It’s been a fruitful weekend for Cressfield having bred and sold Group I ATC Doncaster Mile winner Stefi Magnetica and on Sunday at Inglis Easter they sold a glorious I Am Invincible filly from dual Group I winner Pippie for $1.4million to Champions Farm / Satomi Oka Bloodstock.
The highest priced filly of the session, she is the second foal of Pippie, whose first foal, a filly by Snitzel, sold for $775,000 at this sale last year to David Ellis, but the story of Pippie is a sad one as she passed away last year leaving only one other foal, a colt by I Am Invincible born last spring.
Cressfield owner Bruce Neill was well satisfied with the result, but will always wonder what might have been for Pippie, who was a big investment for the farm having been bought for $1.8million at the 2021 Inglis Chairman’s Sale.
“I paid $1.8m for her and then we got $775k for the first foal, which was a Snitzel filly and was a little bit of a first foal, so that's why she didn't make the million that we thought she would make. She's had two trials and she's got a lot of upside,” said Bruce Neill.
“There's a strong tinge of sadness to the sale. The mare died, regrettably, in the last few months. And she was in foal to Zoustar, especially such a quality mare. I mean, great race mare, a queen to look at, nice outcross. They're the reasons you buy and not sell.
“I think we have a reputation in the marketplace of if we can get them to sale, we will sell them. So we try and meet the market. So that's our strategy and that's what we do.”
The Cressfield female families are consistently a work in progress and earlier in the day a So You Think filly from Group I VRC Oaks winner Personal sold for $1.15million and her dam was also bred and sold by Cressfield and bought at the 2019 sale for $640,000 by Tom Magnier.
“I think we've averaged twice the median here for the last 20 years including in 2012 when we averaged $1.1m, but that was a great year,” Bruce Neill reflected.
“I enjoy bringing horses here and meeting people and getting some success. We also bred Personal, whose So You Think colt sold two lots earlier for $1.15m and we're very, very proud of that.
“That mare's been a solid buy from a great mare for us in Personify, which I think we bought from Inglis many, many years ago as well.”
The Pippie filly will be headed to Japan as soon as possible according to Yuki Euhara, who will be training her.
“She's a very beautiful filly and we are very interested in I Am Invincible, so we are very happy to have her,” he said having purchased the filly with the assistance of Sydney based bloodstock agent Satomi Oka.
