Another Award set for Written Tycoon date after Yulong go to $1.2 million
South Australia’s two-time Group 1-placed five-year-old to be immediately retired having topped Inglis Digital sale
Death, taxes … and Yulong.
And so it proved again yesterday when Zhang Yuesheng, the billionaire with an unquenching thirst for bloodstock and racing, paid $1.2 million for sought after mare Another Award (Shamus Award) through the Inglis Digital July (Early) sale.
The twice Group 1-placed and Listed winner, who was being sold as a racing and breeding proposition, was one of two stakes-winning mares acquired by Zhang’s Yulong Investments to be mated with resident champion stallion Written Tycoon (Iglesia) in the fast-approaching breeding season.
Yulong also acquired Grand Syndicates’ recently retired Bright Shadow Handicap (Listed, 1200m) winner Majestic Shot (Shooting To Win) for $220,000.
Sam Fairgray, Yulong’s chief operating officer, last night confirmed Another Award had run her last race in a 33-start career which was rounded out with back-to-back seconds in the Robert Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) in May.
“Another Award was a good, tough mare who was probably unlucky in a couple of Group 1s in South Australia and she’s at an age where we know she’s got the race performance, so we can get her to stud and get a few nice foals out of her,” Fairgray said.
“Both the mares we bought today were good race mares … and they’ll suit Written Tycoon well both physically and on pedigree, so that’s where they’ll be heading this season.”
Trained by Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas in Adelaide, Another Award was spelled in career-best form, having also claimed the Matrice Stakes (Listed, 1200m) in March during a four-season racing career which also saw her win and achieve black type as a two-year-old.
South Australian breeder Ralph Satchell of Willow Grove Stud retained a share in Another Award after selling her for $150,000 to her trainers at the 2019 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale.
Earlier this week, Satchell said he would have loved to have kept the stakes winner, a half-sister to her Group 3-winning former stablemate Tequila Time (Stratum), but he had come to terms with the fact she was out of his price range.
“I think it was, as predicted, that I didn’t have deep enough pockets to buy her back,” Satchell told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“But I am just looking at the online catalogue to see where the reinvestment opportunities are.
“I did say to my wife, Linda, that it would be a bit sad to spend it today, but I also said to her, ‘there is a mare later on that I don’t mind’ and her eyes did bulge a bit.”
Satchell had little doubt that Another Award, a daughter of his good-producing mare El Milagro (Encosta De Lago), who has three stakes-winning progeny, was worth $1 million and ‘a bit’, making her the fourth highest-priced horse to be sold through Inglis Digital.
“The ‘bit’ is the hard part to figure out as to where her level is, price wise,” said Satchell, who also bred yesterday’s Ramornie Handicap (Listed, 1200m) winner The Big Goodbye (Host).
“She was well exposed to quite a few good breeders and a few racing stables who would have liked her for the spring, so I think [you have to be satisfied] any time you can get a million dollars-plus for a mare like this.
“It’s easy to say they’re worth a million and something, but you’ve still got to find people to buy them, so we’re very happy to get the deal done and we wish Yulong all the best with her.”
Another Award is the seventh horse in the past 12 months that Yulong has bought online which has topped an Inglis Digital sale, with the rising six-year-old added to a broodmare band which includes Daisies (Sebring), who Zhang paid $920,000 for a fortnight ago, and $560,000 mare Of Good Cheer (Dark Angel), the most expensive lot of the June (Early) Online Sale.
Only Funstar (Adelaide) ($2.7 million), Sierra Sue (Darci Brahma) ($1.55 million) and Every Rose (Choisir) ($1.3 million) have sold for more than Another Award on Inglis Digital.
The second highest-priced lot sold yesterday was four-year-old mare She’s All Class (I Am Invincible), a Magic Millions Wyong 2YO Classic (RL, 1100m) and Abell Stakes (Listed, 1200m) winner, who was also runner-up in the Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) as a juvenile.
Selected by Matt Scown for owner Brae Sokolski as a yearling, paying $200,000 at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale from the Yarraman Park Stud draft, it was Scown’s name on the digital docket again but this time the mare had a $620,000 price tag.
“She was too good a sort to let go, she’s a magnificent type and she did it all on the racetrack being a gun two-year-old,” Scown told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“With the syndicate we race with, the fairest way is to put them all through public auction unreserved, which is what we do with all the stock once we’ve finished racing them and we were lucky enough to be able to buy her back for our breeding side.”
Initially trained by Chris Waller before joining Ciaron Maher and David Eustace’s stable, She’s All Class is the best-performed of six winners out of Shirra Nui (Viscount), herself a half-sister to New Zealand stakes winner Khemosabi (Commands) and the Melbourne stakes-placed Zyzxx (Danehill).
“I know the pedigree isn’t littered with black type, but you go through the lot and it’s all speed families, which is what we want in Australia and that’s what we got with her,” Scown said.
“She’s by the champion sire and she’s faultless on type and I think she’s going to be a really nice mare for us to breed good foals out of.”
Sokolski raced and has a share in The Everest (1200m) winner Yes Yes Yes (Rubick), whose first crop two-year-olds will race in the new season, but Scown said no discussion had been made about a potential mating for She’s All Class.
“Brae’s overseas and we haven’t even discussed a stallion because I didn’t think we’d be able to buy her, but sometimes fortune turns your way,” he said.
“We valued her a little bit higher than what we were able to buy her for, so we’re rapt to secure her and she’ll remain at Yarraman and now we’ll figure out a mating.”
Upside (Muhaarar) – the dam of this season’s most expensive weanling – a $925,000 colt by Frankel (Galileo) offered at the Magic Millions National Sale – was also sold at the Inglis Digital July (Early) auction after Victorian breeder Sean Duke outlaid $455,000 for her.
Consigned by Cornerstone Stud on behalf of a deceased estate, the unraced half-sister to South African multiple Grade 1 winner Europa Point (Rock Of Gibraltar) and Group 2-winning stallion Harbour Watch (Acclamation) is in foal to Rosemont Stud’s Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) winner Shamus Award (Snitzel).
She was a late withdrawal from the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale after being struck down by an elevated temperature.
Meanwhile, dual Group 2-winning gelding Just Folk (Magnus), who won six of his 32 starts for trainer Josh Julius, also sold yesterday for $199,000 to Cranbourne-based Gavin Bedggood, a trainer noted for having success with tried horses. Bedggood, who has triumphed with the likes of All-Star Mile (1600m) contender Keats (Galileo), teamed up with syndicator Mailbag Bloodstock to buy the rising seven-year-old.
Bendigo-based Julius, who has a young family, is taking a break from training.
A bespoke Inglis Digital auction will be conducted for the sale of racing and breeding proposition Miss Roseiano (Exceed And Excel), the Peter Gelagotis-trained rising four-year-old mare who won the Blue Diamond Preview (Gr 3, 1000m) as a two-year-old on debut.
The auction will be live from 3pm tomorrow with bidding to open from 9am next Monday and the bidding countdown to start from 4pm on Tuesday.