RECORD BREAKER!
A ‘special’ filly by Written Tycoon (Iglesia) became the most expensive juvenile to sell at public auction in Australasia after her breeder, Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng, fought off fierce competition to secure the youngster for a cool $1 million at Tuesday’s Inglis Ready2Run Sale.
The filly was the headline act among four purchases for Yulong, who left the sale on Tuesday night having racked up $2,035,000 in receipts, in a market largely dominated by agents and trainers from Hong Kong.
Offered by Dean Harvey’s Baystone Farm, the filly is impeccably bred, being the seventh foal of Soriano (Savabeel), New Zealand’s Champion Middle Distance Horse of 2014-15, whose seven stakes wins were headed by a brace of Group 1s, while her second dam Call Me Lily (Just A Dancer) was also a stakes winner, who threw two more. She clocked a slick time of 10.50 in her Wangaratta breeze on October 1.
Harvey purchased the filly from the Yulong draft for $200,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale earlier this year and he was happy to be so well rewarded for the bold decision to sell her at Tuesday’s sale.
“Her reserve was much lower, way lower. I knew there’d be a lot of competition and you always hope that two heavy hitters want her and go head-to-head and that’s what happened. You’ve got to savour moments like this,” he said.
Written Tycoon is the sire of the moment, fresh from claiming Saturday’s Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) with Private Life, and two-year-old sires’ titles on both sides of the Tasman last season and Harvey was happy to latch onto the coattails of his recent success.
“I can’t believe it. I mean she was super popular all week, she was hard to fault and we knew how good she was talent wise but it’s just all come together, Written Tycoon has had an amazing few months and she’s just a queen of a filly but we didn’t think she’d make that sort of money.
“At Easter she was a quality filly with a big pedigree and by a good stallion. Nothing’s gone wrong, she’s been perfect the whole way through and Troy Corstens has never been higher on a filly so I’ve told him to go and chase Mr Zhang to see if he can train her.
“This result gives you confidence that you can bring a filly like that to a sale like this and get well paid for it.’’
Vin Cox, who has just returned from the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in the UK, was not in attendance at the Sydney sale on Tuesday, but said the result shows the operation’s willingness to re-invest in their own product.
“We’ve got absolute faith in our product and this is a gorgeous filly,’’ Cox said. “We’re not allergic to turning up at sales and re-investing. They bought her off us for $200,000 at Easter and turned her into a $1 million filly so a huge congratulations to the Baystone team.
“She breezed–up well, the team around her were talking a big game with her and that brought a big price tag but we’re thrilled to get her back.
“The boss [Mr Zhang] was very keen on her. I’ve been in Europe with him recently and this was the horse in the sale that he kept asking about so I think it’s fair to say he’s had his eyes on her for many weeks.’’
Yulong’s second most expensive purchase came in the shape of another by their resident stallion Written Tycoon and another homebred, this time a colt, who they sold to CH Bloodstock for $150,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in March.
Offered on Tuesday by Leanach Lodge, the colt is out of six-time winner Be My Star (Zoustar), who clocked a time of 10.55 in his Taupo breeze ahead of the sale. The Victorian giants other purchases were a colt by former Darley shuttler Too Darn Hot (Dubawi), who they secured for $420,000, while they parted with $90,000 for another Nolen Racing-consigned colt by Written Tycoon.
McGrath enters the fray
Shane McGrath reaped the rewards of his decision to present his first draft at the Inglis Ready2Race Sale on Tuesday, with his three offerings selling for an average of $463,333 and they were headed by a colt by Deep Field (Northern Meteor), who was purchased by Cranbourne-based trainer Clinton McDonald for an impressive $750,000.
McGrath picked up the colt for $260,000 from the Newgate Farm draft at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale earlier this year and he was prepared by McDonald at his Cranbourne stables.
Such was the impression the colt left on the trainer, he put together a syndicate made up of new and existing clients to buy him and he is confident the youngster possesses as much talent as many of the stable stars such as Angel Capital (Harry Angel) and Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Hayasugi (Royal Meeting).
“I thought he was a stunning colt. I bought him at Easter and then he got broken in at Matt Vella’s where we break in all our good horses and then he had a break at Segenhoe, before he went to Clinton McDonald’s stables at Cranbourne,” McGrath told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He is a colt that has impressed me every day and rather than being in a ready to run program he’s been in full work and I think that has suited him. He is a horse they can push on with if they decide to do so.
“I was thrilled that Clinton was able to purchase him for some new owners and some existing stable clients who are happy to back Clinton’s judgement.”
Out of the three-time US Listed winner Sheer Pleasure (Birdonthewire), the colt breezed at Wangaratta, clocking a time of 10.90.
“I thought he did an awesome breeze. He is a very natural colt and one of the nicest horses I have ever had anything to do with.
“We paid a good price for him at Easter and it was nice to see our judgement vindicated. Ben Melham and Jamie Kah have been riding him a lot in his fast work and Ben in particular was effusive in his praise for the colt and anytime you have information like that it’s hard to ignore, but equally I was happy to share that information with anyone that was inquiring too.
“It was very much an open book with the horse and people knew the opinion we had of him.”
McGrath finished the sale as the leading vendor by average and also enjoyed another strong result when another of his offerings, a colt by Swettenham Stud stallion Toronado (High Chaparral), sold to Ho Yin Alexander Leung and Andrew Williams Bloodstock for $500,000.
Bought by McGrath for $90,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, the juvenile is out of the winning Oasis Dream (Green Desert) mare Pussycat Dream, making him a half-brother to dual Singapore stakes winner What’s New (Casino Prince). He recorded a time of 11.04 in his Wangaratta breeze.
“That was a brilliant result. I was fortunate to buy him at the Magic Millions and he kept continuing to develop, strengthen and he did a beautiful breeze,” said McGrath.
“He has a great nature and again we were happy to put our solid opinion behind the horse and he was purchased by a Hong Kong client who has incidentally had some luck with us, having previously sold him a horse called Aurora’s Lady.
“He will end up in the Pierre Ng stable and I wish him the very best of luck.”
McGrath was active on both sides of the sheet, purchasing a colt by Per Incanto (Street Cry) from JCS Thoroughbreds for $115,000 and he was quick to commend Inglis for the group of horses they assembled for the auction.
“I thought it was a really good format. It was a nice, tight catalogue,” he said. “There are always going to be some gaps, but fair play to Inglis there was plenty of foot traffic from vendors’ perspective.
“From a buyer’s perspective, I found a lot of nice horses which I vetted and there were a lot of clean horses there. We had a list of 12, I bid on seven or eight and we bought a couple. I thought it was a buoyant market. Like everywhere in the world, if you have the correct product you get rewarded accordingly, but unfortunately if you have the wrong product you don’t.”
Prima’s plan comes to fruition at Inglis
Prima Park’s Kelly Van Dyk believed her colt by Exceed And Excel (Danehill) was the perfect product to garner significant attention from buyers from Hong Kong and she was proved correct when the juvenile was snapped up by trainer Mark Newnham for $600,000 on Tuesday.
The bay colt is out of Allez Bien (O’Reilly), a city winner of four races who’s a half-sister to outstanding Perth mare Inspirational Girl (Reliable Man) – winner of three black type races including the WATC Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) – and to Listed victor Ruettiger (Duporth).
He was a $240,000 buy from the Newhaven Park draft at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and stopped the clock at 10.29 in his Taupo breeze.
Van Dyk told ANZ Bloodstock News that not only does she believe the colt has the physical attributes to make an impact in Hong Kong, he also possesses the right temperament to make it in the high pressure environment.
“We are over the moon with that and thought he would make somewhere between that $400,000 and $500,000 mark, he deserved to make that based on how well he breezed–up. What a magnificent horse he is, so to get $600,000 we’re delighted,” the New Zealand-based consignor said.
“We came here knowing we had a horse that would suit the Hong Kong market and he came through and delivered. We are delighted he has gone to Mark Newnham, who is relatively new to Hong Kong, so we’re happy he’s got what we think is a very good horse.
“The horse is just made for Hong Kong, he has an incredible temperament, thrives on his work and in the stable and I think he will relish in that environment, obviously it’s not easy but we have done our best to prepare him for that environment and I think he is going to do really well there.”
Darley’s recently pensioned sire Exceed And Excel has sired 71 winners in Hong Kong from 126 starts and they include six stakes winners, headed by three-time top-flight scorer Mr Stunning.
Newnham joined the training ranks in the Asian jurisdiction last season, saddling 31 winners, and rated the Prima Park offering as the best horse in the sale.
“To me he looked the best horse in the sale, I knew he would be that sort of price,” he said. “He has a good pedigree – he was a $240,000 yearling and being a later foal probably suits Hong Kong because they are given plenty of time. He [Exceed And Excel] is just a stallion that has done amazingly well all over the world. To me, he is a low risk type of horse.
“I expected that was what we would need to pay and I was probably at my last bid, so I’m pleased to have got him.
“There are more permits being issued for PPG purchases and that is the style of horse we are looking for. It has been more difficult to buy tried horses out of Australia in the last couple of years. To buy a horse that has breezed up and shown some ability already, I think that is probably easier than trying to buy horses out of trials, who are owned by a large group of owners, which makes it very difficult to buy.”
Newnham also purchased a colt by Pierata (Pierro), paying Regal Farm $320,000 for the youngster who breezed in a time of 10.57.
Eustace takes a Star Turn
Fresh from saddling his first winner in Hong Kong, multiple Group 1-winning trainer David Eustace was back at Inglis looking for more candidates to add to his stable and he managed to strike for a colt by Star Turn (Star Witness), paying Woburn Farm $500,000 for the chestnut two-year-old.
Star Turn has been represented by seven winners from 11 starters in Hong Kong and they are headed by Group 3 scorer Cordyceps Six.
The colt was a $260,000 purchase for Woburn at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and he clocked 10.73 in his Taupo breeze, which impressed his new trainer.
“Ultimately you have to look at the breeze first because that is the sale you’re coming to and the advantage of a breeze sale rather than a yearling sale is that you can see their action and how they handle themselves under a bit of pressure and style of which they breeze as well, which is what I mainly look for far more than the time,” Eustace told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The way he breezed, he was very much still working things out and he wasn’t totally screwed down and I think Woburn do a good job in getting horses up and going, but also leaving plenty there for you which is what I would like to do, to give him the opportunity to race as a two-year-old in Hong Kong.”
“There was a good group of horses who all presented well, so it was a great result for Inglis and a great result for us to have a good bunch of horses to look at and purchase.”
The colt is out of the dual-winning Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) mare Hyannis Port, who is herself a daughter of Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) winner Mrs Onassis (General Nediym).
In his maiden season in Hong Kong, Eustace said he was relieved to get a win on the board, when he saddled Swift Ascend (Lord Kanaloa) to land the Class 4 Harbour View Handicap (1200m) at Happy Valley last Wednesday.
“It was great to get the winner on the board and realise the eye was in. I had focussed on having some horses to take to the races and trying to get a winner early, so luckily it worked out. I am enjoying it and support has been good,” Eustace said.
Final figures
At the close of trade Inglis reported a clearance rate of 62 per cent and an average of $167,065, while the median sat at $110,000, a rise from the $90,000 recorded at the corresponding sale 12 months previously.
Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch was delighted with the strength of Tuesday’s sale.
“There are a hell of a lot of positives from the day and not for a second at the start of the day did I think we would be reflecting on a record-priced breezer and a $1 million lot at the end of the day,’’ Hutch said.
“Competition for nice horses that breezed well and vetted well was ferocious and the volume of buyers at the top end was like nothing we have seen before at this sale.
“There was significant Hong Kong participation on the buyer list which was fantastic to see because it’s a jurisdiction we have worked really hard on for our vendors to ensure a positive spend but it was great to have that supplemented by buyers from China, Malaysia and Macau.”
Hutch said that while international spend was high, he was buoyed to see domestic buyers also come to the table.
“As well as that, we had the likes of Waterhouse and Bott, Ciaron Maher, Chris Waller with the Hermitage team, Price/Kent Racing, Annabel Neasham, Clinton McDonald, OTI, Triple Crown, Lloyd Kennewell, Mitch Beer, Joe Pride, John McArdle etc, amongst a strong group of domestic buyers.
“Predictably there was a selectivity in the market – it’s an inevitable feature of a sale where the horses offered are subject to a timed gallop – but there has been a robust trade in passed in lots and we’ll be working to grow the clearance rate further over the next 24-48 hours.
“We’re hugely grateful for the support of vendors and buyers of the sale and we look forward to following graduates of this year’s sale into the future, as well as planning for the 2025 sale on the basis of this strong platform.’’
2024 2023
Catalogued 196 226
Offered 148 179
Sold 92 (62%) 92 (55%)
Aggregate $15,370,000 (+40%) $10,943,500
Average $167,065 (+57%) $106,248
Median $110,000 (+22%) $90,000
Top Lot $1,000,000 $400,000