Moses’ emotional time with record-breaking Too Darn Hot filly
Half-sister to In Her Time fetches $600,000 on second day of Inglis Classic
Long-time Scone breeders Fred and Mary Moses achieved the biggest sale ring result of their long thoroughbred industry careers, selling the Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) half-sister to elite sprinter In Her Time (Time Thief) for $600,000 on day two of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.
The Moses’s milestone came months after they sold their Kanangra stud to Mick Malone and Pauline Alix who prepared the valuable filly under their rebranded North banner on their behalf.
The most expensive yearling sold at a Classic sale in two years and the highest-priced filly ever to change hands at Inglis’ season-opening auction, she was bought by YLP Racing, an offshoot of Chinese billionaire Zhang Yuesheng’s racing and breeding empire Yulong.
By the same sire as first crop Australian two-year-old winners Arabian Summer, Too Darn Lizzie, Climate Change and Too Darn Lovely, the daughter of the Darley shuttler joins her year older sibling under Zhang’s ownership.
One of 35 yearlings to sell for $200,000 or more over the past two days, the Classic-topper’s sibling Flame Of Hestia won a Wyong barrier trial by 4.4 lengths on January 31, while Zhang Yuesheng also owns her illustrious dual Group 1-winning half-sister In Her Time.
“We’re well invested in the family in a lot of respects and we liked her as much, if not better than the full-sister. It was an obvious play for us, but we probably had to dig a little deeper than we anticipated,” said YLP Racing’s Vin Cox, who crossed from Godolphin last December.
“I think she has a little bit more scope than the sister, and that’s not being critical of the sister who looks like she’s pretty smart.
“The stallion’s doing a good job as well, he’s got off to a good start here in Australia, and he’s a horse I’ve known well in my previous life. Hopefully it turns out to be a good investment.”
The 15th foal out of grand producer Hell It’s Hot (Zeditave), she cost more than twice the $280,000 Yulong paid for her talented two-year-old sister at the Magic Millions 13 months ago.
The filly is also from the same family as The Everest (1200m) winner Yes Yes Yes (Rubick) and Lempicka (Rich Enuff), last spring’s Alinghi Stakes (Listed, 1100m) winner for trainers Ken and Kasey Keys.
Fred Moses has been the custodian of Hell It’s Hot on behalf of the late John and Denise Cobcroft and the proceeds of the yearlings out of the top producer have generated at least $500,000 in donations to the National Jockeys Trust.
The significance of Flame Of Hestia’s appearance just 14 days ago, albeit at a barrier trial, was not lost on Moses.
“I was pretty pleased to see that because I thought it would help us and she’s always been a nice filly in any case,” Moses told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“In the paddock she has just been the calmest, just standout filly whichever way you look at it all her life and she’s not dissimilar to her full-sister who is a bit smaller than her.
“If she can gallop, this one will certainly be able to gallop, providing nothing goes wrong.”
Moses also reflected on the sale of the 101-hectare Kanangra stud to Malone and Alix, previously integral members of the Kitchwin Hills team, and the reasons behind parting with the farm.
“I am getting too old to be pulling horses around, or have them pull me around, and my wife Mary has been part of this whole procedure,” Moses said.
“She is truly an absolute horseperson, she’s trained quite a few good horses [herself] … and we are so happy to be able to sell the place to people who wanted the farm for what it is and it’s a good result all round.
“They have produced their yearlings as good as any yearlings I’ve seen on the whole complex. They look absolutely stunning. I just think it’s a credit to them for what they’ve done.”
Zhang paid $2.2 million for In Her Time, a mare who was trained by Lees for the latter part of her career, at the 2021 Inglis Chairman’s Sale and she has produced three colts, her first by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and the past two by Yulong’s own champion sire Written Tycoon (Iglesia).
Later, YLP Racing paid $320,000 for a son of resident stallion Pierata (Pierro), the sire of unbeaten two-year-old Coleman, out of Just No Kissing (Canford Cliffs), an unraced half-sister to top-producing mare Abscond (Galileo).
Abscond is the dam of Group 1 winner Invincibella (I Am Invincible) and stakes winners Secret Blaze (Sizzling) and Extreme Flight (Extreme Choice). Catalogued as Lot 385, the colt was sold by Queensland vendor Robyn Wise.
Heys hopes trial sprint is Justify-ed
Warwick Farm trainer Bryce Heys labelled his $420,000 filly by boom sire Justify (Scat Daddy) as the best yearling he’d seen at a sale so far in 2024.
Heys raced from the barrier trial session at his home track where he had three horses have a hit-out just in time to bid on the Mullaglass Stud-consigned filly.
The stakes-winning trainer held off Randwick Bloodstock’s Brett Howard to land the eye-catching filly.
“She’s an outstanding filly who certainly made her money, but we had to back our judgement on type and the stallion needs no speaking for in terms of what he is and what he might be,” Heys said.
“Physically, I couldn’t fault her in terms of how we assess a yearling and where we think they’re at and where they might get to. Her physical presence in terms of how she carried herself was impressive and I just thought she was gorgeous.
“We’ll see if it means anything, but I thought she was the nicest horse I’ve seen so far this year. It’s hard to get a Justify, so we thought we’d try to be strong on her.”
Shuttler Justify is also the sire of the unbeaten two-year-old and Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) favourite Storm Boy, whose owners last week sold a controlling interest to Coolmore’s Tom Magnier in a deal that could be worth up to $60 million.
Mullaglass Stud’s Richard and Kim McClenahan bought the Justify filly’s dam Islay Inlet (Lemon Drop Kid) from Willow Park Stud’s Glenn Burrows for $110,000 out of the 2021 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale when in foal to So You Think (High Chaparral) on a maiden cover.
Burrows, with the assistance of Pinhook Bloodstock’s Dave Mee, paid US$16,000 for the half-sister to US Listed winner Merveilleux (Paynter), from the 2020 Keeneland January All Ages Sale before importing her to Australia.
“We bred her ourselves and she’s always been a quality filly. She’s very professional and done everything right here all week,” Dr Richard McClenahan said.
“We were optimistic but never that optimistic, so we’re delighted.”
The So You Think colt was bought for $30,000 by South Australian trainer Shane Oxlade at last year’s Classic sale while Islay Inlet has a Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) colt on the ground.
Bott gets nod for Written Tycoon
There may have been some confusion as to who was holding the call, but Adrian Bott was pleased it was him who got to sign the digital docket for a $360,000 daughter of Written Tycoon on behalf of loyal Tulloch Lodge clients Peter and June Dunn of Dodmark Thoroughbreds.
The second of two second session purchases for Bott and Gai Waterhouse – they also bought an Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice) filly for $310,000 – was mired in some sale ring controversy when both the eventual winning bidder and agent Suman Hedge thought they held the call for the impressive filly.
“It was just the line of sight and the under bidder was directly underneath us and it was knocked down to us at $200,000, but anyway, that’s how the sale goes,” said Bott when questioned about the drama surrounding the sale’s fourth highest-priced yearling.
“[That said] we’re delighted to be able to secure this filly for Peter and June Dunn. She’s by a proven stallion out of a Snitzel mare and it’s a family we know and have had success with.
“Almalad is in there who won the JJ Atkins for us and the Slipper winner down there in the third dam [Shinzo] and even [Canonbury Stakes winner] Prost is down there somewhere [in the pedigree].
“She obviously stood out and grabbed a few people’s attention and Peter was prepared to be strong on her.”
Consigned by Sledmere Stud, she is third foal out of the unraced Mulhimah (Snitzel), a half-sister to the stable’s 2014 J J Atkins Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Almalad (Al Maher).
Her first foal, three-year-old Grand Meteor (Deep Field), finished runner-up at her first start at Eagle Farm on January 26 while Emirates Park owns her two-year-old daughter Mahmudah (Tassort). The filly is being trained by Lindsay Park’s Ben, Will and JD Hayes.
The earlier Waterhouse-Bott acquisition, the Glenbeigh Farm-sold Alabama Express filly, had extra appeal to the stable given her new stablemate Shangri La Express is by the same young Yulong-based sire.
The filly is the third foal out of Modda Miss (Canny Lad), herself a sister to the Perth stakes-placed Major Canny.
“The stallion’s got a great profile and we’ve obviously got a nice colt in the stable by him. First and foremost, though, she was a beautiful style of filly,” Bott said.
“The fact she was by Alabama Express with the positive experience we were happy to be that little bit stronger on her. We backed ourselves that she could be that forward type of filly that we could potentially see back for the [Inglis] race series next year. There’s plenty of precocity about her.”
Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch was pleased with the days results.
“It felt like a healthy day’s trade again. We didn’t necessarily feel like there was any particular bias in the catalogue in terms of where better horses would fall.
“It did feel like there was more strength in the top end of the market today than what there was yesterday.”
The average sits at $97,338 and the median is $80,000, the same as 2023, while 396 horses have changed hands at a total cost of $38.546 million.
“It was very evident there was strong competition on the good horses, clearance felt pretty good. Day one clearance is up to 86 per cent, today is at 80 and still rising,” Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch said.
“We wanted to continue the momentum from the first day into today and it felt like that happened.”
The final of three sessions starts at 10am today.