Standout $145,000 Russian Revolution colt bound for Singapore
Kingstar lands big pinhook result as HTBA May Yearling Sale draws to a close
Leading Singapore trainer Michael Clements will take charge of a $145,000 colt by first crop sire Russian Revolution (Snitzel), the highest-priced yearling sold and one of two lots to make six figures at Inglis’ HTBA May Sale.
Kiwi bloodstock agent Bevan Smith, who has established a close working relationship with Zimbabwean Clements in recent years, revealed the colt was bought in conjunction with Kuldeep Singh Rajput, a young entrepreneur who has an ever-increasing racing team in Singapore.
“Kuldeep is someone new to the game who is really enthusiastic and we’ve bought a few horses for him this year at Classic and Premier,” Smith said.
“It’s just great to get someone new into the game and we can’t wait to get this horse up to Michael Clements’ stables.
“Michael is going so well up in Singapore and what seems to be working for him is finding these yearlings here in Australia and he’s having great success.
“And off the back of that great success he’s finding new clients like Kuldeep.”
Clements had been a regular at the Australasian sales but has had to rely more heavily on Smith’s guidance since the upheaval caused by Covid-19.
Smith said: “Michael is very meticulous in what he looks for off the videos and I think we’ve bought some really nice horses this year and I’m looking forward to continuing that association.”
From the first crop of Newgate Farm’s dual Group 1-winning sprinter Russian Revolution, the Kingstar Farm-consigned colt is the third foal out of the unraced US-bred mare Lucinda’s Moon (Malibu Moon), herself a sister to Grade 3 winner Moonwalk and a half-sister to the Listed winner Thatswhatimean (Belong To Me). He was catalogued as Lot 238.
He was bred by Avesta Bloodstock’s Jimmy Unwala and Scott McQueen who are offering his dam Lucinda’s Moon, who is in foal to leading first season sire Capitalist (Written Tycoon), as Lot 449 at the Australian Broodmare Sale on Sunday.
Kingstar Farm’s Matthew Sandblom bought the colt for $18,000 from the Noorilim Park draft at the online Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale last August and his Hollymount Stud staff Michelle Harris and Kristy Marsh shared the windfall with their boss.
Kingstar Farm manager Adam Cook had high hopes for the sale-topping colt prior to yesterday’s auction.
“He was a quality colt who was very, very busy. He had squeaky clean x-rays and a squeaky clean throat,” Cook said.
“He was very, very busy and he came through the prep with an amazing attitude. He didn’t turn a hair, so I think that helped him reach the price that he did.
“We had a nice horse and with this sale being in Sydney now, obviously there was a fair bit of competition. I think there were some leading Sydney trainers who were under bidders there online, but he’s gone to Bevan Smith, a leading bloodstock agent and obviously a very good judge if he’s buying from Kingstar Farm.”
He added: “The backstory of the colt is that Matthew, the boss, bought him online through the Inglis Digital site for $18,000 and fortunately enough for the ladies who run his farm at Kiama (Hollymount Stud), Michelle and Kristy, the colt came home and they liked him and they said, ‘we’d like to buy half, Matthew’. Once again, it emphasises what sort of boss Matthew is.”
Cook was also of the belief that Inglis made the right call to move the HTBA sale from Scone to Riverside.
“Obviously, with the draft that we had of 13 yearlings, having the facilities to parade these horses in a good space (is important),” he said.
“A good colt like (the Russian Revolution) was, in a confined space at White Park, maybe there wasn’t the opportunity to parade and show his strut off.
“There have also been a lot of buyers here over the last four or five days that you wouldn’t have seen at Scone.”
The colt’s price tag surpassed that achieved by a son of Capitalist who made $140,000 on day one.
Smith has had yearlings by Russian Revolution on his radar all season, but yesterday’s purchase was the first he’d bought so far.
“Throughout the year I’ve had a crack at a couple of Russian Revolutions but I haven’t been able to buy one,” Smith said.
“This guy I thought was one of the better ones I’d seen all year. There’s lots of Snitzel about this yearling. I thought he was a standout at this sale.
“When he walked in they asked me his valuation and I thought he was a $120,000 horse, I thought that’s what he would make at say a Classic Sale, so we had to extend the budget.”
Breaking the budget has been a common theme in 2021 and Smith put it this way: “I’ve found this year that at just about every sale you’ve had to pay that extra 20 to 25 per cent more.
“The market has shifted and we’ve just got to shift with it and stump up to pay for the right ones.”
The two-day May sale achieved turnover of $5,079,250 after 268 yearlings changed hands at an average of $19,095. The median was $11,500 while the clearance rate was last night sitting at 81 per cent.
The leading buyers were trainer Tim Martin and Kembla Grange-based Theresa Bateup who purchased ten yearlings each..
Agent John Foote, with various partners, bought eight yearlings while syndicator Darby Racing bought six including the second highest-priced lot sold yesterday, a Capitalist filly for $85,000.
Vinery Stud completed a perfect sale, selling all 14 yearlings offered to be the leading vendor with an aggregate of $437,000. Middlebrook Valley Lodge traded 20 yearlings for $310,500.
Tyreel Stud, which sold three lots, was the leading vendor by average at $65,333 apiece.
Inglis general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch saw the new-look May sale, which replaces the traditional Scone format, as an important one on the calendar.
“This sale provides an important purpose in terms of providing vendors with a credible market to bring stock, so the fact we’ve had 23 lots make $50,000 or more is a significant upgrade on what the equivalent of this sale would have experienced before and a lot of people will go home happy,” Hutch said.
“As we’ve said before, horses who met the criteria of buyers and jumped through the various veterinary hoops, they sold very well.
“There was good competition from agents, trainers, traders and owners here to compete on horses and the way things are shaping up, it looks as though it is a sale that is going to produce good racehorses for some years to come.”
The logical growth potential by maintaining the May sale at Riverside, Inglis would be hoping, would be to try to take market share from rival Magic Millions’ National Yearling Sale held a month later.
But Hutch noted Inglis had to “keep doing the work in helping people recognise it’s a very credible alternative for stock of a particular profile” while also acknowledging the capacity for the auction to increase its appeal.
“There were people who bought a certain profile of horse here, whether it was a little bit later maturing or by a stallion who has had a good autumn and got a result that they wouldn’t have got at an earlier sale,” he said.
“The simple fact of the matter is, pedigrees and stallion profiles are evolving all the time and there are a percentage of horses who are going to be at their best at the beginning of May, so it is a good opportunity for people to consider taking advantage of that.
“We were able to get a cross-section of people involved at the sale because of its proximity and because of the ease of access that we just wouldn’t get at a more remote location.”
Paul Moroney, for one, was a participant at the May sale for the first time but it also attracted interstate trainers who would not normally attend.
“We had a number of buyers fly in to inspect stock on Thursday and Friday who then flew home and bid online. (Gold Coast trainer) Michael Costa is a good example of that,” said Hutch.
“He bought a number of horses. but he wasn’t here for the sale. Michael did his inspections and he was back in time for the races on Saturday.”
Attention now turns to Thursday’s Inglis Australian Weanling Sale, Friday’s Chairman’s Sale and Sunday’s Australian Broodmare Sale at Riverside Stables.
Sale statistics
2021
Catalogued 358
Offered 328
Sold 266 (81%)
Aggregate $5,079,250
Average $19,095
Median $11,500
Top Lot $145,000