Coolmore snare Shout The Bar for $2.7 million at Inglis Chairman's Sale

Shout The Bar set for date with Home Affairs

The mare has been bought for Coolmore’s exciting new stallion Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) - who like Shout The Bar herself - is the winner of two Group 1s and like the stallion she is destined to be covered by, the mare will be given a chance to add more riches to her record with Magnier revealing she will stay in training before retiring to Coolmore at the end of the season.

With Glenesk Thoroughbreds’ Brett Howard looking on from the vendors' box, the daughter of Not A Single Doubt had barely entered the ring before the bidding board had the magic $1 million mark across it and that continued to steadily climb as Magnier and various underbidders battled for the right to take the mare home.

However, as is mostly always the case at the Sales, Magnier was not in the mood to go home empty handed, showing the sort of fighting spirit that we have become accustomed to expect from Shout The Bar herself on the track and after a spirited bidding war the Coolmore boss was able to outlast his rivals, looking relieved when the gavel fell in his favour.

“We are delighted to get her. She was the standout mare in the catalogue and we have a great crew of clients and investors and they want to buy the best mares for Home Affairs,” said Magnier. “We are on the lookout for him and that’s what we want to do.”

Magnier confirmed the Chris Waller-trained Home Affairs was set for a trip to England, with the G1 Platinum Jubilee S. at Royal Ascot lying in wait and he will look to emulate his future barnmate Merchant Navy, who landed the race - when it was known as the Golden Jubilee S. - in 2019.

“We spoke to Chris (Waller) this morning, the horse is going to Royal Ascot. It is a huge ask of him, but it is really exciting for him to get the chance. We race him with a great bunch of clients, so to get a mare like this is really exciting. Like the old saying goes: `To get the best, you have to breed them to the best,’” said Magnier.

“The plan is to race Shout The Bar in Queensland and she will then go back to the farm and when Home Affairs comes back from his European campaign they will have a date in the breeding barn.”

Trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and, Shout The Bar is out of the winning mare Drinks All Round (NZ) (O’Reilly {NZ}) and she derives from the same family as dual Group 1 winner Rangirangdoo (NZ) (Pentire {GB}) and Howard said he was honoured to be entrusted with the mare.

“You never know when they walk into the ring how it is going to go. But she is a queen and certainly the most outstanding mare we have been privy to take to an auction and it is good to see the owners rewarded,” said Howard, who who was involved in the selection and purchase of Shout The Bar as a yearling

“It is a real privilege for both myself and Rachael and our team to be entrusted with a mare like that and to get a result like that it is very fulfilling.

“We are grateful to Coolmore, they have bought themselves a bloody nice mare. We are also grateful to Duncan Grimley and to Yoshida, who I think were the underbidders, and I am disappointed for them that they didn’t manage to get her, but I am grateful to Tom and I am looking forward to seeing the Home Affairs yearling in a couple of years' time.”

Glenesk Thoroughbreds finished the Sale as the leading vendors by average (with three or more lots sold), selling four mares for $3,955,000 at average of $988,750.

Sensational Segenhoe

Segenhoe Stud’s Peter O’Brien was celebrating a brilliant few hours at the Sale on Friday as they sold 11 mares for a leading aggregate of $5.21 million and the headline act of the group was the well-related mare Sia (Fastnet Rock), who was purchased by Hilldene Farm and James Bester for $1.6 million - the second most expensive lot of the evening.

The mare - who was a winner as a 2-year-old - is from one of the most prolific families in the Stud Book, being out of Group 2-winning mare Hips Don’t Lie (NZ) (Stravinsky {USA}), making Sia a sister to a whole host of top-performers; Group 3 scorer Ennis Hill (Fastnet Rock) and stakes-winning duo Lake Geneva (Fastnet Rock) and Acrobat, who will stand his first season at Coolmore Stud this Spring.

O’Brien said he was delighted with the results and was already planning to bring a bigger draft to the 2023 edition of the boutique Sale.

“I can honestly say that was the best sale I have ever been involved with. We’ve had every single one basically sell well above what we expected. I can’t thank Inglis enough for bringing the buyers here. I think they will have to build 100 more boxes because we are going to have half of them,” he quipped.

“I said two years ago, when the Sale was so strong, we were going to build up our numbers here. This year 14 entered and put 12 through the ring and if someone had said we were going to get this result I would have done a naked run around that ring! Next year we will have more.”

It was no surprise to see Bester invest once again with a family he knows so much about, having been part of the ownership group who raced talented 2-year-old Acrobat throughout his short career and Hilldene Farm’s Nick Wakim said he was also delighted to be buying into such an active and successful family.

“We have a small band of broodmares but we try to buy the best quality and best families. She is out of a blue hen mare and we are delighted to get her. I am an owner-breeder so we try and retain all the fillies in the families, so if she has a filly we will retain her and if she has a colt we will be selling,” Wakim said.

“We zeroed in on her and she was the only lot we were going to bid on at the Sale. The price is a little bit over what we thought, but it is such a beautiful family and it is so difficult to get into and with a Snitzel inside her.

“If he is a colt and he is correct and handsome, he could make anything. She can go anywhere - she could go back to Snitzel, or go to I Am Invincible or Zoustar. She will go to one of the top stallions in the country.”

Malone savours dream result

Kitchwin Hills' studmaster Mick Malone might have a bit of grovelling to do with his wife Pauline when he arrives home in the coming days after he sold Group 3-winning mare Ellicazoom (Testa Rossa) to Longwood Thoroughbred Farm's Michael Christian, who was working alongside Sheamus Mills, for $1.45 million at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale on Friday night.

Malone purchased Ellicazoom for $420,000 at the Magic Millions Perth Mixed Sale in 2018 and he said it was wrench to part with the mare, but that $1.45 million was too big an opportunity to pass up, even if the decision may put a cat amongst the pigeons for him at home.

“As we speak my wife Pauline is at home and is probably tearing up our marriage vows, because she wanted her at home,” he joked. “We bought her as a race filly and we have had her right through and she has foaled a couple of foals for us.”

Before the sale, Ellicazoom had already handed Kitchwin Hills a good result when Tony Fung Investments paid $625,000 for her colt by I Am Invincible at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale and last she produced a filly by Exceed And Excel.

The mare was offered in foal to I Am Invincible and Malone is confident, given the quality of the stock she has already produced, her progeny could easily be topping Sales for the next few years.

“It was a terrific result, those mares are hard to come by and well done with Michael Christian and Sheamus Mills for purchasing her,” said Malone. “If you want to play at this level those are the sort of mares you have to have and I think she could easily produce a Sale-topper in years to come, she is just that quality of mare.

“Sadly, we had to put her through the ring, but her life continues on and who knows, we buy a lot of yearlings so we might get involved somewhere along the way again.

“It sounds crazy, but I would have been disappointed had she just made $1 million but we would have sold. But that is what those mares do, they bring that type of money.”

Christan said she was a mare they had been targeting from early and she would head back for a third time to Yarraman Park’s I Am Invincible later in the year.

“She was a beautiful mare, I mean she wanted to have been for $1.45 million. I am very familiar with her because one of the mares that we bred and raced called Fuhryk raced against her a number of times, so I was very familiar with her, particularly her race record and style,” he said.

“She was a very tough mare and she was a great racemare. We have done a lot of research on her first two foals and they were outstanding individuals. She is in foal to I Am Invincible, who is the best stallion in the country and we are really excited.

“Mick got emotional in the box and that is the great part of the industry and who knows he might buy one of her progeny and it just goes round and round. We are really excited to have and we will have her for the rest of her life and hopefully over the next 10 to 12 years we can have seven or eight foals and it will be truly exciting.”

Testa Rossa is carving out a good reputation as a good broodmare sire, with 22 of his daughters producing 22 stakes winners and they are headed by five Group 1 winners, including dual top-flight winner Global Glamour (Star Witness) and Vow And Declare (Declaration Of War {USA}), who landed the 2019 edition of the G1 Melbourne Cup.

Christian said the Testa Rossa factor was one of the many facets that encouraged him to bid on the mare.

“Being by Testa Rossa, she has no Danehill blood and she ticked every box,” said Christian. “She was a great racemare, by a great broodmare sire and in foal to one of the best stallions in the country, there wasn’t much to fault her on. She will go back to I Am Invincible as her first foal was an absolute beauty and why reinvent the wheel?”

Christian - who left the Sale before the end of trade to catch a flight to Adelaide and will be on track to watch Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai) in the G1 Robert Sangster S. at Morphettville on Saturday - signalled his intent to be a big player at the Sale when he and Mills purchased Listed winner Avenue Of Pleasure (I Am Invincible) from Segenhoe Thoroughbreds for $550,000.

The mare was catalogued as Lot 6 and she was offered in foal to Coolmore Stud’s stalwart stallion Fastnet Rock.

Daysee Doom booked into Zoustar

Daysee Doom (Domesday) was a star for trainer Ron Quinton on the track winning nine of her career starts, including the G1 Coolmore Classic and on Friday night the daughter of Domesday’s star shone brightly once again when she was purchased by Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson and David Redvers for $1.1 million.

Catalogued as Lot 27 and offered by Sledmere Stud, Daysee Doom mounted up and enviable race record. As well her Group 1 win she also snared four additional Group races, while she was stakes-placed on nine occasions.

She was offered on Friday in foal to exciting shuttler Wootton Bassett (GB), having already produced a colt by Exceed And Excel in 2020 and she foaled a filly by Deep Field last season.

Being by Domesday - himself a son of Red Ransom (USA) - Daysee Doom is bred on a similar cross to Widden’s star mare Solar Charged, who is herself by Charge Forward - another son of Red Ransom.

The Solar Charged story is path well-travelled with the mare being the dam of multiple Group 1 winner Sunlight (Zoustar), who was purchased by Tom Magnier for a record-breaking $4.2 million at the 2020 edition of the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, while she also produced Group 3 winner Sisstar - another daughter of the Widden’s resident sire Zoustar.

Last month, Solar Charged handed Widden Stud yet another record-breaking result in the Sale ring when her colt - another by Zoustar - was purchased for a whopping $3 million, to top the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

Unsurprisingly, given Zoustar’s potency when crossed with Red Ransom blood, Thompson said Daysee Doom would be set for a date with the son of Northern Meteor, who is currently covering his fourth book of mares at Redvers’ Tweenhills Farm and Stud in the UK.

“She was a super racemare and one we really loved on the track. Not only is she a Group 1 winner, but she won four other stakes races and she placed in another six stakes races. She was lightly raced and a high-class, high-quality mare.

“She is a gorgeous-looking mare and I’ve seen the foals she’s had and she’s already shown she can throw a really lovely type,” said Thompson. “Her first foal, by Exceed And Excel, was stunning, so you can buy with confidence

“Sunlight was bred on that cross with that Red Ransom blood and she will be a lovely mare for him. I think she will have a date with Zoustar for the next few years.

“We bought Solar Charged with David Redvers for Sheikh Fahad and ourselves and that has obviously worked out particularly well for us and certainly at Easter, so let's hope we can have the same sort of luck with this mare.”

Wootton Bassett covered 188 mares in his first year at Coolmore’s Australia base at a fee of $71,500 (inc GST) and the stallion arrived in the Hunter Valley with a lofty reputation having sired 27 stakes winners in the Northern Hemisphere, headed by five Group 1 winners, including Cambridge Stud shuttler Almanzor (Fr).

Wootton Bassett will be considered a first-sire in Australia when his runners hit the track in 2025, but Thompson said it gave him more confidence given that the stallion is already proven in Europe.

“She is in foal to a highly commercial stallion in Wootton Bassett, who is in his first season at Coolmore, but already a proven sire in the Northern Hemisphere.”

The mare is out of Listed-placed See A Victory (Mister C {USA}) and she hails from the same family as Listed-winning duo Cooldini (Bernardini {USA}) and Correct Amoondo (Snippets).

Mechanic worth the wait

Treen and Royston Murphy’s Sledmere Stud were handed yet another good result on the day, when G2 Sunline S. winning-mare Quantum Mechanic (Deep Field) - the very last lot of the evening - was retained by Chambers Bloodstock for $1.2 million, having been co-owners in the 5-year-old mare throughout her 28-start career.

Catalogued as Lot 100, Quantum Mechanic is out of winning Fastnet Rock mare Life In A Metro, making her a half-sister to South African Grade 2 scorer Mount Pleasant (Vancouver). The mare will be retired and a suitable stallion will be decided in the coming weeks.

Life In A Metro is a three-quarter sister to Group 1-winning pair Abbey Marie (Redoute’s Choice) and Absolutely (Redoute’s Choice), while she counts Group 3 winner Runaway among her half-siblings.

During the evening, Sledmere Stud sold all six of the mares they offered for an aggregate of $4.15 million at an average of $691,667 and Treen Murphy said she was delighted with the ‘extraordinary’ results.

“We have been very blessed with support from our clients and to come here and gross over $4 million from six horses is amazing,” she said. “They were extraordinary horses we had on offer and this was an extraordinary Sale. It is the best of the best, the cream of the crop.

“During the last couple of days of parading it was extremely busy and busier than what we have experienced in the run up to a broodmare Sale. But when you come to a Sale like this you are expecting the results to speak from themselves and some made above and beyond, but the clients were over the moon.”

Strength and depth

At the close of trade on Friday night, Inglis reported that 70 mares sold for an aggregate of $32.905 million at a clearance rate of 83 per cent - which is expected to climb in the coming days, while the auction finished with an average of $470,071 and an astronomical median of $350,000.

Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch said he was delighted with the trade, in particular the apparent strength of the middle market.

“It was a fantastic evening,” he said. “From the point of view of the auction house you are looking to put together a strong catalogue, full of what you think are the right sort of horse and then you have to generate the right sort of interest in the Sale.

“We had really felt like we had the right sort of mares and the right buyers and the results have been really fantastic. One particular vendor, who has been a participant in the Chairman’s reasonably successfully in the past and has just felt there was improvement in the Sale.

“But he came up to me before the Sale and said they had broken every record for inspections at a broodmare Sale and I think that is a fantastic compliment.

“The strength of the middle market of the Sale was a real feature and I think people were surprised with how much more the mares were making than what they had expected.

“There was great competition on the mares and there was great clearance in the ring and inevitably there are vendors who want to protect their mares, so you end up with passed in lots, but there have already been a couple of private sales that have taken place and the clearance rate is going to continue to climb over the weekend.

“It really had a fantastic feel to it and it had that sense of occasion, which was obviously great to see.”

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