‘She’s the best yearling our vet’s ever seen’
Boogie Dancer destined for date with Ole Kirk after Gilgai buys Group 2 winner for $560,000
The recommendation of Gilgai Farm’s veterinarian, and an A-grade pedigree match for dual Group 1-winning stallion Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), made Group 2-winning mare Boogie Dancer (Sooboog) an irresistible proposition for Victorian breeder Rick Jamieson.
A maiden cover with Vinery Stud’s young Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner is already set, but not until next season, with a Queensland winter carnival campaign with Group 1 ambitions planned in 2024 for Boogie Dancer.
Bi-Lo Bloodstock’s Kelly Skillecorn, the long-time Gilgai Farm manager, signed the Inglis Digital docket at $560,000 for the four-year-old, the highest-priced of a trio of mares to change hands yesterday at the top of the auction house’s Late September Online Sale.
Monte Invincible (I Am Invincible), a half-sister to stallions Deep Field (Northern Meteor), Shooting To Win (Northern Meteor) and stakes-winning mare Zaniah (Zoustar), was bought by Jackson Beirs for $540,000, while Newgate Farm paid $320,000 for Expat (Makfi), a dual Group 3 winner.
Monte Invincible will be served in the near future by Stay Inside (Extreme Choice), the Golden Slipper-winning second season sire based at Beirs’ employer Newgate Farm, while first season roster mate In The Congo (Snitzel) will be the beneficiary of studmaster Henry Field’s acquisition of Expat.
Meanwhile, Skillecorn hopes Boogie Dancer, a half-sister to Group 3 winner Miss Exfactor (Your Song), can add to her value by returning to the form she showed as a spring three-year-old, which netted a Thousand Guineas Prelude (Gr 2, 1400M) win.
“Our vet [Simon Robinson] does Dave Johnson’s work [at Rushton Park] and he told me she was the best–looking yearling he’d ever seen, so it was just by chance, and Rick loved her pedigree, so he said, ‘she’s perfect for Ole Kirk and if she’s that good looking, we better get her for him’,” Skillecorn told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“Simon was the vet at our place when Masked Crusader went through there and he was the best–looking horse I’ve ever seen and he said this horse is better looking than him.”
Boogie Dancer will be trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace for Jamieson, after winning four of her 11 starts for Peter Moody under the ownership of a big syndicate headed by Wylie Dalziel, as well as her breeder Rushton Park.
“It’s an incredible result, we’re very happy, it couldn’t have gone better,” said Dalziel, who paid $50,000 for Boogie Dancer as a yearling in 2021.
“The bidding got really hot, especially late. It’s just great to have bought her initially at Inglis Premier and now sell her through Inglis Digital.”
The stable switch from Moody was a way to repay Maher’s significant support of Gilgai Farm at the yearling sales in recent years, Skillecorn said, with the ultimate aim being the Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) for fillies and mares next June, Australia’s last Group 1 race of the season.
“Ciaron is the biggest buyer of yearlings and he relies on breeders to send him horses, too, to make his numbers, but that’s the only reason we’re sending her to Ciaron – as he’s probably our biggest supporter,” Skillecorn said.
“It’ll also change things up and we’ll give her a big, long break and then have a go at Brisbane. If it doesn’t come off, it doesn’t come off, she’s still going to go to Ole Kirk next year anyway.
“She’s only had three preps, a big spring as a three-year-old when she won all of those races, then she had a bad autumn prep and she’s had a bad prep this time, so maybe we can give her six months off and head to Brisbane and see if there’s something Ciaron can win with her up there like he did with Chassis, the horse that Parsons Creek bought.”
Chassis (Al Maher), a $230,000 purchase at the Magic Millions National Sale in May, won the Gai Waterhouse Classic (Listed, 1200m) at Ipswich in June and she also achieved a stakes placing in the Aurie’s Star Handicap (Gr 3, 1200m) at Flemington in August for her new connections.
Inglis Digital’s second-top lot yesterday was Monte Invincible, who was offered by her trainers Robert and Luke Price on behalf of owner Vic Bates.
She was purchased by Beirs, in conjunction with his parents Ted and Sandra of Glenbawn Stud, alongside Alma Vale Thoroughbreds and Spartus Bloodstock.
“With my job at Newgate I get to see a lot of the stock and Stay Inside’s foals are outstanding so we wanted to buy some nice mares to go to him,’’ Beirs said.
“She cost plenty of money but she’s a beautiful filly with one of the most sought–after pedigrees in the book and a family that’s hard to get into, so we were prepared to have a good go at her.”
The Mark Newnham and more recently Joe Pride-trained Expat, a six-year-old mare who won eight of her 24 starts, was bought by Newgate to support one of its three first season sires in 2023.
“We’re delighted to be able to buy her, she’s a beautiful mare, a very talented Group 2 winner with great genetics being a granddaughter of Galileo and Dubawi,” Field said.
“She’s straight off to our Inglis Easter graduate In The Congo, the exciting Golden Rose-winning first season stallion, and we’re hugely excited by the mating.’’
The Inglis Digital September (Late) Sale grossed $3,591,000.