Oakfield’s Mackenzie gets his pricey daughter of Zoustar after days of attending to her
Startling $450,000 finish to record-breaking Inglis Classic Yearling Sale at Riverside
Bruce Mackenzie’s determination to take home the highest-priced filly ever sold at an Inglis Classic Yearling Sale led him to deliver a deliberate “knockout punch” for a daughter of Zoustar (Northern Meteor) who also helped create a new benchmark for her breeder as well as for the auction house.
The three-day Classic sale concluded at Riverside Stables in Sydney yesterday with a new record aggregate and average set for Inglis’ opening auction of the year and it was Port Stephens-based owner Mackenzie who created theatre with his $450,000 purchase.
One of 15 yearlings to make $300,000 or more at the record Classic sale, the Zoustar filly caught Mackenzie’s eye from the moment he saw her on the complex last week.
“Everyone wanted her, she was a magnificent filly. She’s well-built and her temperament is amazing. I would go down every night and look at her,” Mackenzie said in the aftermath of the intense bidding spectacle.
“Her gate was open and I would pat her for ten minutes and scratch her head. I’d tell her in horse language that I was going to take her home to Port Stephens.”
Mackenzie had missed out on a Hellbent (I Am Invincible) filly earlier in the day, but he was not going to let Star Thoroughbreds’ Denise Martin and Randwick Bloodstock’s Brett Howard beat him twice. So, when the bidding hit the $400,000 mark, Mackenzie made a big winning move, going straight to $450,000.
“Star Thoroughbreds and all the other bidders, they can all jump. I was going to take her home, full stop,” he said of his reasoning for making such a large one-bid increase in price.
“I used to follow boxing and a quick punch knocks them out and they are down. So they went down, Brett and Denise, didn’t they?”
The former Port Stephens mayor, who has his own property called Salt Ash, races his horses with the Oakfield moniker and, despite the filly’s expensive price, he will handle her education patiently before entrusting her with his chosen trainer, either Damien Lane or Kristen Buchanan.
“I have won 170 races and I have never, ever started a two-year-old in my life and I never will, so she will be a three-year-old. No two-year-olds come out of my stable,” he revealed.
“She will be broken in and she will be working on a walking machine, she will swim and she will be on a treadmill, but she won’t have anyone on her back galloping until she is three.”
By Widden Stud’s Zoustar, whose progeny have sold for up to $1 million this year, the Lot 591-catalogued filly was consigned by Clarke and Croft Bloodstock. She is the third foal out of five-time winner Empress Zakynthos (Holy Roman Emperor) who is a sister to Hong Kong Listed winner Divine Ten.
Breeder and vendor Samantha Croft led the filly around the ring and is in no doubt the yearling has a star quality.
“I really thought she deserved a fair bit of money, but that is fantastic,” Croft said.
“Our previous best result was $150,000, so this is by far the best horse I have ever sold.
“I was concentrating on making sure she behaved herself, I heard the $400,000, and I thought that is what she deserved.
“We have been selling here for somewhere between 16 and 18 years and we like to come here so we can stand out. We feel that small vendors are given a bit better chance here.”
Star’s Martin takes shine to progeny of Hellbent
Denise Martin of Star Thoroughbreds may have missed out on the Zoustar filly, but she certainly made an impression earlier in the day with the purchase of two yearlings by first season sire Hellbent in quick succession.
The most expensive of those was a filly, catalogued as Lot 555 from the Middlebrook Valley Lodge draft, who made $300,000. She is the fifth foal out of Crystal Rock (Fastnet Rock), a 900-metre winner who is a half-sister to Australia’s champion two-year-old of 2006-07 Zizou (Fusaichi Pegasus), who was runner-up in the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) that season.
The prominent syndicator is a big fan of the filly’s Yarraman Park Stud-based sire Hellbent and labelled his first-crop daughter, who is a half-sister to the Mark Newnham-trained stakes-placed sprinter Big Parade (Deep Field), a last-start Rosehill winner on January 30, as “special”.
“We loved her from the moment we saw her and buying from a great farm like Verna’s (Metcalfe) is always an endorsement of a quality yearling, so I thought I was going to have to take deep breaths several times over and we thought that would be about the mark,” Martin said of the six-figure yearling.
“I would say she will be a late two-year-old and she will suit Chris’s (Waller) stable ideally, allowing her time to mature.”
The competition on the filly was a highlight for Metcalfe and her husband Dave who bred the $300,000 filly, which capped a cleansweep of Book 1 for Middlebrook Valley Lodge, selling all 13 yearlings at an average of $100,769.
“I own her, I bred her with my husband, of course, and she is an absolute queen. I couldn’t be more rapt to have Denise Martin buy her as she will go to a good trainer and be well looked after,” Metcalfe said.
“Big Parade was an absolute star as well, but this filly is a touch more sensible than Big Parade could be. She is a lovely, athletic filly and Hellbent is going to make a great sire.”
Soon after Martin bought the Hellbent filly, she went to $260,000 for the half-brother to Goldolphin’s Group 3-winning sprinter Deprive (Denman). The Yarraman Park Stud-offered colt, catalogued as Lot 563, is the seventh foal out of Defrock (Canny Lad), a sister to the Group 3 winner Blackball.
In total, Martin and Randwick Bloodstock’s Brett Howard bought six yearlings at the Classic sale, the most expensive a $320,000 I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) daughter of the stakes-performed mare Pioneering (Sebring), the first horse Star Thoroughbreds raced with Waller.
Hellbent, meanwhile, averaged $104,167 at the Classic sale with 24 lots changing hands, ending the sale as the leading first season sire by aggregate.
Zhongli’s patience rewarded with Almanzor coup
Quinton Cassidy of the Chinese-owned NSW Southern Highlands operation Zhongli Thoroughbreds waited patiently at Riverside Stables for almost three days before launching for an impressive colt by sire-of-the-moment Almanzor (Wootton Bassett).
Zhongli Thoroughbreds went to $360,000 for the half-brother to recent Levin Classic (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Bonham (Per Incanto).
Offered by Sledmere Stud for New Zealand farm Little Avondale as Lot 617, he is the fourth foal out of Fortune’s Choice (Redoute’s Choice), who in turn is a half-sister to the stakes-winning two-year-old Eagle Island (Fastnet Rock). His second dam is also the stakes-winning, Group 1-placed mare Banc De Fortune (Galileo).
Sledmere’s Royston Murphy was ecstatic to be able to oversee a big Classic result for Little Avondale’s Sam and Catriona Williams.
“He was the star colt for them and, as everybody says, these horses have been so busy this week. To go and get that result with our last horse is great.
“It’s great for everybody involved.”
Cambridge Stud’s European shuttler Almanzor, who has sold up to $800,000 this sales season, had six yearlings sell this week to a top of $400,000. He was the leading first season sire by average at this week’s sale, a title he also claimed at the recent Magic Millions and New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling sales.
“I think Almanzor is a great coup for New Zealand. Every one I have seen are such lovely, athletic horses.They are free-moving horses with a lot of scope and presence about them,” Murphy said.
“It’s good to see a new horse like that come into the fray. A lot of the time we are concentrating on these short and sharp horses, but I think he’s going to be a big horse for the future.
“It’s nice to see people that have invested in him and get the just rewards. We all try to pick the right stallions and those people have done well out of him. I’m sure we will see him hit the track over the next few years and succeed for the guys over there.”
Zhongli Thoroughbreds raced this season’s Victoria Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) runner-up Hit The Shot (Dundeel) before selling the Matt Cumani-trained colt to Hong Kong late last year.
“We waited two days for this colt. We spotted him early,” Cassidy said.
“The sale has been really good to Zhongli. We purchased Hit The Shot here, so we were trying to go down that avenue in finding a nice, athletic horse who will be a nice miler-stayer.”
A trainer for the colt will be decided at a later date.
At the end of the Book 1 sale, the leading vendor by aggregate for the first time was Newgate Farm, the home of current leading first season sire Capitalist (Written Tycoon) as well as Deep Field (Northern Meteor), which sold 29 yearlings for a combined $4,140,000. Arrowfield Stud finished runner-up, selling 30 yearlings for $3,565,000.
Newgate Farm managing director Henry Field took a holistic view of the Classic sale, believing it underlined the health of the Australian racing and breeding industry.
“In the past three years we’ve intentionally targeted the Classic sale as one of the major sales in the calendar year for Newgate and while it’s great to be leading vendor and have a big sale, more importantly for us is to be providing the marketplace with horses like Shadow Hero and Profiteer in our Classic drafts as we have the past couple of years,” Field said.
“I also love the fact this sale has provided so many massive results for industry people who work so damn hard like Verna Metcalfe, Richard McClenahan, the Fernrigg staff pinhook, those results are what it’s all about and again, the Inglis team showcased those stories so passionately the past three days.’’
Strong finish to booming Classic
The Highway Session wrapped up with a colt by Arrowfield’s Japanese shuttler Maurice (Screen Hero), the second-last lot of the sale, selling to Anthony Cummings for $220,000. The filly, offered by Toolooganvale Farm as Lot 802, is the third foal out of the stakes-placed Flashing Speed (War Pass), in turn a half-sister to the former Cummings-trained Group 2 winner Thunder Fantasy (Lucky Owners).
A Mikki Isle (Deep Impact) colt (Lot 752) made $170,000 to Melbourne trainer Grahame Begg and eight lots later another colt by Darley’s former shuttler Dawn Approach (New Approach) fetched the same price to the bid of agent Paul Moroney and Queensland’s Haoh Company.
The unprecedented demand for yearlings, which continued to the conclusion of the sale, allowed Classic vendors to capitalise on the competition, which drove the figures to record levels.
Inglis managing director Mark Webster believes the Classic sale has earned the respect of buyers at all levels of the market through its continued graduate success. Only on Saturday, the 2020 Classic sale produced the Inglis Millennium (RL, 1200m) trifecta led in by brilliant colt Profiteer (Capitalist).
“Talking to the major buyers, and using James Harron as an example, who is a colt buyer with his stallion fund, they have done their own work with their stats in terms of the performance of the graduates and realised that it is a sale they can’t afford to overlook and they should be investing in,” Webster said.
“This sale is producing stallions and it is not as if it is happening overnight. I Am Invincible is a great example. He came through this sale and made $60,000, and is now having sons like Brazen Beau and Hellbent, who came out of this little sale here and have now got progeny going through themselves.
“The sale has produced stallions for some time but I think it is now at a point where they are just doing it more regularly and that’s helping with the growth.”
Inglis experimented with a bigger Classic catalogue in 2019, totaling 1013 horses, a move which backfired and the company reverted back to its initial offering of around 800 and, while Webster did not rule out increasing the size of the sale again in the future, it was a decision unlikely to be acted upon any time soon.
“I will never say never to growing it further, but at the moment I would say our model of 800, which is basically our stabling capacity, works rather than having to shuffle in a whole bunch of new horses at the last minute who don’t have the opportunity to be fully inspected,” he said.
“I think we have seen that at other sales (Magic Millions) where it didn’t work that well. It is worth trying, but … I think our 600 (Book 1) and 200 (Highway Session yearlings) has shown it is the right model as things stand.”
In January, rival Magic Millions increased its Book 2 catalogue from 177 lots in 2020 to 311, which as expected led to a fall in average and median, although many observers deemed it a success.
‘Momentum should continue’
Given the strong start to the 2021 sales series – a record Magic Millions, above-expectation NZB Karaka Yearling Sale and a successful Classic – Webster predicts the momentum to flow through to the upcoming Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale and the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in April.
“I think the momentum should continue now into Melbourne, into Easter. We know talking to clients here that they still haven’t been able to buy everything that they wanted, so that is a positive, and even if they had, a lot of them will reload ordinarily inbetween sales,” he said.
“Going into Melbourne and Easter, I do not have any reservations about that. We will still do our work recruiting all the right buyers. As we move to Melbourne and Easter, we will do more work with internationals who can’t be here and we have normally relied upon their participation and that work is already underway.
“You are looking at Easter as an example, there’s a lot of work going on talking to clients in Hong Kong, North America, in Europe and places like that wouldn’t be relevant to this sale that we’ve just been through.”
The next Australasian live sale is the delayed Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale from February 18 to 19, followed by the Tasmanian Yearling Sale on February 22.