Six of the best
Here, in no particular order, is a look at a handful of some of most promisingly-bred lots at next week’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Lot 817
f. Capitalist – Spanish Pipedream (USA)
American trainer Wesley Ward has a reputation for preparing quality mares, often deploying them at Royal Ascot. And Newgate farm has got into the habit of buying some of them with an eye to breed with them here. Con Te Partiro was one such. Ward took the daughter of Scat Daddy to Ascot to claim the Listed Sandringham Stakes over a mile in 2017. Brought to Australia, she’s taken a lucrative detour en route to the breeding barn, and in fact was a headliner of last year’s autumn, winning two Sydney Group 1s in the Coolmore and the Queen Of The Turf. Now comes another daughter of Scat Daddy, Spanish Pipedream, from the same route. A speedster who raced six times, she won on her debut over four and a half furlongs before finishing fourth in Royal Ascot’s Queen Mary Stakes in 2014, going on to register a further three victories back in the States. Spanish Pipedream was said to be even better than Con Te Partiro before her racing days were cut short by injury, so it’s easy to see why Newgate is particularly excited by this filly, whose blend with Capitalist promises speed in abundance. “The people at Wesley Ward’s stable told us of all the mares we’ve bought from them, Spanish Pipedream was the pick of the bunch for natural talent,” says Newgate managing director Henry Field. “And this filly just looks incredible. So well put together, symmetrical, balanced, lean and powerful.”
Lot 336
f. Capitalist – Gaudeamus
Queensland breeders Element Hill should be expecting big things of this bay filly. She’s by Capitalist out of the US-bred mare Gaudeamus (by Distorted Humor). She was a Group 2 winner in Ireland, sent to Australia and sold as an 11-year-old broodmare in 2015 for $160,000. Things were progressing fairly well for Element Hill. In 2018 the mare’s Fastnet Rock colt fetched $200,000. He’s called Quiet Riot and has won one from two, at Warwick Farm, for Bjorn Baker. But the one who sold for $120,000 the year before, a son Medaglia d’Oro, has ended up in Hong Kong, racing by the name of Golden Sixty. The gelding has become the latest sensation in the territory, unfurling a winning streak which last month stretched to 11, through his Group 1 breakthrough in the Hong Kong Mile. That also gave him 14 wins from 15 starts. With Golden Slipper winner Capitalist having made a strong start at stud – he’s currently Australia’s leading first-season sire – there is expected to be enormous interest in this lot, a filly with great outcross potential for later, as there’s only one appearance of Danehill, four generations back in the female line.
Lot 346
c. Zoustar – Global Glamour
Coolmore are selling this bay colt, the first offspring from the former outstanding Star Witness racemare Global Glamour. At three she was a dual Group 1 winner in the space of a week of Randwick’s Flight Stakes and Caulfield’s Thousand Guineas, who earned $1,549,000 in prize–money and sold as a broodmare for $1,000 more. This colt comes from the same match-up as Global Glamour’s first foal, an as yet unraced colt named Global Star, by the outstanding speed sire Zoustar (Sunlight, Zoutori, Haut Brion Her, etc). “He’s everything we’d want in a yearling and certainly one of the highlights of the draft,” said Coolmore’s marketing and nominations manager Tom Moore. “Global Glamour was an incredibly tough filly who was strong enough to win two Group 1s in the space of a week in Sydney and Melbourne. This colt is a big strong boy who’s a lot like his mum in that regard, and he’s got great scope and is a great mover.”
Lot 20
c. Written Tycoon – Afleet Esprit
Vinery stud offers what its general manager Peter Orton calls a “beautiful” colt bringing echoes of one of the turf sensations of 2020, Golden Rose-Caulfield Guineas double winner Ole Kirk. Both are by Written Tycoon from a Bel Esprit mare. Ole Kirk is out of Naturale, a full-sister to Black Caviar out of Helsinge. Lot 20 springs from Afleet Esprit, winner of the Group 2 Thousand Guineas Prelude. While her first foal Kotys, a filly by More Than Ready, is unplaced from five starts, there’s hope the Written Tycoon-Bel Esprit blend will work wonders again. Afleet Esprit adds a touch of Danehill to the mix, with her dam Bonded being by Danewin. “This is a lovely colt who’s gaining a lot of attention,” Orton says, “and we think he’s what the market’s looking for being by an outcross stallion as well.”
Lot 382
c. Shalaa (IRE) – Honesty Prevails
Arrowfield has high hopes for this second foal of Redoute’s Choice mare Honesty Prevails, who easily won the Group 3 Widden Stakes of 2016 on debut, and finished fifth in Capitalist’s Golden Slipper at her third start in a brief racetrack career of six outings. She went to Japan for her first foal, and that Deep Impact colt sold for $1.9 million at this sale last year, and is now a two-year-old in training named Profundo. This time she’s produced to Arrowfield shuttler Shalaa, the third-top first season sire by averages at the same sale, and now fourth on the Australian first season sires’ table. While sire and dam are mostly unproven, what excites Arrowfield’s pedigrees maven Peter Jenkins the most is Honesty Prevails is bred on Redoute’s Choice’s most successful cross, being out of a Hussonet mare in Flavoured. Her next dam is Almond Essence (USA), by American Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, and is a three-quarter sister to Belmont Stakes winner A.P. Indy. “It’s a very rich pedigree indeed, and we thought the cross with Shalaa would work very well,” Jenkins says. “And the colt is just a magnificent specimen. Great looking, superbly balanced, and a wonderful temperament.”
Lot 831
c. Pierro – Starspangled (IRE)
Plenty of racetrack success to boast from this pedigree, with this colt from Bowness Stud a half-brother, out of the Danehill mare Starspangled, to Group 1 winners Youngstar and Funstar. Youngstar, by High Chaparral, won the Queensland Oaks, ran Winx to a length second in a Turnbull Stakes, and fetched $1.4 million as a broodmare – bound for Japan – last year. Two years after Youngstar, Starspangled threw another Funstar, by Adelaide, winner of the Group 1 Flight Stakes and three times a Group 1 second placegetter. Starspangled is also the dam of Baggy Green, dam of last year’s All Aged Stakes winner, Tofane. In this colt, an outcross from Starspangled’s Danehill blood comes through Pierro, and most likely a dash more speed as well.