Widden Stud have brought some exceptional yearlings to Inglis Easter and sold back to back million dollar yearlings on Monday with a Zoustar colt from Emerald Bay selling for $1million to Tom Magnier followed immediately by a stunning Too Darn Hot (GB) colt that made $2.2million.
A full brother to Group II winner Too Darn Lizzie, the Too Darn Hot colt from Enbihaar as bought by Watership Down / McKeever Bloodstock / Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott Racing.
His full sister was bought by the same group for $1million as a yearling and then sold for $2.4million at last year’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale and his sire Too Darn Hot was bred and raced by Watership Down Stud before retiring to stud at Darley, so there was more than one reason for the purchase of this colt.
“Madeleine Lloyd-Webber (Watership Downs), they came out and they bought Too Darn Lizzie from Too Darn Hot’s first crop for a million dollars and they sold her for two and a half and when they saw this colt they just said straight away said we don't want to go home without him,” said Antony Thompson.
“It's great timing, obviously, with Madeleine Lloyd-Webber down here for Phantom of the Opera on the harbour. They had a lovely night there on Friday night, so they're in Sydney, they're having a good time.
“He was a must-have colt, so they had to push it fairly hard, but I think they're just thrilled, and obviously Gai and Adrian get to train him, so we have very, very excited owners.”
This colt is now the highest priced yearling sold in Australia by Too Darn Hot, who covered an exceptional book of mares 110 mares last spring at a fee of $275,000.
“I just didn't want to lose him because our whole week centred around him,” said bloodstock agent Johnny McKeever.
“But having said that, I knew it was asking Simon and Madeleine (was on the phone) a lot and I knew it was asking a big ask.
“But, you know, when we bought Too Darn Lizzie, we had one more bid… I was on my own that day, so I didn't have Simon (Marsh) to even ask, so in that respect, maybe it's a good omen that the market pushed us to make it a little uncomfortable.
“At the end of the day, there's nothing to worry about with the horse, he is simply the best yearling on the grounds, I thought.”
Simon Marsh of Watership Down was equally thrilled to secure the colt.
“We're absolutely delighted and to be honest from the first time I saw him, I said to Johnny, we're going to have to have this horse because he's just so exceptional,” he said.
“We were very, very lucky with Too Darn Lizzie. He's a beautiful horse, maybe a little bit bigger than Too Darn Lizzie, but he's got so much strength and power, he looks like he could run through a wall. So, hopefully, now we can be lucky with him and he'll go on and do great things for us on the track.
“It's been a wonderful week. Inglis do a fantastic job and they look after everybody really, really well, so we can't thank Inglis enough for everything they do for everybody, especially people who are coming from overseas.
“The stallion (Too Darn Hot) himself is just doing so well down here and he had another G1 winner in Meydan on World Cup night, so he's going from strength to strength both down here and in the Northern Hemisphere.
“We’re very, very lucky to have him and really appreciative of all the breeders who bred to him down here. It's good to be able to put something back.”
Footnote: Enbihaar was sold at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale last year for $1.6million to Yulong and produced a filly last year by Zoustar before going Alabama Express.
Too Darn Lizzie is also at Yulong and was covered by Written Tycoon in her first season at stud last year.
