Blaxland buoyant as Blue Sky prepares Magic Millions assault

Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

Despite the absence of multiple Group 1-winning Kiwi sensation Levante (NZ) (Proisir), who has been withdrawn and retained to breed by her owners, this year’s Blue Sky Premium Consignment is once again abundant with both quality and variety.

Race fillies and mares fresh off the track have been the flagbearers for the Blue Sky Premium Consignment in recent years, with the likes of Forever You (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), Melody Belle (NZ) (Commands) and Unforgotten (Fastnet Rock) all fetching well over $1 million across the past three editions of this auction.

This time around, however, things are a little more balanced, with Blaxland expecting two broodmares in foal to international sire sensation Frankel (GB) to prove particularly popular as part of a reduction of Darren Dance’s Australian Thoroughbred Bloodstock.

“It’s a real honour and we’re really proud to be offering nine mares for Darren,” Blaxland said. “With his owners he’s raced a lot of good horses, both here and in Europe, and he’s accumulated some very nice mares in foal to some very commercial stallions.

“I think both Murasaki and Kapralova will certainly highlight our broodmare entries, but we’ve also got mares in foal to Russian Revolution, Too Darn Hot and Dubious.

“We’ve actually got three mares in foal to Dubious and I think you’ll see a lot of smarties coming to have a look at those. His 2-year-olds will run this spring and I’m sure they’ll go early. I think he’s a really smart horse to be punting this year with his first yearlings selling for up to $550,000.

“Overall, there’s a really nice cross section of mares.”

Gallery: Broodmares within the Blue Sky Premium Consignment who are carrying a cover to Dubious, images courtesy of Magic Millions

As is customary for the Blue Sky Premium Consignment, there are also several intriguing offerings lurking in the race fillies and mares' section, the part of the sale from which this year’s G1 Surround S. heroine Sunshine In Paris (Invader) was sourced 12 months ago.

Blue Sky’s sales receipts at last year’s auction varied from $10,000 all the way up to $1.35 million, and with fillies, mares and broodmares to suit all budgets in the 2023 cohort, Blaxland is predicting a similar story this year.

“I think what is good with our consignment overall is that we have 50 offerings and there will be race fillies and mares in there that will make $20,000, and there will be mares that will make over a million, so there really is something for everyone,” he said.

“We have some really exciting racing prospects that are just owned by bigger breeders or syndicates and they've got to be sold to dissolve partnerships, so I would implore not only breeders, but city and provincial trainers as well, to come and have a look because I think there’s going to be some really good upside.

“We have some unraced 2-year-olds by Zoustar and who knows what could come out next year. Obviously, we had Sunshine In Paris go through the draft last year and make $90,000, and I think she was a great example of that.

“I have the most solid group across the board that I’ve ever had. I’d say all of our mares are very buyable with low reserves, so if people want to come and buy mares we’re certainly not going to make it hard for buyers.”

Frankel Fever

The events of the past few days have certainly helped add to the already insatiable appetite for the progeny of the inexorable Frankel (GB), with his two sale-topping lots at last week’s Magic Millions National Weanling Sale followed hot on the heels by his latest Australian stakes winner Let’sbefrankbaby, who landed the G3 South Australia Fillies’ Classic at Morphettville on Saturday.

Baby Pink (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), the dam of Let’sbefrankbaby, was purchased by Badgers Bloodstock and Glentree Thoroughbreds for $700,000 at the 2019 edition of the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale when offered in foal to Frankel, and therefore carrying Let’sbefrankbaby in utero.

Much to Blaxland’s delight, this year’s Blue Sky Premium Consignment features two mares in foal to Juddmonte Farms' red-hot stallion, who currently sits atop the leading sires table in Great Britain by both prizemoney and stakes winners having had significantly fewer runners than his nearest pursuer Dark Angel (Ire).

The mares in question, Kapralova (USA) (War Front {USA}) being offered as Lot 958 and Murasaki (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) as Lot 1025, are both expected to prove popular on the Gold Coast, with the former boasting no less than four stakes-performed siblings including the dual Group 1-winning filly Avenge (USA) (War Front {USA}).

Gallery: Broodmares within the Blue Sky Premium Consignment draft who are carrying a cover to Frankel (GB), images courtesy of Magic Millions

“She’s on her first cover and she’s a beautiful type this mare,” Blaxland said of Kapralova. “I think physically she will match up well with our stallions and will certainly suit Australian breeders.

“I think she’ll be very popular, as will Murasaki, she’s a young mare with a big future out of a stakes-winning Dubawi mare.

“Anyone who gets her out won’t knock her for looks, she’s a beautiful mare, she’s all Dubawi, plenty of quality with a huge hindquarter on her. She’s a lovely mare.

“They’re both in foal to Frankel, who speaks for himself. He’s one of the world’s great sires, so for our consignment it’s a huge achievement to have two mares in foal to him.”

The likes of Russian Revolution, Wild Ruler and this year’s G1 Blue Diamond S. hero Little Brose (Per Incanto {USA}) are just three names on a long list of Australian Group 1 winners out of American-bred mares, and Blaxland is confident that breeders will recognise such a brilliant opportunity to access some of the finest international bloodlines the Northern Hemisphere has to offer.

“I’ve been a big supporter of American mares over the years, I think I’ve been going to Keeneland for about 15 years and it’s incredibly important to introduce some different bloodlines into the gene pool,” he added.

“Pound for pound American mares and good European mares do a fabulous job over here, because I think it’s just the meeting of genetics of the Australian colonial speed mixed in with the different blood from around the world.

“A mare like Murasaki will go to an Australian speed sire and that’s when you get that great genetic blend. It’s really important and I think every year we are seeing more and more results which back that up.”

‘She reminds me a lot of Unforgotten’

A perfect example of that genetic blend comes in the shape of Deep Sceiva (Lot 552), a stakes-placed daughter of Deep Field whom Blaxland feels will take high ranking among the race fillies and mares offerings within this year’s Blue Sky Premium Consignment.

Out of the unraced Singspiel (Ire) mare Scenario (GB), the five-time winner hails from a hugely successful international black-type family, one which includes French-based stallion Gutaifan (Ire), British Group 1 winner Mustashry (GB) (Tamayuz {GB}) and Italian Group 1 winner Ventura Storm (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), the latter of which finished second to wondermare Winx (Street Cry {Ire}) in the G1 Turnbull S. in 2017 before landing the G2 Moonee Valley Gold Cup a year later.

Perhaps the best related of all Blue Sky’s offerings, however, comes in the shape of Cabaca (Fastnet Rock), a city-winning daughter of leading broodmare sire Fastnet Rock and a half-sister to one of the most talented sprinters in training in Imperatriz (I Am Invincible) - a five-time Group 1 winner on both sides of the Tasman. The pair’s dam Berimbau (Shamardal) sold in foal to I Am Invincible at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale earlier this month for $1.8 million.

Catalogued as Lot 536 and offered as a racing and breeding proposition, Cabaca was the subject of huge praise from Blaxland, who compared her favourably with another daughter of Fastnet Rock previously sold at this sale by the Blue Sky Premium Consignment.

“She’s just a beautiful article and with her half-sister (Imperatriz) going so well - a last-start winner of the William Reid - that pedigree will just keep improving,” Blaxland said.

“She was a good city winner and had good ability herself. She’d be one of the best-looking mares you’ll see on the sales ground too, so if anyone is looking at her pedigree and wondering, then just come and have a look at her.

“She’s by Fastnet Rock and she reminds me a lot of Unforgotten, who we sold for $2.75 million here three years ago. She’s all quality, she’s just a gorgeous mare and I think there will be quite a few people fighting it out for her because she’s magnificent.

“Suffice to say, when she got off the track everyone at Newington Farm was pretty happy. She’s a glorious individual.”

Equally well-related and performed is Nothinsweetaboutme (So You Think {NZ}), a multiple city winner and fourth placegetter in the G3 Kembla Grange Classic who is being offered as Lot 612 as a breeding proposition only on behalf of Peter Dunn’s Dodmark Thoroughbreds.

As a sister to Listed winner Just Thinkin’ and a three-quarter sister to dual Group 3 winners Stampede (High Chaparral {Ire}) and Thinkin’ Big (High Chaparral {Ire}), Blaxland is anticipating fierce competition for Nothinsweetaboutme, while Rayjen (Lot 623) is another So You Think (NZ) mare whom the bloodstock agent expects to be on most people’s lists, given that she bears many of her globetrotting stallion’s most distinctive qualities.

In a draft packed to the rafters with quality racemares, other names of note include Group 3 scorer This’ll Testya (Testa Rossa) Listed winner Boomnova (Spirit Of Boom) and R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic placegetter Snitcat (Snitzel), all of whom possess a particular quality which Blaxland hopes will appeal to domestic breeders.

“This’ll Testya is all speed, she was third to Paulele in the Winterbottom and she bolted in in a Group 3,” he said. “She looks how her pedigree suggests she should - she’s the quintessential Australian speed mare and she’s by Testa Rossa, who is a fabulous broodmare sire.

Gallery: Some highlights within the Blue Sky Premium Consignment at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, images courtesy of Magic Millions

“Snitcat is another quintessential Australian speed filly by a multiple Champion Sire. She was third in the Magic Millions to Coolangatta, who’s off to Royal Ascot, and she’s all Snitzel this filly, so I think she holds a lot of appeal.

“Boomnova is by Spirit Of Boom, she won over $500,000, she was tough and she was fast. These mares that have genuine speed, that get up and go early, that’s what Australian breeders like to breed from and we love to buy them as yearlings out of mares like that.”

Can lightning strike twice?

At this sale twelve months ago, a little-known juvenile filly by the name of Sunshine In Paris was sold by Blaxland on behalf of Tony Fung Investments for $90,000. Unraced at the time, she was shrewdly snapped up by Champagne Bloodstock and kept in training with Annabel Neasham, for whom she won the G1 Surround S. at Royal Randwick back in February on only her fifth career start.

That level of progression - being sold unraced at auction as a 2-year-old to Group 1 glory in the space of 10 months - is hardly a common occurrence, but with unraced progeny by the likes of Snitzel, Zoustar and Tivaci featuring in the Blue Sky draft for 2023, who’s to say that lightning won’t strike twice for those willing to speculate?

In addition some choicely-bred unraced juveniles, this year’s Blue Sky Premium Consignment also features a number of well-performed fillies and mares being offered as racing and breeding propositions, none more so than Zoe’s Promise (Swear), who landed the G2 Moonee Valley Fillies’ Classic as recently as October.

“There’s certainly racing upside with her, she’s only three and she’s a Group 2 winner,” Blaxland said of the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained filly.

“She’s a genuine racing and breeding prospect out of an American stakes winner. She’s a really exciting prospect and for those who want to race on for another Group 2 she has a lot of upside.

“We also have unraced horses like Edge Of Seventeen, Planned Encounter and As Pretty As You. They’re effectively untried and they’ll be sold unreserved on behalf of Tony Fung Investments.

“That’s what they often do, they list their unraced 2-year-old fillies for sale. That’s their process and last year with Sunshine In Paris, the buyer of her was the recipient of a very good filly, so there’s huge possibilities with those three.”

Switching sides

In its sixth year of operation, the Blue Sky Premium Consignment is still in its relative infancy compared with most other vendors at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, but that hasn’t stopped some big results coming the way of Blaxland and his team, who have had the added benefit of some “great assistance” from Chris Waller Racing’s Damien Fitton over the past 12 months.

Blaxland’s many years as an experienced and successful bloodstock agent have undoubtedly contributed to his success as a vendor, and the co-owner of Newington Farm - alongside his wife and trainer Kacy Fogden - is thoroughly enjoying the chance to experience one of Australia’s biggest sales from a different standpoint.

“I’m obviously busy buying yearlings with Anthony and Sam Freedman during the first part of the year, but I really look forward to this sale,” Blaxland said.

“It’s close to our home at Newington Farm, only 45 minutes away, and I get to put on my vendor’s hat and bring some nice prospects to the sale. I call myself a junior vendor because I’ve only been doing it for six years, which a lot of the big studs find quite amusing.

“It has certainly become very competitive in the last couple of years. Obviously, Newgate has done a big push and a few other consignors have realised that it’s a good market, but for an operation that isn’t an established broodmare farm, we’ve had great support and it has been really satisfying.

“One of our earliest and biggest supporters still to this day has been Chris Waller Racing. It’s a real honour to sell so many each year for Chris’ stable.”