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Sells for a record breaking figure of $360,000 to BBT Breeding and Racing on Day 1
The Zoustar (Northern Meteor) colt out of Vergara (Snippetson) became the most expensive weanling sold at Oaklands when he was bought by BBT Breeding and Racing for $360,000 from the draft of Philip Campbell’s Blue Gum Farm. The previous record was set in 2017 when a colt by More Than Ready (Southern Halo) sold for $310,000.
The session-topping colt, who was catalogued as Lot 227, is the third foal out of Group Three winning mare Vergara (Snippetson) who was bought by Heritage Bloodstock for $460,000 at the 2016 Inglis Sydney Broodmare Sale. She is herself a half-sister to Group 2 winner Valiant Spirit (Duport), who races in Hong Kong as Beauty Spirit, while further back this is the family of dual Group One winner and sire Turffontein (Johannesburg) who stands at Blue Gum Farm.
Blue Gum Farm sold the $1,100,000 sale topping Written Tycoon (Iglesia) colt earlier this year at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale and Philip Campbell told Racing & Sports on Sunday that he was pleased the Zoustar colt sold well.
“He was a lovely colt so it was great to see him sell so well,” said Campbell.
“It’s not dissimilar to what happened this year at Premier with a big yearling colt. You just don’t know to what level they are going to go. We always thought he was a $250,000 - $300,000 colt and he made a little bit more than that.
“The first person to inspect him on the grounds on Thursday morning was Damon Gabbedy and Damon looked at me and said ‘this is a colt worth a lot of money’. People kept looking at him and the response to him seemed to be really positive. We knew he x-rayed well and he paraded so professionally. He had a lot of traffic but just took it all in his stride. He had such a lovely big action.
“He had a page and he was a physical product so we knew we had a recipe for a good result and that is how it turned out.”
The colt is the fifth most expensive lot by Widden Stud’s Zoustar to sell at public auction as a weanling and was the sole lot to sell by the sire at the Great Southern Weanling Sale this year.
Blue Gum Farm sold five of the six lots they offered on Sunday for a total of $403,500 at an average of $80,700 and median of $12,000 and Campbell said that the market was strong for the nicer horses.
“The nice horses have sold well,” he said.
“There is no doubt about that. The sale has been impacted by the recent COVID situation in Victoria. The sale got pushed back three weeks. There were a lot of withdrawals. There have been people who haven’t been able to attend but I think the online presence has been very strong. There’s been a good contingent of agents here looking at horses for a multitude of people and I think the market has held up very, very well and the nice horses have definitely made good money. It’s just been a continuation of what’s transpired up north with the weanling sales this year.”
