Group 2 winner Fasika to be sold on Inglis Digital after Missile Stakes third
Connections look to buoyant online market to offer ‘the perfect specimen’ as breeding season closes in
Fresh after her gallant third placing in last Saturday’s Missile Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Randwick, connections of high class race mare Fasika (So You Think) have opted to sell her through the Inglis Digital August (Late) Auction.
Tricolours Racing’s James Moss, who selected Fasika at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale and purchased her for $120,000 before managing her racing career, described the six-year-old mare as “the perfect specimen’’.
“She’s what every colonial breeder is looking for. Big, strong and powerful, a genuine Group 1 mare that possesses sustained speed, has an on-pace racing style, a powerful finish and proven against the best. She’s the perfect mare, the perfect specimen for a breeder,” Moss said.
“I can’t imagine there’d be a stud master in the country or even further afield that wouldn’t want a mare like her amongst their mares, she has all the attributes to make an outstanding broodmare.”
Trained by Joe Pride, Fasika, a daughter of Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) mare Jarada, is renowned for her tough, on-speed racing pattern and has won five of her 15 starts amassing more than $760,000 in prize–money.
As a three-year-old she won her first two starts comfortably before stepping up to stakes level for the first time at her third outing where she won the South Pacific Classic (Listed,1400m) at Randwick during The Championships in 2019.
After that she raced exclusively in either Stakes company or newly formed ‘rich races’, defeating the likes of Santa Ana Lane (Lope De Vega), Tofane (Ocean Park) and Bivouac (Exceed And Excel).
Fasika went on to win the Sapphire Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) and the Wenona Girl Handicap (Gr 3, 1200m) and finished third behind Group 1 winners Tofane and Pierata (Pierro) in the All Aged Stakes (Gr 1,1400m).
Fasika bled for the first time in her career last Saturday and this no doubt fast tracked her owners to make the move to sell with a view to marketing her as a prime breeding prospect.
Once the decision was made, Moss said he didn’t hesitate to offer the mare through the booming Inglis Digital sales platform.
“Inglis has been the market leader in this space for a long time now, the exposure you get through these Inglis Digital sales is extraordinary and the results speak for themselves. I mean you only need to look at Funstar selling for $2.7m last month to realise top-level mares can make their price through Inglis Digital.
“Those who get to see her in the flesh over the next couple of weeks and those who see videos and photos that will be available will soon realise what a strong mare she has developed into physically and while it will be sad to say goodbye, she is going to make a lucky breeder extremely happy over the next decade or more,” he said.
Fasika is the latest in a growing number of top class race mares to be sold in this type of forum with vendors taking advantage of a white hot buyer’s market for breeding prospects of this calibre.
“It presents a true and fair market and in many cases a very lucrative one,” said Inglis general manager bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch.
“The platform has proved itself as a medium capable of commanding a significant premium for a high-end race mare and that certainly appealed to the connectors of Fasika.”
The trend to sell online is gaining momentum and provides a wider share of the market better opportunities to secure high quality bloodstock for their breeding portfolios.
“James is a very methodical guy and worked through all the permutations very conscientiously before deciding to market her to a broad cross section of buyers across the globe,” Hutch continued.
“The digital platform gives people options whereas the alternatives were for her to be traded privately or be offered for sale at a public auction next May or June. In this instance it allows connections to take advantage of what is a very strong market for desirable breeding stock.
“There’s a real confidence in the platform and that confidence has only grown to trade on bloodstock at all levels. The high end is getting stronger and stronger all the time.
“Year after year you hear of high end mares that were traded privately and breeders that wish they could have got them. This system means everyone can have a go.
“The market is very strong and there’s timeliness of digital sales to be able to act now and not speculate what the market is going to be like in seven or eight months‘ time.”
Entries for the Inglis Digital August (Late) Online Auction are now open and close on Wednesday, August 18 at midnight. The sale runs from August 20-25.