Lucia Valentina’s daughter lures Singleton back to Easter
John Singleton may have sold Strawberry Hill Stud and his breeding stock last August, but the octogenarian hasn’t lost his passion for racing or gambling.
So, after watching almost four hours of selling at Riverside from a prime spot in the middle of the auditorium, Singleton snapped up the Elsdon Park-bred I Am Invincible filly out of Lucia Valentina (Savabeel) for $700,000.
She will be trained at Newcastle by Kris Lees, who also prepared the Lib Petagna-owned Lucia Valentina to win three Group 1 races.
“That one didn’t go at the right price, she went for about double what we thought. I was sitting here all day not doing anything,” Singleton said.
“But Kris had his eye on her right from the start, when the catalogue came out, so I said, ‘let’s get her’.
“Her dad’s a champion sire and her dam is a champion mare. She was a beautiful horse, I had a couple of wins on her.”
Lees has trained numerous horses for Singleton over the years, including Group 2 winner Miss Fabulass (Frankel), who was sold for $1.85 million at the Strawberry Hill dispersal.
The I Am Invincible filly is the fourth living foal out of Lucia Valentina, making her a half-sister to the stakes-placed Petagna-owned Luella Cristina (Snitzel), and her presence at the Easter sale prompted Singleton to buy at an Inglis auction for the first time since 2017.
“I haven’t been here a few years as I usually buy at Magic Millions because Gerry [Harvey] is a mate and I was an owner there. Now I’m a free agent, my loyalty is with Magic Millions, but that horse is only for sale and she is a special horse,” he said.
“I have found that those fillies [with pedigrees] are the best, because even if they are no good, then it’s still worth half.
“So, you con yourself there is a bit of residual value.”
The advertising guru harbours no regrets about his shock decision to sell his stunning NSW Central Coast property, which was purchased by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier, nor his reinvestment at the 2024 yearling sales.
“I still love racing horses and I still love gambling. The breeding, and taking four or five years to see if they are any good, new stallions, there is a time when common sense prevails,” said Singleton, who has about 20 young horses on the books from yearlings through to three-year-olds.
“I don’t want to be the oldest bloke at the racetrack.”
Almost $64 million was traded on day one at an average price of $390,091, a five per cent decline year-on-year, but the median of $300,000 held firm compared to the day one session in 2023. The clearance rate climbed to 74 per cent by the close of the session after 164 horses were sold.
Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch said indications were that vetting may have hampered the prospects of some horses offered on day one, but overall was comfortable with how it played out.
“There are a lot of factors that go into a horse making a lot of money, they have to vet perfectly and we didn’t have a lot of luck in respect to vetting for some people,” Hutch said.
“But I kind of look at it and say, ‘did the median hold up to be a good figure? Yes. The did the average hold up to be a good figure? Yes. The clearance at the end of the day is going to be consistent with what it was 12 months ago’.
“Obviously, last year we had a situation whereby Yulong spent $9.2 million on this day 12 months ago, and that’s a significant factor in driving turnover of the sale, and today we just had no dominant buyer.
“We had great variety amongst the buyers, but no one really pinned their colours to the mast like Yulong did 12 months ago.”
Day two starts at 10am.