Moody dances away with session-topping Snitzel filly
Top end holds up in selective market on day one of Melbourne Premier sale
Peter Moody has already achieved black–type success with a half-sister and he has high hopes for a sibling, so he had no qualms going to an Inglis Premier session-topping $625,000 for a Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) filly yesterday.
Currently seventh in the Victorian trainers’ premiership this season with 49 winners, Moody and training partner Katherine Coleman were the biggest spenders on the opening day of the annual Melbourne Yearling Sale, signing for four lots in what at times proved difficult trading conditions at Oaklands Junction.
Moody also paid $525,000 for a Written Tycoon (Iglesia) colt, $200,000 for a son of Darley shuttler Ghaiyyath (Dubawi) and $40,000 for a Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) filly in conjunction with Wylie Dalziel for a total spend of $1.405 million.
The most expensive of the quartet, the daughter of Snitzel, is third foal out of the Pope family-owned Charleston Dancer (Lonhro), she joins the Group 3 winner of seven races She Dances (Street Boss) and her unraced sister Bridal Waltz (Snitzel) as a stablemate at the rising Pakenham stable.
The valuable filly’s pedigree was further enhanced on Saturday when Bold Bastille (Brazen Beau), a daughter of Charleston Dancer’s half-sister Chloe In Paris (Exceed And Excel), won the Festival Stakes (Listed, 1000m) at Flemington.
Bridal Waltz, who has been retained to race by the Popes, has won two jump–outs.
“We have the half-sister She Dances at home and we actually have a bit more insight as we have the two-year-old full-sister at home who we have a lot of time for as well,” Moody said.
“She looks to be a lovely running filly, typical of the Snitzels, and typical of the family, not overly big but she looks fast.
“It is a very strong fillies’ family and the Pope family have been successful breeders for many decades. I’ve only tacked on at the back end of it, so let’s hope I can add to their dynasty.”
Moody (pictured below) has been a strong player at the yearling sales this year with the purchase of the NZ$1.6 million sister to champion New Zealand mare Prowess (Proisir) and the $1.4 million Snitzel half-sister to prominent Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) contender Espionage (Zoustar).
Pre-sale, Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch forecast the depth of the top-end horses at Premier would provide buyers seeking high-level colts and fillies with plenty of horses to choose from.
It didn’t take long for one of those colts to go through the ring, with the Yulong-bred and sold Lot 2, a son of champion resident sire Written Tycoon, selling for $525,000 to Moody and Coleman.
Written Tycoon’s three-year-old son Southport Tycoon won the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) at Flemington on Saturday, following on from the brilliant stallion’s excellent run which also includes recent stakes winners Raikoke, Lady Of Camelot and Captured By Love.
“He was a nice colt and Yulong have presented a terrific draft here. They’ve done a big job and he is typical of the nice Written Tycoon colts,” Moody said.
“He is a big, strong horse and a fair bit of Snitzel about him and he looks quite sharp.”
The colt is the second foal out of the juvenile-winning, Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m) placed Talented (Snitzel). Her first foal, a two-year-old filly named Editing (Written Tycoon), is in training with Ciaron Maher at Bong Bong Farm in NSW.
Talented has a weanling filly by Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) and she was served by the same Yulong sire last October.
Yulong, which sold 20 yearlings on day one for $3.163 million, also reinvested in the market by acquiring a Written Tycoon colt from Rosemont Stud as Lot 226.
Signing under the YPL Racing banner, Yulong’s general manager Vin Cox described the colt as “an earlier type as he’s not a big, heavy horse”.
“We like to be seen to be participating in the sale and supporting clients who have supported us with our stallions,” Cox said.
“At the end of the day, it’s not a big industry and we look after each other. It is a good way of going about business, particularly when you find a horse that is well-bred and looks the complete article.
“It’s an obvious play to show faith in those who show faith in us.”
The colt is the second foal out of the Adelaide Listed winner and Group 1-performed Everyday Lady (Charge Forward) whose pedigree also features Australian Horse of the Year Weekend Hussler (Hussonet).
TFI hoping to re-enter the Game with Zoustar colt
The parallels with reigning Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Ozzmosis (Zoustar) and an attachment to the family of yesterday’s $500,000 Zoustar (Northern Meteor) colt was enough for Tony Fung Investments to pay the substantial figure for the impressive colt.
TFI partnered with trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds’ Bruce Slade to buy the China Horse Club-bred and The Chase-consigned seventh foal out Grasslands (Snitzel), the sister to Percy Sykes (Gr 2, 1200m) and Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winning filly Away Game.
“He was a colt by Zoustar, who we love, out of a sister to Away Game who Mrs [Loretta] Fung raced, so we know the family very well and we were very keen to be involved,” TFI’s racing and bloodstock manager Sally Williams said.
“He was a beautiful athletic colt. He is bred by great breeders at The Chase, and we are delighted to get a horse off Mr Teo [Ah Khing] and Ivy, Alex [Kingston] and Michael [Smith] down there. They do a great job, it’s a beautiful farm.”
TFI races Canonbury Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) winner Prost (Snitzel), who was runner-up to Storm Boy (Justify) in the Skyline Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Randwick on Saturday, with Waterhouse and Bott.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club also bought a Zoustar colt on day one for $460,000 from the Yarraman Park Stud draft.
Boomer Bloodstock’s Craig Rounsefell, who bought Group 1-winning Premier graduates Scales Of Justice (Not A Single Doubt) and Tuvalu (Kermadec) at the Oaklands Junction sale previously, has one eye on the upcoming Hong Kong International Sale on March 15 and he believes yesterday’s purchase has the qualities to make an impact at the sale and Sha Tin and Happy Valley in the years to come.
“He is an outstanding type. He really took my eye on inspections, he’s got a great temperament, he’s a sharp sprinting type,” Rounsefell said.
“He’s out of a talented mare who was very fast and he’s got a talented three-year-old sibling in Sydney.”
A half-brother to the John O’Shea-trained progressive three-year-old Countyourblessings (I Am Invincible), the Hong Kong-bound colt is the fourth foal out of Listed winner Bidii Babe (Not A Single Doubt).
Brown and Jones add to Toronados
Seymour-based trainer Stephen Brown also made his mark on day one at Oaklands Junction after searching the catalogue for a suitable filly by Swettenham Stud’s roster leader Toronado (High Chaparral).
The former shuttler, who is now permanently domiciled at Adam Sangster’s Nagambie stud, is the sire of recent Hong Kong Centenary Sprint Cup (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Victor The Winner as well as fellow elite-level scorers Masked Crusader and Mariamia.
He is also the sire of Lady Jones, the Brown-trained three-time-winning four-year-old mare who has won more than $250,000 in her 13-start career to date, and the Darwin born and raised horseman and owner Peter Jones were keen to secure another one.
And that’s what they did, going to $420,000 for the Blue Gum Farm-consigned second foal out of Alexana (Al Kazeem), a two-time winner in Europe who is a half-sister to three stakes winners.
“Peter Jones bred Lady Jones and he wanted to get into another one, so we have. We went through all the Toronados and I looked at her, she really jumped out at me, she said a few words to me, so I thought we’ll have a bid on her,” Brown said.
“I probably didn’t intend on going to $400,000 but one [bid] over $400,000 got her.”
Brown also trains the Jones-owned last-start maiden winner Delta Sky, the unraced three-year-old Pink Sky the twice-winning Southern Fire, all by Toronado.
“I’ve had four or five Toronados and I had one run on Saturday [at Flemington, Southern Fire] and I really like the breed,” he said.
“She could be a late two-year-old but most of the ones we’ve got by Toronado haven’t raced until they’ve been three, so we’ll just play it by ear.”
Alexana, who has an unnamed two-year-old colt by Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice), was bought by Armando Duarte and Paul Moroney for 70,000gns at the 2019 Tattersalls December Mares Sale.