Western Australian buyers signed for 19 yearlings for a total spend of $1.23 million by close of trade at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale on Tuesday.
Peters Investments paid the west’s top price of $460,000 for a So You Think (NZ) colt from Danalicious (Zabeel). Sold by Morning Rise Stud owner Rob McClure, he’s closely-related to MVRC Night Cup (LR, 2500m) winner Northwest Passage (So You Think).
Liam Peters represented Bob Peters at Oaklands Junction and was surprised when his grandfather said to keep bidding. “I think we might have been getting close to budget but I really liked him during inspections. We’re familiar with the damsire Zabeel so we are very happy to pick him up.”
It’s the same cross as Peters Investments homebred Midnight Blue who won last season’s G2 Perth Cup (2400m) and LR Ascot Gold Cup (1800m) before transferring to Pakenham trainer John Leek jnr. He holds a Group 1 nomination for the G1 Sydney Cup (3200m) at Randwick on April 8.
Rob McClure agreed he could not have hoped for a better result at Oaklands. “He’s a beautiful walker, he’s by So You Think and looks a whole lot like his father.
“It’s a very good family and he had been well received all week.”
The colt (pictured) was purchased under Damon Gabbedy’s Belmont Bloodstock Agency as was another $460,000 colt by Ocean Park at the Inglis Sydney Classic Sale in Sydney last month. Belmont Bloodstock also acted as agent in Melbourne for a Blue Point colt ($70,000) and a Toronado colt ($120,000) and filly ($200,000).
Ridgeport Holdings owner Santo Guagliardo paid $390,000 for a Written Tycoon filly from Tetsuko (I Am Invincible). The dam was a precocious Group 2-placed 2yo in the Sweet Embrace Stakes (1200m) at Randwick. Second-dam Magdalena (Snaadee) won a LR Burgess Queen Stakes (1400m) at Ascot for trainer Len Morton in 1997.
The Written Tycoon filly won’t be joining Bustler and the rest of the Guagliardo team with Neville Parnham at Ascot. Instead, she will join Dan Clarken and Niki O’Shea at Sellicks Beach, 50km south of Morphettville.
Clarken prepared Out Of Aflica to win an early-season 2yo scamper in the blue and lime diagonal-striped silks at Morphettville last season. She is a daughter of Rommel, a son of Commands and a coming sire-influencer for Guagliardo and Mogumber Park.
Other six-figure yearlings purchased WA owners included a Toronado filly (Lot 486) that cost Greenfields Lodge owner Tony Patrizzi $200,000 while a Territories colt (Lot 445) made $130,000 to the bid of Grant & Alana Williams.
Trainer Stefan Vahala paid $100,000 for a Blue Point colt (Lot 257) and Pearce Racing had the same bank for a So You Think filly (Lot 90). Maluka Thoroughbreds sold the filly as well as the Toronado filly purchased by Patrizzi.
