So You Think colt comes out on top on day two of Great Southern Sale
Too Good Too Hard also sets broodmare session record at $560,000 as Melbourne sale comes to an end
The highest-priced weanling sold on the second day of the Inglis Great Southern Sale, a So You Think (High Chaparral) colt from the family of champion mare Makybe Diva (Desert King), may be retained to race with the buyer of the $290,000 foal in no rush to commit to putting him back through a sale in 2022.
The second most expensive weanling sold at this year’s Oaklands Junction sale, which was delayed three weeks due to a Covid-19 outbreak in Victoria, was purchased by Mitchell Bloodstock on behalf of a client and helped the 2021 Great Southern Sale to across the board records, surpassing the 2019 benchmark results.
The So You Think colt was one of 32 weanlings to make $100,000 or more during the two-day auction, which averaged $40,738 at a median of $22,000. The aggregate was last night at $11,203,250 at a clearance rate of 78 per cent.
The broodmare session also achieved records despite a smaller offering.
Meanwhile, Coolmore-based So You Think was Australia’s most popular sire in 2020, covering 261 mares, as breeders began to recognise the star racehorse’s growing achievements in the stallion barn and that fact was not lost on agent James Mitchell who had to extend the budget for day two’s top Lot.
“He’s a hugely underrated stallion, I believe. He’s been doing a good job for years now,” Mitchell said.
“He wins Derbies, he wins Group 1s regularly, he’s a very good stallion and this is a nice colt out of a full-sister to one of the best mares you’ve ever seen (Makybe Diva).
“The client was obviously pretty bullish. We probably spent a little bit more than I was expecting but it’s the market we are in and he wanted him, so that is where we ended up.”
Mitchell said the client would assess how the colt develops in the coming months before deciding whether to reoffer him at next year’s yearling sales or retain him to race.
The son of So You Think is the third foal out of the unraced Collins (Desert King), a sister to three-time Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) heroine Makybe Diva. Her first foal, the unraced juvenile filly Just Get It Done (Brazen Beau), is in training with Colin Little while her second, a colt by All Too Hard (Casino Prince), was bought by fellow Caulfield trainer John Moloney for $110,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January. Bred and sold by Makybe Stud, he was catalogued as Lot 321.
Mitchell has been in attendance at the Melbourne sale this week and was glad he was on the ground, coming away with seven weanlings for a spend of $671,000.
He said: “There’s some good-quality weanlings here. Inglis has done a great job and obviously with the permit I am on, I’ve been just going from the hotel to the sale and back, but it’s certainly been worth it to come down.”
Joe Murray, who runs Tony Santic’s Makybe Stud near Geelong, believes the colt had plenty of commercial appeal if the buyer chose to re-offer him next year.
“He’s been a bit of a marquee item being out of a full-sister to Makybe Diva,” Murray said.
“He looks like a So You Think with the forelock and everything like that, so most people who saw him came back for a second look.
“The x-ray hits were coming through, so we knew he would be popular. We didn’t think we’d have to protect him at all because the market was strong on him straight away.”
Trainer Little described the two-year-old half-sister as “tough”’ and Murray believes the weanling sibling is in the same mould.
“We’ve got a bit of a saturation of the Makybe family, so we had to bring a couple here,” he said.
“We weren’t selling him for any reason other than we’ve got other yearlings who will come through.
“His x-rays were clean and we weren’t going to bring him here if he had any issues. You are only going to walk away disappointed if you bring a horse with issues and with a pedigree like that, he was always going to match up.”
Cangon Stud cashes in Capitalist colt at $250,000
The fanfare around Newgate Farm’s Capitalist (Written Tycoon), the sire of 18 individual first crop winners this season, saw Cangon Stud proprietors Jock and Jennifer Mackay make the last-minute call to send a third crop colt from the Hunter Valley to Melbourne and the decision proved justified yesterday.
The third foal out of the stakes-placed Sebrina (Sebring), offered as a supplementary through the Widden Stud draft, realised $250,000 and was bought by Victorian agent Suman Hedge in conjunction with his pinhooking partners including Silverdale Farm.
“He’s a colt we haven’t had for very long, he’s only been on the farm a week and we knew he was a special colt as soon as he got off the truck,” Widden Victoria’s Phil Marshall said.
“A big thanks to Jennifer and Jock Mackay at Cangon Stud for trusting us with the horse, they brought him down in pretty good order and he hasn’t really had a prep, so he’s going to improve from here.
“He’s a lovely horse and has plenty of scope for a Capitalist, which I think the buyers really liked, and he also had such a great attitude and I’d be surprised if he doesn’t make it into a really good racehorse with that temperament.”
Sebrina, a winner of four races and herself a daughter of Group 3 winner Crown Princess (Beautiful Crown), has had two other foals sell so far, a $150,000 Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) colt purchased by Sun Bloodstock and an Exceed And Excel (Danehill) colt who made $140,000 to agents Bevan Smith and Johnny McKeever at this year’s Inglis Classic Yearling Sale. The colt was catalogued as Lot 543.
“He’s a lovely horse, extremely athletic, beautiful-moving and very well put together and Widden did a great job presenting him,” Hedge said.
“He’s also by the sire of the moment Capitalist, who is taking all before him and he’s got a pedigree with some depth, so we’re delighted to get him.
“He’s got the best parts of Capitalist, we’re big on movement and athleticism, he was well balanced, not too heavy and looks like a straightforward horse with a good temperament.”
Hedge added: “As a buyer I’ve found it very hard, it’s been an extremely strong sale and Inglis should be commended for what they’ve done as they’ve presented a really strong catalogue in some really challenging times.”
Mills hopes to write latest chapter with $225,000 filly
There was no surprise that Melbourne agent Sheamus Mills had his eyes on weanlings by Written Tycoon (Iglesia), the new Yulong resident who is almost certain to be crowned Australia’s champion sire at the end of this season, given his success with the stallion’s progeny.
Group 1 winner Odeum, the 2020 Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner trained by Mick Price and Mick Kent jr, is raced by Mills and partners Heath Newton and Anthony Roberts.
Yesterday, Mills went to $225,000 for a weanling filly by Written Tycoon, who has returned to Victoria after a one-year stint in the Hunter Valley at Arrowfield Stud.
“He is a stallion I’ve paid a lot of attention to in recent years by breeding to him, buying his foals and yearlings, everything by him, and I think he’s such a good stallion with the best still in front of him,” Mills said in admiration of Written Tycoon.
“Like all the good ones, you stretch yourself ten to 15 per cent, and while I was happy for the price to start with a one, I wasn’t surprised to see it start with a two.
“I really wanted the horse and I was a huge fan of her mum, who was such a fast and tough horse, she’s also had four foals go to the races and win so that was the reason why I stretched.”
Sold by Rushton Park as Lot 312, she is the sixth living foal out of Chakvetadze (Taimazov), an eight-time winner who landed the Gold Coast Guineas (Gr 3, 1200m), and is the dam of four to race for four winners.
“I like that style of Written Tycoon with a bit of length, I like the dark bays and she has that walk I think the good ones have got, she’s also very correct and has a good temperament,” said Mills.
“The Written Tycoons that I like to buy fit that exact mould, her mum was a very striking individual and I think this is a good mix of mum and dad.”
Rushton Park’s Kayley Johnson said: “She was a beautiful filly and while we thought she would sell well she’s even surpassed our expectations so we’re very pleased.
“It means a lot when you do all the hard work to get them to this stage and you never really know what’s going to happen so it’s nice to be rewarded.
“She had a lot of admirers today and it’s pretty obvious she is a filly that can be taken through to Magic Millions or might even race her on because she’s a nice residual filly.
“We were hoping that she would make somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000 but based on the inspections we were reasonably confident.
“It is very rewarding to come with a good draft because a lot of hard yards go on behind the scenes.”
Johnson bought Chakvetadze for $45,000 at the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale after taking a shine to her weanling of that year by All Too Hard (Casino Prince), who was also bought by Mills and Graebar Park at the National sale for $90,000.
It is the same strategy successfully employed by Rushton Park two years earlier when Johnson and Randwick Bloodstock’s Brett Howard bought Bardego (Barathea), the dam of subsequent Group 1 winner Volpe Veloce (Foxwedge), for $46,000.
Volpe Veloce sold at this year’s Magic Millions National Sale, in foal to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), for $1.9 million, incidentally, to Mills, Longwood Thoroughbred Farm’s Michael Christian and Peter Morgan.
“I bought the mare (Chakvetadze) at the Gold Coast a few years ago because we loved her All Too Hard weanling and we’ve had good results in the past buying mares that we have seen results of in the past,” she said.
“The market has been so strong and it’s hard to resist the temptation to test the market when you know you have a nice product and that was the reason why we put her in here.”
Mills echoed buyers and vendors who say it was the upper-end of the market which has naturally had the most depth to it.
“Like most of these sales the good horses are really hard to buy, the next rung down is making every bit they deserve, while the bottom quarter is a little trickier,” he said.
“The clearance rate here has been really good and I think the vendors have met the market and a lot of the horses that haven’t sold you could debate all day that maybe the service fees are too high and they’ve priced themselves out of it.
“However, it’s been a good solid trade considering the restrictions on who can be here and this sale deserves a good tick.”
Noorilim’s Kent cashed up after ‘game-changing’ Invader result
Recently appointed Noorilim Farm manager Chris Kent has first-hand experience selling high-priced stock with his previous employer Phil Campbell at Blue Gum Farm, but yesterday he enjoyed his own “life-changing” sales ring success when an Invader (Snitzel) colt made $130,000.
Kent, who only moved from Campbell’s Euroa stud to the Carricks’ Noorilim Farm at Arcadia in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley in recent months, bought Celtic Sea (Fastnet Rock), a juvenile winner, in foal to Aquis Farm’s Invader for just $11,000 from Segenhoe Stud from last year’s Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale.
The resulting colt, Celtic Sea’s sixth foal and catalogued as Lot 310, was bought for the six-figure sum by agents Bevan Smith and James Ferguson.
“My wife Catherine and I do a lot of homework and we saw the mare at the Sydney sale. We paid 11 grand for her and we foaled him down. We aim to sell them as foals and it’s a game-changer for Catherine and I and our son Nicholas, that’s what it is,” said Kent as his phone ran hot with congratulatory texts and calls.
“I have always thought he was a cracker. I have loved him from day one. I still remember foaling him down and coming to the sale I was confident. I was going to protect him a little bit, but I only had a reserve of $20,000. Catherine and I had spoken and this is what we do.
“During inspections I started to think he might make $75,000 to $80,000 but when he went to $130,000, it’s the biggest result I’ve ever had.
“Words can’t describe it. I lost who was on him at 80 grand. I kind of blanked out and next minute the hammer was down at $130,000. I was in tears, I can’t believe it.”
Adelaide trainers Richard and Chantelle Jolly paid $75,000 for the colt’s older brother from Book 2 of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January.
Three-generation Mill Park family mare tops mares sale
It’s not a new recipe for sales success but the demand for race mares off the track with some stakes form behind them was again evident at the Great Southern Sale, with Too Good Too Hard (All Too Hard) setting a Melbourne broodmare record at $560,000.
Offered by Mill Park Stud, who bred and co-owned the Phillip Stokes-trained Group 3-placed rising six-year-old mare, Too Good Too Hard was bought for $560,000 by Suman Hedge after outlasting rival Paul Moroney.
Too Good Too Hard, a $120,000 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale graduate, is a half-sister to the stakes-placed It’s A Myth (Sepoy) and a daughter of The Good Wife (Redoute’s Choice), herself a half-sister to four-time Group 1 winner Divine Madonna (Hurricane Sky).
“We knew she was a lovely mare coming here and she had great credentials coming here, so we knew she’d sell pretty well, but that was well above expectations,” Mill Park Stud’s Chris Watson said.
“She’s gone to a fantastic buyer in Suman Hedge, so we are thrilled. These fillies off the track have been super popular this year and if they’ve got a bit of residual value with a big, deep black type family they just sell exceptionally well.
“It was a combination of things, her pedigree and her physique. She’s an athletic type with a deep pedigree, which is something most stud farms are looking for.
“We’ve got two to three generations of this family. We would have loved to have kept her, but we’ve got a lot of this family, so it’s going to be fantastic to see some of the family getting out to some other big studs and into the marketplace as well.”
Hedge bought Too Good Too Hard to go to Written Tycoon.
“She was such a beautiful mare and I’ve known a bit about her for some time because one of my clients is in her and I’ve been following her progress all the way through,” Hedge said.
“I hadn’t seen her before the sale, but when I first laid eyes on her I saw a beautiful mare and she’s got so much quality.
“She gets out over a bit of ground, has beautiful angles and moves so well.
“She has a lot of quality, with depth to her pedigree and type of mare who ticks all the boxes in the broodmares we look for.”
On the mating plan, Hedge said: “She just suited him so well and he has mixed particularly well with the Flying Spur line and there were a lot of reasons we liked her.
“The fact she came off Mill Park was a big reason as I’ve been dying to get a horse off them for years and have never been able to do so and if they’re not the best farm they’re in the discussion among some of the best producing farms.
“So, to be able to buy a horse who was bred and reared off their farm feels really good.”
The fact the Great Southern Sale was another record, continuing the theme of the 2021 sales season, makes life tougher for agents like Hedge, who pride themselves on being able to accurately value bloodstock.
“It’s so hard to value horses this year and there was discussion to what she may or may not bring and I’ve always tried to mentally put myself above those discussions so I can mentally deal with it when it happens,” he said.
“But the bottom line is, if you want to buy a high quality mare this year, you have to pay a premium for it and we look at these things as three to five-year investments, we’re not looking at her as a trade mare scenario. We want to invest in the mare and the family.
“Therefore, it is a long-term view and you’re not as strict with your budget as you are when you’re pinhooking.
“It was a long wait and I was really nervous that we would just get blown out of the water as there was a lot of interest in the mare. So, to come away with the mare is very pleasing and hopefully it works out.”
Incentivise’s half-sister sells for $200,000
Meanwhile, it took a bit longer than expected but the half-sister to boom Queensland stayer Incentivise (Shamus Award), the current Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) and Melbourne Cup favourite, has a new home and it’s probably no surprise one of the new owners also shares in the ownership of the exciting rising five-year-old.
Late yesterday, Ra Ra Epic (Drumbeats), who is in foal to Everest (1200m) winner Yes Yes Yes (Rubick), was sold for $200,000 by owner Roger Sousa to Group 1 Bloodstock’s Mathew Becker and Merricks Station through the Stonehouse Thoroughbreds draft after initially being passed in.
Merricks Station’s Ben Cooper has taken 50 percent in Ra Ra Epic alongside Becker’s client Ozzie Kheir, who recently bought into the Steve Tregea-trained Incentivise, the winner of his past six starts by a combined margin of 41.9 lengths to skyrocket to the top of betting markets for the spring Cups.
“She’s from an exciting and really active family. We’ve gone halves with Ozzie, so we’ll get her back to the farm and foal her down to Yes Yes Yes and have some really good progeny to come through the sales in the next couple of years,” Cooper said.
“Not only is she closely related to Incentivise, she’s a quality mare with a lot of black type at the top end as well, so she’s exactly the sort of mare we’re looking for.”
The big spring cups races have suddenly taken on significantly more importance for Cooper now that he has a mare from the family of Incentivise, who is to be trained by Peter Moody next campaign.
“I was just saying to Mat Becker, who was helping with the purchase, that it’s really added interest to the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, so we’ll be cheering on Incentivise like we’re an owner, too,” he said.
“Ra Ra Epic is a good, strong, big mare and I think she’ll match up well with Yes Yes Yes. Although it’ll be a bit of a later foal, an October foal, it’s a good commercial family to sell.”
Rosemont Stud’s Shamus Award (Snitzel) looms as a probable mating for Ra Ra Epic this year, but Cooper suggested all suitable commercial sires will be considered.
Ra Ra Epic, who was consigned by Bhima Thoroughbreds, was bought by Pinhook Bloodstock’s Dave Mee and Sousa’s Platinum Racing and Breeding for $80,000 at the 2020 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale carrying a colt by Deep Field (Northern Meteor).
“Talking to the vendor Mike Fleming about Covid and people not travelling as a result, there’s a lot of people bidding online or through agents and the Inglis bloodstock team, which made it really hard to gauge the level of interest,” Mee said.
“Setting the reserve was one we thought was very fair and reasonable for the seller and potential buyer. It’s a satisfying result and we wish Ben Cooper and Mat Becker all the best.”
Another trade success, this time in just two months, was achieved by Avesta Bloodstock’s Jimmy Unwala and Rothwell Park’s Scott Irwin, who banked on the rapid rise of Extreme Choice progressing beyond Stay Inside’s Golden Slipper victory in March and indeed that was the case.
The pair paid $80,000 for Trajectory (Northern Meteor) in foal to Extreme Choice from the Newgate Consignment at the Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale and were able to sell her yesterday for $130,000 to turn a quick profit.
She was bought by the Written Tycoon Syndicate yesterday.
Inglis Victorian bloodstock manager James Price had predicted a strong second session and he was pleased to see the market agree with his assessment of the catalogue.
“We thought going into day two that we would see a rise in the average and we certainly saw that,” Price said.
“There were some fantastic results right across the board and buyers have gone home with what they wanted and vendors particularly pleased despite all that has gone on.
“If we completely ignored the delays and border restrictions, it’s been a fantastic sale regardless of everything that has gone on in the wider community.
“In the lead up to the sale it was a tense and nervous time for the Victorian vendors as they saw this sale go online last year which is never ideal particularly for weanlings.
“So, to see the sale have the strength and competitiveness it did is hugely satisfying for us at Inglis and all the vendors who have waited for it to proceed.”
For auction houses the focus is now on inspecting weanlings for next year’s yearling sales and the two-year-old sales are also fast approaching.
Sale results – select weanling sale
2021 2019
Catalogued 424 518
Offered 351 445 (+4%)
Sold 275 345 (78%)
Aggregate $11,203,250 $11,185,250 (+35%)
Average $40,739 $32,421 (+30%)
Median $22,000 $18,000 (+33%)
Top Lot $360,000 $250,000
Sale results – Broodmares
2021 2019
Catalogued 151 309
Offered 112 279
Sold 75 199 (71%)
Aggregate $3,643,250 $5,035,250 (+13%)
Average $48,577 $25,303 (+28%)
Median $23,000 $8,000 (+45%)
Top Lot $560,000 $360,000