Team Archibald secure exciting Classic-placed Stay True
Annabel Archibald made her presence at Tuesday’s Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale count when she secured Classic-placed Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) colt Stay True (Galileo) for 360,000gns (approx. AU$761,900).
The 114-rated three-year-old was the final Classic runner for the late, great Galileo when third to stablemate Scandinavia (Justify) in the St Leger (1m 6.5f). He was last seen trailing home a well-held fourth behind Trawlerman in the British Champions Long Distance Cup (Gr 1, 2m).
Stay True was sourced on behalf of Annabel and Rob Archibald, and the former said: “He’s ultimately been bought for a Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup campaign. We haven’t got definite plans as yet, we might fly him out in March and run him off the plane in something like the Tancred Stakes. He’s on spec at the moment but I have few owners who want a Cup horse. He’ll be easy enough to sell, he’s just run third in the St Leger. He’s just the sort of horse you come to buy, it’s just difficult to land on them.”
When asked about the difference between being on the ground this year, Archibald said: “Normally I’m on the phone in the middle of the night, so it’s been quite a bit easier being here!”
McKeever and Miller on the mark
Claudia Miller and Johnny McKeever may have missed out on the headline act Gladius (Night Of Thunder), who topped the action when selling to Wathnan at 950,000gns (approx. AU$1,996,260), but they did secure back-to-back lots from the Coolmore draft in the 260,000gns (approx. AU$550,260) Swagman, winner of the Sandown Classic Trial (Gr 3, 1m 2f), and the 320,000gns (approx. AU$677,238) Thrice, who was awarded the Gallinule Stakes (Gr 2, 1m 2f) after suffering trouble in running.
Both three-year-old colts are by the late Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), sire of the Waterhouse-Bott stable’s Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m) scorer Royal Patronage.
“They’ll go straight to Australia to acclimatise,” said Miller. “They’re young horses who are lightly raced, the exact profile of horse we come here to target. They’re both incredibly sound and every time we paraded them this week they were lovely and fresh, so they look like horses who have plenty more to give. And obviously we love Wootton Bassett! These two in particular stuck with us physically because they’re big, beautiful, strong types who’ll really suit Australia.”
McKeever added: “These two were interesting because we were asking ourselves which one we liked the most. Rob Waterhouse liked one a bit more, Claudia liked another a bit more and I liked one a bit more. They’re both Group winners though and they’re coming from a leading stable that not everybody wants to buy from, for whatever reason.
“We have done really well buying from them, though. I think you take the view that they’ll go to Australia and they get given a break so you sort of start from scratch. But, at the end of the day, they’re blue-bloods with beautifully clean vettings.”
The buying team also went to 200,000gns (approx. AU$423,280) for another son of Wootton Bassett, Tribal Nation, earlier in the day, taking their spend to 780,000gns (approx. AU$1,650,770).