Oakleigh Plate winner Celebrity Queen up for sale at Chairman’s
The Grant and Alana Williams-trained Celebrity Queen (Redoute’s Choice) is the latest big-name entry confirmed for the Inglis Chairman’s Sale in May.
The four-year-old mare, who landed the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) in a dead-heat with Portland Sky (Deep Field) before finishing down the field in the Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) last weekend, joins dual Group 1 winners Pippie (Written Tycoon) and Danzdanzdance (Mastercraftsman) at the star-studded sale.
Celebrity Queen has won seven of her 14 starts since making her debut in August 2019, with her other career highlights including a Group 3 success in the Colonel Reeves Stakes (1100m) and a runner-up effort in November’s Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
Bred and raced by Bob and Sandra Peters, Celebrity Queen has achieved over $825,000 in prize-money and she will likely bid to increase that total in the TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at Randwick on the first day of The Championships on April 3, a little over a month before the Chairman’s Sale begins at Riverside on May 7.
Bob Peters admits it is with great reluctance he is offering the exceptional mare for sale.
“I’d rather not be selling her and while I’m retaining the dam, Celebrity Queen is going to be a great opportunity for someone,’’ Peters said.
“It’s quite a young family and as a breeder it would excite me that her first four dams are by Redoute’s Choice, More Than Ready, Marscay and Sir Tristram.”
Celebrity Queen is by leading broodmare sire Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) and is out of the stakes-winning mare Celebrity Miss (More Than Ready), herself out of dual Group 1 winner Miss Margaret (Marscay).
The sale will also feature Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) runner-up Lankan Star (Nicconi), last year’s Chairman’s Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) winner Mildred (Hinchinbrook) and Courchevel (Snitzel) – an unraced half-sister to Winx (Street Cry) who carries a Capitalist (Written Tycoon) pregnancy.
Additionally, the catalogue is set to include mares in foal to the likes of leading sires I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), Written Tycoon (Iglesia) and Zoustar (Northern Meteor), as well as a rare southern hemisphere-time pregnancy to exciting young sire Night Of Thunder (Dubawi).
In the past two editions of the Chairman’s Sale, the average price for race fillies and race mares is over $545,000, while three of the four highest-priced pregnant mares sold at public auction in Australasia in 2019 and 2020 were sold at the Chairman’s Sale – Maastricht (Mastercraftsman) for $2.25m, and Srikandi (Dubawi) and In Her Time (Time Thief) fetching $2m each.
Inglis bloodstock consultant Harry Bailey said: “It is an absolute honour to be given the opportunity by Mr and Mrs Peters to sell Celebrity Queen on their behalf at the Chairman’s Sale.
“With her joining Pippie in the sale, the 2021 Chairman’s Sale is going to be the home of the best speed mares that Australia has to offer to the world, so it’s very exciting.
“We are very proud of what Chairman’s has become and after the virtual sale of 2020, we are looking forward to a fantastic sale back at Riverside in May.
“There is great quality among the entries for the Australian Weanling Sale and the Australian Broodmare Sale, as well as a big representation of yearlings in the HTBA May Sale, so it’s going to be a fantastic ten days at Riverside in May.’’