Morgan pushes hard to take home Pride Of Dubai filly for $170,000
A daughter of Coolmore Stud’s leading first season sire Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry) will be trained by David Vandyke after Ontrack Thoroughbreds’ Grant Morgan secured the filly at the Magic Millions March Yearling Sale for a session-topping $170,000 yesterday.
Morgan bought three QTIS fillies at this year’s sale, conducted under a coronavirus cloud that prevented some buyers attending the Gold Coast, which continued his successful raid on yearlings eligible for the lucrative bonus scheme that has previously netted him Group 2 winner Savanna Amour (Love Conquers All).
The Queensland-based Ontrack Thoroughbreds proprietor had to fend off a number of rival parties to buy the River Junction-consigned fillies, but Morgan was not surprised to have the honour of purchasing the sale’s highest-priced lot.
“We knew that (she would be popular) from when we bought Savanna Amour a few years ago from the first crop of Love Conquers All and Baroda, by Epaulette, as you have to dig a bit deeper for these good QTIS fillies,” Morgan said.
“They can win nearly $80,000 on a Saturday which is just fantastic prize-money, and the good ones like her don’t come cheaply, so we went a bit further than what we thought she’d be worth, but for a good QTIS filly, we’re happy to have her.”
A half-sister to the J J Atkins Plate (Gr 1, 1600m)-placed Looks Like The Cat (Husson), the filly is the eighth living foal out of South Australian metropolitan winner Fiery Dee (Fraar) who has produced six foals to race for four winners.
Catalogued as Lot 208, the filly’s dam is also a half-sister to Group 3 winner Silent Surround (Face Value) who in turn is the dam of Listed winner Silent Command (Commands) and this season’s stakes-placed Silent Sovereign (Dalakhani).
River Junction’s Joe Heather was thrilled to get “a really good result and she is a lovely filly”.
“We were constantly readjusting expectations with everything that is going on at the moment,” he said.
“Expectations were changing daily and sometimes hourly as things progressed, but we always knew that she had a lot of quality and she presented well.
“She was the right product and we had confidence that we would be able to achieve a result and it’s definitely gone above what we were hoping for.”
The strong competition for the filly highlighted the robust market despite the impact of the coronavirus, he said.
“It’s probably a good sign that there is still confidence in the market with everything else that’s going on. Magics have done a great job to get the sale conducted in these conditions and made sure the buyers were here,” Heather added.
“I know there were a couple of guys on the phone to agents on her when she was going through the ring so it’s all worked out really well.”
Coolmore’s young stallion Pride Of Dubai is the sire of seven individual winners of eight races headed by MRC Debutant Stakes (Listed, 1000m) successful Tanker and the stakes-placed fillies Dubai Star and Bella Nipotina.
Vandyke will also train the second highest-priced yearling at the QTIS sale after the Sunshine Coast-based horseman landed a Sebring (More Than Ready) filly for $150,000 on day one, while Morgan will also send an $85,000 Better Than Ready (More Than Ready) filly his way.
“I thought she was the best Better Than Ready filly in the sale (Lot 37) and she will also go to David,” he said,
“She’s out of a young mare and we like buying out of young mares. She looked very much like Better Than Ready with his shape and size, so you’d think she’ll come fairly early.”
Morgan’s other purchase this week, a filly by Bel Esprit (Royal Academy) (Lot 212) who made $38,000, will also remain in Queensland to be trained on the Gold Coast by Toby and Trent Edmonds who also prepare the Ontrack Thoroughbreds-owned Baroda (Epaulette) who has won three of her five starts.
He also bought a colt by first season sire Sooboog (Snitzel) from River Junction for $55,000. He will be trained by Tony Gollan.
“If you had a good type, by a good stallion with a reasonable page then they are still making reasonable money and that’s the end of the market that we’ve been hunting,” Morgan said of the overall market conditions as the coronavirus pandemic spreads.
“We haven’t found it easy because I think a lot of the agents, syndicators and trainers have got similar shortlists at the end of the day.
“I know in the case of the Pride Of Dubai filly, we had to beat Tony Gollan, Rob Heathcote, First Light Racing and Greg Eurell. They were all on that filly and that’s why you had to pay that bit more for the nicer horses.
“I don’t think it’s been as bad as what everyone expected. It’s probably been tougher at the lower end of the market but the nicer horses have still made reasonable money.”
Slade and Edmonds team snap up filly by sire on fire for $120,000
Bruce Slade’s burgeoning Kestrel Thoroughbreds made its mark on the sale ring yesterday, going to $120,000 with trainers Toby and Trent Edmonds to land a filly for $120,000 by Pierro (Lonhro), Australia’s current leading sire by earnings.
Newgate Farm’s director of stallions moved to the Gold Coast late last year and has formed a close association with the Edmonds stable which led to the partnership buying five yearlings at the March sale, headed by the Lyndhurst Stud Farm-offered Pierro filly who is a half-sister to the Calaway Gal Stakes (Listed, 1110m) placegetter Boomstress (Spirit Of Boom).
“It’s been a hard sale for vendors but the market has held up reasonably well, I think,” Slade said.
“We did our homework and the colts market was as competitive as ever, but the fillies were much softer and we were able to pick up what we liked of those for what we thought was good value.”
Catalogued as Lot 367, the filly is the third foal out of the twice-winning mare Pegasus Miss (More Than Ready) who is a half-sister to Group 3 winner Metallic Crown (Northern Meteor) and Listed winner Snitzepeg (Snitzel).
The Darryl Hansen-trained Boomstress won her first start at the Sunshine Coast in December 2018 before finishing runner-up to Better Reflection (Better Than Ready) in the Calaway Gal Stakes in the same preparation.
“The Pierro filly is by the sire on fire and he probably looks like being crowned Australian champion sire at some stage and quite possibly this year,” he said.
“She’s an elite athlete who we thought was great buying with the dam’s first foal a stakes horse. Her being by Pierro, she has the scope and has lovely angles, balance and great movement. Pierro was at Gai’s (Waterhouse) when I was there and this filly reminded me a lot of him.
“Just like Pierro (as a racehorse), he gives his horses cardio capacity and they are able to mix it with the best at two and she has the size and scope to make the weight–for–age improvement in her three-year-old year. She can only get better at three and four.”
Slade and the Edmonds also purchased a Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) filly for $60,000 and daughters of Jet Spur (Flying Spur) and Husson (Hussonet), as well as a colt by Rich Enuff (Written Tycoon), at the two-day sale.
Kestrel Thoroughbreds is now likely to focus on the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, with Slade seeing the April auction as an opportunity to strike during a time of doom and gloom.
“There’s so much uncertainty in the market at the moment and that can spell opportunity,” he said.
“There will be high-quality horses there and while the coronavirus is a worry, I also think that there’s a timeline on it, an eight to 12-week thing. As soon as it passes, everyone will be straight back into action and getting on with business.
“I will remain positive and try and make the most of it and Easter might present opportunities.”
Nolan gets half-sister to his star filly Kisukano
Michael Nolan was yesterday determined to take home the half-sister to his star juvenile filly Kisukano (Bel Esprit), who downed boom two-year-old Rothfire (Rothesay) in Saturday’s $500,000 QTIS Jewel 2YO (1200m) for the Toowoomba trainer.
The Better Than Ready (More Than Ready) filly, who was consigned by Alexia Fraser Bloodstock as Lot 272, was bought by the trainer for $115,000 after a spirited bidding duel.
She is the second foal out of the placed mare Kiss For Gran (Show A Heart), whose first foal Kisukano has won three of her four starts, including the lucrative Gold Coast race.
“She was my pick at the sale and we’ve got the sister so we wanted to keep that going,” Nolan said.
“I thought $100,000 might have pulled her up and it kept going in dribs and drabs so we went a couple more.
“Being a filly, she’s got the residual value as well and she’s a really good type as the price reflected. We’ll syndicate her and try and get a good group together to race her.”
Figures down but market competitive under difficult circumstances
Magic Millions’ Barry Bowditch was a relieved man last night. Year-on-year comparative figures – aggregate, average, median and clearance rate – may all be down for the company’s Gold Coast March Yearling Sale, but the managing director was happy to have completed the important auction despite the coronavirus threat.
The auction house was forced to ban the general public from the QTIS sale at its Gold Coast complex and implement a number of other health and safety measures to meet government authorities’ protocols to help combat the spread of Covid-19.
The sale was in danger of being postponed when the federal government last week imposed a 500-person limit to public gatherings, but Magic Millions was allowed to press ahead with stringent conditions.
At the close of the two-day sale, 273 horses were traded at an average of $28,529, a drop of 15 per cent, while the median fell from $25,000 to $20,000 compared to 2019.
But Bowditch said: “From the team’s perspective, the vendors and the buyers and participants who all made this work and to adapt to the circumstances to ensure the sale ran as smoothly as it was, it was an outstanding result that we should all be very proud of.
“I think in some cases horses made very good money. At all these sales in recent times, the market has been quite selective on their lots but obviously there was more reason for them to be more selective here.
“To clear 73 per cent and the average to be $28,500 was a great outcome and something that I would have taken before the sale started.”
As for Magic Millions’ next sale, the vitally important Gold Coast National Weanling, Broodmare and Yearling sales scheduled for May and June, Bowditch said the company would continue to monitor the evolving health crisis before making any decisions.
“It’s all out of our hands at the moment and we will be working with all key authorities to plan towards having these sales as soon as we possibly can and also to the best of our ability,” he said.
“Entries are still being taken and (weanling numbers) at this stage may have been a little bit off last year but still very strong.”
Meanwhile, the 21-lot Magic Millions Gold Coast Autumn Racehorse Sale was also held yesterday, achieving a 100 per cent clearance rate, with Godolphin’s lightly–raced Cathars (Medaglia d’Oro) topping the session at $77,500.
A three-year-old gelding who won a Hawkesbury maiden at his last start on March 7, Cathars was bought by the Victoria-based A List Stud.