Fundamentalist joins Chairman’s Sale line-up
Catalogue for next month’s elite level auction adds a number of wildcards, including five-time Group 1 placegetter
Five-time Group 1 placegetter Fundamentalist (Not A Single Doubt) has joined the growing list of fillies and mares on offer at next month’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale, with the four-year-old – who is in foal to Zoustar (Northern Meteor) – among the latest wildcard entries confirmed for the May 8 virtual auction.
Also among the wildcards released yesterday is Fundamentalist’s dam Centafaith (Keep The Faith), who is in foal to The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice), along with stakes-winning filly Bella Rosa (Snitzel) and Summer Surf (Big Brown), a half-sister to Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), who will be offered in foal to freshman sire Brave Smash (Tosen Phantom).
Queensland Oaks winner Youngstar (High Chaparral) was the first wildcard announced when the catalogue was released last week. Fundamentalist represents a similar, select type of mare that Inglis was specifically searching for as a Chairman’s Sale type, said Sebastian Hutch, Inglis’ general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing.
“We set out with an objective to try and put together a catalogue that included mares of a particular profile: young, well-credentialled mares by proven stallions in foal on good, early covers to the elite commercial stallions,” Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday. “These types are very hard to come by and Fundamentalist ticks all those boxes. She’s a rare conveyance.
“She was a whisker away from being a multiple Group 1 winner and, historically, mares like that have a good record at going on to prove themselves as very good producers. She was very versatile, she had good two-year-old form, good three-year-old form, there was really nothing that you couldn’t like about her.”
Part-owner Wes Heritage described Fundamentalist as “a mighty mare who took us on the ride of a lifetime’’.
“She was so much fun to race, just a group of mates who have been on a journey around Australia with her contesting stakes races in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. But not everybody involved in her is a breeder so the time has come to dissolve the partnership,’’ Heritage said.
“She was as tough as they come on the track, she’s gone to the breeding barn without having been over-raced, she’s by a great stallion in Not A Single Doubt and I have no doubt she’s going to prove an absolutely outstanding broodmare prospect for her lucky new owner.’’
Fundamentalist’s dam Centafaith went through last year’s Chairman’s Sale as an empty mare, fetching $180,000 to the bid of R J Bloodstock.
Hutch said he is excited by the latest wildcards to be added to the catalogue and believes this year’s sale is shaping to be the best yet.
“It’s building nicely so far,” he continued. “We added a really nice young mare that Segenhoe is consigning on behalf of clients named Bella Rosa. She won the Ottawa Stakes as a two-year-old, she was an expensive yearling, a good pedigree. She’s by Snitzel, she has a really nice profile as a breeding prospect. Actually, Segenhoe has also entered a half-sister to Sunlight in foal to Trapeze Artist.
“We’ve got Summer Surf too. To be a half to the champion two-year-old elect and the Golden Slipper winner is a pretty rare claim, it’s pretty special as far as pedigree updates go. She’s in foal to a very capable, fast, talented young sprinter in Brave Smash. It’s a solid pedigree, there’s a lot to like about her as well and these are the sort of mares with profiles to significantly enhance anybody’s breeding program.”
Wildcard entries for The Chairman’s Sale will be accepted up until 5pm AEST Friday April 24, with Hutch anticipating further interest from potential vendors, particularly after the success of the flagship Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
“We’ve fielded significant interest in the sale, we have all the way along and obviously there was a period of uncertainty owing to coronavirus,” Hutch said. “Since Easter though there is a real confidence among a lot of vendors that Inglis has demonstrated that it can facilitate a high-end market in this format. I think that’s given people added confidence in the Chairman’s Sale.
“We’re really very pleased with how the catalogue has come together. We’re also very grateful for the support from vendors too. The final catalogue is going to be a bit bigger than last year.
“I feel that, when the catalogue is all said and done, it will be a catalogue of much greater quality across the board. That’s not to be disparaging of last year’s catalogue, it was great, but this catalogue is something very special indeed.
“I think we’ll be in a position to announce some more high-profile additions to the sale early next week. We’re conscious of the fact it’s a boutique sale so we’ve tried to be very selective about what we’ve added to the sale.
Hutch also pointed out that the Chairman’s Sale is unique in the manner in which it presents its book and its lots and that Inglis is aiming to improve on what it produced last year.
“Given the way that we put the book together with the research that goes into the pedigrees of each of the mares, the promotional points and the photographs, the video work and the graphic design around it, it creates a lot of work,” he said.
“It’s all worth doing though when you have good mares in the catalogue. It’s all things that we did for the sale last year.
“We tried to set our standards that we were going to facilitate a presentation of mares of elite quality in a manner that hadn’t been done here, or really anywhere else, before. Other certain sales try to identify a promotional point or two about a mare but they don’t dedicate a whole page to it.
“We set out to offer vendors an extremely high level of service. We’ve committed to doing that again this year, so really, what we are doing is no deviation from what we did last year; we are just looking to do it to a higher standard again.”
The Chairman’s Sale will take on a similar format to last week’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling sale, with an auctioneer in real time and online and telephone bidding. The sale begins at 3pm AEST on May 8.