Speedster Pippie first big-name recruit heading to Chairman’s Sale
Dual Group 1 winner confirmed for Inglis breeding stock auction, but no decision on Melody Belle
Inglis has landed the first blow in the competitive auction house rivalry to acquire high-end breeding stock with confirmation that dual Group 1-winning sprinter Pippie (Written Tycoon), a valuable outcross mare, will be offered at this year’s Chairman’s Sale.
Gold Coast-based owner Glenn Heran has committed to selling the Chris Meagher-trained five-year-old after her brief late summer-autumn campaign targeting two Group 1 sprint races on the eastern seaboard.
Pippie is scheduled to run first-up on February 13 in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) at Flemington where she is set to take on Nature Strip (Nicconi) and September Run (Exceed And Excel) prior to a trip to Sydney for The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) at Rosehill on March 20.
Sebastian Hutch, Inglis’ general manager of bloodstock sales, declared Pippie, last year’s Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) and A J Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) winner, as a mare with a seven-figure price tag “every day of the week”.
“I think the Chairman’s sale has earned the right to catalogue mares of Pippie’s quality regularly,” Hutch said.
“People talk about wanting to see sales demonstrating themselves to be consistent and reliable for the market and I think that is the epitome of what the Chairman’s Sale is in terms of elite breeding stock and elite breeding prospects.
“You can bring stock (to Riverside Stables) and be confident that there’s going to be a very strong buying bench and the stock are going to make, arguably in the majority of cases, more than what they are worth because of the emotion of an auction and that is what is fun about it.”
Pippie is by the same sire as this season’s MRC Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Odeum (Written Tycoon) as well as Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), Group 2-winning sprinter Dirty Work (Written Tycoon) and progressive Group 3 winner Written Beauty (Written Tycoon).
Enthaar, a two-year-old filly by Written Tycoon (Iglesia), is also the short-priced favourite for the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) after her dominant first-up win in the Chairman’s Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Caulfield on Saturday to further illustrate the current potency of the Arrowfield Stud-based stallion who is the leading active Australian stallion this season with progeny prize-money earnings of more than $10 million.
The high-balling sprinter, who showed dashing speed to win her two Group 1s, was a $60,000 purchase by John Meagher from the 2017 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale on behalf of Heran from the Eureka Stud draft.
“In somewhat timely fashion, she is a graduate of the Classic Yearling Sale, so she has been a great demonstration of the quality that is available for a value price,” Hutch said.
“She was a $60,000 yearling at a time when Written Tycoon didn’t have the profile that he does now and I think both the vendor and the buyer will concede that she was probably undersold at that yearling sale.
“I know one Sydney trainer at least who laments the day she went through the ring as he wasn’t concentrating when she went through. I won’t name names, but I have had a conversation with said Sydney trainer and he’s still a bit emotional about it.”
A candid Heran said Pippie was too valuable for him to retain as a breeding proposition and he also did not want to overtax the valuable mare on the racecourse, which led to the decision to sell her through the Inglis auction.
“She is a daughter of Written Tycoon and I think it’s fair to say there is no better-performing stallion at the moment than Written Tycoon and she is right up there at the top of that list,” Heran said.
“She’s made a name for herself as being a world-class sprinter and I have no doubt she will also be a world-class broodmare.’’
The early recruitment of pin-up mare Pippie could be the catalyst for other owners of desirable broodmares and race fillies to follow suit and commit to offering their stock through Chairman’s, which last year sold dual Group 1-winning sprinting mare In Her Time (Time Thief) for $2 million as well as three others for more than $1 million,
The 2019 Chairman’s Sale saw prized mare Maastricht (Mastercraftsman), the mother of Group 1-winning filly Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible), and Srikandi (Dubawi) sell for $2.25 million and $2 million respectively. There were two further mares who made $1.7 million and $1.2 million on the night.
Rival company Magic Millions has also had the duty of selling elite mares in recent years, none more so than Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Sunlight (Zoustar) who made $4.2 million last July – the most expensive price paid for a mare in the southern hemisphere since Milanova (Danehill) made $5 million in 2008.
One mare all three auction houses – New Zealand Bloodstock, Magic Millions and Inglis – will be keen to offer this year is champion New Zealander Melody Belle (Commands) who on Saturday equalled Sunline (Desert Sun) with her 13th Group 1 victory in the Thorndon Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) at Trentham.
Syndicator John Galvin of Fortuna revealed yesterday that all three companies had submitted proposals in a bid to have Melody Belle sold through their auction house but as yet no decision by the owners had been made.
“She will be sold either by way of private sale if we had a really compelling offer or alternatively she will go to a public auction but that venue is not yet decided,” Galvin told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“We’ve asked for the various auction houses to put forward marketing and selling proposals for her and I have those in hand, but we’re not ready to make that decision to which auction house will sell her.”
While aware of managing the syndicate’s expectations when it comes to selling Melody Belle, who will attempt to win her 14th Group 1 win the Herbie Dyke Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at Te Rapa on February 13, Galvin is confident the world’s major commercial breeders will also express an interest in the daughter of Commands (Danehill).
“The weight is probably more on my shoulders than the syndicate members as many of them have said to me, ‘she doesn’t owe us a cent’ and they know that she is going to be sold and, if she does go to auction, it will be on an unreserved basis,” he said.
“Sunlight at last year’s (Magic Millions) sale is obviously a benchmark, making $4.2 million after winning three Group 1s, and I guess it could be reasonable to expect that Melody Belle could surpass that but that is up to the market to decide, not me.”
The confirmed Chairman’s Sale entry Pippie, meanwhile, won her first start as a late season two-year-old by five lengths and has an overall race record of 13 starts for six wins and prize-money of more than $1.2 million. Her dam Coupe Express (Ne Coupez Pas), is a half-sister to Merson Cooper Stakes (Listed, 1000m) placed juvenile Timely Truce (Brief Truce).
“Not only is Pippie very quick, but she likes to lead and has tremendous tactical speed, a real tenacity and she is able to sustain it over 1000 and 1100 metres and that speed is perceived by the market, with good reason, as a tremendously valuable asset,” Hutch said.
“The exciting thing about her is that she can be bred to just about anything. Her pedigree allows her to go to anyone and there’s a lot of positive influences in her pedigree with Nureyev featuring prominently on the dam side and we have been seeing Nureyev featuring in a lot of very influential broodmares.
“Written Tycoon, as is frequently pointed out, is also an outcross to Danehill and she can go to every major commercial stallion in the country and the majority of the young stallions as well.”
Heran also owns Pippie’s four-year-old younger sister Boom Express (Spirit Of Boom) while her two-year-old half-sister, Rapid Response (Defcon), is owned by a syndicate led by Matthew Sandblom’s Hollymount Stud, Newgate Farm and G1G Racing and Breeding. The unraced filly is in training with Kris Lees at Newcastle.
Coupe Express has a colt at foot by Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) and returned to Written Tycoon this season.
The Inglis Chairman’s Sale will be held at Riverside Stables in Sydney on Friday evening, May 7.