‘She wasn’t easy to buy’: Yulong goes to $1.525 million for North Star Lass

Cover image courtesy of The Image Is Everything

The Inglis Digital September (Early) Online Sale drew to a close on Wednesday evening with yet another huge result. The 4-year-old mare North Star Lass, a daughter of Zoustar, went the way of Yulong Farm (buying as Walnut Farm) for $1,525,000.

She was well-clear of the rest of the 456-horse catalogue, the next best-selling being the broodmare Tuscan Heat (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) at $190,000.

North Star Lass also became the fourth millionaire sold on Inglis Digital this year, the platform already having its best year yet in this respect with over three months of the calendar still to go.

The mare was offered by Tulloch Lodge on behalf of her large group of owners, and handled for the sale by Ridgmont Farm in the Hunter Valley. North Star Lass had last raced in the Listed Mona Lisa S. at Wyong on September 1, her second start this preparation, so she was in superb physical condition for this week’s event.

The mare had raced 11 times for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott Racing, winning the G2 Furious S. last year and running home third behind Zougotcha (Zoustar) in the G1 Flight S. She didn’t appear to train on last autumn, finishing unplaced in Group events. However, that made little dent on her value.

Buying as Walnut Farm, Yulong is likely to commit its latest purchase to Written Tycoon, confirmed to The Thoroughbred Report by Claudia Miller, bloodstock manager at Tulloch Lodge, who oversaw the sale for the mare’s owners.

“Yulong is such a great supporter of the industry and we’re very thankful she’s going to a great home,” Miller said. “I don’t know if they’re going to race her on, but I was under the impression that Written Tycoon was on the books for her, which is a really lovely option for a mare of her calibre.”

North Star Lass is far from the first horse that Tulloch Lodge has presented to Inglis Digital. However, she is the most prolific result.

“Inglis Digital is such a good platform for horses we’re looking to move on, or horses that are approaching the finish of their careers,” Miller said. “It works out really well and it’s made very easy for us to put horses like her online, and we’ve had some really good results overall. At this stage online, North Star Lass would certainly be our best.”

The ownership group in the mare has done equally well. North Star Lass was initially bought by Waterhouse, Bott and Bruce Slade’s Kestrel Thoroughbreds for $260,000. Consigned to the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, she was sold by Rosemont Stud.

She has paid herself off with close to $350,000 in earnings, and her price tag on Wednesday, sitting north of $1.5 million, exceeded her owners’ expectations.

“We were expecting her to sell well,” Miller said. “Obviously, it’s hard to determine exactly how much they’ll get ahead of a sale. Kiku sold recently for nearly $1.5 million so we were hoping for the million-dollar mark. But the market decides in the end and we were very fortunate that Yulong has been the final bidder, and all the best to them.”

North Star Lass enjoyed spirited bidding throughout Wednesday. With only four initial minutes to go, 59 bids had brought her to $920,000. In the end, her $1,525,000 price attracted 84 bids.

Leading into her sale, she had lived at Ridgmont Farm, an alliance that Miller and the team at Tulloch Lodge has enjoyed for some time.

“We’ve got a really nice relationship with the Cunninghams and Ridgmont Farm,” she said. “Mitch Cunningham, Chris Phillips and the team at Ridgmont were instrumental in the process of selling North Star Lass. They have done such a good job with her and we can’t thank them enough for their support.”

Dr Chris Phillips is the resident veterinarian at Ridgmont. He handled the inspections of North Star Lass, of which there many. He said the whole team at the farm was thrilled with Wednesday’s result.

“We are very grateful to everyone at Tulloch Lodge and to Inglis for giving us the opportunity to present this mare for them,” he said, speaking to The Thoroughbred Report. “It’s obviously a huge result for all the connections. We had all the major players come to look at her while she was with us.

“She’s an absolute queen of a type and she didn’t put a foot wrong. She was incredibly well-behaved and really well-presented by our team. She came looking fantastic anyway, so we didn’t have a great deal to do, but she shone when she was here.”

Hotly contested

North Star Lass was considered a jewel among a very good 3-year-old crop in 2022. She consistently met such fillies as In Secret (I Am Invincible), She’s Extreme (Extreme Choice) and Sunshine In Paris (Invader).

Foaled in 2019, she is by Zoustar from the Snitzel mare Sheila’s Star, providing that inbreeding to Redoute’s Choice that has worked so well.

Sheila’s Star was stakes-placed during her career, a winner of five races for trainers John Symons, Sheila Laxon and Mick Price variously. On pedigree, she was a half-sister to the stakes-winning, Group-placed Jacqueline Rouge (Ne Coupez Pas {USA}), herself the dam of the stakes-placed Special Diva (Snitzel).

Further along, this family includes the likes of Generalife (Lonhro), plus the three-generational stakes-winning line of Dashing Granada (Keltrice), Celebrity Girl (Starcraft {NZ}) and Instant Celebrity (Not A Single Doubt). As such, North Star Lass heads to Yulong with a lapful of black-type performances and pedigree.

“She’s a gorgeous mare,” said Yulong’s Sam Fairgray. “She was obviously a very good race mare; she raced against the best. She wasn’t easy to buy. There was proper competition there but the good ones are always very hard to get, especially if they’re attractive and tough race mares like her.”

Fairgray confirmed that North Star Lass will head to Written Tycoon. He said it was a match that will suit the stallion, and one that works on paper.

“We also own the three-quarter sister, a 2-year-old by Zousain who is also with Gai and Adrian, and they’re really happy with her,” he said.

The six-figure sales

Yulong was also confirmed as the buyer of the second-best seller on Wednesday evening, the broodmare Tuscan Heat who was sold heavily in foal to Wootton Bassett (GB). The price was $190,000.

Tuscan Heat was offered by Willow Park Stud’s Glenn Burrows as a means to dissolve a three-person partnership. Burrows said each of the three was satisfied with Wednesday’s result.

“We’re delighted Yulong liked her enough to buy her and, if she has nice foal, they could easily recoup today’s price and more, given it’s a Wootton Bassett foal and given he’s booked out at a $93,500 service fee at Coolmore,” Burrows said. “There were three clients who owned her and she was sold to dissolve the partnership. We’re all very satisfied with the result”

Fairgray confirmed that Tuscan Heat will head to Yulong and then to Lucky Vega (Ire) thereafter.

The only other six-figure sale on Wednesday evening was the 5-year-old broodmare Arcadia Grace (NZ) (Hinchinbrook). Offered from Western Australia by breeder Bob Peters, she went the way of Burnewang Pastoral North for $120,000 in a transaction that exceeded her vendor’s price expectations.

“That was a bit surpising actually,” said Liam Peters, who represented Peters Investments. “I was expecting around the $75,000 mark, so to get 50 per cent more than that, it’s a great result.”

Gallery: Other six-figure lots, images courtesy of Inglis Digital

Overall, the Inglis Digital September (Early) Online Sale grossed $4,867,350. Entries for its next edition are open until midnight, September 20, for an eventual sale of September 22 – 27.

Already confirmed for the catalogue is Expat (NZ), a dual Group-winning, 6-year-old daughter of Makfi (GB), as a racing or breeding prospect.