3 minute read
Inspections have been an at unprecedented level with race fillies proving popular ahead of the start of the National Broodmare Sale.
Julian Blaxland's Blue Sky Premium Consignment presents a 42 strong draft at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale with multiple Group 1 winner Melody Belle (Commands) the second lot the operation will sell in the ring on Tuesday.
We spoke to Blaxland on Monday who told us that there had been an unprecedented level of interest in the draft and that the daughter of Commands (Danehill), who sells at Lot 510, had paraded beautifully since arriving on the sales complex.
"There's been unprecedented interest in the race fillies," Blaxland said.
"We did over 108 cards today, which is really good and there has been a lot of interest obviously in Melody Belle. She's a beautiful physical, and a lot of the Australian guys hadn't seen her up close before, but she's paraded beautifully for them."
The six-year-old Melody Belle comes to the sale having won 19 of her 41 career starts with 14 of those victories coming at Group 1 level. Bought for just NZ$57,500 by David Ellis from the draft of Haunui Farm at the 2016 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale, Melody Belle has won over $4 million in prize money and unsurprisingly there has been interest from domestic and international buyers.
"We have had interest from Australian, New Zealand buyers and overseas buyers and she's been really popular today," said Blaxland.
"She's handled it all very well and we are actually going to get Ashley Handley, her strapper, to lead her through the ring tomorrow which I think is a nice touch. She's been very popular and I think she'll sell accordingly.
"She's going through unreserved. There are 34 members of the syndicate and John Galvin, the syndicate manager, has made the good decision to let her go through unreserved and let the market dictate where she finishes.
"We're excited. She's early on and she'll certainly set the tone for the top mares selling tomorrow."
The Blue Sky Premium Consignment draft includes nine two-year-olds with the possible highlights of those being Queen Of Wizardry (Not A Single Doubt) and Pippa Charlotte (Not A Single Doubt) and Blaxland said that the race fillies in the catalogue has meant that this year's sale has attracted potential buyers who usually wouldn't be in attendance at the sale.
"The vibe is really good. We've had a lot of second and third lookers today and yesterday and people that you wouldn't usually see at a broodmare sale are here looking at the race fillies," said Blaxland.
"There are people from all over Australia and the Kiwis - who have been locked up for 18 months - have come here. There are a lot of the Kiwi studs and trainers here and it's a good time of the year to get on the Gold Coast."
Blaxland is confident that the success that breeders have enjoyed at the yearling sales this year will lead to them reinvesting at the sale, while the race fillies present a good opportunity to trainers.
"The breeders have had a great year selling their yearlings and they want to keep buying good stock. These race fillies are the blank canvas for them and there is interest from trainers as well to buy fillies to train on.
"We've got 10 or 12 two-year-olds going through from Annabel Neasham and Kacy Fogden and they all have plenty of racing left in them.
"They are also being sold unreserved and many of them have got great pedigrees and their best racing is ahead of them. It's only May of their two-year-old year and it's great for the market. Queen of Wizardry and Pippa Charlotte. It's exciting. There has been a lot of interest and I'll be very keen to see how it translates tomorrow."
