No deal for Kissonallforcheeks. . . just yet
The daughter of Written Tycoon was passed in on Magic Millions Online Sale
Negotiations are continuing for the sale of three-time Group 1-placed mare Kissonallforcheeks (Written Tycoon) who was yesterday passed in after failing to make her $1 million reserve on the Magic Millions Online Sale.
The Dan Morton-trained mare whose brilliant west and east coast racing career was brought to a premature halt earlier this year due to injury, leading owner Darren White to offer her for sale in the bespoke auction.
She was passed in for $980,000 after a number of parties bid on the Western Australian-bred and raced mare, falling agonisingly close to the seven-figure mark, an amount that would have been a milestone for Magic Millions as it attempts to grow its share of the increasingly popular online thoroughbred trading market, which is dominated by rival Inglis.
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch last night said there was rightfully a high reserve placed on Kissonallforcheeks by White given her credentials as a high-end commercial broodmare, but also said he was optimistic that a deal would soon be reached.
“We had genuine bidders close to the reserve and I think a mare of her quality and race record, the vendor was entitled to ask for the number that he did, so to speak,” Bowditch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Darren’s got options. He’s been talking to studs himself about doing something with her.”
During her three-season racing career, juvenile winner Kissonallforcheeks won ten races, including the Let’s Elope Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and Shaftesbury Avenue Handicap (Gr 3, 1400m) in Melbourne, while she also saluted in three other Group races in Perth. She was also placed in Western Australia’s premier races, the Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), the Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and Kingston Town Classic (Gr 1, 1800m).
The six-year-old has a real Western Australian flavour, not only was she trained at Ascot by Morton, she is a daughter of dual Perth Listed winner Rosie Rocket (Blackfriars) and she was bred by Dawson Stud’s Graham Daws.
Sold through the Newhaven Park draft at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale on behalf of Daws, Kissonallforcheeks was bought by her trainer for $120,000 and taken back to Perth.
In her 28 starts, which included a successful five-run preparation in Melbourne for Flemington-based Nick Ryan last spring, Kissonallforcheeks won a shade over $1.7 million in prize-money.
Her half-brother Russian To The Bar (Russian Revolution), an unraced three-year-old trained by Luke Fernie at Ascot, was sold for $200,000 at the 2022 Magic Millions Perth Winter Yearling Sale, while her half-sister by All Too Hard (Casino Prince) was sold to another WA owner in Waly Daly for $250,000 at this year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
The auction of Kissonallforcheeks, although passed in, continues a strong winter trade period for breeding stock, with numerous mares sold online for significant six and seven-figure sums in recent months.
The trend is expected to continue with New Zealand Bloodstock’s Gavelhouse online platform currently offering the Te Akau’s stakes-winning two-year-old filly Sky On Fire (Exceed And Excel), while Inglis Digital is set to sell Flying Start Syndications’ dual Group 3 winner Flying Mascot (Tavistock) through their portal next week.
The following week the Strawberry Hill Stud unreserved dispersal sale, comprising 57 lots including a suite of high-profile mares such as Miss Fabulass (Frankel), is to be conducted on owner John Singleton’s property at Mount White on the New South Wales Central Coast.
The August 29 live auction is being run by Magic Millions.