Harron and TFI run hot
The 12th seven-figure lot of this year’s Gold Coast Yearling Sale arrived late in the session when James Harron, acting with Tony Fung, bid $1.2m for the Snitzel colt out of the New Zealand-bred Showcasing (Oasis Dream) mare Play That Song.
The Newgate Farm-consigned colt is the first foal out of the Eclipse Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) scorer, who in turn is a half-sister to fellow Group 2 winner and Group 1 placegetter Wild Night (Vanbrugh).
Snitzel, who accounted for the top two lots on Thursday, has been the highest-grossing stallion across the three sessions, with 21 sold lots generating receipts worth $15.97m. His average price of $760,475 is second only to Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt).
“They’re not making any more by the stallion,” said Harron. “This is a really good, strong, purposeful colt. He’s a lovely medium size and his mother was a sharp two-year-old, so he profiles up really nicely. He comes off a fantastic farm in Newgate, they’ve got a great record in producing really good horses. That’s a big part of our thought process, that gives us confidence investing in these horses.”
The signing moved the Harron-Fung colts partnership to the head of the buyers’ chart, with seven purchases made for a combined $5.475m. The group have cost an average of $782,145 and includes three sons of Snitzel.
“I thought it was an incredible line-up of Snitzels in the catalogue, I was really pleasantly surprised there’s so many nice ones,” said Harron. “We’ve been able to pick up three now so we’re really happy. Every weekend he’s in the headlines and it’s a great loss to the industry that he’s not with us anymore, but it’s brilliant we still have the opportunity to pick up these beautiful colts.”
Reflecting on his week so far, Harron said: “It’s been great. Once we got through our inspections and went through the shortlist, we were pleasantly surprised by how many were still on the list and with how deep the catalogue was. Horses have vetted out well and handled the sale super, so that’s given us the confidence to go in and invest alongside our partners and, of course, TFI [Tony Fung Investments].”