We all get a little bedazzled at the massive prices forked out for bloodstock: indeed, there have been no less than 46 seven figure lots at the Gold Coast Magic Millions and Inglis Easter alone in 2023.
And, of course, there was the $3.6 million for Nimalee and $3.4 million for Montefilia in the space of an hour at the Chairman’s last week.
It’s all relative though … a well bred $1 million dollar yearling colt could easily be worth 30 to 40 times that amount if he ends up doing well on the track.
Fortunately for those of us who get nose bleeds at the thought of shopping at that end of the market, there are still plenty of successful types that don’t require a second mortgage.
Take last weekend’s stakes races for instance where five of the winners were sold for $20,000 or less.
Group 3 McKay Stakes winner, Savatoxl, originally passed in for $14,000 at the 2017 Inglis Melbourne Premier was finally sold to the Alice Springs Turf Club for $8,000 at the VOBIS Gold.
Thirty nine starts … AND 19 wins later, the 5-time stakes winner has amassed $1 million in earnings and could easily bank another $300k if he wins Saturday week’s Group 1 Goodwood Handicap for the second time.
6YO, Lightning Jack, captured his third black type victory in the Great Easter Stakes at Riccarton Park and, although he’s by one of New Zealand’s leading sires in Per Incanto, he was snapped up at the 2018 NZB Karaka May Sale for NZ$8,000: which he’s paid back more than 50 times over.
Group 3 Ken Russell Memorial winner, Russian Alliance has won five from six and admittedly was knocked down to Paul Reedy as a yearling for $65,000 at the 2022 Gold Coast Magic Millions, but the year previously he was sold online at the Inglis Digital June Sale for $10,000.
The Mission’s headliner, Yellow Brick, took the bank to $1,268,100 with a Gold Coast Guineas win and is likely to target the $3 million Stradbroke Handicap in June.
Congratulations to Team Sears and Paul Moroney for going to $20,000 to secure the now 3YO at the 2021 Magic Millions National Yearling Sale.
And last but certainly not least is Flying Artie’s Coin Toss, winner of the Group 2 Singapore Classic.
Full marks to Two Bays Farm who sold Coin Toss to Bevan Smith and Kuldeep Singh Rajput for $175,000 at the 2021 Inglis Melbourne Premier … after Two Bays had snapped up the colt less than 12 months previously for $15,000 at the Inglis Weanling Sale.
No one said this game is easy, but it’s not impossible for the budget conscious either!
