$420,000 spend for Japan’s Unicorn
First-time visitor joins forces with Rising Sun Syndicate to buy half-sister to Fully Lit
Google translate said “over budget”, but the Japanese owners hope they’re on to a winner with their maiden Australian foray after taking home the North Pacific (Brazen Beau) half-sister to Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m) winner Fully Lit (Hellbent) for $420,000 late on the final day of the Classic Yearling Sale.
The Rising Sun Syndicate, run by Japanese expatriates Kosi Kawakami, Yusuke Ichikawa and Shinya Mori, teamed up with fellow countryman R Unicorn Stable and agent Satomi Oka to purchase the expensive daughter of the first-season Newgate Farm sire.
The residual value of the filly, who is also a half-sister to BJ McLachlan Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner The Novelist (Written By), was enhanced dramatically when the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Fully Lit made it two-for-two in the sales company’s $2 million juvenile feature last Saturday.
Following the impressive win, Fully Lit is now being touted as a Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) ($17) and Golden Slipper ($21) contender.
The attraction of the filly, which saw Kawakami’s former employer Tony McEvoy come out as the under bidder, was not the only day three highlight that has received significant updates in recent months with the half-brother to prominent Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) contender Shangri La Express (Alabama Express) selling for $360,000.
On Monday, a Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) half-sister to dual Group 1-winning sprinter In Her Time (Time Thief) sold for $600,000, a record price for a filly at a Classic sale, and a daughter of Justify (Scat Daddy) made $420,000. A Street Boss (Street Cry) colt topped Sunday’s opening session at $375,000.
The Rising Sun Syndicate and R Unicorn Stable have appointed premier Sydney-based trainer Chris Waller to prepare the filly who is the third foal out of two-time 1000-metre winner Sunlit (Snitzel).
“Obviously, she is a brilliant mother [Sunlit] and [her daughter] is not a big horse herself, but she is a nice type with good muscle and a good walk. We absolutely love her,” Kawakami said.
“We have got a really good Japanese owner supporting us, so we’re going to syndicate half.”
The R Unicorn Stable owner, who wished to remain anonymous, was enjoying his first trip to Australia, being trackside for the Randwick meeting last Saturday before casting his eye over the yearlings available at Riverside.
“We race horses in different countries around the world,” the owner said.
“We came to Australia for the first time last week, I was impressed by the quality of horses and we enjoyed the racing and meeting the industry people here.
“When Satomi showed me this horse, she wasn’t in our budget, but we talked to Rising Sun who also really liked the horse and we agreed to team up to make sure we bought her.”
R Unicorn Stable and Oka also bought an Astern (Medaglia D’Oro) filly on day one for $120,000 from the Alma Vale and Kitchwin Hills Partnership.
Sunlit failed to get in foal in 2022, but was covered by Zoustar (Northern Meteor) last October.
Glenlogan’s Steve Morley, whose Queensland farm grossed $1.001 million from eight yearlings sold, was “over the moon” with the sale of the North Pacific filly.
“She was very much well admired from day one – before Fully Lit won the Millennium even – but that result certainly didn’t hurt,” Morley said.
“I guess the main thing that changed pre and post Millennium was the price they might have to pay for her. I still put a small reserve on her, which is what I intended to put on her regardless of what happened at Randwick on Saturday, but I was just very confident that she was going to triple our reserve or a touch more.
“When you’ve got the right product and you know how well admired she is and you can see who’s looking at her and you know they’re the serious players in the industry, there’s no nerves, just anticipation. It’s a real thrill.”
Storm Boy’s owners all aboard the Express
The former managing owners of raging Golden Slipper favourite Storm Boy (Justify) wasted no time reinvesting into another colt, going to $360,000 for the Written Tycoon (Iglesia) half-brother to his stablemate and likely major rival Shangri La Express.
The Cunningham family, whose silks have been seen on the unbeaten Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner, teamed up with Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, the trainers of their “$60 million colt” to buy the Yulong-bred and sold sibling to this season’s Golden Gift (1100m) winner.
Coolmore confirmed last week that it had bought a controlling interest in Storm Boy, who barrier trials at Rosehill tomorrow, in a deal which has the potential to send his value soaring above $50 to $60 million if the colt continues his winning streak during the Sydney autumn carnival at three.
Agent Jim Clarke, who represents the bloodstock interests of Gary and Loralie Cunningham and their children, including Ridgmont Farm director Mitch, linked with Waterhouse, Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds’ Bruce Slade to purchase the second highest-priced lot of day three.
Waterhouse and Bott’s bloodstock manager Claudia Miller revealed Clarke reached out to the stable to consider partnering with them on Slipper-bound Shangri La Express’ half-brother.
“Mum’s done a great job [so far] and we really liked the colt on type,” Miller said.
“He’s probably a different type to Shangri La Express. He’s a bit leggier, which is what you get with the Written Tycoons, but he’s a great individual and we’re thrilled to team up with Jim Clarke and the Cunninghams to purchase him.
“We could absolutely see him running at two and even better at three. We always love buying from families that we know well. It helps in terms of clients and selling them on and then there’s those little [idiosyncrasies].”
In a similar start to the career of Storm Boy, Shangri La Express has also produced two dominant wins and the colt is slated to resume at Randwick in Saturday’s Pierro Plate (1100m) on the back of a recent barrier trial success.
Sent From Above (Lonhro), herself a daughter of four-time stakes winner Gamble Me (Rock Of Gibraltar), was bought for $125,000 by Yulong from the 2020 Inglis Sydney Broodmare Sale. The mare has an Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice) weanling filly and she was served again by the resident Yulong sire in 2023.
The in-form Tulloch Lodge – which acquired at least eight horses from the Classic sale – also trains another top-class juvenile by Written Tycoon, last-start Widden Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) winner Lady Of Camelot, for Go Bloodstock’s Sir Owen Glenn.
B K Racing happy to rock with another Hellbent
Hellbent (I Am Invincible) may have sired the winner of last weekend’s $2 million Inglis Millennium, but it was B K Racing and Breeding’s affinity with Maddi Rocks (Fastnet Rock) that was the major appeal behind the third session’s third highest-priced lot.
The daughter of the Yarraman Park Stud sire out of Rose Of Savannah (Fastnet Rock), a sister to the former Chris Waller-trained Maddi Rocks, was bought by B K Racing for $320,000.
She will be trained at Randwick by John O’Shea who also trained Maddi Rocks for just one start at the end of her career before her retirement to stud.
“She’s a very athletic filly, I thought she was the best bodied filly at the sale. Hellbent is obviously a son of I am Invincible, and he just goes from strength to strength winning the Inglis Millennium [with Fully Lit],” B K Racing representative Ben Vassallo said.
“I thought that would make it harder to buy the filly today, but she came in right around our expectations and we are very happy to leave the sale with her.”
Riverstone Lodge’s Nick Taylor sold the filly nine months after paying $150,000 via Belmont Bloodstock’s Damon Gabbedy for her at the 2023 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale out of the Baramul Stud draft.
It also helped the vendor when Rose Of Savannah’s unraced two-year-old son Brazen Act (Brazen Beau) won a barrier trial at Doomben for Eagle Farm-based trainer Kelly Schweida hours before her half-sister went through the ring.
B K Racing has horses in training with numerous trainers including Brad Widdup, Waller and O’Shea, while they also race Hellbent offspring, including Sydney winner Fire Lane and the unraced two-year-old Howler.
Vassallo said: “John has a handy Hellbent filly by the name of Howler in the stable and we have a good relationship with John, Tom [Charlton] and the team, it’s just a matter of building up the ranks and getting the fillies in the barn to follow in the footsteps of the ones that are about to step out.”
He’s no clown! Perry backs fighter Circus Maximus
Renowned breeder Greg Perry of Artorius (Flying Artie), Delectation (Shamardal), Marabi (I Am Invincible) and Aristia (Lonhro) fame strongly lobbied Coolmore to shuttle champion European miler Circus Maximus (Galileo) to the southern hemisphere.
Coolmore obliged, linking with Rodney Schick’s Windsor Park Stud in New Zealand to stand the son of the late breed-shaper Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), and Perry lived up to his end of the bargain, sending multiple mares, including Our Josephina (Zabeel), to the stallion since.
Yesterday, on day three of the Classic sale, Perry was rewarded for his belief, selling the half-brother to the Moonee Valley Vase (Gr 2, 2040m) runner-up Commander Harry (Reliable Man) for $260,000 to Annabel Neasham and agent Will Johnson.
The sixth foal out of Our Josephina, who is a sister to the Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Johnny Get Angry (Tavistock), became the most expensive yearling to sell so far from his first southern hemisphere-bred crop to go to auction in 2024.
“I kept saying to Tom Moore from Coolmore, ‘you’ve got to bring that horse down, Circus Maximus’, because I had never seen a horse fight in a finish like Circus Maximus since Giant’s Causeway,” Perry told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“He never gave in and [Coolmore principal] John Magnier always said that you buy a stallion who has got a fight in him and he was a magnificent [racehorse].
“His fourth dam is Lady Winborne and my great mare – I love her – Grace And Power, the grandmother to Artorius and the mother to Delectation’s fourth dam is Lady Winborne, the Secretariat half-sister Allez France, so that’s the sire side.”
Perry also has great respect for the Circus Maximus colt’s female pedigree with his dam being sharp enough to be competitive over 1000 metres.
“She won a maiden at Sale over 2200 metres and she missed the start by ten lengths but she kept coming,” he said.
“I brought the mare back home [from New Zealand] because I wanted to send her to Maurice, so she foaled down at Vinery and the proof is in the pudding. He’s a magnificent individual. I understand that Circus Maximus is staying down south now, so hopefully people stick with him.”
Neasham hopes the colt can develop into a Guineas and Derby style three-year-old.
“I only looked at him once, I didn’t need to go back and look at him again. For me, he was a standout physically. Although he’s bred to stay, he’s actually got a really big, strong hindquarter on him, he’s got a lot of power,” Neasham said.
“I loved Circus Maximus as a racehorse, he danced every dance, he was a prolific racehorse, so I am excited to get one of his sons.
“The mare’s already produced a stakes horse and he looks like he’s going to be a middle-distance, staying type for those Classic type.”
The Windsor Park Stud-based former shuttler, who is now permanently domiciled in New Zealand, has averaged AU$84,153 with 28 yearlings sold across the Magic Millions, New Zealand Bloodstock and Inglis Classic sales.
The three highest-priced NZB Karaka-offered Circus Maximuses were bought by Australian trainers, Brad Widdup, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and Mick Price respectively.
A ferocious but short-lived lightning and hailstorm to close out the 2024 Classic sale didn’t dampen the assessment of trade across three days at Riverside by Inglis Bloodstock’s ceo Sebastian Hutch.
Specifically, he pointed to the international engagement in the sale – three of the top four-priced horses were bought by international investors – where more than $55.3 million was turned over at an average of $93,658.
“Stages through today were stickier than what we would have liked, which is going to happen at any sale,” Hutch said last night.
“Ultimately, we will reflect on a sale where clearance has been good and increasing all the time.
“There was a great engagement from a broad cross-section of buyers and ultimately we know that there are plenty of buyers without objectives fulfilled which bodes well for future sales.
“Hopefully we can reflect on this sale in years to come and recognise that we sold plenty of good horses here.”
Last year’s Book 1 sale averaged $103,041 (552 horses sold) while the Highway Session saw 98 horses traded at an average of $46,255.
Magic Millions will hold its Perth Yearling Sale late next week.
Sale statistics – Book 1
2024 2023
Catalogued 808 830
Offered 721 767
Sold 591 (82%) 650 (87%)
Aggregate $55,352,000 $61,411,500
Average $93,658 $93,877
Median $70,000 $70,000
Top Lot $600,000 $550,000