The Shadwell Dispersal – Where are they now?
With the Strawberry Hill Stud Dispersal in the spotlight, we reflect on the last sale of such magnitude in Australia, the Shadwell dispersal of 2021, and where the graduates have ended up.
There have been few more power-packed sessions at Magic Millions’ Bundall sales complex than when the 37-lot Shadwell dispersal went through the ring at the National Broodmare Sale on May 26, 2021.
Billed as a once-in a lifetime opportunity to access a band of mares and fillies which Shadwell, under the eye of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, had built up over 30 years of involvement in Australian bloodstock, the buyers seized on the opportunity in a 90-minute frenzy.
There were 11 million-dollar lots sold, as the market – imbued with pandemic-era confidence – invested $25.135 million, with an average price of just below $680,000.
Added to the $5.43 million Shadwell’s 20 foals had raised five days earlier at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale, and the $6.06 million that 12 Shadwell yearlings sold for at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale the month prior, it represented a $36.6 million contribution to the 2021 sales season.
The dispersal was facilitated through Yarraman Park, which had a long-standing relationship with Shadwell’s racing manager Angus Gold. Gold and Sheikh Hamdan’s family had decided to reduce their global thoroughbred interests in the wake of the Sheikh’s death in March of that year.
The 69 horses sold across those three sales were almost without exception by leading sires. There were 11 lots by current champion sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), nine lots by the legendary Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), eight by another champion in Lonhro (Octagonal) and five by another in Exceed And Excel (Danehill).
Results of the 2021 Shadwell dispersal (held in three separate sections)
| Category | Sale | Sold | Aggregate | Average |
| BM/Fillies | MM National Broodmare Sale | 37 | $25,135,000 | $679,324 |
| Yearlings | Inglis Easter Yearling Sale | 12 | $6,060,000 | $505,000 |
| Weanlings | MM National Weanling Sale | 20 | $5,435,000 | $271,750 |
As often is the case in such dispersals, the families on offer were closely linked on the dam side as well. Seven of the mares which sold at the National Sale also had yearlings and foals sell through the earlier sales.
In the case of the family of Bulbula (Shamardal), Rosemont Stud went all out to secure her page. The Victorian-based outfit paid $1.35 million to secure the stakes winner, and the same price for her Group winning half-sister, Khulaasa (Epaulette). They also paid $800,000 to buy her Group-winning daughter Aryaaf (Epaulette).
The previous week, Rosemont combined with Bahen Bloodstock to pay $700,000 for Bulbula’s weanling colt by Zoustar (Northern Meteor), and at Easter, the Victorian Alliance colts fund – led by Rosemont – parted with $1.2 million for her yearling colt by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice). The total was a $5.4 million investment on one family alone.
So, two years since that spending spree, where are those Shadwell alumni now?
Bulbula slipped the Epaulette (Commands) foal she was carrying when sold, but she delivered a Snitzel colt last November and wasn’t served after foaling late last year. She is now headed to Starspangledbanner (Choisir), who has returned to Coolmore Australia, this year.
Her half-sister Khulaasa delivered a filly by Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) in 2021, a now two-year-old retained by Rosemont named Fitzalan. She then had an I Am Invincible colt last year, before missing to the same sire last year. She and Aryaaf are both headed this spring to France to visit Siyouni (Pivotal). Aryaaf had her first foal, a Zoustar filly, last year.
Bulbula’s $1.2 million Snitzel colt, named Doull, has won two of his seven starts and contested some top three-year-old sprints last spring. He has recently transferred to Annabel Neasham’s stables. Bulbula’s Zoustar colt, now a Rosemont-owned three-year-old named Boom Boom Ray, has been placed at one of his two starts for Matt Laurie.
Of the 12 Shadwell-bred now four-year-olds sold through the 2021 Easter Yearling Sale, seven have already been winners, while another, Zambezi River (I Am Invincible), who sold for $1.15 million to James Harron, has been stakes-placed.
Joining Doull as Shadwell-bred winners from that sale are Duly Elected (I Am Invincible); Annihilate (I Am Invincible); Monday’s Pakenham winner Graysong (I Am Invincible); Hotzel (Snitzel); Tamar (Tavistock), and Yaltara (I Am Invincible).
The 20 Shadwell weanlings sold on the Gold Coast in 2021 have just turned three and to date, only three of them have greeted the judge as racetrack winners.
They are Nazorian (Exceed And Excel), who won a Doomben race in February for Kacy Blaxland; Mad Deel (Dundeel) a Kembla Grange maiden winner in July for Peter and Paul Snowden and Trilogy Racing, and another Snowden winner, Zarrose (Exosphere), victorious at Wyong earlier this month.
Interestingly, of those 20 weanlings, 12 were pinhooked the following year, including Nazorian and Zarrose.
Shadwell dispersal graduates who have won a race since being sold
| Weanlings | Yearlings | BM/Fillies |
| Nazorian | Doull | Minhaaj (G3) |
| Mad Deel | Duly Elected | |
| Zarrose | Annihilate | |
| Graysong | ||
| Hotzel | ||
| Tamar | ||
| Yaltara |
Filtering the record of the 37 broodmare/race fillies sold by Shadwell to the 11 which secured $1 million or more, we see they have been sent to the very best stallions.
We have already covered Bulbula and Khulaasa, while Rosemont also purchased Minhaaj (Exceed And Excel) for $1.8 million. They opted to continue racing with her and she rewarded them with a pair of Group 3 victories in the spring of 2021. She visited I Am Invincible in October last year and is due to foal down this spring.
The top lot of the Shadwell draft was Group 1 winner Qafila (Not A Single Doubt). Bought for $2 million by Dean Hawthorne on behalf of GSA Bloodstock, she delivered a Dundeel (High Chaparral) foal later in 2021. That filly sold for $250,000 to Ciaron Maher at Easter. Meanwhile, Qafila has since foaled a Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) filly and then visited I Am Invincible.
Minhaaj’s dam Telaawa (Lonhro) – sold to Go Bloodstock/Coolmore Stud for $1.7 million – delivered an Exceed And Excel colt soon after purchase and then produced a colt by Fastnet Rock (Danehill) in 2022. She visited Snitzel last year. The now two-year-old Exceed And Excel colt was sold to Chris Waller/Guy Mulcaster for $750,000 at this year’s Easter sale.
Ektifaa (More Than Ready), who was purchased for $1.7 million by Kia Ora Stud, returned a decent chunk of that when the I Am Invincible colt she was carrying sold for $800,000 to Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott/TFI at this year’s Easter sale. She delivered a filly by Kia Ora’s Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) last year and then went back to I Am Invincible.
Group 3-winning and Group 1-placed mare Rimraam (Commands) was carrying a colt by Dundeel when sold to Longwood Thoroughbred Farm/Sheamus Mills for $1.5 million. That colt sold to Suman Hedge/David Redvers/John O’Shea for $600,000 at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Longwood’s Michael Christian sent Rimraam to I Am Invincible, producing a now yearling colt, and she went back to that sire again last year.
GSA Bloodstock purchased Zamzam (Redoute’s Choice) through Hawthorne for $1.25 million on the Gold Coast, without a pregnancy. She went to Pierro (Lonhro) later that year and foaled a filly in 2022. She then returned to the Coolmore resident.
Taraayef (Lonhro) was a $1.2 million buy for James Harron on behalf of Fairway Thoroughbreds and produced a Deep Field (Northern Meteor) filly later that year. That filly sold for $650,000 at Magic Millions in January to Bruce McKenzie. A Zoustar filly followed for Taraayef last year and she then visited I Am Invincible.
The other two seven-figure mares were purchased by Suman Hedge on behalf of Iskander Racing. Futooh (Sebring) sold for $1.2 million and while she slipped to I Am Invincible later that season, did produce a filly by the champion sire last year, before failing to get in foal later in the spring.
Hindaam (Savabeel) came straight off the track and sold to Hedge for $1 million. Her first foal was a Snitzel colt who arrived last October and she subsequently visited Zoustar.
Subsequent breeding record of $1 million-plus Shadwell Dispersal mares
| Filly/Mare | Price | Purchased by | 2021 foal | 2022 foal | 2022 covering |
| Qafila | $2,000,000 | Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock | Dundeel filly | Wootton Bassett filly | I Am Invincible |
| Minhaaj | $1,800,000 | Rosemont Stud | N/A | N/A | I Am Invincible |
| Telaawa | $1,700,000 | Go Bloodstock / Coolmore Stud | Exceed And Excel colt | Fastnet Rock colt | Snitzel |
| Ektifaa | $1,700,000 | Kia Ora Stud | I Am Invincible colt | Farnan filly | I Am Invincible |
| Rimraam | $1,500,000 | Longwood Thoroughbred Farm/Sheamus Mills | Dundeel | I Am Invincible colt | I Am Invincible |
| Bulbula | $1,350,000 | Rosemont Stud | N/A | Snitzel | N/A |
| Khulaasa | $1,350,000 | Rosemont Stud | Too Darn Hot filly | I Am Invincible colt | N/A |
| Zamzam | $1,250,000 | Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock | N/A | Pierro filly | Pierro |
| Taraayef | $1,200,000 | James Harron Bloodstock | Deep Field filly | Zoustar filly | I Am Invincible |
| Futooh | $1,200,000 | Suman Hedge Bloodstock | N/A | I Am Invincible filly | N/A |
| Hindaam | $1,000,000 | Suman Hedge Bloodstock | Snitzel colt | Zoustar |