On top of a great 2023 on the track with the Group 1 winners Ozzmosis (Zoustar) and Communist (Russian Revolution), The Chase - the China Horse Club's showpiece farm - has kicked of 2024 with a bang, enjoying outstanding success at the Magic Millions and Inglis Classic.
At the Gold Coast selling nine yearlings for an average of $308,000 and up to $525,000, they also enjoyed a good Classic sale - four sold for an average of $180,000 and up to $320,000.
CHC’s Michael Smith delves into the draft that heads to Inglis Premier with a select draft of five.
Lot 113: Russian Revolution x Atlantis Dream (NZ) (bay colt)
“A neat running colt, he’s by a stallion that is a prolific source of winners and to add to that CHC has bred two of his best in Group 1 winner Communist and Revolutionary Miss who has just reeled off back to back G3 win in Melbourne during her latest campaign. There’s plenty of ability up close in the family, with this colt’s dam being a Group 2 winner herself.”
By a dual Group 1 winning speed stallion on the up, he is a son of a classy race mare who won six of her 23 starts (also filling placings on nine occasions - consistent racing in strong company) including the G2 Queen of the South S. in which she showed a great turn of foot storming home from the rear. Returning the following year to again finish off strongly to run, at her penultimate start, second in the same race, the versatile (successful from 1200m to 1600m) mare also won races at Flemington and Sandown.
Her G1 Prix Morny winning sire Elusive City (USA) is proving himself to be an outstanding influence as a broodmare sire; his daughters already producing 28 stakes winners including the Group 1 gallopers Rougir (Fr) (Territories {Ire}), Bucanero Fuerte (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Wooded (Ire) and Battle Force (SAf) (Act Of War {SAF}). Atlantis Dream's (NZ) first foal is a winner and her two-year-old daughter Reveillon - a full sister to this colt - is a member of the Chris Waller stable having fetched $180,000 as a yearling.
Atlantis Dream is one of seven winners produced by Contemplate (NZ) (Dream Well {Fr}) whose G3 Auraria S. winning dam Ascona (NZ) (Grosvenor {NZ}) is the grandam of the Listed ATC Cup winner Bonny Ezra (NZ) (Road To Rock). Ascona is one of the 12 winners (from as many to race) for the winner Aminona (NZ) (Oakville {GB}) who produced another two stakes winners - St Gallen (NZ) (Decies {GB}) and Andermatt (NZ) (Amalgam {USA}).
Ascona is also the grandam of the G2 Waikato Gold Cup winner Okiwi Bay (NZ) (Kinjite {NZ}) and the G1 VRC Oaks heroine Bulla Borghese (Belong To Me {USA}) whose daughter Bound For Earth (Northern Meteor) won the G2 Furious S.
This colt is bred on the same Russian Revolution/Sadler's Wells (USA) cross - one which provides for the duplication of the famed matriarch Special (USA) (Forli {Arg}) as the stakes winners Russian Alliance and Russian To The Bar - and one which has been well represented by 27 winners from 38 runners; an excellent 71.1% ratio that well and truly exceeds Russian Revolution's overall strike rate.
Lot 263: Zoustar x Grasslands (bay colt)
“A really classy colt from one of the most active families in the Stud Book, he’s not to be missed. He’s got great substance, strength and that sweet Zoustar action. The Zoustar over Snitzel cross operates at an eyepopping 27% stakes winner to runners. Sometimes saying less is more and I think this colt speaks for himself.”
What a wonderful job Zoustar continues to do and what an amazing record he has with mares by Snitzel, sire of this colt's lightly raced, two times winning dam Grasslands.
Eight of the 11 Zoustar runners out of Snitzel mares are winners and three of those are stakes winners - the G2 Furious S. winner North Star Lass and the Listed winners Zou Tiger and Millane. Another is stakes placed and another is a city winner... great statistics! Part of the overall success rate that is Zoustar and his dam sire Redoute's Choice - another four of his black-type winners line-bred to that great stallion.
Fourteen per cent of the Zoustar winners bred this way are stakes winners, making this colt an exciting proposition, especially as he also boasts a cross of Mr Prospector (USA) as do 20 of Zoustar's stakes winners and four of his Group 1 winners including the China Horse Club bred Ozzmosis.
Grasslands' first foal is a winner and her next two have sold well - a NZ$125,000 Vancouver colt and a $300,000 full sister to this colt; the Chris Waller trained two-year-old Zoysia.
Grasslands is one of the six winners produced by the stakes-placed Caulfield winner Elusive Wonder (Elusive Quality {USA}), also dam of the Australian Champion 2YO Filly Away Game (Snitzel) - winner of the R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic and three Group races - and of the two-year-old Listed winner Modern Wonder (Snitzel).
Lot 452: Extreme Choice x Perfect Persuasion (chestnut colt)
“He’s the only Extreme Choice colt in the sale and he’s special individual to boot. He’s got his dam sire Encosta De Lago’s magnificent frame and Extreme Choice’s colour, good brain and no doubt speed. From the direct family of the champion Alinghi and the might Beneteau it’s blood that is saturated with class - his own dam has already produced three stakes horses from six runners… so what could adding Extreme Choice into the mix do? Taking him home could be like catching lightning in a bottle.”
The only son of the high-achieving Extreme Choice (70.9% winners to runners; 12.8% stakes winners) in this sale, he is out of the stakes-placed Encosta De Lago mare Perfect Persuasion - full sister to the outstanding Alinghi, winner of 10 of her 16 starts; four of those at the elite level.
A proven broodmare, Perfect Persuasion boasts a 100% strike rate with all six of her foals to race being winners - three of those - Lady Sharapova (Fastnet Rock), Perfect Proposal (Russian Revolution) and Papillon (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}) earning black type.
The G3 Blue Diamond Prelude winner Beneteau who sadly died young when making his mark as a stallion, also hails from this high class speed family and there is no doubt that those on the look out for stallion prospects will have this fellow high on their list. Extreme Choice had three seven-figure yearlings at the Magic Millions whilst Perfect Persuasion's progeny have sold for up to $1.6 million.
This colt boasts a cross of the influential mare Best In Show (USA) (Traffic Judge {USA}), ancestress of Redoute's Choice and grandam of Try My Best who appears via Last Tycoon (Ire) - the same cross that has produced Extreme Choice's Group 1-winning daughter Espiona.
Lot 470: Pierro x Psalms (bay colt)
“An imposing Pierro colt, he looks like a Sires' Produce/Guineas special. He’s got four Group 1 horses on his page indicating the quality flowing through the family. He’s a big, strong, amenable colt that I think will lap up the training and stable life.”
By one of Australia's favourite stallions, the five times Group 1 winning son of the mighty Lonhro, this colt is the first foal produced by the unraced Psalms, a $450,000 Zoustar half-sister to the dual Group 3 winner Sharnee Rose (Nadeem).
She is also a half-sister to two stakes-placed winners as well as to the dam of the Listed winner Nistaan (Nicconi) from one of the most prolific local families - that which has produced the Group 1 gallopers Snippets, Rewaaya (Singspiel {Ire}), Sense Of Occasion (Street Sense {USA}), Ertijaal (Hard Spun {USA}), Forensics (Flying Spur), Oohood (I Am Invincible) and King's Legacy.
All descendant of this colt's wonderful third dam Easy Date as are another 25 stakes winners including the high-class stallion Not A Single Doubt.
With his 6 X 5 cross of the great mare Special via her son Nureyev (USA) and grandson Sadler's Wells (USA), Pierro not surprisingly picks up very well with strains of Fairy King (USA) - full brother to Sadler's Wells and 3/4 brother to Nureyev.
Psalms is a member of the Fairy King sire line, noting that six of the 43 winners (from 61 runners - an excellent 70.5% strike rate) combining Pierro and Fairy King are stakes winners including the Group 1 winner Shadow Hero by Pierro and the Group 1 winner Jacquinot out of a Pierro mare.
Lot 480: Zoustar x Radiant (bay colt)
“He’s a late November foal but he’s got a wonderful frame and is well grown with an exceptional action, finding everything very easy. Zoustar over Lonhro mares operates at 40% stakes horses to runners and he’s from the prolific high-class family of Bivouac, Guelph and Encryption to boot. It’s a stallion’s pedigree and this is also the same cross as Hong Kong heavyweight Leviathan - Healthy Happy.”
The Chase's second Zoustar colt in the sale, he is out of an unraced mare by the great galloper Lonhro - outstanding on and off the track and now making a name for himself as a broodmare sire with his daughters already producing 72 stakes winners.
Fourteen of the 16 Zoustar runners out of Lonhro mares are winners including the Hong Kong placed two times Group winner Healthy Happy, three other stakes performers and four metropolitan winners.
Radiant's first two foals are both winners including the last start determined Kensington winner Centrestone who has won at metropolitan level on another two occasions. The best is still to come for Radiant who has a colt by Justify and a Zoustar two-year-old called Shimmer And Shake in the Hayes stable.
Radiant is a daughter of the terrific mare Camarena (Danehill {USA}) - winner of nine races including the G1 Queensland Derby and the G2 Queensland Guineas. Group 1 placed on five occasions, she did a great job at stud with eight of her nine foals to race being winners. Amongst that tally is the Listed winning G1 VRC Derby runner-up Induna (Elusive Quality {USA}) and the G1 AJC Sires' Produce S. winner Camarilla (Elusive Quality {USA}) - dam of the Australian Champion 3YO Filly Guelph (Exceed And Excel) and the G2 Todman S. -winning successful New Zealand-based sire Ghibellines.
Guelph is the dam of the Group winners Encryption and Emanate (Lonhro) whilst another of Camarilla's daughters Dazzler (More Than Ready {USA}) produced the triple Group 1 winning sprinter Bivouac and the dual Listed winner Coruscate (Exceed And Excel).
What a fascinating pedigree this fellow boasts - his influential fourth dam Jesmond Lass (Lunchtime {GB}) also producing the G1 Golden Slipper-winning high-class stallion Canny Lad, damsire of Zoustar's damsire Redoute's Choice.
As well as this exciting 6 X 4 cross of Jesmond Lass, he carries duplications of the the terrific mares Special (USA) (Forli {Arg}), Natalma {USA}) (Native Dancer {USA}), Magic Symbol (Makarpura {GB}) and Lalun (USA) (Djeddah {Fr}).
