Melody Belle’s half-sister Exaltation set for date with Zoustar
Champion mare Melody Belle’s (Commands) half-sister Exaltation (Not A Single Doubt) will be covered by Zoustar (Northern Meteor) this spring after being sold to Widden Stud yesterday for $NZ560,000.
The famed Hunter Valley farm beat out rivals from Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong to purchase the five-year-old Te Akau Racing mare, who is in-foal to Savabeel (Zabeel), in a spirited online auction on gavelhouse.com.
Te Akau principal David Ellis said he was “absolutely ecstatic” with the sale, conducted by New Zealand Bloodstock, which comes six months after the operation’s nine-time Group 1 winning mare Avantage (Fastnet Rock) was sold in the same manner to Coolmore’s Tom Magnier for $NZ4.1 million, a world record for an online bloodstock sale.
Ellis also revealed his group would sell recent Ellerslie Listed winner Festivity (I Am Invincible) via the same process next week.
Widden owner-proprietor Antony Thompson said he was delighted to snare Exaltation and optimistic the cross of the five-time winning daughter of Meleka Belle (Iffraaj) should produce impressive results.
The stud sold a Zoustar colt by another Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) mare, Melbourne Group 2 winner Summer Sham, for the seventh-highest price of this year’s Gold Coast Magic Millions sale – $1.25 million – to a syndicate headed by the Rosemont Stud-led Victorian Alliance.
“You’re always happy when you buy a nice mare, and she’ll be a nice addition to our broodmare band and hopefully a nice mating for Zoustar,” Thompson told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“It was a very nice colt out of the Not A Single Doubt mare that we sold this year. We liked the mating there, we’re confident with the type and the way it worked and we think this mare will suit Zoustar as well.
“She’s a half to Melody Belle but on top of that she had good ability. (Trainer) Jamie Richards certainly thought she was black type, and when you watch her races you can see she had plenty of ability.
“She’s obviously a very good looking mare and she was a high priced yearling. She was bought for $900,000 by a good judge in David Ellis when Melody Belle had only won one of her 14 Group 1s. She’s now grown into a very nice mare and we can’t wait to get her back to the farm.”
Sold by breeder Marie Leicester via Haunui Farm’s Karaka Book 1 draft in 2018, Exaltation began racing at three and won her first two starts over 1200 metres at Riccarton and Hastings, eventually going on to win her 15th and final start over 2000 metres at Matamata last month.
While Thompson said he would have had “a bit more to go” in his budget to buy Exaltation, Ellis said he was happy with the price.
“I thought she was a valuable mare, being a half to an absolute champion, but I’m just thrilled with the price, and the whole thing was brilliantly administered by New Zealand Bloodstock. As far as I’m concerned they’re the best bloodstock company in the world and they’ve done a great job,” Ellis told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She’s going to a great home in Widden. It’s one of the great studs in the world and we’re just so happy this really good mare is going there.”
Melody Belle won an Australian Group 1 in Flemington’s Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), was placed in three others in Melbourne, and ran third in the 2020 All-Star Mile (1600m). Given her abilities were so well known west of the Tasman, some observers speculated Te Akau may have reaped a similar or higher price in Australia for her half-sister, even if Exaltation had not been in-foal to NZ’s seven-time champion sire Savabeel.
Ellis disagreed.
“I don’t think we would have. I think it was a pretty smart move getting her in foal to Savabeel, and it was a racing partnership, not a breeding partnership, and she was always going to be sold to dissolve the racing partnership,” he said.
“Savabeel’s one of the greatest stallions we’ve had in New Zealand in the last 50 years. So that added a lot of appeal.”
Ellis said Festivity – who like Exaltation raced under the banner of the Te Akau 2018 Fabulous Fillies Breeding Syndicate – would be sold “the same way next week”.
“We’ve been incredibly impressed with the way New Zealand Bloodstock market these mares, and we’ll be using them whenever we sell our mares,” he said.
“It was only six months ago they got a world record online price for Avantage. We’ve a very proud New Zealand business and we’re very proud to be associated with New Zealand Bloodstock.”
NZB director of sales Danny Rolston said the company was thankful to Ellis for entrusting it with the sale.
“She was a quality mare reflective of the type of yearling that David buys at Karaka, and we’re very appreciative to David and his team for trusting us for the sale of her on Gavelhouse,” he said.