Mitch Cunningham of Ridgmont is still on a high after winning last Saturday’s $4million Group I ATC Doncaster Mile with Stefi Magnetica and his week just got better when a Wootton Bassett (GB) colt from Egyptian Missile sold for $1.2million at Inglis Easter to give the Hunter Valley nursery it’s first million dollar yearling.
Strongly built and very athletic with a real Wootton Bassett look to him, the colt is the first foal of Egyptian Missile, a three-time winning half-sister by Smart Missile to Group III winner Egyptian Symbol from Group I winner Our Egyptian Raine.
He is the second million dollar colt by Wootton Bassett purchased at this sale by Tom Magnier joining the colt from Upfront (USA) that sold for $1.4million earlier in the day.
Mitch Cunningham was delighted with the result and has plenty of faith in his sire Wootton Bassett.
“It feels enormous. The staff at the farm work so hard and we've got a great relationship with Coolmore, so seeing them buy the horse, obviously they know the most about Wootton Basset and he was clearly a quality colt,” said Cunningham.
“It really vindicates our decision to breed the mare to him. We've got a lot of pregnancies to him and we've got a lot of Wootton Bassett foals on the ground.
“We've really believed in him, we had a great result at Classic with another Wootton Basset (colt from Monegal that sold for $400,000). He's an enormous stallion and hopefully one for the future, but a result like that is just huge for the farm.”
Ridgmont sourced Egyptian Missile through Inglis Digital for $230,000 on the advice of Bjorn Baker, who trained the mare and also prepares Stefi Magnetica. Interestingly, Egyptian Missile and Stefi Magnetica were both and sold bred by Cressfield, again cementing their standing as an elite nursery that produces those sought after investment fillies for the future.
“Bjorn Baker gave us the inside word that basically she had a lot of unrealised potential and she's from that extraordinary Egyptian Raine family and there are very few better families in the Studbook,” Cunningham said.
“She's beautiful and the mating with Wootton Basset, who is such a beautiful stallion was perfect, so we're so delighted with the result.”
Egyptian Missile produced a filly by so You Think last spring was then covered by Home Affairs.
