’s sale is shaping. Steinem (pictured below), to have a mare by the best stallion in the world in Frankel, who is a Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed, I mean what’s not to like?” Howard said.

“And a horse like A Very Fine Red, I was only looking the other day and in the past two-and-a-half seasons there’s only one stallion in Australia whose progeny have earned more money than Deep Field and that’s I Am Invincible, so having a daughter of Deep Field in the draft is fantastic.’’