Hill ‘N’ Dale jump into weanling market with $800,000 I Am Invincible filly
Renowned American stud Hill ‘N’ Dale made its second big investment in the Australian industry in a matter of months, splashing out $800,000 on an impressive I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) filly at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale.
Bred and sold by the Element Hill’s Hutchins family, who are dispersing their bloodstock interests, the daughter of Single Blonde (Not A Single Doubt) spurred Hill ‘N’ Dale Farm’s John and Jes Sikura to double their bloodstock tally Down Under.
Agent William Johnson signed the docket for the filly on behalf of Hill ‘N’ Dale Farm’s father-and-son John and Jes Sikura.
“[The Element Hill dispersal] has given everyone an opportunity to access some of the lovely pedigrees that they’ve built up over the last 20 years and this filly presented lovely physically and she is by the best stallion in the country,” Johnson said.
“Fast forward to January in 2025, you’re trying to buy these styles of fillies, so to secure her now is just a plus and hopefully she can reap the rewards on the track down the line.
“We’ll let her grow out and then put her into training and hope we have a bit of luck for the Sikura family.”
The high-priced daughter of I Am Invincible is the second foal out of the Element Hill-bred and raced stakes-placed Single Blonde, herself a half-sister to Group 3 winner Colour (More Than Ready) and Boognish (Sooboog), who provided a further boost to the page when she landed the Proud Miss Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) in Adelaide for trainers Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea on her most recent start.
A trainer for the I Am Invincible filly won’t be decided until next year.
Hill ‘N’ Dale’s entry into the Australian weanling market – four months after the Sikuras made a splash at the Magic Millions January yearling sale – demonstrated the increasingly international market and a willingness from buyers to source quality racing prospects anywhere and at any time.
The Sikuras combined with trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott in January when they paid $1.7 million for another filly by Australia’s premier sire I Am Invincible out of Madam Rouge (Zoustar).
“It’s an endorsement for the Australian racing and breeding industry that someone like John Sikura and his family are investing in the game,” Johnson said.
“They couldn’t get out here, Jes is at college in Kentucky, he would have loved to make the trip.
“So, I was on the phone to him and it was about midnight there, so I am sure he’ll be telling his college buddies tomorrow that he’s just bought a weanling in Australia.”
While Jes Sikura’s relationship with Johnson has played an important role in Hill ‘N’ Dale’s investment in the Australian industry, his father John took advantage of another dispersal sale Down Under ten years ago.
In 2014, he bought Taste Of Heaven (Encosta De Lago), the half-sister to Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), from the Teeley Assets dispersal at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale for $1.5 million.
The mare subsequently produced Heavenly Curlin, a Canadian Grade 3-winning filly by Hill ‘N’ Dale sire Curlin (Smart Strike). She brought US$625,000 when purchased by Justin Casse out of the Hill ‘N’ Dale draft at the Keenelend September in 2016.
Single Blonde, meanwhile, will be offered as Lot 964 during Thursday’s final session of the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. Her first foal, a filly by Pierro (Lonhro), was purchased for $165,000 by agent Dermot Farrington at the Inglis Easter sale last year.
Element Hill’s Josh Hutchins said: “Look, it’s mixed emotions getting out of the industry, it’s very tough, but I am also very proud to have topped the weanling sale.”
The Hutchins’, who currently have their pristine Queensland properties on the market, also sold the session’s third top lot, the Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) half-sister to the Group 1-placed sprinter and Widden’s emerging stallion Zousain (Zoustar).
The daughter of Stay Inside will also remain in a paddock during the 2025 yearling sales period after Waterhouse and Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds’ Bruce Slade paid $400,000 for the filly.
“She looks so sharp, obviously a first crop of Stay Inside, who is a Golden Slipper winner, and a half-sister to Zousain who was not only a terrific racehorse, a top two-year-old, a Group 1-placed three-year-old and now doing a great job at stud,” Slade said.
“She was just a filly that we thought would suit the system so well, but also has a lot of residual value to bank on the back of as well.”
The filly is the tenth foal out of the American Grade 2 winner Pasar Silbano (Elnadim).
“I thought she was just what you’d expect that whole sire line, Stay Inside, Extreme Choice, Not A Single Doubt,” Slade said.
“She is a lovely square-hipped filly, a lovely short back, great gaskins, ripping short cannons and a beautiful mover to go with it. Most of all, she was so popular, she paraded all through the week and didn’t turn a hair.
“She’d has a big, kind eye on her, big ears on her and I think she showed she had a terrific willing attitude which is a big deal, too.”
A Frankel (Galileo) colt sold for $500,000 on Sunday to agent Jim Clarke, Cunningham Thoroughbreds and trainer Bjorn Baker will also be retained to race by his new owners.
Despite the acquisition of the well-bred Stay Inside filly on the Gold Coast, Slade said Tulloch Lodge was likely to maintain a select approach when it comes to targeting the weanling market to restock its stable, which is currently second to Chris Waller in the Sydney trainers’ premiership.
“Last year there was a Snitzel filly out of Serena Bay that we liked very much, but we got outbid on her at $480,000 and I think she ended up making $1.25 million at the yearling sales and we underbid her there as well. We just didn’t want that to happen again,” Slade said.
“It won’t be a thing we do often, but when you have a dispersal sale of the quality of the Element Hill dispersal … [these horses] may not come on the market again if we don’t buy them here.”
The progeny of Coolmore’s first season sire Home Affairs (I Am Invincible), the dual Group 1-winning sprinter, was popular again on day two, with a total of 16 by the sire selling across the two days for an aggregate of $3,035,000.
The most expensive foal by the stallion was sold late in the session on Monday when Silverdale Farm stumped up $430,000 for a filly out of the stakes-placed two-year-old Witherspoon (Exceed And Excel).
The second foal out of Witherspoon, she was sold by the Newgate Consignment. Her first foal, a colt by Zoustar (Northern Meteor), was bought for $400,000 by the Rosemont Stud and Suman Hedge at the Gold Coast in January.
“Look, she rated very highly for us. She is a filly we’ve watched right the way through the sale. There were a few good Home Affairs’ on our list, but she was number one,” Silverdale Farm’s Rob Petith said.
“We had to be a bit stronger than we planned to be, but that’s worked out for us in the past, so hopefully with even luck we can do that again.”
Silverdale Farm’s Steve Grant has had success pinhooking high-priced weanlings in the past, selling a 2022-purchased The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice) three-quarter sister to In The Congo (Snitzel) for $1.8 million at last year’s Inglis Easter sale.
Lime Country Thoroughbreds also bought a Home Affairs filly on Monday for $360,000 from the Vinery Stud draft. The filly is the second foal out of Orchidia (Bated Breath) who was a winner in Europe.
“A good weanling will parade more than a yearling at a yearling sale, they get smashed. So if you see them putting up with that and keeping their action all the way through. It’s a lot to ask of them and she just keeps putting in,” Lime Country’s Jo Griffin said.
“She’ll come back next year, not exactly sure what sale she will go to, but she will be a lovely addition.”
‘Race car’ Zoustar colt already Easter bound
North’s Mick Malone bought a Frankel filly for $450,000 on Sunday that could be retained to race and he already has the dates circled on next year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale for a $350,000 Zoustar colt.
Sold by Milburn Creek on behalf of his breeder Sheriff Iskander, the colt is the first foal out of the stakes-placed two-time winner Miss Canada (Exceed And Excel), a mare from the family of Canada’s champion three-year-old filly of 2011, Inglorious (Hennessy) who agent Suman Hedge paid $750,000 for at the 2021 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
“He’s just got everything you sort of want and then I just think, as a weanling colt, he probably wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea,” Malone said.
“Not that you wouldn’t pay money for him, he is a Zoustar, but he’s just up a bit behind and sort of down in front. He sort of looks like a race car at this point.
“But I see the horse coming up in the wither and furnishing really, really well by Easter. I don’t think he’d be a January colt.”
Malone hopes the colt’s development means he’ll end up on the shortlists of the industry’s biggest players next April.
“I think Zoustar just keeps stepping up, doesn’t he? It’s always been sort of Snitzel and Vinnie’s time. And Zoustar, every year just keeps popping up with a new horse,” the North principal said.
“If he’s in the minds of the colt syndicates, you’re spot on. And if you’re not, I think for the money we paid for him, as good a type he was, we’ll be all right anyway.
“To me, I look at him and I think it’s all going well and all the other little problems you have to get through, like paddock injuries and scope and x-rays.”
With a smaller catalogue on offer this year, 244 weanlings changed hands at an average of $77,162, down seven per cent year-on-year, while the median fell to $41,000, down $9,000 on 2023. The clearance rate was 81 per cent.
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said day two’s trade exceeded his expectations.
“I think it’s a huge melting pot, the weanling market. I think it’s underutilised by our breeders. I think if you bring quality here, you do get well paid,” Bowditch said.
“I’d like to think off the back of these results this year, over the last two days, that more breeders could consider bringing quality stock to the weanling sale because clearly you’ve got both the traders here and the end users participating, so it gives you good reason to get paid well and obviously you get your money early.”