Kennewell swoops on Watch Me Dance for record $600,000
Watch Me Dance (I’m All The Talk), a three-time Group winner, yesterday set a record price of $600,000 for a thoroughbred sold at public auction in Western Australia after being purchased by eastern state interests for the new benchmark figure at the Magic Millions Perth Winter Sale.
The Steve Wolfe-trained rising five-year-old mare, a winner of the WA Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) at two and the Champion Fillies Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) and WA Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) at three, is set to race on next season after Victorian trainer Lloyd Kennewell made the most of a brief trip to Perth by signing for the mare on behalf of a breeder.
A sister to the stakes-placed Hear Me Sing and a daughter of the stakes-placed Perth mare Coventry To Rio (Oratorio) was one of two horses to reach six figures at the one-day mixed thoroughbred auction at the Swan Valley Magic Millions complex.
A colt by Russian Revolution (Snitzel), a stallion certain to be crowned Australia’s champion first season sire at the end of the season, made $200,000 earlier in the session to the bid of Ascot trainer Luke Fernie.
The sale of Watch Me Dance, a winner of almost $900,000 in prize-money from 26 starts, completes a stunning run of success for her all-female syndicate of 16 who raced the $34,000 2019 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale graduate.
The previous Western Australia record is believed to be Elicazoom (Testa Rossa) who sold for $420,000 at the 2018 Magic Millions Winter Sale auction. She has since been on-sold twice, fetching $800,000 in 2019 and $1.45 million in foal to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) at this year’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale.
Kennewell last night revealed he initially had no intention of attending the Perth sale, having travelled from Melbourne on Friday to catch up with his client Santo Guagliardo, but after helping the Ridgeport owner load weanlings onto the float to be taken to Magic Millions complex on Saturday he decided to inspect Watch Me Dance.
“I knew she was in the sale, so I went and had a look at her and one thing led to another and I ended up purchasing her for an eastern state client, a breeder,” Kennewell told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She’s obviously a really well performed and credentialled filly who has been very good over here in Western Australia. I felt she looked like she was a little bit tired at the moment and that probably reflects in her past couple of runs.
“We felt that if we can get her back to Melbourne and give her a good break – she’s obviously a very valuable broodmare – that there was a good opportunity to strike and I am the lucky recipient to be able to race her on for the next 12 months.”
Watch Me Dance, who is almost certain to go to stud in 2023, is booked on a plane to Victoria tomorrow night and Kennewell will send her immediately to the paddock. She last raced on June 18, her sixth start of the preparation.
“She can have a nice break in the paddock, get fed up, rugged up and I want to see her gain 60 to 80 and maybe 100 kilograms during her spell,” the Group 1-winning trainer said.
“We’ll get her in and then come up with a plan to target possibly the late spring, but there’s nothing set in concrete. It’s just a matter of getting her back and seeing her do well in the next six to eight weeks.”
Kennewell thought Watch Me Dance’s price tag was good value in comparison to what similarly performed mares had made at other breeding stock sales in 2022.
“There was strong competition for her and I’ve also had some people text me, some other eastern states breeders, to say they thought she wasn’t bad value at that price and that we’d shopped well,” he said.
“We paid $600,000 for her and we’ve seen what these Group 2 and 3 winners have been making at the Gold Coast sale recently. It has been quite expensive and hefty, so at that quote I don’t think it’s too bad.”
Ascot trainer Luke Fernie, who initially prepared JJ Atkins Plate (Gr 1, 1600m) Sheeza Belter (Gold Standard) before she was sent to Sydney trainers Peter and Paul Snowden, backed his judgement on the most expensive yearling sold during the yearling session yesterday.
He went to $200,000 for the son of Russian Revolution, a half-brother to the Dan Morton-trained Kissonallforcheeks (Written Tycoon), a Group 3 winner in Melbourne and Perth. The colt is the fifth foal out of Perth stakes winner Rosie Rocket (Blackfriars).
“He is a cracker. I just looked at him and thought he could go to the trials tomorrow if he needed to,” said Fernie, who is yet to syndicate the colt.
“He has everything in the right spot and he looks athletic and obviously well bred. The bull (sire) is doing good things, the two-year-olds are going well for him and being closely related to Kissonallforcheeks, he ticks a few boxes as well.”
The Westspeed-eligible colt, who was bred by Dawson Stud’s Graham Daws, was initially offered at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale in February through the Newhaven Park draft but he was passed in with a reserve of $150,000.
“I spoke to a person at Inglis and her notes were that he was just a little bit immature at the sales (in February) and that’s probably why he didn’t get as much attention as some of the bigger horses did over there,” Fernie said.
“He just needed a bit of time, from what I got told. His x-rays are all sweet and he scoped out fine, so a bit of time on his side has helped him out and he’s certainly developed into a nice horse.”
Breeder Daws races the half-sister to Kissonallforcheeks and the Russian Revolution colt, the Adam Durrant-trained three-year-old Star Of Rosie (Star Witness). She won her only start at York last November.
Magic Millions’ Western Australia manager David Houston was thrilled with yesterday’s outcome, the two highlight lots helping the weanling, yearling, racehorse and broodmare sale generate $1,905,600 in turnover.
“I was standing with some of the connections of Watch Me Dance. One of the owners’ husbands was beside himself as the bidding was going along. It’s wonderful for WA to have a locally bred horse sell so well,” Houston said.
“It’s a small world now. You can get all that information out to people pretty quickly and we’re able to concentrate on her for this sale. It was a super result. I couldn’t be happier.”
Reflecting on the overall sale, Houston said: “We sold about 78 per cent. Quite often here, some of our broodmares are hard to move, but we sold a good few.
“The young mares who are going to stud for the first or second time, they were very popular and the weaners were quite good as well.
“People who come here to get a result, if they bring quality stock, like any sale, they will sell well. I think (yesterday’s sale was) a good reward for those who brought quality stock here through the sale.”