3 minute read
Bloodstock and trainer team up for $400,000.
Bloodstock agent James Clarke paired up with Bjorn Baker to purchase a colt by Snitzel (Redoute's Choice) from a family the Sydney trainer knows well, paying Edinburgh Park $400,000 for the yearling.
Catalogued as Lot 61, the colt is out of dual winner Alice's Smart (Smart Strike) - the dam of Group 3-placed Miss Wonderland (Snitzel), fellow winner Wonderbabe (Snitzel) and Spencer (Pierro), who has won six times for Baker.
"I know Ian has had a good opinion of the colt all the way through," said Clarke. "Bjorn obviously trains Spencer out of the mare and she has done a fantastic job. She's a young mare and she's got a stakes horse on the ground and three city winners in Sydney, so she's doing a fantastic job.
"There's not much to say about Snitzel other than the fact that he is still at the top of the tree in terms of stallions in this country. Pedigree wise he ticked all the boxes and he's a lovely big athletic horse and hopefully he can do it on the racetrack and he can find a home at stud one day."
Alice's Smart herself is out of Listed winner Darling Alice (Northern Flagship) - the grandam of Listed-winning duo Endrygol (Evolutionist) and Piacenza (League Of Nations), while she is also the grandam of Group 1-placegetter Glenfiddich (Fastnet Rock) and stakes-performing duo Eleven Eleven (Fastnet Rock) and War Memorial (Fastnet Rock).
Of the market, Clarke commented: "We definitely have a lot of people interested in these horses. It is changing times, no doubt, but we're in the racing business, so we've got to keep buying horses and racing them. The fact that the prize-money has gone back to pre-Covid levels gives us a lot of confidence to bid very strong. There's always going to be people who want to be involved.
"We've taken a cautious approach in terms of the horses we've bought since the pandemic struck and we have focused on quality."
The bloodstock agent also said that well-bred fillies will always retain their residual value.
"Well bred fillies are always going to have value and there's plenty of people in the position to be able to ride it out and race those fillies and hopefully go on to be in broodmare bands in the future.
"There are others who require cash flow and their horses are going on the market to be sold. Under the circumstances I think (the industry) has done a great job through all this, It's forever been a moving beast and Inglis has done a fantastic job to provide a market place and overall the trade is as good as can be expected."
Later in the afternoon, another colt by the Arrowfield Stud-based sire Snitzel, who is on the cusp of winning his fourth champion sire title in Australia, proved popular when he was purchased by Aquis Farm for $300,000.
Catalogued as Lot 89 and offered as part of the Highgrove Stud draft, the colt is out of winning mare Helena's Secret (Five Star Day), making him a brother to Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Thorum, who stands at Sun Stud in Victoria.
Further afield this is the family of multiple Group 1 winners and successful sires Street Cry (Machiavellian) and Shamardal (Giant's Causeway).
