Hedge makes the most of first trip to Tattersalls
Suman Hedge made his first visit to Park Paddocks count, taking home two colts from Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale for an aggregate of 135,000gns (AU$271,650).
The agent made his first purchase of the year in the final stages of Tuesday, teaming up with Annabel Neasham to buy a colt by Cambridge Stud shuttler Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) for 55,000gns (approx. AU$110,600)
Offered by Ballygallon Stud, the colt is out of winning Teofilo (Galileo) mare Find It Within, who is herself the dam of Listed scorer Walk In Marrakesh (Siyouni).
Hedge told ANZ Bloodstock News that the plans for the colt are fluid and they would make a decision when he leaves for Australia in the coming days.
“We have sent him to Tom Ward’s and I have left the next steps with him in Annabel’s court,” said Hedge. “I don’t know if she will leave the horse here to break in or whether we will go straight out and these are the decisions that will be made in the next 24 hours.”
Almanzor is the sire of ten stakes winners in total, with three of them coming in New Zealand, while his best winner to date is Manzoice, winner of last year’s VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m). Hedge said the stallion’s northern hemisphere–bred yearlings and his southern hemisphere crop are very similar.
“He is a really good looking stallion and I think that one of his strengths is that he does seem to throw that into his progeny, they are lovely sale types. We have bought them back home and we have been competitive on quite a few of them back home.
“The horse has done a nice job in Australia, with Manzoice having won the VRC Derby and [Group 1 runner-up] Virtuous Circle and he seems to get runners into those Classic races, so we thought, being here in Europe, we were keen to find that style of horse.”
Regarding Tuesday’s buy, Hedge said: “He is a really lovely athletic animal. We thought he would be more valuable over in Australia than he would be here. I am confident, had he been offered in the southern hemisphere, he would have made more than what he made here.
“The Karaka sale is coming up in a couple of months time and in the back of my mind I was thinking: What is this style of horse going to make over there, but he was really at the higher end physically of what I would look, so I think he was good value at that price.”
With northern hemisphere-bred yearlings technically six months younger than their Australian counterparts, Hedge believes a Classic-type yearling has time on their side.
“We saw so many nice horses here and I was thinking about the time difference and taking them back, you are going to lose that advantage on those sharper types, so we were specifically looking for horses that would be more Classic types and would work over in Australia. I think he will get better and better with time, so being six months younger won’t cause him any issues,” he continued.
Early yesterday, Hedge made his second purchase of the week, paying Drummona House 80,000gns (approx. AU$ 160,980) for a filly by former Coolmore Stud shuttler Saxon Warrior (Deep Impact).
Out of the winning Storm Cat (Storm Bird) mare Gracefield, the filly is a half-sister to the stakes-placed winner Galles (Bernardini) and a further two winners.
“A friend of mine, Byron Rogers, who I have been doing inspections with, he loved the horse and was strongly considering her for their resale business, but in the end he decided to go a different way, so that opened up an opportunity.
“We loved her and I really felt, in terms of athleticism and her action, she was really up at the top of the fillies we had seen all week.
“I have done this one on my own, so I will first have to explain it to my wife and if I survive that, I will then have a think about trainers.
“I have sent her to Tom Ward and probably get her broken in here and then we will have a thing about what we do next. We actually don’t look for the 2400 [metres] plus here, we look at horses we think will be effective at a mile and then if they can stretch out that is great. There are a lot of valuable races in Australia over a mile, so that’s the mentality we have when we’re here. This filly definitely presented in that way. She was quite twitchy, active and nice and strong.
“It’s a nice open pedigree, being out of a Storm Cat mare, who has already thrown a stakes performer. With fillies you have to think what you do with them later and she would be quite easy for us to manage as a broodmare.”
Despite having not physically travelled to Tattersalls, Hedge was active from afar last year, purchasing a Zoustar (Northern Meteor) colt for 85,000gns.
Another Too Darn Hot for Ferguson and Waller
James Ferguson and Chris Waller have been busy all week at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and early in the day yesterday they made another foray into a strong market, purchasing a colt by Darley’s first-season sire shuttler Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) for 140,000gns (approx. AU$281,710).
Offered by Waterhip Down, the colt is out of Listed-winning Frankel (Galileo) mare Frankel Light, who has produced one winner, Endeared (Dark Angel).
Frankel Light is a daughter of dual German Listed scorer Mambo Light (Kingmambo), making her a half-sister Le Juge (Dansili), who won the Chairman’s Handicap (Gr 3, 2000m) at Doomben in 2019 and 2020.
“Great to get another Too Darn Hot for the Waller team,” Ferguson told ANZ Bloodstock News. “He is a stallion that is really going places.
“This particular horse was a great bodied horse from a good farm. With Frankel as the damsire, it is very exciting to see what he can do. I am really looking forward to preparing this horse for Australia.”
Ferguson and Waller made their first purchase at the Tattersalls October sale at Book 1 last week, parting with 200,000gns for a colt by Kingman (Invincible Spirit) and late on Monday evening they struck for the second time, securing another son of Too Darn Hot for 45,000gns (approx. AU$90,400), before buying a son of Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) for 120,000gns (approx. AU$241,300) early on Tuesday.
Too Darn Hot, who is currently serving his fourth book of mares at Darley’s Kelvinside base, has made a phenomenal start at stud. With his first northern hemisphere-bred runners this year, the stallion has produced 22 winners from 54 runners and they are headed by four stakes winners including Moyglare Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 7f) winner Fallen Angel.