Alcohol Free to join Waterhouse/Bott stable after record sale
Alcohol Free (No Nay Never) will be trained in Australia by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott after her dramatic 5.4 million guineas (approx. AU$10.1 million) purchase for BBA Ireland and a Yulong Investments-led partnership at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale on Tuesday evening.
She will become the most expensive horse sold at auction to race in Australia.
The four-time Group 1-winning mare had the packed Park Paddocks sale auditorium in stunned silence as the hammer fell for the eye-watering fee, with BBA Ireland’s Michael Donohue outbidding Coolmore’s MV Magnier in an engrossing duel.
The four-year-old, a Group 1 winner for Andrew Balding at two, three and four years of age and from six furlongs to a mile, will likely be targeted at the $15 million The Everest (1200m), a race for which Yulong’s Yuesheng Zhang owns a slot.
A daughter of former Coolmore shuttle stallion No Nay Never (Scat Daddy), Alcohol Free won the July Cup (Gr 1, 6f) at Newmarket this year, beating Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Artorius (Flying Artie), adding to wins in the Coronation Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) at Royal Ascot, the Sussex Stakes (Gr 1, 1m) and the Cheveley Park Stakes (Gr 1, 6f) as a juvenile.
Alcohol Free is likely to return to the northern hemisphere at the conclusion of her racing career and be covered by Frankel (Galileo) after which she will eventually join her dam Plying (Hard Spun) who was purchased for €825,000 at last year’s Goffs Ireland November Breeding Stock Sale, on Yulong’s broodmare band.
“She’s been bought for a partnership and she’s going to race on in Australia,” Donohoe said. “She vetted extremely well for a filly who has plenty of miles on the clock, her reports were exemplary. The partners already have horses in training and breeding interests in Australia and obviously she’ll make a fantastic broodmare at the end of her racing career.
“I think there’s 87 races in Australia worth a million-plus, so the prize-money on offer there is big, and she’s that type of filly. She’s won the July Cup over six furlongs, then she stays a mile too, so there’ll be a lot of options for her. Fair play to Andrew Balding and the guys, they did a great job with her.
“It’s impossible to value those blue chip fillies off the track, they’re collector’s items because they don’t come on the market very often. They’re like Picassos, they’re a rare commodity. I had a figure in my head and I was bidding pretty strong, so that might’ve indicated I had some petrol left in the tank!”
Kia Ora make mark on global scene
Kia Ora continued their global search to bolster their broodmare band as they went to 850,000gns (approx. AU$1,592,180) to land speedy Group 2 winner Mooneista (Dandy Man) during the star-studded Spectre session on Tuesday evening of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale.
The four-year-old daughter of Dandy Man (Mozart), himself a prolific sire of sprinting talent, won a Listed contest as a three-year-old before adding the Sapphire Stakes (Gr 2, 5f) at the Curragh in July of the same year.
Kia Ora purchased two mares on the recent US breeding stock sales circuit, with US$400,000 Grade 2 winner Miss Leslie (Paynter) joining stakes race winner Tobys Heart (Jack Milton) (US$400,000) on the plane to the Hunter Valley stud.
Catalogued as Lot 1910, Mooneista finished fourth to the rampant Nature Strip (Nicconi) in the King’s Stand Stakes (Gr 1, 5f) at Royal Ascot earlier this year and has been rated to a high of 112. She remains a racing prospect for Kia Ora, who have options of leaving her in Europe to again target the royal meeting, or sending her to Australia to compete for the enviable riches on home soil before she enters stud duties.
Dandy Man, a son of Mozart (Danehill), is the sire of three Group 1 winners among 24 individual stakes winners and counts Group 1 winner No Speak Alexander (Shalaa) among his daughter’s progeny.
Mooneista is herself out of Group 3 winner Moon Unit (Inkikhab), while this is the family of Irish Derby (Gr 1, 1m 4f) winner and champion three-year-old colt Old Vic (Sadler’s Wells).
Dean Hawthorne also struck during yesterday’s Sceptre session of high-end mares to purchase his third lot of the week in conjunction with Badgers Bloodstock for Jonathan Munz’s GSA Bloodstock operation.
Hawthorne went to 650,000gns (approx. AU$1,218,315) to land the Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare Elizabethofaragon, a Listed placegetter who was offered in foal to high-profile Coolmore shuttler Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj).
Catalogued as Lot 1876, the mare is a sister to two-year-old Group 1 winner Kingsbarns and a half-sister US Grade 3 winner Sweeter Still (Rock Of Gibraltar), herself the dam of English 2,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) winner Kameko (Kitten’s Joy).
Elizabethofaragon will likely stay in Europe to foal down with the prospect of being covered over the next few seasons in the northern hemisphere before eventually making her way south.
The purchase added to earlier buys for Hawthorne at Tattersalls, namely the Frankel mare Beloved in foal to Starman (Dutch Art) and Dark Angel (Acclamation) mare Darkest, who was offered in foal to Starspangledbanner (Choisir). Both mares were purchased for 125,000gns (approx. AU$23,4290).
Cambridge Stud and agent John Foote added to their haul from the Tattersalls December Mares Sale earlier this week with the purchase of well-related mare Allemande (Sea The Moon).
Bought during Tuesday’s Sceptre session, Allemande commanded a 95,000gns (approx. AU$178,145) bid from Foote to prize her away to New Zealand.
Offered as Lot 1859 by Lanwades Stud, the breeder of Group 1 winner Zaaki (Leroidesanimaux), Allemande is a half-sister to four stakes winners, including Albaflora (Muharaar), runner-up in last year’s Champion Fillies & Mares Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 4f) at Ascot.
She is also a half-sister to Group 2 winner Alyssa (Sir Percy), Listed winner Aloe Vera (Invincible Spirit) and Group 3 scorer Alea Iacta (Invincible Spirit), who is also the dam of dual Listed winner Aleas (Archipenko).
Allemande’s third dam is the dual Group 1 winner Alborada (Alzao), while her second dam is also a stakes winner and dam to two black-type scorers.
On day one Cambridge Stud purchased Ulysses (Galileo) filly Terra Mitica, a racing prospect with stakes targets, for 100,000gns (approx. AU$187,500), as well as three-year-old filly Suspicious (Nathaniel) for 50,000gns (approx. AU93,750).
Tuesday night’s Sceptre session was the most eagerly anticipated of the week, and it did not disappoint with Alcohol Free’s headline-grabbing sale contributing towards a record day of spending at Park Paddocks, with 54 million guineas (approx. AU$101.33 million) changing hands during Tuesday’s session, as 192 lots sold on another mammoth day of selling.
The total revenue eclipsed the 49,545,000gns of revenue set during day two of Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale last month.
The newly formed Sceptre sessions created a buzz around the Tattersalls sales ground, with the auditorium packed out for each flurry of high-profile race fillies and broodmares.
Across the two Sceptre sessions on Monday and Tuesday, 71 lots were sold for total revenues of 41,907,000gns (approx. AU$78.63 million) at an average of 646,577gns (approx. AU$1.21 million). A total of 11 lots sold for 1,000,000gns or more.