Messara shells out $900,000 for The Autumn Sun’s three-quarter sister Archanna
Snitzel mare returns to her place of birth in ‘strategic purchase’ by Arrowfield Stud
There wasn’t really any chance Archanna (Snitzel), the three-quarter sister to champion three-year-old and young sire The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice), was going to end up anywhere else but yesterday it became a formality.
Arrowfield Stud chairman John Messara bought out his fellow owners in the mare he co-bred with the Aga Khan through the Inglis Digital September (Late) Online Auction for $900,000 and he has immediately turned his attention to determining a suitable mating for the $1.3 million Easter sale graduate.
The sudden auctioning of Archanna early into her five-year-old season was spurred by the recommendation of her trainer Chris Waller after she produced a below par performance first-up at the Gold Coast’s metropolitan meeting on September 18 when eighth of nine behind Miami Fleiss (Spirit Of Boom).
“It was like tearing an arm off to let her go. I couldn’t do it,” Messara told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“She put in a run that was uncharacteristically different and Chris recommended that the best outcome for everybody concerned would be to put her in a public auction. We agreed with that and we’ve, happily, been able to pay whatever it took to bring her home.”
The 16.2hh Archanna, who weighs 520 kilograms and was raised and sold by Arrowfield Stud, raced 11 times for three Sydney wins and three placings, was raced by Messara, Alan Jones’ Belford Productions and fellow prominent owners Peter Tighe’s Magic Bloodstock and Noel Greenhalgh, among others.
“She is an important strategic purchase for us because we have such an opinion of her three-quarter brother (The Autumn Sun) and there will be more action in that family over and above what her brother does,” Messara said.
“I am just sorry that for all our partners in her that she didn’t win a stakes race before retirement but she put that run in the other day and the trainer’s recommendation was that we retire her and that’s what we’ve done.”
Messara, who also controls the stallion interests of The Autumn Sun, hasn’t ruled out out looking beyond Arrowfield’s own roster – which includes the likes of Dundeel (High Chaparral), his Group 1-winning son Castelvecchio, Shalaa (Invincible Spirit), Maurice (Screen Hero) and fellow Japanese shuttler Admire Mars (Daiwa Major) – for a first-time mating of Archanna.
“We will be thinking about it overnight. She has got to be shipped in from Queensland, so we’ve got a couple of days to sort it out,” he said.
“We will see whether any of our horses particularly suit her, and that is our preference, but if that is not the case, we’ll go outside.”
At the time Archanna went through the 2018 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale Waller was convinced her year older and then unraced sibling The Autumn Sun was special.
Thus, Waller’s long-time agent Guy Mulcaster bid with significant conviction to buy the Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) filly for $1.3 million. Just weeks later, The Autumn Sun won his first start at Randwick and two starts later he was the winner of the J J Atkins Plate (Gr 1, 1600m).
At three, he would win another four Group 1 races – the Golden Rose (1400m), Caulfield Guineas (1600m), Randwick Guineas (1600m) and the Rosehill Guineas (2000m) – before being retired to Arrowfield amongst much fanfare.
The Autumn Sun, who was secured by Arrowfield Stud after his Golden Rose victory, is in his third season at stud at a fee of $66,000 (inc GST).
Following the emergence on the racetrack of The Autumn Sun, his and Archanna’s dam Azmiyna (Galileo) returned to the Aga Khan’s Studs in France, via Japan where she was covered to northern hemisphere time by champion sire Deep Impact (Sunday Silence) in what would turn out to be his final season at stud. The mating produced a filly who was born last year.
Azmiyna, an unraced sibling to eight winners including champion older horse in Europe, England and Ireland Azamour (Night Shift) and Group 2 winner Arazan (Anabaa), has an unraced three-year-old colt named Field Legend in training with Waller. Owned by Hong Kong’s Bon Ho, Field Legend was runner-up in a 900-metre barrier trial at Rosehill on Tuesday.
The trading of Archanna follows on from nine-time Group 1-winning New Zealand mare Avantage (Fastnet Rock) making NZ$4.1 million on New Zealand Bloodstock’s Gavelhouse platform last week and dual Group winner Every Rose (Choisir) fetching $1.3 million earlier this month through Inglis Digital.
Group 1 winner Funstar (Adelaide) also sold in early July for $2.7 million through Inglis Digital.
Messara yesterday marvelled at the dramatic shift to the online marketplace, one fast-tracked in part by the pandemic.
“It is an amazing evolution and I think it will rewrite to some extent the way we do business in the horse business in the future,” he said.
“It has come out of the circumstances that we are in (Covid) but I think it is going to become a permanent feature.
“It’s very interesting what’s happening and I think it will leave a lasting legacy. You have got to think about how else these (online platforms) can be used (for trading bloodstock).”
In another era, the retirement of Archanna would have necessitated a private deal which naturally rendered less transparency, an important aspect nowadays considering the number of syndications and partnerships.
“What you’ve got now is a medium by which you can test the market and satisfy yourself that you’re getting the maximum price,” Messara said.
“People are less hesitant to buy in these sales. There’s plenty of information, the sales companies provide a lot of supporting promotional information.
“People are buying with a lot more confidence than they used to without seeing the horse.”