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Son of Arrowfield Stud shuttler hands YuLong memorable result
Justin Bahen and trainer Matt Laurie made their presence felt on the first day of the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale on Sunday, with the pair teaming up to buy four lots for a total spend of $2,020,000 and the most expensive of the quartet was a colt by Arrowfield Stud shuttler Shalaa (Invincible Spirit), who they purchased for $700,000.
Shalaa has made an instant impression with his first crop in Australia, siring three winners headed by Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner Shaquero and Bahen told Racing & Sports Bloodstock he had been getting good reports from trainers about the progeny of the son of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert).
“He was one of the better colts in the sale and Shalaa is going well here and if trainers have a Shalaa they are very up about them,” said Bahen. “He was pretty easy to like, a second foal out of a Commands mare, who is a really good broodmare sire.
“I know enough trainers who have Shalaa’s in their stable and they say they are happy to pursue them. $700,000 is a lot to pay for a colt, so I obviously really liked him and so did a lot of others.
“There is a lot of weight in that family, with Shooting To Win and Deep Field. He was a good mixture of Commands and Shalaa, there was a bit of both in him. He was pretty easy to like to be quite honest. He had a good bone, good shoulder and a really nice presence about him and he is a lovely natural mover.
“We are buying for a good client of mine, who has been a good supporter of Matt Laurie over the years.”
Catalogued as Lot 226, the Yulong-consigned colt is out of three time-winning Commands (Danehill) mare Our Daisy.
The colt’s third dam is dual-winning mare Theme Song (Sackford) and she produced Group 1 scorer Emerald Dream (Danehill) - the dam of Listed-winning duo Zabene (Zabeel) and Knight’s Command (Pins).
Theme Song is also the grandam of stakes winner Listen Here (Elusive Quality), who in turn produced Group 1 winner and now Darley Stud-based sire Shooting To Win (Northern Meteor) and his Group 2-winning brother Deep Field, who stands at Newgate Farm.
Laurie said the colt was very special and had thought he would prove popular in the ring.
“I’ve got a handful of Shalaas at home that I’m excited to get to the track but this guy was just a very special colt,’’ Laurie said.
“You don’t see them like him every day. I had a feeling he would bring the big bucks and I suppose I wasn’t wrong.’’
Yulong sold five yearlings during the opening session for an aggregate of $1,260,000, while they finished with an average of $252,000 and Harris Li – the son-in-law of Yulong’s owner Mr Zhang - said he was very pleased with the day's results.
“We have been developing for three-to-five years here in Victoria now and results like this are fantastic, they make it all worthwhile.
“We want to thank the Victorian breeders, they support us a lot and do a great job themselves and everything is going so well here at the moment and we will do our best to continue supporting the whole industry here in Australia.
“We love bringing great yearlings here to sell in Melbourne. We would also like to thank Inglis, there are a lot of people here to buy our horses and that’s how we got $700,000 for this Shalaa, it’s fabulous.’’
Shalaa had four lots sell for a gross of $1,230,000 at an average of $307,500, a figure that was only bettered by Written Tycoon (Iglesia). He has stood his first four seasons in Australia for $33,000 (inc GST) and covered 170 mares last year, his biggest Australian to date.
