But their decision last year to retain her to race and breed with, while selling her stakes-winning dam Celebrity Girl (Starcraft {NZ}), has proven a canny one for the South Australian-based couple, who now boast an unbeaten Listed winner who is set to be aimed towards the G1 Thousand Guineas in the spring.
Having debuted with an impressive success in a 2-year-old race over 1050 metres at Morphettville for Phillip Stokes last month, Instant Celebrity was tested out in black-type company at just start number two, and she powered home in style to win the Listed Oaklands Plate on Saturday.
The filly has been immediately sent to the paddock, with the Stokes stable confident that she can measure up to the top 3-year-old fillies in the spring.
Her emergence as one of the most exciting late-season prospects in the 2-year-old ranks is no surprise to Mill Park's Chris Watson, on whose farm the filly was raised.
"She looks like she might be a very smart filly," he told TDN AusNZ. "She has always, from the word go, been a very good looking filly."
"She is like her dam, Celebrity Girl, and that's a pretty impeccable family. She is that progressive, Not A Single Doubt filly with a nice leg and length to her and beautiful deep girth. She has just continued to mature all the time. We certainly haven't seen the best of her yet and we are looking forward to her 3-year-old season."
"She is like her dam, Celebrity Girl, and that's a pretty impeccable family." - Chris Watson
Celebrity Girl always had the qualities to be a top-class broodmare. From a pedigree perspective, she is out of Listed winner Dashing Grenada (Keltrice) and is a half-sister to stakes-placed Lady Lakshmi (Lonhro) and Albaicin (Redoute's Choice), the dam of multiple stakes-winner Generalife (Lonhro).
Dashing Grenada is the sister to star juvenile Northeast Sheila, herself a stakes-producing mare thanks to her daughter Jacqueline Rouge (Ne Coupez Pas {USA}).
Celebrity Girl when racing
A $500,000 yearling purchase in 2010 for the Robertsons through Mark Kavanagh Racing, Celebrity Girl won a Listed Cap D'Antibes S. and Listed Redelva S.
The G1 Thousand Guineas proved a bridge too far for Celebrity Girl, but Watson believes her daughter, Instant Celebrity, has more scope than her talented dam.
"Her mum was all power and strength and this filly is probably a little more progressive. Celebrity Girl herself was an out and out 2-year old style of horse, where this filly looks as if she is going to get better as she gets older," he said.
Making an impression as a broodmare
Celebrity Girl proved a terrific broodmare for the Robertsons, and her first foal, a filly by then first-season Darley stallion Sepoy, secured a $850,000 price to China Horse Club at the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale from Mill Park's draft.
That price is still the highest for a yearling filly by Sepoy in Australia. Named Pirapala, she won two of her eight starts for Lindsay Park, and now retired to the broodmare barn, she produced a Russian Revolution colt last year before visiting Zoustar.
Pirapala as a yearling
In 2017, Celebrity Girl's I Am Invincible colt, now named The Hand, also proved a hit at the sales, with Sun Bloodstock paying $300,000 for him on the Gold Coast.
Watson said that given her pedigree, performance and most importantly type, it was no shock that the market was keen to get a hold of Celebrity Girl's early foals.
"She was a magnificent horse herself and every foal that she has produced has been an absolute corker. She was one of those mares which you’d love to have a paddock full of them with the quality of the progeny she produced," he said.
"She was a magnificent horse herself and every foal that she has produced has been an absolute corker." - Chris Watson
But the arrival of her Not A Single Doubt filly saw the Robertsons and Watson change tack, given she was a filly, who was arguably an even better type than her dam.
"We knew with the age of Not A Single Doubt that we weren't going to get too many more opportunities to go to a stallion like that, and we have always loved Not A Single Doubt as a potential broodmare sire. It was a pretty easy decision for Beth and Trevor to keep that filly themselves," he said.
Celebrity Girl when sold at Magic Millions
Celebrity Girl was sold to Aquis for $280,000 in foal to Pierro at last year's Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. Unfortunately for her new owner, the resultant colt died soon after birth. Having missed to Santos, she is now being sent to Aquis' first-season stallion Dubious for what will be a three-quarter sibling to Instant Celebrity.
Success rolls on for Mill Park
Instant Celebrity's success on Saturday was the 21st stakes-win by a Mill Park graduate this season, and she became the 10th black-type winner in 2019/20 to be raised on the South Australian farm.
The list includes G1 Victoria Derby winner Warning (Declaration Of War {USA}), R Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic and G1 Golden Slipper S. runner-up Away Game (Snitzel) and South African Group 1 runner-up Run Fox Run (Foxwedge).
| Hostwin Saturn | Stratum | 1 |
| Dawn Passage | Dawn Approach (Ire} | 3 |
| Dalasan | Dalakhani (Ire) | 5 |
| Ecumenical | Zebedee | 2 |
| Away Game | Snitzel | 4 |
| Run Fox Run | Foxwedge | 2 |
| Banquo | Written Tycoon | 1 |
| Warning | Declaration Of War (USA) | 2 |
| Crown Towers | Camelot (GB) | 1 |
Table: Mill Park raised stakes winners 2019/20
A key plank in the strategy which has secured that success has been utilising the broodmare sales to trade stock, but COVID-19 restrictions will see Mill Park absent as both a vendor and most likely as a buyer at next week's Magic Millions Gold Coast Broodmare Sale.
"We are going to play it pretty quiet. We have quite a few nice fillies retire off the track and we have managed to buy one or two privately," Watson said.
"In saying that, I would have loved to have still had some spare cash in the pocket, because obviously with the way things are at the moment, it might be a buyers' marketplace."
