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Sydney-based bloodstock agent Jim Clarke was at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale on Sunday.
Sydney-based bloodstock agent Jim Clarke was at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale on Sunday sourcing well-bred fillies for his new venture and he forked out $210,000 for a filly by Arrowfield's recently retired stallion Not A Single Doubt (Redoute's Choice).
Clarke said he has assembled a group of clients to race well-bred fillies in the hope of upgrading their pedigrees on the track before re-offering them as broodmares when their racing career is over.
"I bought her for a partnership I am putting together to race some well-bred fillies," said Clarke.
"This is a group of clients I put together at the back end of last year just through my network and we are looking to get fillies by proven stallions who have got good strong commercial pedigrees and hopefully with good racecourse performances we can upgrade their value.
"This is not for breeding and it is highly likely that anything that performs to stakes level will be going back through the broodmare sales in a few years time."
The syndicate so far is made up for two yearlings and this Not A Single Doubt filly joins a Savabeel (Zabeel) filly he purchased for NZ$220,000 at last month's New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka sale, who will go into training with Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young.
The Not A Single Doubt filly, who was offered by Arrowfield Stud and catalogued as Lot 153, will join the Warwick Farm stable of Bjorn Baker, who knows the family well having trained her dam Forreel (Nom Du Jeu) to three victories on the track.
Baker's association with the family does not end there with Forreel being a half-sister to champion racehorse Dundeel (High Chaparral), who was saddled to six Group 1 wins by Baker's father Murray and he also trained the filly's dual Group 1-winning third dam Staring (Fiesta Star).
"She is a lovely filly and with her pedigree she is going to be worth plenty of money regardless of what she does on a racecourse. She had a lot of quality about her, typical Not A Single Doubt very forward running type," said Clarke.
"She will go to Bjorn [Baker] who obviously knows the family well having raced the mother and he also had a fair bit to do with Dundeel during his career."
Clarke said he was expecting the filly to make that much and was happy to dig deep to take her home.
"I am very excited, she is the one I wanted to buy and I'm very glad I bought her. I thought she would make that much, it was sort of getting to the top of what I was going to spend on her, but I expected to have to go that far.
"She has thrown towards the sire, he gets strong close coupled horses who get up nice and early. There is also plenty of stamina in her pedigree so whatever she does at two she will continue to improve at three.
"Bjorn has had plenty of luck with the breed with Champagne Cuddles and Samadoubt who have both been extremely good horses while they have matured. I think there are a few strings to her bow and hopefully we can get the best out of her."
Of the market, the young agent commented: "I think the market has been pretty strong, there have been plenty of nice horses around and the nice horses have been making good money and I think we've done pretty well. But it has certainly been competitive on the better horses."
Clarke paired up with Baker earlier in the afternoon for a colt by All Too Hard (Casino Prince) for $70,000, while the duo also snapped up a colt by Newgate Farm's first-season sire Winning Rupert (Written Tycoon) for $60,000.
