Sale toppers: A day for the girls as four crack a million

Lot 227 - Zoustar x Prompt Response (Beneteau), filly, $2,200,000

Zoustar’s popularity was not the only reason Widden Stud had to celebrate as Antony Thompson’s operation also sold the top lot, the filly out of Prompt Response (Beneteau), for a show-stopping $2,200,000. James Harron signed the ticket for the most expensive filly sold so far this year.

The youngster is the third foal out of Prompt Response, a daughter of Beneteau whose six wins were capped by victory in the Group 1 Tattersalls Tiara. She also registered three Group 2 successes in the Emancipation S., Breeders Classic and the Dane Ripper S.

“She’s a very, very special filly,” said Harron. “Zoustar is absolutely flying and his fillies are doing an outstanding job as well. She was the standout in the sale for us so I’m very happy to get her.

“We’ll get her back and talk about (training plans) because nothing has been set in stone at this stage. We’ll work that out, get her broken in and have a good look at her and see where the best place is to go with her.”

Harron continued: “She’s a great type, obviously. She’s beautiful, lovely quality, a fantastic temperament and has a very good action. She’s just a very special filly.

“She’s out of a very good racemare and the sister looks handy, she’s trialled up a few times and looks like she could quite easily attain some black type, which would be a nice update. The family’s been bred really nicely and it could be one of those pages we look back on in ten or 12 years’ time and it’s thickened right out.”

This is Prompt Response’s second successive seven-figure yearling as the I Am Invincible filly Harron referenced sold to Wexford Stables for $1.3 million at last year’s Easter Sale and is flagged by that stable as being particularly smart, preparing for her debut soon.

Zoustar, who sired four of the top six lots on the day, was continuing a fine run of form during the 2024 sales season having already been represented by three million-plus yearlings prior to Sunday’s session.

The upgraded esteem in which buyers hold the son of Northern Meteor is no surprise considering he has sired seven elite winners, three of whom have scored during the current campaign. That trio are Coolmore Stud Stakes scorer Ozzmosis, Joliestar, winner of the Schweppes Thousand Guineas, while Zougotcha was last seen landing the Coolmore Classic.

“When we bought mum she was an expensive mare but we’ve got a good group of core clients who back us on these expensive mares and it’s great to see our judgement vindicated and the belief they’ve shown in us rewarded,” said Thompson.

“Certainly from Zoustar’s point of view, because we took a big position there and have always had enormous belief, it’s very satisfying to see him doing what he’s doing. The way his progeny have sold today has been phenomenal.”

Reflecting on the session-topping transaction, Thompson added: “It doesn’t just happen. The team has done an incredible job and the filly presented beautifully all week. Everyone who saw her just loved her; you saw that around the ring with four or five serious teams playing well above the million mark.

“It was going to take someone with real belief and real conviction to buy her and obviously John Camilleri has that sort of trust in James and those guys know what they’re doing.”

“Hopefully they’ve set themselves up with a bit of a legacy with such a beautiful filly. As much as we had very high expectations, we are realistic. Once you get over that million mark you never really know where you’re going.”

Zoustar stood the most recent breeding season at a fee of $220,000.

Lot 42 - Zoustar x Fundamentalist (Not A Single Doubt), colt, $1,900,000

Tom Magnier was the first buyer to break the seven-figure barrier at this year’s Australian Easter Yearling Sale when the Coolmore man stretched to $1.9m for the Zoustar colt out of the high-performing Fundamentalist (Not A Single Doubt).

Offered by Segenhoe Stud, the youngster is the third foal out of the two-time winner, whose biggest victory came in the Listed Dequetteville S. Fundamentalist performed to an even higher level in defeat having reached the podium in no less than five Group 1 contests, most notably when runner-up to The Autumn Sun in the Randwick Guineas.

The mare also finished second to Nakeeta Jane (So You Think {NZ}) in the Surround S. and filled the same spot behind Amphitrite in the Thousand Guineas.

“He’s a lovely colt,” said Magnier. “He stood out in the Segenhoe draft this week. They always do a good job and Peter O’Brien (Segenhoe general manager) always reminds me of the horses that we leave behind out of Segenhoe so I wasn’t going to give him that opportunity today. He’s a lovely colt, a great mover and it’s family we all know. Chris (Waller) will train so fingers crossed.”

Expanding on the colt’s appeal, Magnier added: “He just floated around the sales complex. He’s obviously a big, strong horse with loads of quality and when you see the brand on the shoulder, it needs no introduction. The whole team liked him.”

The Zoustar-Not A Single Doubt cross has yielded seven winners from 12 runners, including the stakes scorers Schwarz (Zoustar) and Solar Star (Zoustar).

Fundamentalist herself fetched just $135,000 when purchased by Aquis Farm and Blue Sky Bloodstock at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Yearling Sale. She went on to earn over $700,000 in prize-money during her racing career before being passed in at $1m at the 2020 Inglis Chairman’s Sale.

Her first foal, an as yet unraced Zoustar colt, brought $560,000 from Ciaron Maher at the 2021 Gold Coast National Weanling Sale, while Yulong Investments went to $280,000 for her Written Tycoon colt presented at last year’s Easter Sale.

Co-breeder Wes Heritage was among those on hand to witness the seven-figure transaction, and the Gold Coast-based businessman reflected on the sale by saying: “Peter O’ Brien and all the Segenhoe team were pumping my tyres up telling me to expect a good day but I never dreamed it would be like this! It’s a fantastic result and I’m thrilled.”

As well as securing one of day one’s leading lots, Coolmore are selling a heavyweight draft over the two sessions. The consignment is headlined by the highly touted Pierro filly out of wondermare Winx (Street Cry {Ire}), who sells as Lot 391 on Monday.

When asked how that side of the sale was progressing, Magnier said: “The team at the farm have obviously done a great job. We went out with our partners a long time ago to find the best mares and this is the start of (their progeny) coming through. We’re extremely fortunate to have the Winx filly here and I think there’ll be some fireworks here tomorrow afternoon. We can’t wait.

“The Booker filly (Lot 443, by I Am Invincible) is going down very well, so is the Sunlight (brother, Lot 304), there’s a whole load of them there. Hopefully they all find good homes and all the top trainers are pleased with the draft.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a complex anywhere in the world as busy as it was at 11.50am here today, so full credit to Inglis.”

Lot 186 - I Am Invincible x Notting Hill, filly, $1,800,000

Nick Wakim of Victorian outfit Hilldene Farm made his presence felt when he secured the I Am Invincible filly out of Notting Hill (Taiki Shuttle {USA}), for $1.8million. The third top lot was offered by Yarraman Park Stud and is due to go into training with Ciaron Maher.

There is plenty of bold black type on the filly’s page as her dam is a sibling to nine winners, including the likes of Group 3 scorer Precious Lorraine (Dundeel {NZ}), now the dam of Listed winner Meuse (Snitzel), and the stakes winner Star Of Monsoon (Lonhro). Notting Hill’s dam, Monsoon Wedding (Danehill {USA}) is a sibling to breed-shaping sire Redoute’s Choice and fellow Group 1 winners Manhattan Rain (Encosta De Lago) and Platinum Scissors (Danehill {USA}).

The filly is the third foal out of Notting Hill, who has already opened her account at paddocks thanks to the US-bred Maroon Bells (War Front) who won a maiden special weight at Gulfstream Park in 2022.

“Lovely filly, she was always a lovely filly and she was always going to sell well,” said Yarraman Park’s Arthur Mitchell.

“She was on the market at $200,000. She’s probably one of the nicest fillies in the sale. She ranks right up at the pointy end of the other ‘Vinny’ fillies we’ve sold. She’s gorgeous and has been from day one.”

The filly’s price eclipsed the sum that her dam fetched when she was offered at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2016 as James Harron Bloodstock and De Burgh Equine combined at $1.4 million to secure the daughter of Pierro. Notting Hill last changed hands on the public market in 2019 when she was bought by Craig Bernick’s Glen Hill Farm for $700,000 at the Keeneland November Sale.

Lot 68 - Snitzel x Hips Don’t Lie (NZ) (Stravinsky), filly, $1,100,000

Coolmore turned vendor for the second lot to break into seven-figure territory as Kia Ora and Tony Fung Investments paid $1.1million for the Snitzel filly out of blue hen mare Hips Don’t Lie (Stravinsky {USA}). The dam was a high-class runner herself, winning the G2 Reisling S. during her time in training, and has proved even more talented at paddocks.

She has bred eight winners from as many foals to race and remarkably four of those, all by Fastnet Rock, have gained black type. Lake Geneva (Lomond) won the Listed Crockett S. and also ran third in Vancouver’s Golden Slipper, while Acrobat won a Randwick Listed contest in track-record time before retiring to the Coolmore stallion roster after that solitary start.

The famous family has been in the headlines in recent times thanks to Hips Don’t Lie’s Group 3-winning daughter Ennis Hill (Fastnet Rock), who is the dam of last year’s leading juvenile filly Learning To Fly (Justify {USA}). The Kia Ora team already knows plenty about the pedigree as they signed for Learning To Fly at $900,000 during the 2022 Easter Sale.

Commenting on Sunday’s purchase, Kia Ora’s bloodstock and breeding manager Shane Wright said: “She looks very sharp, very early and she’s our style of a filly. The family is amazing; there’s an up-and-coming stallion in there and then it’s an amazing fillies family, so it’s just going to keep improving and improving over the years.

“We’ve tried to buy one or two out of the pedigree before, obviously we got Learning To Fly, so we’re very happy to have a second member of the family. We don’t usually decide on trainers for fillies this early, we’ll wait until the end of the sale and see what the portfolio brings.”

The result means that Hips Don’t Lie has now been responsible for five million dollar-plus Easter yearlings. Lake Geneva fetched $1million from Hawkes Racing in 2014, Aquanita Racing gave the same sum for Irish Sea (Fastnet Rock) in 2015 while Sia (Fastnet Rock) cost Jadeskye Racing and Nordic Breeding & Racing $1.1million a further 12 months on. Her most expensive yearling to date is Humming (I Am Invincible) who was bought by Sheamus Mills for $1.95million in 2021.

Hips Don’t Lie’s daughters have understandably become extremely valuable broodmare prospects and the 2022 Chairman’s Sale saw Hilldene Farm and James Bester combine at $1.6m to secure Sia.

Bester knows more about Hips Don’t Lie than most as the agent unearthed the daughter of Stravinsky for NZ$200,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale back in 2007.

Lot 37 - Zoustar x Formality filly, $950,000

A sensational session of selling for Widden Stud kingpin Zoustar kicked off when Sheamus Mills and James Bester combined at $950,000 for the filly out of Formality (Fastnet Rock).

Another from the Coolmore consignment, the filly’s dam won two Group 2 prizes during her time on the track, namely the Furious S. and the Silver Shadow S., beating Champagne Cuddles (Not A Single Doubt) for the former success and seeing off Alizee (Sepoy) in for the latter.

In turn, Formality is out of Jolie's Shinju (Jpn), a daughter of the Halo stallion Jolie’s Halo who was crowned Horse of The Year in Singapore in 2009.

Formality has fielded one winner from as many runners at stud, with the Justify colt Javaja winning two from two for trainer Stuart Kendrick in the colours of Kia Ora and TFI last season. Javaja also fetched $950,000 when offered by Coolmore at the 2022 edition of the Easter Sale.

This was Mills’ first purchase in conjunction with Bester, and the agent explained how the pair came together. “I was pretty keen on the filly,” he said. “In this day and age you see so many horses knocked down to multiple names, so, especially at something like the Easter Sale, you’re often trying to work out if you can team up with other people.

“I was obviously pretty keen on the filly, then I found out that James was as well so it worked out well. James’s client will take the vast majority of the horse and I will actually end up a minority partner.”

Mills said that no decision had been reached over who will train the filly.

Lot 82 - Zoustar x Invictus Salute, filly $950,000

Another Zoustar filly fetched $950,000 later in the session when Andrew Williams signed for the first living foal of Listed scorer Invictus Salute (Exceed And Excel). Offered by Catriona and Royston Murphy’s Sledmere Stud, the dam recorded the biggest of her six racecourse victories in the Listed Starlight S.

Invictus Salute’s profile is underpinned not only by performance but pedigree too as she is a half-sister to the dual Group 2 winner Splintex (Snitzel). In turn, the siblings are out of Acquired (NZ), an O’Reilly half-sister to the aforementioned blue hen Hips Don’t Lie.

“She looks like she’s built for speed,” said Royston Murphy. “I suppose the most exciting part of breeding is that you look forward to what is to come and we believe she will be running early next year.

“The mare has a cracking Home Affairs filly at home, which we would rate nearly the best foal on the farm, if not the best foal. We stepped up again and went back to I Am Invincible so she’s back in foal again. We hope the future is bright for her.”