3 minute read
Ryan snaps up youngster for $700,000 at Riverside.
A colt by Yarraman Park's star stallion I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) from the family of the great mare Winx (Street Cry) topped round 2 of the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale on Sunday after trainer Gerald Ryan went to $700,000 outside the ring to secure the youngster.
Catalogued as Lot 95 and offered as part of the Bhima Thoroughbreds draft, the yearling is out of the unraced Encosta De Lago (Fairy King) mare Miss Atom Bomb, who is herself a half-sister to champion Winx and Group 3 winner El Divino (Snitzel), with the trio all being out of Listed scorer Vegas Showgirl (Al Akbar).
The colt is the mares third foal, with her first, a filly by Darley stallion Sepoy (Elusive Quality) - who is now named Nuclear Blitz and has won one start - selling to Dermot Farrington Bloodstock for $300,000 at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Her second foal was a filly by former Darley shuttler Medaglia d'Oro (El Prado), who was purchased by Godolphin for $750,000 at last yearling Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and she is unraced.
"He's a nice horse who is by a great stallion out of a mare who was unraced but I knew what she could do (when she was trained at Rosehill by Tim Martin)," said Ryan. "She had a stack of ability and she was very fast and she is a half-sister to none other than Winx, so you wouldn't get a better page.
"He's a nice colt, he's an athlete. He's a big, strong horse. You wouldn't say he'd be a pre-Christmas two-year-old but he'd definitely be ready to run in the autumn."
With the coronavirus pandemic planning havoc with aspects of life, the sale season has also had to rearrange it's dates and Ryan said it was different looking at yearlings that will turn two in a matter of weeks.
"It's a bit different," said Ryan. "You look at them in January, February or April and say, 'they might need a little bit of time' but here we are in July and they are nearly two-year-old. They still need a bit of time.
"He will go out for a couple of weeks. He's been broken in up at Scone and the breaker thought he'd done enough and he quite liked him.
"I saw him pre-Easter and then I saw him on Thursday and again today. He has grown a lot and he has filled out.
"It was a bit more than what I was hoping (to pay) but on his page and if he goes through a normal Easter sale he probably makes $900,000.
"It was strong enough. I know a few of the vendors would be a bit disappointed but given the present situation I think they've sold OK. The colts and the good fillies, the same as every sale, they make their money."
The colt was offered by Bhima on behalf of Peter and Terry Board, who purchased Miss Atom Bomb for $150,000 at the New Zealand Premier Yearling Sale in 2012 as the first foal out of Vegas Showgirl, whose second foal would turn out to be Winx.
“The next foal out of the mare was Winx so we might not have got the best one to race but we’re certainly having some fun breeding with this mare,’’ Terry Board said.
“She always had a lot of ability and speed and Tim Martin who trained her always liked her but she never made it to the races.
“So we went on the breeding journey with her and while this year has been a little stressful at times to be honest given everything that’s been happening, we’re so very happy with this result today to get the $700,000 for the colt.’’
