Gilgai goes to $560,000 for Boogie Dancer on Inglis Digital

Written by Jessica Owers

Cover image courtesy of Inglis Digital

After a furious run of millionaire results, Inglis Digital settled down on Wednesday to a comparatively quiet September (Late) Online Sale. The 289-horse catalogue was topped by a trio of broodmare prospects, headed by the 4-year-old mare Boogie Dancer, who made $560,000 when bought by Gilgai’s farm manager, Kelly Skillecorn.

The daughter of Sooboog was selling on account of Dalziel Bloodstock after last racing at Sandown on September 13. Up to the point of her sale on Wednesday, she had remained with her trainers, Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman at Pakenham.

Boogie Dancer is lightly raced. She was highly promising as a young horse, winning three times as a late-season juvenile, including the VOBIS Gold Ingot worth $175,000. As a 3-year-old filly, she won the G2 Thousand Guineas Prelude and was fourth behind Madame Pommery (No Nay Never {USA}) in the G1 Thousand Guineas.

Her form has been muddled since then, her best effort being a fourth in the Echuca Cup. However, the black type is on the page and it’s permanent, and she was offered to Inglis Digital as a viable, Group-winning broodmare prospect.

Skillecorn was buying on behalf of Gilgai Farm principal, Rick Jamieson, who was prepared to go significantly further than the $560,000 he ended up paying. The mare was bought for the Gilgai-bred, Vinery-housed Ole Kirk next season.

“She won’t go to Ole Kirk this season; she’ll go next season,” Skillecorn said, speaking to The Thoroughbred Report. “We’re thinking we might send her to Ciaron (co-trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace) in six months to have a go at the Queensland carnival before she retires.

“She’s booked to come to Gilgai on the float tomorrow (Thursday), and she’ll stay on the farm until we see if she’s ready to go into training again. If she doesn’t come up, she doesn’t have to race again, but it would be nice to at least get some black type from the mare, which we think would stand to her when it comes time for the yearlings to hit the market.”

Boogie Dancer hasn’t raced outside of Victoria. Skillecorn said that even if she doesn’t turn her form around, she’s a Group 2 winner that is Group 1-performed, so the runs are on the board. The mare was bought on pedigree, fulfilling a Jamieson penchant for Snitzel-line mares to send to Ole Kirk.

“Rick thought she was an A-grade mating for Ole Kirk,” Skillecorn said. “Any mare that comes up that he thinks is a perfect match for Ole Kirk, he seems to be buying at the moment. Rick has found a nick this year that he thinks is going to work with Ole Kirk, so he’s looking for Snitzel-line mares at the moment.”

In this vein, Gilgai paid $750,000 earlier this year at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale when buying the Group 2-winning Zennzella (Snitzel), and Boogie Dancer, by the Snitzel son Sooboog, fits a similar picture.

On paper, the 4-year-old mare is well-bred. She is a half-sister to the Group 3 winner Miss Exfactor (Your Song), while her dam, the Quest For Fame (GB) mare Search For Fame, is a three-quarter sister to the very smart Impaler (Dracula), winner of the Group 2 pair of the Hobartville S. and Challenge S., in the latter setting a 1000-metre track record.

Further along, this is the family of the G1 Manikato S. winner and now sire, Jonker, while Search For Fame has a female line that goes direct to Eight Carat (GB) (Pieces Of Eight {Ire}) on the fifth line.

“She is a lovely horse, but I thought she was dear myself, as the manager of the farm,” Skillecorn said. “But Rick, the owner, thought she was cheap. He had quite a few more bullets to spend on her. He was certainly going to buy her.”

Listen Here for Biers

Boogie Dancer was keenly contested on Wednesday with 58 bids by close of trade. Following her up the results board, however, was the 4-year-old mare Monte Invincible (I Am Invincible), who was bought by Jackson Biers as Jb Bloodstock for $540,000.

Biers is the assistant stud manager of Newgate Farm, but he wasn’t buying for Newgate. He bought this mare on behalf of his parents and a consortium that includes Spartus Bloodstock and Alma Vale’s Verna Metcalfe.

Monte Invincible has an exclusive pedigree, and one that Biers is only too familiar with. She is a daughter of Listen Here (Elusive Quality {USA}), making her a half-sister to Deep Field and Shooting To Win, as well as the stakes-winning Zaniah (Zoustar).

“In my former role at Snowdens, Shooting To Win was a horse I worked with closely,” Biers said, speaking to The Thoroughbred Report. “In my current role at Newgate, Deep Field is a horse that is obviously very close to our hearts.

“This is one of the greatest pages in the Stud Book and this mare is a daughter of a Champion Sire. She is a great physical so we were very keen to have a crack at her, and we’re very pleased to be able to buy her.”

There haven’t been many females out of Listen Here. Monte Invincible is one of only four and she is lightly raced, starting just six times for a single win in March. She was last seen on September 16 when stepping out at Newcastle, and she was offered on Inglis Digital by Price Racing.

“She will be visiting Stay Inside, probably by the end of the week,” Biers said. “His foals are outstanding, and we’ve had a very good one from one of our own mares already, and there are a number of very good ones on the farm. She’ll get in foal at Alma Vale and she’ll probably winter at my parent’s farm, Glenbawn Stud in Gundy.

“My parents have made a bit of an investment in horses the last few years. We bought Blazing Miss and a few other mares. We’ve got around nine in various shareholdings now. My parents have been in cattle all their lives and they’ve relocated to the Hunter Valley where they’re starting to surround themselves with some nice mares.”

At $540,000, Monte Invincible was a little more expensive than Biers was expecting, but he quickly admits that this is a family that is near impossible to buy into.

“There’s only a few females in the first dam and, if you want good physicals and pedigrees like that, you can’t really expect to buy them cheaply, especially when they’re by Champion Sires,” he said.

Expat for Newgate

Following Monte Invincible on Wednesday’s results, the 6-year-old mare Expat (NZ), a daughter of Makfi (GB), was the next best-seller at $320,000. It took 35 bids for her to go the way of Newgate Farm after she was offered by her owner, the Port Douglas-based Tony McGrath.

McGrath also raced Srikandi (Dubawi {Ire}), and for him Expat had won eight of her 24 races, including the G3 Belle of the Turf S. and G2 Millie Fox S. She was last seen when finishing unplaced behind More Prophets (Smart Missile) in the G3 Dark Jewel Classic.

She will be retired and head to In The Congo this season, Henry Field has confirmed. She is an ideal outcross, being Danehill (USA)-free, and she is a half-sister to the Group-placed Mental Telepathy (NZ) (Shocking).

“We’re delighted to be able to buy her,” Field said. “She’s a beautiful mare, a very talented Group 2 winner with great genetics, being a granddaughter of Galileo and Dubawi.”

Boogie Dancer, Monte Invincible and Expat were the only horses in Wednesday’s catalogue to sell north of $300,000, with the only other six-figure sale being the 6-year-old gelding Raging Bull (Bull Point). Offered by David Payne Racing, he was bought by Minervini Racing for $105,000.

The sale proved once again its healthy, unstoppable market for broodmare prospects. By the close of trade, the aggregate was $3,591,000 with a clearance rate of over 73 per cent.

Entries for the Inglis Digital October (Early) Sale are now open until midnight AEDT, October 4. Bidding will open on October 6 and close on Wednesday, October 11.