Kaha Nui makes mark during Australian Weanling Sale session
Kiwis snap up I Am Invincible filly at record-breaking Inglis Sydney foal sale
A $575,000 I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) filly and a colt by $370,000 Capitalist (Written Tycoon), the two-highest priced foals sold during a record-breaking opening Inglis Australian Weanling Sale session on Monday, will head to New Zealand.
The high-priced weanlings were purchased by Kaha Nui Farm’s Nick and Nicky White, a Waikato-based husband and wife who have made a big impression on the market in a short time, their investment helping fuel day one’s trade to $11,124,500, the highest single day aggregate for a Sydney weanling sale and a figure that was up 40 per cent on the corresponding day last year.
The top-priced daughter of Australia’s twice reigning premier stallion out of the Group 3-winning $1 million mare Shoko (Sebring), who was sold through the Alma Vale/Kitchwin Hills partnership on behalf of Ridgmont Farm, could be retained to race by the Whites as they continue to develop a boutique team of fillies to keep and a draft of weanlings suitable for pinhooking.
“She’s just a rangy type and the [I Am Invincible] fillies are doing well. At the end of the day, if I want to keep her and race her, I’ve got a filly to race. I loved her,” Nicky White said.
“We ended up keeping a filly last year, so we’ll get them home and just see how they go, take a breath and calm the nerves and get on with it.
“You’ve always got residual value, which I really like … and I love developing young athletes myself.”
Shoko’s first living foal, two-year-old Hakushu (I Am Invincible), had two starts in New Zealand earlier this year prior to recently being transferred to Australian trainer Kris Lees.
Kaha Nui, which bought nine weanlings at public auction throughout 2023, is racing a Frankel (Galileo) half-sister to Group 3 winner The Elanora (Redoute’s Choice) that was purchased from the Strawberry Hill Stud dispersal last August.
Alma Vale’s Verna Metcalfe praised Ridgmont Farm for the way the valuable filly had been presented when she arrived under her and Kitchwin Hills’ care.
“She’s a queen and we’re just rapt to be able to work with Ridgmont the way we have. It’s great,” said Metcalfe, who has been an integral figure in the newly formed Alma Vale/Kitchwin Hills partnership.
“She was our top lot as far as inspections went. She was never in the box. It’s brilliant.
“I thought we’d get $300,000 or $400,000 for her. I started off at $200,000, but then I had a couple of people come up to me today and I thought then that we could get $300,000 or $400,000 for her. Was I surprised to see her get $575,000?
“No, because she’s a Vinnie filly, a really quality filly at that. It’s awesome for the new partnership, so we’re rapt.’’
Former Ridgmont Farm partner Andrew Dunemann, who was bought out by the Cunningham family last year, paid $245,000 for Shoko on Inglis Digital last month.
A half-sister to Group 3-winner Heavenly Thought (So You Think) and the Group 2-winner Mimi Lebrock (Show A Heart), who in turn is the dam of Group 3 scorer turned Lyndhurst Stud resident Barbaric (I Am Invincible) and Group 3-placed Diddles (Snitzel).
Shoko is currently in foal to Coolmore’s dual Group 1-winning stallion Home Affairs (I Am Invincible).
Earlier, White signed for a colt by Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Capitalist who will be pinhooked through a yearling sale next year.
The impressive colt, who is a half-brother to stakes-winning sprinter Brudenell (Russian Revolution), was bred by long-time Central NSW breeder David Baxter of Macquarie Stud and he said he was thankful he heeded the advice to offer the horse at Riverside Stables a year earlier than he normally would.
He is the fifth foal out of four-time winner Knit ‘N’ Purl (More Than Ready), herself a daughter of Group 3-winner Zingaling (Redoute’s Choice), and a granddaughter of the Macquarie Stud-bred Done That (Centaine).
Baxter has nurtured the family for four generations and ordinarily he would have offered the impressive colt at next year’s yearling sales and such was his opinion he placed a $200,000 reserve on the weanling.
“He was a very good foal from day one, which is usually the case with these horses, they just don’t become sharp looking horses six weeks out [from a sale],” the Wellington-based Baxter said.
“Some good judges came through home looking at the horses and one said to me, ‘you know, you should offer this horse as a weanling’, which I normally wouldn’t do. Over the years we’ve taken them through to the yearling stage. I took his advice and I am glad I did.
“He just happened to be an exceptional horse and there’s no reason why he can’t go onto the yearling stage and be another profitable horse.”
Kaha Nui Farm’s White, who bought four weanlings at last year’s Australian Weanling Sale, said Magic Millions, New Zealand Bloodstock and Inglis yearlings sales would all be considered for the son of Capitalist.
“For me, he was the colt of the sale, to be honest. He had plenty of length about him, I think he’s got a lot of growing to do without getting too big and he’s definitely one I wanted to take home, but they were pushing me along a bit,” White said.
“I was getting to a point where perhaps I should sit on my hands. We’ll get him back to the farm in the Waikato and see what we can turn him into.”
The Kaha Nui Farm-purchased pair were two of five weanlings sold on day one for $300,000 or more, underscoring the thirst for quality in the market. There were 35 weanlings that sold for $100,000 or more, up from 24 on the same day 12 months ago.
Fellow Kiwi pinhooker Mark Treweek of Lyndhurst Farm also combined with Kaha Nui Farm to buy a Written Tycoon (Iglesia) filly for $350,000 and her sales future also remains undetermined.
The valuable daughter of Yulong’s champion sire, who was bred on a foal share, is a three-quarter sister to a Capitalist filly, who was fetched $460,000 at the Inglis Great Southern Sale last year, and a half-sister to the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) runner-up Bases Loaded (Deep Field), a $290,000 Inglis Great Southern Sale graduate in 2021.
Their dam Passarelle (Not A Single Doubt), an unraced half-sister to the Group 2-winning Silverstream (Al Maher), Listed winner Calanda (Snitzel) and Group 3 scorer Speedy Natalie (Al Maher), who in turn produced Group 3 winner Sweet And Speedy (Street Cry). Passarelle has also produced the Group 1-placed winner Shebringzit (Sebring).
“When I bought her [Passarelle] I paid $120,000 off the track quite a few years ago as a two-year-old and I thought then that she was a bit expensive but she’s certainly been fabulous for me. I love her,” Sally Watkins said.
“The first couple of foals were a bit tricky to sell but then we’ve found the right sort of stallion for her.
“Like her mother and her three-quarter-sister last year, this filly was just beautiful. She was on the market at $220,000, so to get $350,000 was nice.”
Treweek is targeting weanlings he believes are capable of featuring at the top end of the 2025 yearling market, believing it is a safer segment to be investing in even though it requires considerable capital.
By the same sire as this season’s Group 1-winning two-year-old fillies Lady Of Camelot and Velocious, Treweek says the November 12-born filly fits the bill as a high-end investment.
“She’s a filly we identified quite early and thought she was in the top three or four fillies in the sale, by a champion sire and with a lovely pedigree, it was pretty easy really,” Treweek said.
“If you want quality, you’ve got to pay for it. I thought $300,000 might stop her so for the sake of a couple more bids, it was worth it. It’s hard when a lot of people are falling on the same horses but if you buy the quality ones, they’re still quality at the other end.
“We’ll likely get her back to New Zealand now and then decide where we sell her as a yearling, be that New Zealand or possibly could be an Easter filly. Being a November foal, she’s probably a better filly for Easter, a later sale.
“We’ll just get her home and assess what we want to do.”
He added: “The market’s got a lot tighter, so you’ve really got to deal at the top end of the market rather than the middle or lower end. It’s just a bit easier, the bluebloods always end up reselling well anyway.”
Passarelle was not served last year with Watkins still weighing up which stallion to send the mare to in 2024.
Kaha Nui also bought a Russian Revolution (Snitzel) colt for $120,000 from Davali Thoroughbreds on Monday.
Of the 233 weanlings offered in total on Monday, 176 were sold at an average of $63,207, an increase of 25 per cent on the same session in 2023, while the median was $36,000, up from $30,000. The clearance rate closed at 76 per cent with 176 lots catalogued for day two.