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Coolmore flexes firepower at Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
Coolmore's Tom Magnier left the sales complex on the first day of the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale with three of the most sought after mares in Australia, spending an eye-watering $5.5 million on Invincibella (I Am Invincible) and Sunlight (Zoustar), but his spending three did not stop there and was completed late in the evening when he forked out $2 million for Group 2-winning Not A Single Doubt (Redoute's Choice) mare Champagne Cuddles.
The mare was catalogued as Lot 131 and sold by Turangga Farm in absentia due to the coronavirus pandemic and James Bester said the Coolmore team had inspected her on the farm and deemed her to be the perfect fit for Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy).
"We saw her more than once and she is a perfect mare for Justify," said Bester. She is a real sprinting two-year-old type of mare by Not A Single Doubt. She is from a great family and she needs a stallion with a bit of leg on him and we identified her as a perfect mare to send to Justify.
"What this mare has is strength in abundance, really powerful fore-arm and hind-quarter. She is a very good mover.
"She was a very fast mare and as game as a pebble. She danced in all the dances and was Group 1-placed in some of the best races in Australia. Whilst she didn't win a Group 1 she beat a lot of Group 1 winners."
Bester said he was not surprised to see stiff competition for a mare of his calibre and said the operation was prepared to stretch to that figure to take her home.
"There was strong online competition for her and competition on the complex, but when you want these horses you have to be prepared to pay that sort of money," said Bester. "She was so perfect for Justify we had to have her for him."
The five-year-old mare won four of her 26 starts and prize money of over $1.4 million in prize-money with her biggest victory coming in last year's Breeders Classic (Gr 2, 1200m). She was unlucky not to net a Group 1 in her career and was placed four times at elite level in the Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m), Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1350m) and Kingsford-Smith Cup (Gr 1, 1350m).
Champagne Cuddles is out of the Group 1-winning mare Sky Cuddle (Snippets) who has produced three other winners and is also the grandam of the Group 3 winner Violate (Sebring).
Sky Cuddle herself is out of juvenile winner Suggestive (Al Hareb), making her a half-sister to seven winners including the Group 2 winner and now sire Highly Recommended (Fastnet Rock), Group 3 scorer Sky Love (Octagonal) and Listed-winning duo Hint (Reset) and Undeniably (Fastnet Rock).
Stuart Ramsey of Turangga Farm said there were mixed emotions about the sale.
"It's very satisfying and it's good to see the Magnier family buy her because we've had a good association for a long time," said Ramsey.
"We've got a lot of kids and grandkids and she's worth so much to us and more to other people. The girls and my wife aren't very happy, but you've got to make these decisions and they're not easy. It's very emotional to lose her.
"I thought'd she'd probably make it. We put $1.5 million (reserve) on her and I wouldn't have sold her for under that and I thought she'd make $2 million.
"The big players were on her and the thing was, although she hadn't won a Group 1, Sunlight into third by an inch; She went past Merchant Navy, who's gone to stud, in the Golden Rose as though he was stuck to the wall. She's had a little bit of bad luck in big races, but she's honest. She's been good."
Of the sale, Ramsey said: "I think the horses have sold very well. It's a good sale and the online platform is probably going to be used more because of the cost of going to sales and different things."
