Inglis has confirmed that Funstar, who hails from one of the most current families in the Studbook as a half-sister to G1 Queensland Oaks winner Youngstar (High Chaparral {Ire}) and being out of a three-quarter sister to triple Group 1 winner Tofane (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}), would be the star attraction of its next Digital Sale.

Unbeaten as a 2-year-old, Funstar won five of her 18 starts for trainer Chris Waller, including her victory in the Flight S. and wins in the G2 Tea Rose S. and G2 Phar Lap S. She was also runner-up in the G1 Surround S., G1 Queen of the Turf S. and G1 Epsom H., earning over $1.1 million in prizemoney.

Managing owner Olly Koolman is helping oversee the sale of Funstar and has high expectations of where the market will assess her.

"She's a very, very strong filly, she has a great hindquarter, a beautiful shoulder, angles and a deep girth. She's a very strong and athletic mare to be breeding from," he told TDN AusNZ.

"The main thing about these prospective broodmares is that they aren't emptied out on the track. She's retiring as a 4-year-old. She's sound and hasn’t been over-raced.

"She has been well looked after, was given time when she needed it and she had short preparations. For a mare to translate from a racehorse to a broodmare, it is important that they are not left empty. There's plenty of gas in her tank."

Those looking for a gauge as to what Funstar might be worth only need to look to her half-sister Youngstar, who was secured for $1.4 million by Katsumi Yoshida when offered at last year's Inglis Chairman's Sale.

There are few people better placed to assess the comparison between Youngstar and Funstar than Koolman, who picked out both through the Inglis sales ring as yearlings at the Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale and Australian Easter Yearling Sale respectively.

"They are quite different horses. They are similar to look at but Youngstar stood over a lot more ground and we treated her as a bit of a stayer. She ran in two Melbourne Cups, but it is clear in hindsight, that her best performances were over that 2000 metre range, where she won the Queensland Oaks and ran second to Winx in the Turnbull S.," Koolman said.

"Youngstar was a proper 2000 metre horse, Funstar was a little bit stronger and has a far superior turn of foot. Her better performances were over 1400 to 1600 metres."

From the top shelf

Inglis' General Manager Bloodstock Sales and Marketing, Sebastian Hutch, said there was much anticipation about bringing a mare of such quality to the Digital Platform and said Funstar fulfilled the criteria of being a top-end broodmare prospect.

"She was a top-class race mare and it’s not just about producing the occasional top-class performance, she was consistently very, very good," Hutch said.

"Her second start, she beat a horse called Leviathan, who went on to be a really top-class horse in Hong Kong (as Healthy Happy). Her 3-year-old form was bombproof. She had an immense record through that spring of her 3-year-old season.

"She used to regularly beat a high-class filly in Probabeel, who came back and squared the ledger later on, but certainly in the early parts of their career, Funstar had a very evident advantage over her."

Hutch described Funstar's pedigree as 'arguably the most progressive in Australasia', boosted further by Tofane's recent Group 1 double in the Stradbroke H. and Tatt's Tiara.

"That pedigree has bred up hugely in recent years and there is more to come. There's a Pierro sibling yet to go to the races and a full brother to Funstar to come. Tofane also has a full sibling and races on through next season," he said.

"I saw Funstar recently on the farm and she's a beautiful mare, has lovely quality and a fantastic temperament. Youngstar was a good-looking mare, but I’d venture to say Funstar is an even better-looking mare and it’s very exciting to be able to put her on the market."

International appeal

The global appeal of the pedigree is clear from the fact Youngstar is now beginning her broodmare career in Japan at Northern Farm having visited Kizuna (Jpn) earlier this year. Hutch sees no reason why international interest won't come for her half-sister when bidding in the July (Early) Online Sale begins on July 9 and finishes on July 14.

"Our broodmare sales series this year has seen international interest in the best stock. The domestic buyers have been very strong and it hasn't been easy for those international buyers to land a blow, but certainly there's been interest and I’d fully expect that of a mare of this quality," he said.

"She is a granddaughter of Galileo, out of a mare by Danehill, out of an international family that has proven itself in Australasia and around the world, you would have to think she satisfies all the criteria that people look for."

Koolman also expects global interest for the 4-year-old, but points to the recent record-breaking broodmare sales in Sydney and the Gold Coast as evidence of the strength of the local buying bench.

"It was internationals that fought it out when it was Youngstar's turn in the ring but having said that, the real money is here in Australia at the moment. Our industry seems to be the envy of everyone and we are quite confident she will stay on our shores," he said.

A Digital endorsement

The growth in the Inglis Digital platform and the way in which Inglis handled the virtual and digital sales formats during last year's COVID-19 shutdowns has impressed Koolman. He and the other owners, which include Inglis Deputy Chairman Arthur Inglis, have every faith Funstar will realise her full value.

"They have really shown themselves as leaders in the game. Obviously, we are close to the Inglis family and they are part of the ownership group of Funstar, but I'm honoured to think we can produce a horse and sell it on the Digital platform to show everyone how well it can work," Koolman said.

"If she realises the sort of money that her half-sister did, she will be a record-breaker."

The previous record on the Inglis Digital platform was the $800,000 realised by Members Joy (Hussonet {USA}) at the Inglis June (Early) Sale, while the highest price achieved on any digital platform in Australasia is the NZ$1,202,500 paid by Daniel Nakhle and Darren Brady for Spanish Whisper (Lope De Vega {Ire}) on Gavelhouse Plus last October.

Hutch said that with the great opportunity to sell Funstar comes the responsibility to ensure she gets the best price and his team would leave no stone unturned in its bid to secure competition for her.

"It’s going to be contingent on us delivering a positive result or a result the market deems as a positive one. It’s a fantastic opportunity for us, but by the same token it comes with a certain degree of responsibility," he said.

"We have had fantastic results with lesser-credentialled race fillies and mares. At our Digital Sale this week we had fillies sell for up to $320,000 and the Sale prior up to $355,000. They were race fillies who were stakes winners or stakes placed, but to offer a filly like Funstar is stepping into another league all together.

"The $800,000 for Members Joy was an indication of the capacity of the platform to achieve those sorts of results but Funstar will be the next test of it. I would say with a fair degree of confidence, a very big result is in the offing."

The Funstar news comes off the back of a very successful June (Late) Online auction, which concluded on Wednesday and grossed just short of $6 million. It was confirmed on Thursday that Randwick Bloodstock and Bellview Park had paid $220,000 for stakes-placed Gem Of Scotland (Rothesay), who had initially passed in short of her reserve.

Cover image, the late Byerley Turk depicted by John Wootton courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

In discussions about the genesis of the thoroughbred, few occur without mention of the Byerley Turk. The old horse, thought to have been foaled in Serbia in 1682, is credited as one of the three foundation sires of the modern thoroughbred.

By all accounts, he had a decorated, eventful life, first in Turkey and then in England and Ireland as a battalion horse under Captain Robert Byerley. In retirement, he covered casual numbers of mares from the Captain's home at Middridge Grange, then Goldsborough Hall in North Yorkshire.

The Byerley Turk died in his stable on March 16, 1703, with little official record of the mares he covered. He wasn’t a commercial stallion, Captain Byerley far too gentry to travel his horse the length of England with a stallion hand (as was the way of the era), so the Byerley Turk covered mares locally with tremendous results.

In 1701 he sired Jigg (GB), who later sired the four-time leading stallion Partner (GB). Partner sired Tartar (GB), who then sired Herod (GB).

From Herod, who was foaled in 1758, emerged one of the three foundation lines of the modern racehorse. The others are Matchem (GB) and Eclipse (GB).

Herod was champion sire of Great Britain and Ireland from 1777 to 1784, a horse recorded as ‘none better in all the land’. His sire-son branches were extensive, including the one that made its way to Australia in 1954 via Better Boy (Ire).

Better Boy was by Epsom Derby winner My Babu (Fr), who was by Djebel (Fr), and Djebel was one of the pointed modern descendants of the Byerley Turk.

Better Boy was a stakes winner in Australia before covering his first book of mares in Victoria in 1957 and, even though he sired 37 stakes winners of principal races like the Victoria Derby and Epsom H., it was his siring of Century, who in turn sired Rubiton, that made the greatest statement in this part of the world for the Byerley Turk.

Through Better Boy

The Byerley Turk, who today would be 339 years old, is credited with plenty of spirit, at times described by his biographers as ornery in both attitude and temperament.

However, he was a fierce cavalry horse, and the Turkish breeds of that era were known as such.

On type, it is largely believed he was bigger than the Arabian and Persian horses that heavily influenced the earliest thoroughbreds. He was longer in the back and higher in the croup, and he was also very prepotent.

Many of his offspring were just like him, brown or black in colour with few or no white markings, and both Better Boy and Century were dark bay.

Better Boy was 20 generations removed from the Byerley Turk, which was just over 300 years of refined breeding. He was imported to Australia by David Whiteside for just 1500 gns in 1954, ‘an obscure and lightly raced Irish-bred sprinter’ according to reports of the time.

Better Boy stood at Range View Stud, which was southeast of Melbourne at Carrum Downs. He covered just 124 mares in his first six seasons, of which only 80 survived to be yearlings.

Nevertheless, the stallion topped the sire table in 1965/66, defeating no less than Star Kingdom (Ire). He won four Australian General Sires' premierships and, at the age of 21, won both the General Sires' title and the 2-Year-Old Sires' premiership.

He passed away at the age of 25, having never covered a seasonal book larger than 62.

End of the line

Without doubt, Century was the greatest Australian-bred representative of the Byerley Turk line.

Better Boy from the Rego (Ire) mare Royal Suite, Century was born in October 1969 in Victoria, and sold to Bart Cummings as a yearling for £6750 in the old currency.

He was an exceptional racehorse, winning the now G1 VRC Sires’ Produce S., G1 Newmarket H. and G1 Lightning S., a sprinter of superb class and grit. He was masculine, deep in the girth and near-black, like his foundation sire, albeit roach-backed.

Under Cummings’ guidance, Century won seven stakes races before his retirement to stud in the spring of 1974. He was syndicated into 42 shares at $5200 apiece (Australia's currency reverted to metric that year).

He stood at Mornmoot Stud at an introductory fee of $1750, covering 52 mares. By 1979, his fee had risen to $5000.

Through the 1980s, he was the flagbearer for Victorian thoroughbred breeding, siring 44 stakes winners of 83 stakes races. His best son was Rubiton, winner of the 1987 G1 Cox Plate, but he also produced the G1 Sydney Cup winner and useful sire Double Century, as well as Centaine, who was an excellent sire of 58 stakes winners.

Here, however, the Byerley Turk line came to a thudding halt in Australia, because none of these sons of Century, who died in 1994 at the age of 25, bred on to produce significant sire sons.

Traits of the Turk

Florida resident Suzi Prichard-Jones is an author and scholar of thoroughbred breeding. Irish born, she has spent a lifetime in racing, and recently released an exhaustive book on the decline of the Byerley Turk male tail line.

Byerley: The Thoroughbred’s Ticking Time Bomb discusses the implications of the Byerley Turk line disappearing, with so few black-type stallions left around the world to perpetuate it.

In fact, Prichard-Jones believes there are only two since the passing of Melbourne Cup hero Dunaden (Fr), Notnowcato (GB), whose sprinting son, the gelding Redkirk Warrior (GB), was a star in Australia, and Scottish-based Orientor (GB).

They are Indian Haven (GB), winner of the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas in 2003, and Pearl Secret (GB), winner of the G2 Temple S. at Haydock in 2015.

“There was a minor stallion in the United States, and a minor one in South America, but they weren’t covering much,” said Prichard-Jones. “So the ones in the British Isles seem to be the ones to concentrate on, and they were the ones that had been the better racehorses and had won a Group race.”

Indian Haven and Pearl Secret stand in England. Prichard-Jones has put her faith in them being the only stallions commercial enough to keep the Byerley Turk line alive, and they should keep it alive for good reason.

“I think when you look at the three original foundation sires, the Byerley Turk brought spirit and courage to the thoroughbred,” she said. “The Godolphin Arabian, among other things, brought toughness and soundness. And those are the traits that appear to be carried on because the Byerley Turk horses tend to be a little on the hot side.”

The author suspects that speed has come from the Darley Arabian line and, with the other traits symbolic of the Byerley Turk and Godolphin Arabian, they combine in the overall health and well-being of the modern thoroughbred.

“I think that’s what we’re looking at now,” Prichard-Jones said. “It’s my theory that the real genesis of the thoroughbred occurred when the three male tail foundations all co-mingled in the emergence of Matchem, Herod and Eclipse. They created the perfect genetic cocktail, and that’s why all the other sirelines disappeared.”

Putting stallions on the ground

Prichard-Jones wrote her book to warn modern breeding about the extinction of the Byerley Turk male tail line. It’s hard to imagine that a 339-year-old stallion could still be important, but he is.

“Without being sentimental about it, there could be repercussions down the road,” she said. “Maybe not now, but in 20 or 50 years' time, certainly. It still contributes to the gene pool.”

Prichard-Jones fears the modern thoroughbred will lose soundness.

“I think we’re going to compromise the integrity of the breed,” she said. “The thing people forget is that we’re not only losing the male tail line, but we’re also losing all the genetics from the mares that comprise Matchem and Herod.”

Prichard-Jones admitted that her book was a theory, but her study of the pedigrees and genetics has convinced her of the respective importance of each of the male tail foundations.

When she carried her book across the British Isles on a recent tour, she found that few breeders were privy to the importance of these foundations names.

“A lot of them knew that these lines were there, but they didn’t necessarily know which lines go to which foundation sires, despite having this wonderful wheel that we all have,” Prichard-Jones said. “It’s not something on their radar. They are thinking about who’s going to be the next hot stallion, who they are going to breed to, and most of them are only looking five generations back, and in many cases only three.”

None of this surprised the author.

She said that breeding had become a social scene in itself, that the major sales were a buzz that was formerly attached only to the races.

“The sales are where the focus is,” Prichard-Jones said. “There’s as much glamour from the breeding, selling and speculating these days as there is on the racecourse, because the sales get so much attention.”

Her conclusion, in part, is that breeders won’t wait on pedigrees that require nurturing and salvation, like the Byerley Turk line. But it wouldn’t take long to resuscitate either, in her belief.

“We just have to make sure we’re putting enough stallions on the ground,” Prichard-Jones said. “We could have a stallion in five years’ time, for example. Hopefully some of the larger breeders and organisations can put one mare aside for a season, and give it a go that way.”

With the courage of her convictions, Prichard-Jones has six mares of her own on Byerley Turk breeding programs. They are by Galileo (Ire), Dream Ahead (USA), Indian Ridge (Ire), the sire of Indian Haven, New Approach (Ire) and Teofilo (Ire).

Three were bred to Pearl Secret, with a yearling and three foals on the ground, while five are in foal to Indian Haven this year.

“The idea being to double-up on the Herod line to see if it can make an impact,” Prichard-Jones said.

Bullet points

It’s not conclusive, but it appears that no commercial Byerley Turk sire lines remain in Australia.

Rubiton, who produced 42 stakes winners through his stallion career, didn’t produce any sire sons of lasting note. He has, however, proved to be a magnificent broodmare sire, as has been the case with so many of the Byerley Turk line.

In 2003, Rubiton sired a horse called Bulleton, who went to stud in 2008 and, across seven seasons, has covered just 42 mares in books of single digits. But he is keeping on. Bulleton is now 17-years-old, and stands duties for the Coffs Harbour trainer Mick O’Neill.

He gave O’Neill his first winner as a licensed trainer in 2017, when Mr Spin ploughed through the mud at Randwick to land the TAB Highway Plate over 1600 metres. At the time, the trainer admitted he had landed Bulleton on happenstance.

“He came from South Australia to me via someone that couldn’t do anything with the horse,” O’Neill said. “I only put a few mares to him, and he has been sitting in a paddock for a few years. I was going to put a couple of mares to him last year (2016), but it was too late.”

Bulleton served six broodmares in 2018, and covered eight last season, having had no registered coverings in 2019. By definition, he is far from a commercial stallion, and the importance of his pedigree is likely lost on most people.

Nevertheless, he is a half-brother to Hollow Bullet (Tayasu Tsuyoshi {Jpn}), who was a terrific filly, winning the G1 VRC Oaks and G1 Arrowfield S., as well as the G2 Wakeful S. and two other stakes races.

Hollow Bullet is retired these days, but resides at Arrowfield Stud and is herself the dam of this year’s two-time stakes winner Reloaded (Snitzel).

To purchase a copy of Byerley: The Throughbred’s Ticking Time Bomb, contact the author directly at champagne017@yahoo.com, or head to Waterstones online at the below link.

Cover image courtesy of Trish Dunell

The New Zealand racing season was dominated by two outstanding mares, Avantage (Fastnet Rock) and Melody Belle (NZ) (Commands), who between them won nine of the 21 Group 1 races contested.

Both trained by Jamie Richards, those two stars were the shining lights in a season which otherwise featured a broad spread of Group 1 winners, with no other horse winning more than one New Zealand Group 1.

Of the 14 individual Group 1 winners, six were trained by Richards, giving him 13 elite successes it total, 62 per cent of those races, with the others evenly spread among eight other trainers.

The other Group 1-winning trainers were Bill Pomare, Bob and Jenny Vance, John Bary, Johno Benner and Hollie Wynyard, Lance O'Sullivan and Andrew Scott, Leanne Elliot, Murray Baker and Andrew Forsman and Roger James and Robert Wellwood.

Opie Bosson ended the season as the leading Group 1-winning rider in New Zealand, with seven all-up. Other jockeys to secure multiple Group 1 successes were Troy Harris, with three, and Danielle Johnson, Johnathan Parkes and Jonathan Riddell with two apiece.

Table: Group 1-winning trainers in New Zealand, 2020/21

Fastnet's half-dozen

In terms of stallions, Coolmore's Fastnet Rock has enjoyed an outstanding season in New Zealand, thanks largely to Avantage, but also through his G1 New Zealand Derby-winning son Rocket Spade, giving him a total of six Group 1 victories.

When you consider that he has only had 16 starters in New Zealand this season for a combined 89 runs, to have six Group 1 victories and 12 stakes wins is quite remarkable. He sits second in the race to be crowned New Zealand's Champion Sire, behind only Waikato Stud's Savabeel.

Savabeel is set to be crowned New Zealand's Champion Sire for the seventh-straight year and he is the other stallion with multiple individual Group 1 winners, with Amarelinha (NZ) winning the G1 New Zealand Oaks and Concert Hall (NZ) victorious in the G1 Zabeel Classic.

Commands had four Group 1 victories, all from his superstar daughter Melody Belle, who set a New Zealand record for Group 1 wins when she claimed her 14th victory in the G1 Bonecrusher New Zealand S. at Ellerslie in March, surpassing the legendary Sunline (NZ) (Desert Sun {GB}).

Of the remaining nine stallions to produce Group 1 winners, six either stand or stood in New Zealand: Per Incanto (USA), Ocean Park (NZ), Redwood (GB), Sacred Falls (NZ), Darci Brahma (NZ) and Atlante, while two are currently standing in Australia, in Snitzel and Brazen Beau. The other one, Medicean (GB), stood in Great Britain.

Table: Group 1-producing sires in New Zealand, 2020/21

Of the 14 individual Group 1 winners in New Zealand, eight were bred on home soil, or just over 57 per cent. Five were bred in Australia, while one, Royal Performer (GB) (Medician {GB}), was bred in Great Britain. In terms of the overall percentage of Group 1 races won by New Zealand-bred horses, that stood at 52.4 per cent (11 out of 21).

When you consider that New Zealand-bred horses also won 24 per cent (17) of Australian Group 1s this season, it has been another successful campaign for the locally bred product.

It should be no surprise to see the legendary Zabeel (NZ) again dominant when it comes to representation as a broodmare sire amongst New Zealand Group 1 winners. His daughters produced two Group 1 winners, Avantage and Aegon (NZ) (Sacred Falls {NZ}), who combined for six total top-flight victories.

Iffraaj (GB) is the damsire of Melody Belle, so had four more Group 1 wins added to his influence in New Zealand. But it is a sign of the diversity of the bloodlines in the country that there are 13 different broodmare sires represented among the 14 horses on the list.

The price of Group 1 success

Ten of the 14 Group 1 winners were offered as yearlings through sales rings in either New Zealand or Australia, with an average price of NZ$230,850. (That is assuming for the sake of simplicity, parity between New Zealand and Australian dollars).

The most expensive yearling to win a Group 1 in New Zealand this season was G1 Sistema S. victor Sword Of State (Snitzel), who was a $600,000 purchase through the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. The least expensive in terms of yearling purchases was Captain Cook S. winner Rock On Wood (NZ) (Redwood {GB}), who was a NZ$36,000 buy through the New Zealand Bloodstock Festival Yearling Sale.

The best Group 1 buy in terms of price for the season was G1 Tarzino Trophy winner Callsign Mav (NZ) (Atlante), who cost just NZ$3000 as a foal through the New Zealand Bloodstock Weanling Sale. He and G1 Manawatu Sires' Produce S. winner On The Bubbles (Brazen Beau), who was purchased as a weanling through the Inglis Great Southern Sale for $60,000, are the only two on the list who were sold as foals through public auction.

It's little surprise that eight of the 10 Group 1 winners sold as yearlings were sold through the New Zealand Bloodstock sales ring at Karaka, with the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale (Rocket Spade) and Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale (Sword Of State) also represented.

Breaking down who sold those horses as yearlings and Waikato Stud is the only vendor with two individual Group 1-winning graduates in Aegon and Amarelinha, both of whom it also bred.

Other vendors with New Zealand Group 1-winning graduates from 2020/21 were Curraghmore, Haunui Farm, Leanach Lodge, Little Avondale, Long Acres, The Oaks and Windsor Park, as well as Australian-based trio Newgate, Tyreel Stud and Burnewang North.

Table: Prices of Group 1 winners in New Zealand, 2020/21

*weanling price