Sister to Pierro cracks the million dollar mark in landmark moment for Godolphin
Harron latches onto rare opportunity to access female family of exciting Coolmore sire
By Tim Rowe on the Gold Coast
James Harron yesterday seized the rare opportunity to access the family of elite stallion Pierro (Lonhro), a champion racehorse who helped establish the bloodstock agent’s career, by surpassing the million dollar mark in order to secure the Coolmore banner sire’s sister at the Gold Coast yesterday.
The top-priced offering on day two of the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale at $1.05 million was the fifth seven-figure lot of the southern hemisphere’s pre-eminent breeding stock auction with the possibility of further additions today.
Right Chord (Lonhro) added her name to an already star-studded list of million-dollar lots behind the record-setting Sunlight (Zoustar), who made $4.2 million, the $2.75 million mare Unforgotten (Fastnet Rock), Champagne Cuddles (Not A Single Doubt ($2 million) and Invincibella (I Am Invincible) ($1.3 million).
Harron, who helped orchestrate the deal which saw the Greg and Donna Kolivos-raced Pierro end up at Coolmore, believes the unraced Right Chord was an opportunity that could not be passed up and was willing to dig deep on behalf of his client.
“She’s a very exciting mare and she’s obviously quite a rare commodity and Pierro is doing an incredible job at stud,” Harron said.
“I’ve been lucky to be quite closely associated with Pierro through the Kolivos family, so I was really excited to see this mare. She’s such a beautiful type and I think she’s in foal to the perfect mating in Exceed And Excel.”
Offered by Godolphin as Lot 384, Right Chord is not only a sister to Pierro but also a half-sister to the three-time Group 1-placed Wakeful Stakes (Gr 2, 2000m) winner Ambience (Street Cry) and two other winners.
She is also the most expensive horse Godolphin has sold at public auction in Australia.
“It’s a premium family, as evidenced, and we do have a lot of sisters and half-sisters to Pierro, but having said that, our view was to expose a branch of the family to the market,” Godolphin Australia managing director Vin Cox told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“They become partners with us in the pedigree, their IP is valuable to us and they are obviously going to invest very heavily in the mare and, together, we might be able to keep building the pedigree. That was part of our thinking for selling.”
Harron said a mating for the 2020 breeding season would be determined once the Magic Millions sale was completed.
“The page is outstanding and there’s a lot of fillies in the Godolphin system being bred to the best stallions in the country and they are being trained by one of the best trainers in the country (James Cummings), so we can look forward to lots of updates,” the respected agent said.
“With Pierro, he is just kicking so many goals for a young stallion, so she was a must-have and once we saw her, we fell in love with her.”
Harron said the first two days of selling had been “robust” while Cox, the former managing director of Magic Millions, believes the global nature of the thoroughbred industry had again been to the fore.
Cox said: “People can pick up a pedigree, whether they’re in Kentucky or Newmarket in England or Ireland or here in Australia. You recognise the pedigrees, you know the sires, so it is an international product.
“The fact that we can all compete and participate in each other’s markets is a wonderful thing.
“We’re very fortunate here in Australia that we have a very strong racing industry, a very strong breeding industry and also a very young industry.
“Our participants are young, as evidenced by James Harron, one of the younger guys in our industry. He has a magnificent business and congratulations to him on his success and we wish him well with the purchase of Right Chord.”
Yarraman keeps hold of young Pins mare Mark Two
Also yesterday, Yarraman Park joined forces with Magic Millions supremo and retail king Gerry Harvey to ensure that young stakes-winning New Zealand mare Mark Two (Pins), who is in foal to the Mitchell family’s star sire, I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), remained at the Hunter Valley farm.
James Mitchell of Mitchell Bloodstock handled the bidding process on the new partnership’s behalf, going to $600,000 to secure the rising six-year-old mare who was owned during her on-track career by Kiwi syndicator Go Racing and trained by Stephen Marsh.
“It was a partnership and the partner wanted to sell out, so the way it’s fallen is that Yarraman will stay in with Gerry Harvey as the other partner,” Arthur Mitchell said.
“She’s a nice young mare with good form and a nice pedigree, so if she has a nice I Am Invincible or two, she’ll be fine. She’s a lovely mare.
“I think she’s perfect and Pins is also shaping up as a very good broodmare sire, so I think it will be a fine (mating).”
Catalogued as Lot 304, Mark Two is a Group 2-placed sister to the Group 3 winner Whistling Dixie and a half-sister to Victory Magic (Savabeel), who was runner-up in the Hong Kong Derby (Gr 1, 2000m).
She was purchased privately off the track in New Zealand before being sent to the Hunter Valley and covered by I Am Invincible in her maiden season at stud.
The same Yarraman-Harvey partnership combined at last year’s sale to buy Set To Unleash (Reset), the dam of Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner Houtzen (I Am Invincible), for $900,000.
Set To Unleash had a sister to the former Toby Edmonds-trained Houtzen last September.
Arthur Mitchell believed the price tag realised for Mark Two yesterday was “about the money”.
“I think the nicer ones are selling well and the lesser ones probably aren’t but there aren’t that many top-quality mares here,” he said.
A List’s Lee takes shine to Pecans
Gold Coast-based Chris Lee’s bid to upgrade the quality of his growing broodmare band received a big boost yesterday with the acquisition of the dual Group-winning mare Pecans (Skilled) for $560,000.
Sold in foal to Pierro (Lonhro), the rising six-year-old has a date with I Am Invincible this year as Lee ups his Australian breeding interests to enable him to become a major player at the country’s select sales.
Pecans, who was consigned by Yarraman Park Stud as Lot 357, was purchased for $405,000 by Australian Bloodstock and the Brave Smash partnership at last year’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale before being covered in her maiden season by Pierro.
Continuing the trading windfall that Pecans has been since being offloaded by Godolphin in 2017, the daughter of Skilled (Commands) was bought for $50,000 by Tricolours Syndications at the Inglis August Thoroughbred Sale and transferred to Sydney trainer Joe Pride.
A half-sister to the Listed-winning juvenile Secession (Lonhro) and the Group 2-placed two-year-old Purdey (Lonhro), Pecans went on to take out the Belle Of The Turf Handicap (Gr 3, 1600m) and the Hawkesbury Crown (Gr 3, 1300m) before being resold.
“Pecans will really help and strengthen the A List broodmare band and keep increasing the mare quality, which is why I purchased this mare,” Lee said.
“I also have a good association with Darley, which is why this mare appealed to me. I think the price represents value, considering she is in foal to a stallion like Pierro and I am really happy.”
Yulong, meanwhile, showed no signs of slowing down on day two, purchasing the first lot through the ring for $400,000 after securing $2.75 million mare Unforgotten (Fastnet Rock) on Monday.
A noted acquirer of Zabeel (Sir Tristram) mares, Yulong principal Yuesheng Zhang bought a mare by the late champion Cambridge Stud sire, the five-time winner Glitzabeel and dam of Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) victor Princess Jenni (High Chaparral). Catalogued as Lot 223, she was sold in foal to Pierro by Bhima Thoroughbreds.
Later, Mr Zhang, bidding online, went to $575,000 for the Group 2-placed mare Storytime (Savabeel), who is in foal to I Am Invincible.
She was sold by Yarraman Park as Lot 455 inside the final half an hour of the session.
Glitzabeel and Storytime will be covered by either Grunt (O’Reilly) or Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice), the two Yulong resident stallions this year.
Sunlight’s sibling to visit Zoustar
Coolmore took home Sunlight for the massive sum on Monday and it was left to James Bester to handle the purchase of her older half-sister Solar Girl (Lonhro), who was signed for by the South African agent on behalf of Sheikh Bin Khalifa and his advisor Tim Stakemire.
Offered in foal to first season sire The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice) by Arrowfield Stud, the raced Solar Girl made $500,000 late in the session.
Bester confirmed that Solar Girl, understandably, would be covered by Widden Stud’s champion first season sire Zoustar (Northern Meteor) this year.
He had inspected the mare, who was sold in absentia, in the Hunter Valley and was happy to endorse her prospects when his opinion was sought by Stakemire.
“At that kind of price we think she is very well bought. There was always the possibility that she could have cost more than that, but obviously Sunlight with all her Group 1 wins was a different kettle of fish,” the experienced Bester said.
“But she is an attractive mare and we were banking on the fact that she wasn’t on the complex.
“The Autumn Sun (mating) was an attractive prospect, for sure. He is likely to be a highly sought after first-season sire when this foal comes to be sold – so my word that played a part.”
Solar Girl has a rising two-year-old by Scissor Kick (Redoute’s Choice), who made $55,000 at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale earlier this year.
Bester did not stop with Solar Girl, having earlier landed Santa Clara (Foxwedge), the half-sister to New Zealand juvenile Group 1 winner Anabandana (Anabaa) and AJC Gimcrack Stakes (Listed, 1000m) winner Gybe (Fastnet Rock). Bester went to $190,000 to purchase the Willow Park Stud-consigned mare, who is in foal to “my favourite stallion Justify”. Santa Clara was catalogued as Lot 400.
“Again, I had inspected her on the farm and actually noticed she had a first foal by Sebring that was outstanding. That is the benefit of doing the pre-sale on farm inspections and those were the two I bought today,” Bester said.
After a strong day one race fillies and mares session, many vendors had to work harder to sell their in-foal stock yesterday outside those with horses deemed to be of high quality.
“It has been patchy and very difficult to buy top-of-the-market-type horses and I would imagine there are vendors out there who have found it hard going,” Bester said.
“So many of us buy on spec, so horses that may not appeal to us on catalogue, when you are at a sale the horses are on the complex and word gets around and you can dart over and have a look at it and that helps a lot.
“This is one of the disadvantages (of the Covid-19 pandemic) at the moment, but we need to be grateful and I think, given the circumstances, it is holding up really well.”
Bowditch content with outcome of day two
Despite the sentiment and requirement for quality, those who have met the market and been willing to trade have led to, all things considered, reasonable and perhaps surprisingly positive figures, which has also been borne out in recent Inglis and online breeding stock sales.
Last night, the average was sitting at $149,144, up 1.49 per cent on 2019, while the median was at $60,000, a decrease of $10,000 on the same session last year. The clearance rate was at 72 per cent.
“It is hard to have clear expectations in the current times, but I thought vendors on the whole did their best to meet the market,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said.
“There are a lot of opportunities for buyers. A lot of these horses have got good covers and they are young mares and I expect anyone keeping their lists long at this sale will have a (good chance of achieving a) fruitful outcome in years to come.”
The number of mares sold in absentia, as alluded to by Bester and others, added to the uncertainty of the marketplace but Bowditch was still satisfied with how many lots found new homes.
“All in all, when you look at the figures and what the good mares made today, I would have thought the vendors of those in absentia mares would be pleased with the outcomes.
“The average is healthy and there are plenty of buyers here that have got money to spend here on the right product and a lot of it is still in their pockets, which bodes well for (today),
“For the guys that are bidding online and doing their research and getting amongst it, I think there is value and lots of opportunities.”
The third and final session of the National Broodmare Sale starts at 10am where Group 1 winner Viddora (I Am Invincible), who is in foal to Lope De Vega (Shamardal), promises to be the highlight lot.