3 minute read
The training partnership secure eight yearlings on the first day
Co-trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace have been active at every sale in Australasia this year and they continued in a similar vein on Sunday at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale, snapping up eight yearlings for a total of $1,380,000 headlined by colt by Darley’s Teofilo (Galileo), who they secured for $460,000 from the Yulong draft.
The Maher / Eustace team, who finished the day as leading buyers by aggregate, have been unstoppable this season sending out a total of 167 winners, including 18 two-year-old scorers and Maher said the colt was a standout and was very happy to be taking him home.
“The stable is going very well and there is plenty of interest,” said Maher. “It's a good day, so plenty of people are out here and plenty of competition.
“Obviously I wanted to get him for as cheap as I could but I thought he was one of the top lots of the sale. By a proven sire out of a young Street Cry mare I loved him as a type, he ticked all the boxes in terms of what I look for as a yearling. Hopefully he's one for the future.
“He's a very good sire, but it was more he was from a good farm, by a good stallion and he was a good type. Usually, if they tick all those boxes, you'll usually have a hefty price tag to boot.
“You hope they are a Guineas type horse and then maybe Classic, but you always hope that maybe they are a bit sharper in this country.
“He seemed very clean, very athletic and he seemed to have a very good temperament. It was very busy down the back and it's a little bit of pressure when they are still quite young, but he seemed to handle that well.
He's was one of the obvious ones. You didn’t have to be too tricky to spot him. I would have gone a bit more to buy him, that's where I rated him, so it was great to get him for that.
Catalogued as Lot 25, the colt is the first foal out of Andes (Street Cry) who is herself a half-sister to Group 3 winner and Group 1 placed gelding Aramayo (Poet’s Voice). Meanwhile, the colt’s third dam produced Group 1 winner and now successful sire In The Wings (Sadler’s Wells), Group 2 winners Morozov (Sadler’s Wells) and Hunting Hawk (Sadler’s Wells) and Group 3 scorer Hawker’s News (Sadler’s Wells).
Sam Fairgray, Yulong’s chief operating officer, was pleased with the result having purchased the mare for $90,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale with the colt in utero.
“He was hugely popular - lovely horse with a great temperament,” said Fairgray. “It was a great result for Mr Zhang and it’s great to be a Victorian farm and be able to bring a horse like that to Melbourne Premier and for him to sell so well.
“We have a broodmare band of 180 and with the acquisition of the new stallions we have to build a reputation that we can sell good racehorses. Being a Victorian farm we want to support this sale, so it’s great to make that sort of money with a nice colt like that.”
Yulong enjoyed a day of two halves on Saturday with homebred Hungry Heart (Frankel) winning a ticket into the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) with a victory in the Sweet Embrace Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m), however new stallion acquisition Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice) trailed home last in the Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) later in the day.
Fairgray said Alabama Express had returned to the Michael Moroney stable with a temperature and would now be monitored closely before any decision is made as to his future.
“Mike said he had a temperature this morning, so we will just monitor him,” Fairgray explained. “Micheal Dee (jockey) said his action changed soon after the straight. It was obviously a run well under par. It wasn’t great but when they run as badly as that at least you know it’s not the norm for the horse so you can be a bit more forgiving.”
Meanwhile, Hungry Heart will now head straight to the Golden Slipper Stakes following her win in the Group 2 at Randwick on Saturday.
“It was great to have the first stakes winner of the property yesterday with Hungry Heart,” said Fairgray. “We will leave plans ahead of the Slipper up to Waller, but the plan is to go straight to the Slipper. Chris to his credit in June last year he said: ‘where do you want to head with this filly because you can head anywhere. But we said, being by Frankel, have a run then head for a spell.
“So she had the run at Flemington and then we sent her back to the farm for a week, but then the called and asked if we could set her for the Slipper. So it was a good effort to get her to win yesterday (Saturday).”
Yulong also announced on Sunday that Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Tagaloa (Lord Kanaloa) would join Grunt (O’Reilly) and Alabama Express on their Victorian roster.
“It confirms Mr Zhang’s commitment to the racing industry and Victoria to be able to get an exciting horse,” said Fairgray.
