Wathnan make first public foray into Australian market with $2.6 million Olentia purchase
Wathnan Racing, one of the most upwardly mobile operations in the world, made its first public purchase in Australia when they stretched to $2.6 million for Olentia, a Group 2-winning daughter of Australia’s recently minted champion sire, Zoustar (Northern Meteor), during Tuesday’s Magic Millions Virtual Sale.
Having had a few near misses on mares during the autumn breeding stock sales in Australia, Wathnan dug deep to secure the Star Thoroughbreds-raced mare, who was offered for sale by Glenesk Thoroughbreds.
The mare was signed for by Twin Hills, the Australian-based farm owned and run by Wathnan’s manager Olly Tait, and he confirmed Olentia had been bought on behalf of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani’s operation.
“She’s a lovely mare and a beautiful broodmare prospect and she’ll go to the northern hemisphere and be bred there,” Tait told ANZ News.
“We’ve taken a look at a few mares this year, but she’s the only one we’ve bought.
“She came up in an auction today, so the timing was because of the auction rather than anything else.”
Raced by Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds, the six-year-old claimed the Emancipation Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), Nivison Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), and James HB Carr Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m), and has defeated elite performers like Amelia’s Jewel (Siyouni), Manaal (Tassort), Zougotcha (Zoustar), Fireburn (Rebel Dane) and Magic Time (Hellbent).
A $310,000 Gold Coast Yearling Sale purchase in 2021, Olentia is one of ten winners from as many to race out of Mabkhara, a twice-winning Anabaa (Danzig) mare who has also produced Group winner Wandabaa (Wandjina) and Malkovich (Choisir), whose eight wins are headed by a pair of Listed victories.
Further back this is the same family as Group 1 winner Rewaaya (Singspiel).
While unwilling to divulge Wathnan’s future plans in Australia, Tait said this mare would be shipped to the northern hemisphere, but that a stallion had not yet been elected for her first cover.
“She’s got a lovely pedigree, obviously, Zoustar is a fabulous stallion and just been crowned champion sire for the first time, and she’s a half-sister to two, very fast stakes winners and if you go further back in the pedigree, it’s very good,” Tait said.
“Rewaaya was outstanding out of the third dam. But most importantly, she was a very high-class racemare herself, and she put together a great race record. She was running at the highest level, so hopefully she’ll be a good broodmare.”
Barry Bowditch, Magic Millions managing director, said this latest purchase was an exciting prospect for the Australian industry.
“It’s fantastic and we are delighted that we could facilitate a sale of this kind on their behalf. I think it’s great to have them looking at the market here in Australia. Obviously they participated at the National Sale with us and to have this huge, emerging global business here back today [Tuesday], it’s exciting that Australia is firmly on their radar.
“This is a great story for the Australian industry. Being by Zoustar from an outstanding mare here in Australia that’s been a great producer – of course Olentia herself being an outstanding mare on the racetrack – it’s fantastic that a massive global entity has respected the sire, the pedigree and the race record that is all Australian.
“The industry, as large as it is, has never been tighter I think, with people being able to do their work from wherever they are in the world on any one day. I know Olly was in Europe over the weekend and back here today doing his business, so it just shows that if we can get all the right information out to the clients and give them confidence that they’ve got a great feeling for what’s being presented in front of them, they can participate from wherever they may be. That’s evident with the sale of Olentia and the sale in general today.”
It was another good result for Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds operation, who have become known for selling their top-class mares on for a tidy profit and Olentia followed in the footsteps of the likes of Invincibella, Fiesta, Kiku and Espiona.
Wathnan beat off fierce competition to acquire Olentia, which included usual big players Yulong, who know the family well having bought her half-sister, Wandabaa, for $800,000 via an Inglis Digital sale in 2022.
Yulong’s chief operating officer Sam Fairgray told ANZ News: “We did have a look at her. We actually own her half-sister [Wandabaa], so we’ve already got some of the family. She was a lovely mare, but we probably didn’t need another one from the family.”
Despite missing out on Olentia, Yulong did not leave the sale empty-handed, purchasing the second and joint-third top-lots during the sale.
Listed-winning six-year-old mare Vienna Princess (Snitzel) was bought by the operation – who signed them down as Highway Farm – for $1 million out of Peter Tighe’s Magic Bloodstock.
Sold as a racemare, the daughter of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) is trained by Chris Waller and has won four and placed in a further four of her 23 starts, earning just over $1.19 million in prize-money and landing both 2022 Twilight Glow Stakes (Listed, 1400m) and 2023 Silver Eagle (1300m).
Fairgray revealed Vienna Princess – who is a half-sister to Yulong’s Group 2 winner-turned-sire First Settler (Written Tycoon) – could be set for a date with Yuesheng Zhang’s perennial stallion Written Tycoon (Iglesia).
“We will get her back to the stud and get her set up for the breeding season and Written Tycoon is an obvious breeding for her,” he said.
“She’s a half-sister to First Settler and by Snitzel, which has been a fantastic cross, so we will aim down that road at this stage.”
Yulong would also go to $500,000 to secure fellow Listed-winning mare Fortunate Kiss (Divine Prophet) from her part-trainer Lloyd Kennewell’s Kennewell Racing.
Originally purchased for $80,000 by DJ Bowman Racing out of Middlebrook Valley Lodge at the 2020 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, the daughter of Divine Prophet (Choisir) was then acquired by Kennewell Racing, Group 1 Bloodstock and Ridgeport Holdings for $150,000 at last year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
Fairgray revealed that Fortunate Kiss would remain in training and relocate to the Hayes’ Lindsay Park stable as she bids to add to her prize-money haul of over $640,000.
“She is a stakes winner now. She’s going to stay in work, and she’ll join the Hayes stable, and there’s some nice targets for her coming up in the early part of the spring,” Fairgray said.
“So we will be trying to improve her black type and hopefully we can get a Group win with her before she ultimately heads to the farm and becomes one of the broodmare band.
Asked whether the mare could head to the breeding barn this season, Fairgray said: “We will just gauge on how you know her performances are. She’s obviously racing in good heart with winning the stakes race and then running third the other day, so she’s in form, so while she stays in form we’ll keep her going.
“But if she says that she’s had enough, then she can head to the broodmare paddock. Alabama Express would probably be a possibility for her.”
The equal-third top-lot was the share offered in Newgate Farm’s flagship stallion Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt), also selling for $500,000 to Sheamus Mills Bloodstock having been offered by a shareholder.
Extreme Choice has been confirmed as standing for a career-high fee of $330,000 (inc GST) for the upcoming breeding season, up from $275,000 in 2024.
From 31 lots to go under the hammer, a total of 17 sold with 14 passed in at a clearance rate of 54.84 per cent. The average pulled in $331,176 while the median was $90,000, with a sale gross of $5.63 million.
On the one-day sale as a whole, Bowditch said: “Obviously it is a tricky market once you get to the lower and middle end, but we were delighted we were able to sell horses at every level, and if you had given me that gross figure at the start of the day I would have thought that was a fantastic result. $5.63 million exceeded last year’s sale with less horses.
“I thought it had a really good feel to it, we had great engagement over the last 72 hours leading into the sale with people asking a lot of questions to the bloodstock team about different horses in the sale. So I think it’s a platform that we will continue to use and it’s a platform that I feel people continue to learn about and gather confidence in. Being a part of it today and bidding on behalf of people and seeing them bid online, I felt like it had a real genuine feel to it, which is fantastic.
“I think there was great opportunity at all levels and was still people there participating, and if they see a good deal they’re willing to step in, and I think that’s like any of these digital markets or online markets at the moment, if you have the right product and its well-priced, there is genuine participation and it’s good for the confidence of our game.”
Star Thoroughbreds sales ring success:
Espiona
Yearling sale and price: 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, $190,000
Prize-money: $3,306,715
Sale sold and price: Magic Millions Standalone Virtual Sale, $4.15 million
Olentia
Yearling sale and price: 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, $310,000
Prize-money: $987,350
Sale sold and price: 2025 Magic Millions Virtual Sale, $2.6 million
Kiku
Yearling sale and price: 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, $300,000
Prize-money: $1,243,305
Sale sold and price: 2023 Kiku Magic Millions Online Sale, $1.46 million
Fiesta
Yearling sale and price: 2017 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, $150,000
Prize-money: $1,591,875
Sale sold and price: 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale, $1.35 million
Invincibella
Yearling sale and price: 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, $185,000
Prize-money: $3,070,103
Sale sold and price: 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale, $1.3 million