You know a stallion is moving up the pecking order when China Horse Club/Newgate/Go/Trilogy purchase one of their colts and in this case it produced a new record yearling price for Better Than Ready when his colt from Secret Indulgence (NZ) sold for $530,000 at Magic Millions on Wednesday.
Consigned by Yarramalong Park, the star colt is a half-brother to multiple Group winner Amangiri and Group II placed More Secrets from Secret Indulgence, who has had four foals to race and all are winners.
China Horse Club, Newgate and partners have achieved outstanding success in their quest to purchase colts with stallion potential, but this is the first time they have purchased a colt by Lyndhust Stud’s Better Than Ready.
“Better Than Ready was actually the first yearling Newgate ever sold at the Easter Yearling Sales for $450,000 and he’s doing a really good job as a stallion,” Henry Field recalled.
“This colt is out of a very good producing mare and physically he was just about the best horse on the complex. We’re in the game of buying runners. We want to buy horses that can win the best races to earn their spots as stallions and that horse, if he runs like he looks I think he could be very, very good.
“We feel confident that we think he’s a special horse. He’ll go into our colts group and if he’s ready he’ll be back here last year.
“When they look like him, you can’t ignore them.”
A half-sister by Fastnet Rock to Group I VRC Victoria Derby winner Amalfi, Secret Indulgence was a $300,000 Inglis Easter yearling back in 2010 and after winning one of six starts when trained by Peter Moody was retired to stud in the Hunter Valley.
She was sent to the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2018 after missing to All Too Hard and was snapped up by Richard Foster of Yarramalong Park for just $5,000.
Since then, she has been married to Better Than Ready and has produced a foal every year with another colt to follow this one and she is back in foal to him again.
