Fortune favours PR Thoroughbreds
Fortune favours PR Thoroughbreds
Another colts partnership to land a headline lot was Mark Player and Rob Roulston’s PR Thoroughbreds, with the pair going to $875,000 for the son of I Am Invincible and the Listed-winning Lonhro mare Calaverite.
The Emirates Park-consigned youngster is a sibling to four winners, most notably Group 1 Caulfield Guineas hero Golden Mile (Astern).
“He’s just a beautiful colt,” said Player. “Rob Roulston and myself had independently assessed all the colts in the sale and we both rated him our number one pick, which doesn’t really happen very often. He’s just a magnificent individual. He’ll go into our colts partnership, which is onto its sixth batch now.
“He’s a horse we wanted to have so we stretched beyond our limits. As people in the auditorium will know, there was a bid after the hammer so we were probably very lucky to get him because we were at our limit. We were lucky to have it fall our way. There were good judges on him, which you always love to see when you look around to see who’s against you.”
Training plans are still to be decided, with Player saying: “We’ll get together with our partners and have lunch and work out where they want these horses to go. We use Group 1-winning trainers from both Sydney and Melbourne and try to match up where the horse can be best placed.”
The partnership have already unearthed the likes of Grand Larceny (Zoustar), Run Harry Run (Written Tycoon) and Yorkshire (Snitzel), significant talents who have just fallen short of a berth at stud. Player added: “We haven’t had the home run we want yet but hopefully this is the horse.”
Harron and Fung play the Blame game
James Harron and Tony Fung took home a four-strong haul, with the quartet of colts bringing receipts worth $1.975m. The most expensive member of the bunch was the Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) colt out of the stakes-placed Complicit (Blame) presented by Segenhoe Stud who they secured for $825,000.
“Obviously he’s a beautiful colt, Snitzel needs no introduction and he’s out of a Blame mare,” said Harron. “He’s running at nearly ten per cent stakes winners as a broodmare sire, which is huge. He’s one of the leading broodmare sires in the whole world.
“He’s bred on the same cross as Switzerland, but he’s just a lovely colt in his own right. He showed a great attitude and he’s off one of the greatest nurseries in the country. They’ve gone to a lot of effort to produce this horse and we’re excited to see what he can do on the track.”
On the price tag, Harron added: “You’ve got to be expecting to pay that sort of money for a horse of that class and quality from such a good farm. I think that was a fair price. It’s been a good day.”
Another Justify for Waterhouse and Bott
Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott have already enjoyed notable success with the offspring of Coolmore’s sire on fire Justify (Scat Daddy), and the pair can look forward to another after they combined with Kestrel Thoroughbreds at $750,000 for the filly out of Group 3 scorer Bella Rosa (Snitzel).
The six-figure youngster was presented by Silverdale Farm.
“For us, if you can get that square Justify with great gaskins, wide hocks and a big action, we just haven’t had one of those that hasn’t galloped,” said Kestrel Thoroughbreds’ Bruce Slade. “Physically she was one of those compact, square types, and she had an awesome power to weight ratio.
“She’s off a great farm too. It’s an unbelievable farm for getting talented horses, but also precocious horses; I thought she was one of those. I love the stallion and obviously the mare was proper too, a Group-winning, Melbourne Carnival-winning Snitzel mare, so that gave us a lot of confidence too.”
Field sees market depth
Newgate supremo Henry Field was among the active participants to remark on the strength of trade, saying: “I think the market has been very strong. There’s good depth at all levels and I don’t think it’ll slow down. There’s so many people here and a huge diverse buying bench. Fair play to Magic Millions for putting it all together.”
Along with China Horse Club and partners, Newgate invested $1.325m on two colts. The Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) colt out of Beloved, a Frankel half-sister to Japanese Group 1 winner Deep Brilliante (Deep Impact), fetched $725,000 when offered by Sledmere Stud, while a son of I Am Invincible out of the Listed-winning Smart Missile (Fastnet Rock) mare Ballistic Lover brought $600,000 when offered by The Chase.
Speaking after signing for the latter youngster, Field said: “We love that horse. He’s very sharp, is by Vinne and is out of a fast mare, so he’ll be an early precocious kind of horse. Really pleased to get him. He’s come off a good farm. He’s got speed written all over him.”
The Gold Coast Yearling Sale continues on Wednesday at 10am local time.