Kenmore Lodge assemble quality draft for Magic Millions HIT Sale
Progeny by a diverse mix of proven and emerging sires are set to go under the hammer at Thursday’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Horses in Training Sale, with Kenmore Lodge’s draft neatly encapsulating that balance.
Run by Kellie and Cameron Bond, the Wyreema-based nursery managed a 100 per cent clearance rate at the sale last year, its nine quality lots grossing $775,000 with a top lot of $260,000 and an average of $86,000. Those figures made Kenmore a top four vendor at the 2024 auction, and its 2025 team of 11 juveniles looks even more promising.
“They’re by a mix of stallions and it’s probably as good a draft as we’ve ever presented at this sale,” Cameron Bond told ANZ News. “Proven sires, freshman sires, sires that have just had their first runners this weekend gone, it is definitely a quality draft.”
A headline act for the farm and one that has particular relevancy is Lot 101 – a Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) colt out of Zoustar (Northern Meteor) mare Zing. Newgate Farm’s Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m)-winning first-season welcomed his first stakes winner from his very first runner last Saturday when Incognito took the Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) at Randwick.
Bond expressed his excitement over the colt, who breezed 200 metres in 10.53 seconds at the Gold Coast on September 23.
“The Stay Inside’s a quality horse, a first foal – he’s a cracking type for a first foal,” he said. “He has breezed up well – his data was outstanding, his stride length and frequency were very good.
“We’re pretty excited about him: he’s also out of a mare that we purchased and we’re pretty excited about her progeny too. He’s been fairly popular since we arrived.”
A Group 3-placed racemare, Zing sold to Kenmore for $310,000 via Inglis Digital in July 2022. Her page boasts plenty of black type, she being half-sister to a stakes winner and stakes-winning producer in Crafty Irna (Starcraft), that pair each out of New Zealand Group 1 winner and 2003 Singapore Horse of the Year Zirna (Deputy Governor).
“We’ve got quite a few by Stay Inside to present at sales over the next 12 months and we’ve broken in a few, and they’ve all been fairly impressive,” Bond added. “Golden Slipper winners rarely fail at stud.”
The other Golden Slipper winner represented in the draft is Kia Ora’s Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), with Kenmore boasting the only filly by last season’s leading first-sire by winners in the sale (Lot 80). The operation sold subsequent stakes-winning filly by the son of Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) – Recuperato – at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale last January for $210,000.
“She’s a nice filly with heaps of strength,” Bond said of the daughter of the dual winner, Thinking Cap (So You Think). “We sold Farnan’s stakes-winning filly Recuperato as a yearling last year, so he’s a stallion that we’ve got a fair bit of time for.”
Kenmore will also offer the offspring of two more first-season stallions in Lot 27 – a filly by Newgate Farm resident Wild Ruler (Snitzel) – and Lot 68, a filly by Aquis Stallions’ Jonker (Spirit Of Boom).
“She’s a cracking type with heaps of strength,” Bond said of Lot 27. “The Jonker has a nice pedigree again; we’ve had a few of the Jonkers through the stable and this is a filly with a great action – all the riders love her when they hop off.
“I think anyone that watches her breeze will be duly impressed. She ran up in a pretty slick time [10.31 seconds].”
The fastest of the juvenile breeze up times, recorded across four sessions from Seymour and the Gold Coast, was that of Lot 157 – Kenmore’s Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) colt out of Flaunt (Drumbeats) – who stopped the clock in 10.05 seconds.
Bond anticipates a favourable result with the colt bred by Windermere Stud owner and former trainer Steve Tregea, who despite his slick breeze is out of a half-sister to Tregea’s Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) winner and Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) runner-up Incentivise (Shamus Award).
A dual winner, Flaunt is also a three-quarter sister to dual stakes-winning sprinter and Waikato Stud-based sire Ardrossan (Redoute’s Choice).
“Fastest two-year-old in the sale – he’s a cracking horse and he has plenty of scope too,” Bond said. “He’s out of a half-sister to Incentivise who won a Caulfield Cup and ran second in a Melbourne Cup. I think he’ll only keep improving with time as well.”
Two other colts who drew attention at the breeze ups were Lot 84, a son of Written Tycoon out of the winning Not A Single Doubt mare True Moonlight, and Lot 108 by Pierata (Pierro) out of Angel Dane, a four-time-winning daughter of Zizou (Fusaichi Pegasus).
“The Written Tycoon had a very good breeze [10.14 seconds], he was a nice foal out of a Not A Single Doubt mare,” Bond said. “We’ve sold a Group 1 winner by the sire at this very sale before [Tyzone] and we love Not A Single Doubt mares at Kenmore Lodge.
“The Pierata – Angel Dane colt has got a massive action. He breezed up very well [10.16] and he’s just continued to improve the whole time he’s been in work.”
Kenmore has enjoyed a strong start to inspections, with Bond noting steady buyer interest in the draft’s Spirit Of Boom, Stay Inside, Pierata and Written By (Written Tycoon) youngsters.
“Inspections have been quite a steady flow of people, it’s only early yet – we just started parading yesterday [Monday] but we’ve got a steady flow which is good,” he said. “The Spirit Of Boom, Stay Inside and Pierata have probably been the most popular, and we’ve got a Written By [Lot 43] that’s proven quite popular.
“It’s really hard because everybody asks what our best horse is but we’ve actually got a really good spread of horses this year.”
Bond said the team has done everything to present a high-quality draft at the Gold Coast, and now it’s up to the market to respond.
“It’s really hard to get a gauge [on the market], but we’ve brought a high quality draft of horses so we’ve done our part,” he said. “We have just got to see what happens with the market I guess.
“It’s the best our horses have ever breezed up, as far as times they’ve got amazingly well. It’s something we take a lot of pride in, the way we educate our horses, so hopefully they can go on to good racing careers.”
Kenmore has enjoyed plenty of success at the Magic Millions Horses-in-Training Sale, topping the auction in 2010 when turning a $15,000 Gonski (Danehill) yearling into a $180,000 two-year-old, and in 2017 when a Smart Missile (Fastnet Rock) colt sold for $320,000 after being passed in for $40,000 as a yearling.
That success underpins Bond’s call for continued growth and stronger domestic participation: “We have sold a lot of good horses through this sale and we’d really like to see the interest from Australian owners and trainers increase a bit but obviously the Asian buyers are a massive part of the sale. I’d like to see it keep developing.”