Market responds to Zoustar’s rising prowess
Filly by Widden’s champion stallion sets a record of $2.2 million, but for how long?
Inglis set a new record price for a filly sold at its Australian Easter Yearling Sale, but the $2.2 million daughter of Zoustar (Northern Meteor) may have the honour for less than 24 hours.
The Widden Stud-bred and sold filly, the most expensive of four seven-figure yearlings sold at Riverside on Sunday, is likely to be just an entree to the offering of 25-time Group 1 winner Winx’s (Street Cry) only foal by Pierro (Lonhro) who faces her date with destiny on Monday afternoon.
She could break the overall Australasian yearling filly record price of $2.6 million and possibly the overall $5 million figure, which was set at the 2013 edition of the Easter Sale by the half-brother to Black Caviar (Bel Esprit).
The current Easter filly record-holder is the third foal out of Group 1-winning mare Prompt Response (Beneteau) and she was bought by agent James Harron for Fairway Thoroughbreds’ John Camilleri, the man best known for breeding Winx.
Earlier in the session, a colt by Zoustar sold for $1.9 million to Coolmore, while fillies by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) also changed hands during the opening session, fetching $1.8 million and $1.1 million respectively.
Harron believes the family of his newly acquired Zoustar filly could prove to be integral to the Australian Stud Book over the next decade.
“Zoustar is absolutely flying and his fillies are doing an outstanding job as well. She was a standout in the sale for us and very happy to get her,” Harron said.
“She’s just a very special filly out of a very good race mare and the sister looks very handy. She’s trialled up a few times and looks like she could quite easily obtain some black type, so that’d be a nice update for the family.
“The family’s been bred up really nicely and it’s one of those pages that you might look back on in ten to 12 years’ time and it’s thickened right out from what is a really tough, high-end race mare.”
Prompt Response’s second foal, two-year-old filly Sister Cynane (I Am Invincible), has won two barrier trials last month in New Zealand for Wexford Stables’ Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott. Sister Cynane was purchased by her trainers for $1.3 million at the Easter sale last year.
Widden’s Antony Thompson said the filly was deserving of the strong competition she received.
“I think they had to stretch a bit there to get her but she’s a gorgeous filly and one you would really stretch for. She’s a gorgeous filly and we always had really high expectations and you never really know but to see her sell the way she has is unbelievable,” Thompson said.
“She presented so well all week and everybody who saw her loved her, and you saw that around the ring with four or five serious teams playing well above the $1 million mark.
“It was going to take someone with real belief and real conviction to buy her and obviously John Camilleri has that sort of trust in James, so hopefully they’ve set themselves up with a bit of a legacy with such a beautiful filly.”
During Sunday’s opening session, Widden sold 12 yearlings for total receipts of $6,750,000 at an average of $562,500 in what Thompson described as a “hard” market at times.
“It feels like it’s been a hard day and obviously the market knows what they want and, it’s like anything, the bluechip assets always hold their value and we’ve seen that again at Inglis,” Thompson said.
“The real quality is very strong and then there’s wonderful value here. The smart shoppers are buying as good a value as we’ve seen all year.
“It hasn’t been an easy day, but good trade’s been done.”
Zoustar fundamentally a good investment
Coolmore’s quest for its next stallion prospect saw the all-encompassing thoroughbred powerhouse go to $1.9 million on a Zoustar colt earlier in the session.
Chris Waller, who has the keys to a large proportion of the Coolmore syndicate-owned colts such as Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Shinzo (Snitzel) and this season’s Todman Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) scorer Switzerland (Snitzel), will train the opening session’s highest-priced colt.
Bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne was the underbidder on the Segenhoe Stud-consigned colt out of Fundamentalist (Not A Single Doubt). He was catalogued as Lot 42.
“He’s a lovely colt who stood out in the Segenhoe draft this week. They always do a good job and Peter O’Brien [Segenhoe general manager] always reminds me of the horses that we leave behind out of Segenhoe, so I suppose I was going to give him this opportunity today,” Coolmore’s Tom Magnier said.
“He floated around the sales complex, he’s obviously a big strong horse, loads of quality and, as I said, when you see the brand on the shoulder, it needs no introduction. The whole team liked him, so fingers crossed.”
Bred by Segenhoe and Wes Heritage, the colt is the third foal out of Group 1 bridesmaid Fundamentalist, who finished second three times at the highest level and third on another two occasions during her stakes-winning race career.
He is a brother to the unraced three-year-old Zouper Fund, who is in training at Ballarat with Ciaron Maher, and a half-brother to the Yulong-owned unraced two-year-old Peace Centre (Written Tycoon). He was bought by Yulong for $280,000 at Easter Sale last year and is now in training with Anthony and Sam Freedman.
Zoustar, whose sire sons Zousain and Sun City have made encouraging starts to their stud careers with their first crop two-year-olds, had 13 yearlings sell for an average of $753,462 on Sunday.
Kia Ora reinvests in Hips Don’t Lie family
Coolmore also had a hand in selling the second seven-figure yearling to change hands on day one, having consigned the Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) filly out of grand producer Hips Don’t Lie (Stravinsky).
Hips Don’t Lie’s six foals to be sold at public auction as yearlings have grossed $7.05 million, four of them selling for seven figures, her latest foal to hit the market on Sunday fetching $1.1 million to the bid of Kia Ora and TFI.
With a 100 per cent record of winners, Hips Don’t Lie’s eight foals to race to date include stakes winners Acrobat (Fastnet Rock), Lake Geneva (Fastnet Rock) and Ennis Hill (Fastnet Rock), herself the dam of the top-class Annabel Neasham-trained filly Learning To Fly (Justify).
“It’s just an amazing family and she’s a beautiful filly herself, she’s by Snitzel, a champion sire and you’d be a brave man to say he’s not going to be a very, very good broodmare sire,” Kia Ora’s Shane Wright said.
“We loved the filly on type, she was one we marked in the catalogue before we came here. It’s a family we know, it’s a family we love and it’s right up there with the greatest families in Australia.
“She looks very sharp, very early and is our style of filly. She wasn’t cheap, but nothing in this family is.”
Wakim gets his prized I Am Invincible filly
Victorian owner-breeder Nick Wakim wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass to reinvest in a family that has been so good to his Hilldene Farm operation – even if it set him back $1.8 million.
Thus, a furious bidding duel ensued for the valuable I Am Invincible filly from the family of Redoute’s Choice (Danehill).
James Harron and John Camilleri were situated out the back of the complex while fellow agent Dean Hawthorne bid from inside the auditorium and Te Akau’s David Ellis and TFI also bid from the level two suites.
All three parties bid above $1 million, but it was Wakim who came out on top with his $1.8 million as agent James Bester and the filly’s new trainer Ciaron Maher watched on from their ringside table.
An added attraction to the filly for Wakim was the fact that he raced close relation, the Listed winner Meuse (Snitzel). He sold Meuse for $1.2 million when she was in foal to Dundeel (High Chaparral) to Widden Stud at the 2021 Chairman’s Sale and to this day questions whether he made the right call to part with the mare.
“It was a little bit more than I wanted to pay, but I know the family well. Obviously Meuse was my filly which I raced,” Wakim said.
“I sold her and she is probably the only one that I have sold where I thought, ‘did I make the right decision or the wrong decision?’. This is a beautiful filly and she was an opportunity to get back into the family.
“She was a star and the best filly I’ve seen for a long time, as a matter of fact. The best filly on ground and probably one of the two best fillies I’ve seen ever and she’s from the right family with the right cross.”
Bred by American Craig Bernick of Glen Hill Farm, the $1.8 million filly is the third foal out of Notting Hill (Pierro), who is herself a half-sister to Group 3 winner Precious Lorraine (Encosta De Lago), the dam of Meuse.
Notting Hill’s (Pierro) first foal to race, a US-bred filly Maroon Bells (War Front), won as a juvenile in America. Her second, Bella Corazon (I Am Invincible), contested the Blue Diamond Preview (F) (Gr 3, 1000m) won by eventual Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Hayasugi (Royal Meeting).
There had been plenty of pre-sale expectations about the filly’s prospects from vendor Yarraman Park and she delivered.
In typical Yarraman style, she was on the market at $200,000, well below her true value.
“She ranks right up at the pointy end of other Vinny fillies we’ve sold,” Yarraman’s Arthur Mitchell said. “She’s gorgeous and has been since day one.”
Wakim last year reportedly paid $30 million for Goulburn Valley farm Allanvale, which was owned by the late Tony Beddison.