Slipper winner Fireburn sold to Japan
Last year’s Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Fireburn (Rebel Dane) has been retired and will now embark on a career as broodmare in Japan.
Bred by Laurel Oak Bloodstock’s Louis Mihalyka, Grant Bloodstock and Carpe Diem Syndicate, Fireburn, whose other elite-level victory came in the 2022 Inglis Sires’ (Gr 1, 1400m), has been sold to Japan for an undisclosed sum, in a deal brokered by bloodstock agent William Johnson.
“She wasn’t on the market. We were approached by Will Johnson, who I know well, and he asked if she was for sale and as managing owner of the horse I am obliged to pass on any offers for her,” Mihalyka, who raced the filly in partnership, told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“They went away and did their due diligence and within 24 hours came back with an offer which ended up being accepted by the ownership.”
After finishing fourth on her first start at Warwick Farm, the Gary Portelli-trained filly strung together a five-race unbeaten run, landing her first stakes race on her third start in the Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
The filly produced an incredible performance in the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), overcoming severe interference to record a two and a half-length win over Best Of Bordeaux (Snitzel).
She followed up that fine win with a victory in the Inglis’ Sires, the second-leg of the juvenile Triple Crown. She was agonisingly denied the treble when beaten by She’s Extreme (Extreme Choice) in the Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) on her final start as a two-year-old.
Fireburn’s only win as a three-year-old came in the The Roses (Gr 2, 2000m) at Doomben in May, having finished third in the Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) earlier in the season.
Crowned Australia’s Champion Two-Year-Old in 2021-22, Fireburn retires the winner of six of her 20 starts and with prize-money earnings of $4,245,850.
Fireburn becomes the latest star to start her career as a broodmare in Japan, joining the likes of fellow Golden Slipper winner She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain), Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) scorer Amphitrite (Sebring) as well as fellow Group 1 winners Funstar (Adelaide), Gypsy Goddess (Tarzino), Miami Bound (Reliable Man), Single Gaze (Not A Single Doubt) and Yankee Rose (All American), the dam of four-time Grade 1 winner Liberty Island (Duramente), to name a small few.
Mihalyka purchased the Fireburn’s dam, Mull Over (So You Think), for a modest sum of $22,000 at the 2018 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2018 and mated her with Rebel Dane (California Dane), who also, like Fireburn, raced in the Laurel Oak Bloodstock silks.
Mihalyka was quick to pay tribute to the enormous impact Fireburn had, not only on Rebel Dane, who was relocated to Widden Stud in New South Wales and received a fee increase to $22,000 (inc GST) off the back of Fireburn’s heroics, but also her dam, Mull Over.
“She [Fireburn] could have possibly gone to auction next year, but we felt her pedigree wasn’t possibly sexy enough to appeal to all the major players,” said Mihalyka. “So she was bought on the basis that she was Champion Two-Year-Old in the country and they clearly respected that.
“The satisfaction factor is beyond belief – it goes back to years of pedigree study and real belief in what we’re doing pedigree-wise and picking a mare on a particular cross. I picked her dam because I wanted to do that cross with Rebel Dane and that cross worked and it has obviously given us now a very valuable broodmare and a magnificent racehorse.”
In 2022, Mull Over produced a colt by Pierata (Pierro) and Mihalyka revealed he would be bound for the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale next year.