James makes emotional play for $900,000 ‘hot horse’ by The Autumn Sun
Strong top end brings Book 1 of New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale to a close
An emotional Roger James is dreaming of Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) glory after paying $900,000 for a ‘faultless’ colt by The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice) at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale yesterday during the last of three Book 1 sessions which saw trade surge and set the platform for a competitive Book 2 market.
Seven of the 13 yearlings to make $500,000 or more were sold on day three, propelling trade to $63.1 million, a figure which has already surpassed the aggregate of last year’s combined Books 1 and 2 sales, and was comparatively up 24 per cent.
And it was Kiwi trainer James and his training partner Robert Wellwood who stole the headlines yesterday, purchasing two of the top four lots of the session.
Senior trainer James had been pacing the spacious Karaka complex for days leading up to the colt’s turn in the ring and, while he remained composed during the auction process, he had to take time afterwards to gather his thoughts.
Once calm, James was elated to have the colt in his keeping, the most expensive yearling he had bought in his decades in the industry.
“I have been coming to these sales for probably 40 years now and I don’t think I’ve been hotter on a horse ever. I just loved him from the day we saw him,” said James, visibly moved by what had just transpired.
“I just can’t explain it, I can’t remember having bought or bid on a horse of his quality, there’s not a box he doesn’t tick, in my respect.
“Sally (Gumbley) and Robert, who are my other set of eyes, were as hot on him as I was. We thought it was going to be hard to do, but it is quite amazing the support (we’ve had).
“I have been pretty tense as I’ve never been to this level to buy a horse and in the last hour before he went through the ring, I probably wasn’t very good company.”
By Arrowfield Stud’s anointed son of Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) in The Autumn Sun, whose first crop yearlings have sold for up to $950,000 at the Australasian sales so far this year and whose three lots sold at Karaka averaged $426,667, the colt is the ninth foal out of Pristino (More Than Ready), making him a three-quarter brother to Group 2 winner and New Zealand three-year-old filly of the year Dijon Bleu (Burgundy).
He was bred by the C T Grammer and Robinson Family Trust and placed with Landsdowne Park to be prepared for the Karaka sale.
“When we rolled onto the grounds this morning we knew that he was popular. Every good judge in Australasia was looking at him, so we knew we had a horse we were going to get some money for, but we never expected $900,000,” Landsdowne Park’s Dave Duley said.
“Roger, he is a very, very good trainer … and he has a special horse.”
Duley has been associated with Pristino “since day one”.
“All of us were involved in planning the mating. To us it was the perfect cross and the result is the best walking colt I have ever seen,” Duley said.
“He was very popular and his purchase price was way beyond the reserve.”
Duley hopes the sale of the colt can also be the catalyst for the Ohaupo farm to be a regular seller at the top end of the market.
“We want to be at that next level and we’re just lucky to have clients who are sending us lovely horses, but without lovely horses, it’s hard to be there (top of the market),” he said.
“I used to play a bit of rugby and I’ve never been so nervous … It is a different feeling as you have no control (in the vendors’ box).
“I got an adrenaline rush from it as well and that’s what I love, I love selling and preparing nice horses.”
James trained his first Group 1 winner Tidal Light (Diagramatic) in 1987 and in the 35 years since he has added another 16, the most recent two in partnership with Robert Wellwood.
Four of those Group 1s were courtesy of top-class mare Silent Achiever (O’Reilly), the 2012 New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) winner who would claim a further three Group 1s during a glittering race career, but it is a race she ran third in in 2014 that James has ambitions of winning with his prized colt.
“I have said for a long time that one race I would like to win before I retire is the Cox Plate. I got beaten a neck with Silent Achiever,” James said.
“I have seen him five or six times and you can overdo it and over think it, but we had a pretty strong consensus from day one and it was just a matter of thinking how we could put it together.
“I’ve been gratified by the support that I have had, really.”
James and Wellwood also bought a Savabeel (Zabeel) filly, the second-to-last lot through the ring yesterday, for $625,000 from Haunui Farm.
The filly is the first living foal out of the stakes-placed mare Symphonic (O’Reilly), herself a sister to the stakes-placed Tralee Chorus, and a three-quarter sister to Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) and New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Daffodil (No Excuse Needed). The family also features Group 1 winner Aegon (Sacred Falls) and Go Racing’s Sydney Group 3 winner Atishu (Savabeel).
James and Wellwood bought seven yearlings for a combined $2.165 million.
‘Millie’ returns home to land $850,000 Pierro colt
This week, popular New Zealand industry figure Kevin “Millie” Walls also made his mark on the Karaka sale, buying six yearlings including a standout Pierro (Lonhro) colt late on day three for $850,000, a price which was also an important mark in the rejuvenation of leading farm Cambridge Stud.
Walls, who recently returned to New Zealand after a stint working at Blue Gum Farm in Victoria, had to outbid Coolmore to land the son of Pierro on behalf of an undisclosed Australian client.
“It’s good to be back. I tried to get back over the last couple of months through MIQ, but I couldn’t get in,” Walls said.
“After 23 years I left Trelawney Stud and went over to Victoria to manage a place over there, but at the end of the day my friends and family are over here and I have missed fishing, so I have decided to come back.
“I have bought six nice horses for my client including a Brazen Beau filly off Brent and Cherry (Taylor) at Trelawney.
“I have also bought a Harry Angel colt for him, an American Pharoah colt, a Tivaci colt and the very last lot, a Deep Field colt (for $475,000).”
The Cambridge Stud-bred Pierro colt was Walls’ number one, though.
“He has got a great action. I have seen him half a dozen times and he has a great attitude, moves like a cat and was my pick of the sale,” he said.
The six horses bought for $2.285 million by Walls under his KPW Bloodstock banner will remain in New Zealand to be broken in and educated.
“When we think he is ready he will head to Australia, where I am sure Peter Moody will be up near the top of the list when it comes to selecting a trainer,” Walls said.
The colt is the second foal out of European winner Subatomic (Makfi), a half-sister to US Grade 2 winner Worldly (Selkirk), European Listed winner Nice Danon (Sakhee) and Deauville Listed winner Donativum (Cadeaux Genereux).
Cambridge Stud’s Brendan Lindsay paid 110,000gns for Subatomic at the 2018 Tattersalls December Mares Sale.
“It is very exciting, the highest priced yearling I have ever sold, and I will definitely be having a red wine tonight,” Lindsay said.
“Half a million dollars is a lot of money, but I thought he would make that quite easily, but you don’t know and to get $850,000 is a big result.
“It was quite exciting to finish the sale for us and it is great for the staff to finish off all of the hard work they have put in on such a high.
“It is also extremely gratifying to see how many of the good judges were on him and when you see Tom Magnier, one of the best judges in the world, as the underbidder that says it all.”
Cambridge Stud sold 34 yearlings for $6.105 million at an average of $179,559 while Curraghmore, who sold the sister to Unforgotten (Fastnet Rock) for $850,000 on Tuesday, parted with 19 yearlings for $3.745 million.
The leading vendor by average (three or more sold) was Beaufort Downs, who sold three horses at an average of $250,000.
“I’m extremely happy with the sale, it couldn’t be better,” Lindsay said.
“It is very difficult times for all of us in New Zealand at the moment and to have a result like this is amazing.
“I think both New Zealand Bloodstock and the local industry have done a great job. We have also bought some nice individuals ourselves over the last three days as we like to support the local industry as well.
“We are asking people to support us, but we are also supporting other people.”
In doing so, Lindsay paid $450,000 for a Pierro filly out of Pica Pica (Stravinsky) from the Wentwood Grange draft yesterday. The filly is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Signify (Perfectly Ready) and the Group 1-placed El Sicario (Bullbars).
“From Cambridge Stud’s perspective, the filly has fantastic residual value,” Lindsay said.
“It’s nice to buy from Wentwood. They are shareholders in Almanzor so the two-way street of business, especially with the quality operation they operate.”
Wentwood Grange’s Sean Hawkins said Pica Pica had been a good mare for the family.
“We bred her mum and she has thrown two Group 1 horses in three foals and her future value speaks for itself,” he said.
“She was on the market at well below her purchase price so we couldn’t be happier.”
Cambridge Stud shuttler Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) was also well supported in the sales ring with his second crop yearlings. Thirty-two of the 36 yearlings offered by the stallion in Book 1 were sold to a top of $675,000.
“I’m delighted with how our resident stallion Almanzor has been received again this year,” Lindsay said.
“He has been a saviour for Cambridge Stud and I had Sir Patrick Hogan ring me the other day after Dynastic won the Karaka Million 2YO and say to me ‘we’ve got another one’.
“We’ve had Sir Tristram, we’ve had Zabeel, we’ve had Tavistock and now we have Almanzor.”
Fung adds another son of Savabeel to stable
Not content with buying the brother to Mo’unga on Monday for a sale-topping $1 million, Tony Fung Investments was back in business yesterday, adding another quality colt by Waikato Stud’s sire Savabeel to the stable for $850,000.
The Waikato Stud-consigned colt, who was catalogued as Lot 528, is the second foal out of Relentless Desire (O’Reilly), a sister to Hopscotch, who in turn is the dam of Te Akau’s New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Amarelinha (Savabeel). Relentless Desire, a half-sister to four-time Group 1 winner Metal Bender (Danasinga), is also from the family of Newgate Farm’s well-supported Group 3-winning first season sire North Pacific (Brazen Beau).
The Savabeel colt’s breeder, Garry Chittick, who has been associated with the family for generations, also sold an Ocean Park (Thorn Park) colt through his son’s Waikato Stud draft earlier in the day to trainer Tony Pike for $165,000.
“It’s an interesting story in that the colt is mine and not the stud’s,” Chittick Snr said.
“When I sold the business to Mark we agreed on an annual payment. One year, instead of a payment I took four fillies, four beautiful fillies, one of which is Relentless Desire, the dam of the colt, and another was Oahu who had a colt sell earlier (yesterday).
“The deal is that when the fillies (now mares) turn ten, they will be returned to the stud. They are both eight, so I have another couple of years to go.”
Fung, who had expatriate New Zealander Kacy Fogden inspecting horses on his behalf, purchased ten yearlings out of the Book 1 sale for $3.865 million.
Waikato Stud, meanwhile, was the leading vendor, selling 39 yearlings for $7.86 million at an average of $201,538, highlighted by the $1 million sale topper.
Savabeel averaged $307,286 from 35 yearlings sold while up-and-coming barnmate Tivaci (High Chaparral) had 22 lots sell at an average of $175,909.
“Tivaci has had an incredible sale, as has Savabeel. You don’t always expect it from Savabeel, but he is a living legend at this stage, and for Tivaci to step into that … it was a little bit of the ‘next step’ for us,” Chittick said.
The Waikato studmaster is already turning his attention to the 2023 Karaka sale.
“It has been a great sale, everybody’s worked so hard for this week, and if we could have got our Australian mates here – they could have stayed in the new (NZB) hotel – it would have been mammoth,” he said.
“Let’s hope between now and next year we don’t have a third World War and that Covid’s gone. We’ll turn up with Super Seths, Tivacis, Savabeel’s still going and the Ardrossans will be on the track by then, so we’ve got plenty to look forward to.”
Te Akau to chase seventh straight Karaka Million with Justify colt
Te Akau’s David Ellis retained his title as Karaka’s leading buyer for the 17th straight year and yesterday he gave himself the chance of winning a Ferrari after paying $600,000 for a first crop son of the unbeaten US Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy).
Ellis wouldn’t rule out the prospect of The Oaks Stud-consigned colt, the first foal out of Repeat (Darci Brahma), a sister to dual Group 1 winner Recite, being mature enough to contest the Karaka Million (RL, 1200m) next year under the care of Te Akau trainer Mark Walker, who will return to the helm of the New Zealand operation from April 1.
He did concede, however, that his wife Karyn Fenton-Ellis was unlikely to let him behind the wheel of the powerful red Ferrari, the prize put up by Coolmore to the buyer of the first son or daughter of Justify to win one of the designated major races, of which the Karaka Million is one, if the colt lives up to his end of the bargain.
“He is an absolutely stunning colt. He’s gone into my colts syndicate, which has been very, very well received by our owners. I think he is a Karaka Million colt,” Ellis said.
“He is probably a little bit more precocious than, say, (2022 Karaka Million winner) Dynastic and it is really exciting to buy a colt by a Triple Crown winner at Karaka.
“He is from a really good two-year-old family, but they all train on to be good at three and four and that’s the sort of colt that we are trying to buy.”
The Oaks Stud’s Rick Williams compared the colt to some of the best horses he’s been associated with, giving hope to Ellis’ dream of making it a seventh straight Karaka Million victory for Te Akau.
“I just loved the colt to bits. He has a great brain and I put him right up there alongside DB Pins, Avantage, Pure Theatre and Maluckyday. He’s that good,” Williams said.
Ellis, who bought 31 yearlings for $8.070 million at an average of $260,323 in the Book 1 sale, confirmed that Walker would take over from Jamie Richards at the start of next month as Te Akau’s head trainer. Richards will head to Hong Kong soon after, with the champion trainer having secured a contract with the Hong Kong Jockey Club to train from next season.
Among the squad Walker will inherit is Group 1-winning colt Sword Of State (Snitzel), a three-year-old who made it two Group 3 victories in succession at Ellerslie on March 5.
“Mark will take over training the team and we’re keen to go to Brisbane and have a look at some of the really good races there with Sword Of State,” Ellis revealed.
“Jamie and Mark will have a look at him in the next few days and if they’re really happy with him, it’s full steam ahead.”
Taking an industry-wide view of proceedings so far this week at Karaka, Ellis described it as “a remarkable sale”, which has been hamstrung by the fact that internationals and outside expatriate Kiwis have been unable to attend the sale in person.
“To sit in the ring and as I looked around there were only four people in the whole ring,” he said.
“This company has done an amazing job promoting the sale, administering the sale, running it. It is a company that the whole of New Zealand can be truly proud of.”
Werrett and Whitby add Written Tycoon filly to joint portfolio
Two of Australia’s biggest owners and breeders, Neil Werrett and Max Whitby, will race a filly by reigning champion stallion Written Tycoon (Iglesia) after the pair partnered with expatriate Kiwi trainers Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young on day three at Karaka.
Closely related to Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Luna Rossa (Written Tycoon), being the first foal out of Orchestral Lass (Sepoy), Busuttin signed for the Phoenix Park-consigned, Seymour Bloodstock-bred filly who brought a price tag of $475,000.
“We’ve had enough winners out of the stable by the stallion,” Busuttin said.
“They’re just good horses, the Written Tycoons. You buy one and you’re half a chance. She is a big, strong, powerful filly and she wouldn’t look out of place in any of the early two-year-old races in Melbourne or Sydney.
“I still thought she was well bought. It’s a lot of money, but I thought that was under her value and I am just rapt to get her and to have her for Max and Neil.”
Catalogued as Lot 467, the filly’s dam Orchestral Lass, a winner in Australia, is a half-sister to the stakes-placed Red Fez (Red Ransom) and juvenile winner Wild Promises (More Than Ready), herself the dam of the former Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman-trained Luna Rossa.
Busuttin and Young have been active at their home country’s sale, buying 12 yearlings from the Book 1 catalogue.
“We’ve bought a variety of horses at different prices. We’ve bought some nice staying horses, Savabeels, Almanzors,” he said.
“The Written Tycoon filly is obviously our most expensive horse, but we’ve bought some cheaper horses to syndicate as well, a Zed horse, a Sacred Falls and a So You Think filly.
“It’s a great sale, they’re all turned out fantastically and it’s good value.”
The strong close to the Book 1 sale pushed the average slightly higher day-to-day, with the figure last night sitting at $146,808, an increase of 19 per cent year-on-year, while the median lifted by $5,000 to $100,000 compared to 2021. The clearance rate was 77 per cent, up three per cent on Tuesday’s figure.
There were eight yearlings sold for $800,000 or more this week, compared to just one in 2021, while there were 105 yearlings who made $200,000 or more across the three days, up from 74 last year.
NZB managing director Andrew Seabrook believes this week’s Book 1 sale demonstrated that the New Zealand industry had the capacity to sell high-quality yearlings to a buying bench who could absorb them at competitive prices.
“We have already turned over a million dollars more than the whole sale last year and we’re up $11 million on Book 1. The sale just got stronger from the first day onwards,” Seabrook told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Last year’s Australian spend was 27 per cent of the catalogue and this year it is 39 per cent … but the hole in the sale was the Asian buyers, and that’s been the case in Australia as well.
“I think we’ve proven this year that we can sell the top horses as well as anyone and I am sure that people will take notice of that. I would love to think that borders will be open, that we will get wonderful support (from buyers and vendors) next year.”
New Zealand syndicator Go Racing bought 13 yearlings, trainers Tony Pike and Stephen Marsh purchased nine and seven yearlings respectively while the expatriate Kiwis of agent Guy Mulcaster and trainer Chris Waller bought six yearlings.
Hong Kong’s Tartan Meadow Bloodstock bought 12 yearlings in the Book 1 sale.
“We always expect David Ellis to be the leading buyer but he was well supported by Go Racing’s Albert Bosma, Roger James, Pike and Marsh who were all very strong,” said Seabrook, who suggested New Zealand buyers maintained their level of spend from 2021.
The first of three Book 2 sessions starts at Karaka at 11am (NZ time) today and Seabrook was buoyed by the number of inspections taking place late yesterday where the domestic buyers will be relied upon more heavily to ensure brisk trade takes place.
“The nice horses in Book 2 will be hard to buy and I am sure they will be well sought after,” he said.