History was in the making this week at the Inglis Digital July (Early) Online Sale, which was headlined by the heavy-hitting presence of Funstar (Adelaide {Ire}), the multiple Group-winning half-sister to the equally excellent Youngstar (High Chaparral {Ire}).
Funstar was the last horse in the catalogue to sell at the Sale on Wednesday evening, Lot 268 on account of her co-owner Olly Koolman, the general manager at Waratah Thoroughbreds.
Within moments of the catalogue going live earlier this week, the 4-year-old mare had an opening bid of $1 million, and she sold for a history hitting $2.7 million. The buyer was Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida in Japan.
Funstar was widely advertised as the rarest of offerings online.
“Mares like her simply don’t come onto the open market very often,” said Nick Melmeth, business manager for Inglis Digital. “She is a truly rare commodity that every major breeder around the world should be taking notice of.”
“Mares like her (Funstar) simply don’t come onto the open market very often. She is a truly rare commodity that every major breeder around the world should be taking notice of.” - Nick Melmeth
And they were.
Funstar teetered through the last two hours of the Sale with bids of $1.4 million, $1.85 million, $1.9 million and $2 million. She then climbed to $2.15 million and bounced through impressive increments thereafter.
Her eventual pricetag rested at $2.7 million for the final moments of the Sale after dozens of bids from eight individual buyers.
It was a bench-setting result for Inglis’ digital platform, the highest price ever paid for a horse since the online sales began for the company in May 2017.
Katsumi Yoshida, meanwhile, expressed obvious delight at the sale.
“I am so thrilled that we were able to purchase a beautiful mare,” he said. “We have her half-sister, and also have mares related to the grandam, User Friendly. We are looking forward to seeing their progeny winning in Japan.”
Funstar will head to Northern Farm after selling for $2.7 million
Lightning strikes twice
Yoshida’s purchase of Funstar came as little surprise on Wednesday evening.
The Japanese stud owner had already paid $1.4 million for Youngstar at the COVID-affected Inglis Chairman’s Sale last year, and that mare was exported to Japan in December.
Youngstar was a G1 Queensland Oaks and G2 Doomben Roses winner, and her half-sister Funstar, with a more decorated record, was an obvious pick to be more expensive. However, not even Koolman expected $2.7 million.
“I certainly wasn’t expecting it,” he said. “We were sold at a million dollars with the opening bid when the auction started, and we were quite happy with that. We’re a racing syndicate and we enjoy our racing, and we were just lucky enough to have a horse that finished her racing career with a hell of a lot of residual value.”
"I certainly wasn’t expecting it. We were sold at a million dollars with the opening bid when the auction started, and we were quite happy with that." - Olly Koolman
It’s happened to the group twice now, with Koolman and his co-owners earning a collective $4.1 million from Youngstar and Funstar at auction. It’s quite a return, especially given the horses cost them just $280,000 collectively as yearlings.
“Words can’t describe it, to be honest,” said Koolman, clearly shell-shocked by the result. “We were ready to start celebrating at $1.3 million, and it just went on from there. From what I gather, there were a number of people attached to her, and I don’t know who they were but I really can’t thank them enough for their support. And the Yoshidas too for honouring their commitment to the family.”
Guy Mulcaster and Olly Koolman | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
Koolman and his wife Karen will take plenty of good cheer from their star mare heading to Japan. They have a photograph of the half-sisters together during their racing days, and are looking forward to another of the pair side-by-side at Northern Farm.
“It’s a warm and fuzzy feeling for us,” Koolman said. “We know they’re in good hands, and we were attached to them. You deal with them every day and you don’t want to see them go, but it’s got to be done.”
The couple promised the kids a trip to the snow if Funstar sold for $2 million.
“They’re looking for ski fields in Japan now,” Koolman joked. “We set ourselves up, didn’t we? I thought we’d get away with it, but the market and the industry is too good.”
Katsumi Yoshida (left) with Peter and Patty Tighe | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
Life changing
The obvious question for Koolman was why Funstar was put into the Digital Sale instead of the more obvious, and traditional, physical sales.
“We saw an opportunity to be the only high-ticket item in the market at the time,” Koolman said. “The Inglis family is obviously involved in the ownership of Funstar, and the digital platform has really worked for them. They’ve absolutely nailed the selling of horses digitally, and it was proved when COVID hit and they had the Easter Sale online. It was just an absolute phenomenon to watch what they were able to produce.”
“We saw an opportunity to be the only high-ticket item in the market at the time.” - Olly Koolman
Koolman said the IT team at Riverside has been exceptional.
“They’ve showed the world what can be done,” he said.
Aside of this, Koolman said that it’s worth remembering that he and the remaining owners declined an offer of $2.5 million for Funstar at the height of her racing career, and it was a decision that took plenty of steel.
“We took the trainer’s advice and rejected it, and we remained involved,” he said. “We took the opportunity then of retiring her as a lightly raced mare, and let the breeding industry fight over her.”
The ownership group in this horse is rich and varied.
They are experienced, inexperienced, first-timers, long-timers and more. It’s been a rollercoaster for each of them, but for Koolman it’s been life-changing, and he admitted it will be hard to better the adventure.
“I’m happy to rest on my laurels now,” he said. “My work here is done. It’s been an absolute fairtytale. We’ve got a deposit on a place now, and it’s been a life-changer. I’d like to say long may it last, but I don’t expect it to.”
Koolman acknowledged the superb support he has had from so many in the industry, in particular from Waratah Thoroughbreds’ Paul and Angela Fudge.
“My role at Waratah made it possible for me to have Funstar inspected outside of the COVID precinct, and Paul and Angela have allowed me to show her off to the large number of people who have come to see her over the last seven to 10 days,” Koolman said. “Without that, we couldn’t have ticked the boxes we were able to tick.”
Fun in the sun
Funstar last raced at Eagle Farm in early June. Before that, she had a decorated track career that began with plenty of early brilliance.
She won on debut for trainer Chris Waller in the winter of 2019, and she then carved her way through six races, coming no worse than second in each of them.
Her wins included the G2 Tea Rose S. and G1 Flight S., defeating Probabeel (NZ) (Savabeel) in the latter. That result was reversed in the G1 Surround S., but she then won the G2 Phar Lap S., was second in the G1 Queen Of The Turf S. and the same in the G1 Epsom H.
Funstar defeated 14 individual Group 1 winners through her career, was unbeaten as a juvenile and earned a Timeform rating peak of 117. That latter figure was enough to rank her among the best of 3-year-old fillies in Australia in the last decade.
“Any form analyst will tell you she was performing to an extremely high level throughout her career,” Koolman said. “She took on and she beat the best.”
Purchased by Koolman for just $80,000 at the 2018 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale (and sold by Bowness Stud), Funstar was the seventh foal from the broodmare Starspangled (Ire) (Danehill {USA}). Two years before, at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale, Koolman paid $200,000 for her half-sister Youngstar.
Funstar as a yearling
As pedigrees go, it’s an emerging family.
Starspangled is now the dam of two stakes winners, and her first foal, Baggy Green (Galileo {Ire}), is the dam of the brilliant Tofane (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}). Tofane was a last-start winner of the G1 Stradbroke H. recently, and she won the G1 Tattersall’s Tiara as well as the G1 All Aged S. last year.
Further down the page, Funstar has Pretty Pollyanna (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) in her pedigree, who was Champion 2-Year-Old Filly in Europe, France and Britain in 2018.
Buying Mantra
Funstar aside, Wednesday’s Digital Sale had plenty of good fodder.
The second highest-selling horse was Lot 245, the 5-year-old mare Maximak (Smart Missile), who sold as both a racing and breeding prospect for $420,000. She went to Cannon Hayes Stud.
A winner of four races in 21 lifetime starts, Maximak is trained by Matt Laurie at Mornington, and is a full sister to the very smart race mare Missile Mantra.
Missile Mantra was a Listed winner in 2019, and backed that up with the G3 Summoned S. last year. She was retired very recently after an excellent run through April and May, running first at Caulfield and second in the Listed Anniversary Vase at the same track, before a second to Rocha Clock (Pierro) in the G2 Dark Jewel S. at Scone.
Maximak, excepting Funstar, was one of the more hotly contested lots of the Sale, and she heads to Cannon Hayes Stud in Scone, a boutique broodmare facility in the hands of Dave Morrissey and local vet Lucy Cudmore.
“I’ve tried the last couple of weeks to purchase both in Melbourne at Great Southern and also online, and we’ve come up short, but maybe that was for good reason,” Morrissey said. “We really, really liked this mare and that’s why we were so strong in the bidding.
"She’s been bought for a client of mine that has supported me from the start, and we haven’t decided yet if we race her on. But stallion-wise, she will be visiting Dundeel if we opt to retire her."
Lot 254 - Maximak
The Digital Sale’s final results revealed five horses within or above the six-figure category. Along with Funstar and Maximak, Lots 217, 31 and 59 all sold well.
Lot 217 was Delectation Girl (GB), a daughter of Delegator (GB) and the Pivotal (GB) mare Chushka (GB), and she sold to bloodstock agent Suman Hedge (FBAA) for $245,000.
Delectation Girl has been a globetrotter through her 30 lifetime starts, racing in Scotland, Germany, England and America before her importation to Australia in early 2019. She was retired after a last-start third in January, and has headed to Hedge as a broodmare prospect.
Annabel Neasham, meanwhile, purchased Lot 31, the Aquis-owned colt Cadenabbia (Redoute’s Choice), for $135,000. The 3-year-old was already in the Neasham yard, and is a winner of two races in eight starts.
He is from the very good mare Griante (Good Journey {USA}), who won the G1 The Galaxy in 2016, and a pair of Group 3 races earlier in her career. The family boasts stakes-winning siblings Grand Journey (Good Journey {USA}) and Proliferate (More Than Ready {USA}).
Also in the buying ruck was trainer Michelle Payne, who got Lot 59, Sky Horse (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}), for $131,500.
Lot 31 - Cadenabbia
World-record result
By the close of Wednesday’s Digital Sale, Inglis was celebrating a world-record result.
Funstar’s pricetag was the most paid anywhere in the world for an online sale, but it was also the highest price paid in Australia this year for a horse sold ‘under the hammer’ at public auction.
The previous world records were claimed to be €960,000 (AU$1.5 million) for a share in the stallion Siyouni (Fr), sold through Arqana Online in November 2018. The Southern Hemisphere record is claimed to be the NZ$1,202,500 million fetched for Spanish Whisper (Lope De Vega {Ire}) in October last year via Gavelhouse Plus.
“We are beyond excited by tonight’s result,” Melmeth said. “It’s not only a significant milestone for Inglis Digital, but for the bloodstock industry worldwide. To have Inglis Digital break a world record, and to have Northern Farm pay $2.7 million for Funstar without even seeing her, just demonstrates the unbelievable confidence in our platform.”
"We are beyond excited by tonight’s result. It’s not only a significant milestone for Inglis Digital, but for the bloodstock industry worldwide." - Nick Melmeth
There was, no doubt, significant satisfaction bubbling through the Riverside office in the wake of the Sale, something that transpired from more than just Funstar’s result.
“Missed The Alarm (Lot 262) made more than 10 times her reserve, and stallion Native Soldier (Lot 267) sold to Wermer Stud in Denmark,” Melmeth said. “That just shows the reach of Inglis Digital, from modest results to world records in just four years of operation.”
The Inglis Digital July (Early) Online Sale concluded with a gross of $5.51 million, taking the overall 2021 turnover to $45.8 million.
Entries for the July (Late) Sale are now open, and will close at midnight next Wednesday, July 21.
