Munz and Hawthorne make a triumphant return to the Gold Coast
Having not been active at the Gold Coast for a number of years, prominent owner Jonathan Munz of GSA Bloodstock and his longtime bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne made a triumphant return to the market to purchase a colt by Coolmore’s star stallion Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) for $1.7 million on Tuesday.
Offered by Milburn Creek, the colt is out of the Listed-placed US-bred mare Battleofwinterfell (Declaration Of War) and American bloodlines have proved successful in Australia in recent years, with Group 1 winners, Little Brose (Per Incanto), Wild Ruler (Snitzel), Russian Revolution (Snitzel), Switzerland (Snitzel) and Forbidden Love (All Too Hard) all being out of US-bred mares.
“She’s American stakes–placed. Her sire, when he came here he did a very good job. It is an American family but a speedy one,” said Hawthorne.
Wootton Bassett raised the bar with his two-year-olds in Europe last year, his first crop conceived at Coolmore.
Last season, his 42 juvenile winners were headed by 13 stakes winners, four of those coming at the elite-level. The quartet was Camille Pissarro in Longchamp’s Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (Gr 1, 1400m), Tennessee Stud in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud (Gr 1, 2000m), Twain in Saint-Cloud’s Criterium International (Gr 1, 1600m) and Henri Matisse in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (Gr 1, 8f) at Del Mar.
Wootton Bassett has made a good start at stud in the southern hemisphere and his two winners include Gallo Nero, who will shoot for Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) glory on Saturday, while his first crop also includes the Listed-placed filly Wiltshire Square.
Hawthorne confirmed Anthony and Sam Freedman will train the colt.
“We went a little bit over than what we thought but a group of us thought he was the best colt in the sale and Wootton Bassett colts are flying, and there’s only ten more to go at Easter,” said Hawthorne.
“We just thought we’d get in and get one. He’s an athletic, lovely moving colt – he moves like a panther. Anthony Freedman will train him.
“He [Jonathan] loved him. He was my top colt so we aligned. He’ll race in the red and white colours of Jonathan Munz and partners.
“GSA hasn’t bought here in a while so we wanted to get back into the market. We want to sell down some shares in him but we don’t care if we don’t. We love him.”
Hawthorne said no matter the economic climate, yearlings like the colt are always destined to make good money.
“Those top end horses are always hard to buy. I’m pretty sure we had to beat Coolmore and Chris Waller,” he added.
“We probably went $200,000 over what we thought, but we wanted the colt and there’s nothing worse than getting beaten by a short margin and seeing those big colts come out and win big races.”