Dundeel Sex Bias – Fact or Fiction?

When Idle Flyer won the $1million Group I ATC Queen of the Turf Stakes (1600m) at Randwick on Saturday she became the latest Group I winner for arguably the best female family in the country and she is also the tenth G1 winner for Dundeel and for both of those reasons we’re going to investigate further.

Bred and sold by Torryburn Stud, Idle Flyer was purchased for just $70,000 at Inglis Classic by Mathew Smith Racing / Randwick Bloodstock Agency which, with the benefit of hindsight, looks amazingly good buying.

Idle Flyer has banked $1.2million in prizemoney and if she walked into a sale ring tomorrow bidding would start at $2million and quickly head north, so what made her such an affordable yearling from a proven G1 vendor?

There were two key factors in terms of pedigree that held her back in terms of yearling sale value – her sire Dundeel and also her immediate branch of the Dancing Show (USA) family via Twyla that back in 2023 when she was sold, was looking a little skinny.

She was the fifth foal of Progressive, whose only foal to race at that point was Mayhem, who was subsequently sold to Hong Kong and has not won a race since his first two wins.

Her second dam Movin’ Out had produced seven foals to race for four winners, but no Black Type horses and was also the grand-dam of Promotions, who won a Listed Canberra Guineas, which in real terms is possibly a metro 3YO Saturday race at best.

It was a quality pedigree, but appeared to be in a holding pattern.

Fast forward three years and this is a pedigree on the move with first dam Progressive now the dam of three winners and second dam Movin’ Out is the grand-dam of triple G1 winning $7.5million earner Tom Kitten and stakes-winner Va Via in addition to Promotions, while in the third dam under Twyla we have two new G1 winners added to the page in Desert Lightning and You Wahng, plus G2 winner Oak Door.

This branch of the Dancing Show family has found a new lease of life and with several high profile female members heading to stud it continues to be a work in progress.

Idle Flyer is the tenth G1 winner for Dundeel, who is rightly regarded as an outstanding sire, but he did have an achilles heel and that was his record with fillies, which back in 2023 when she was sold was not looking good.

It has improved as time has gone on and he now has two female G1 winners with Idle Flyer joining last year’s 1 SA Derby winning filly Femminile.

For the record let’s take a look at the stats for Dundeel in terms of colts vs fillies sourced from Arion and up to date as at 12/04/2026.

We’ve taken a look at the sale ring stats for Dundeel going back to 2017 when his first crop hit the sale ring and have put together this table which is for yearlings sold at Inglis Easter, Premier and Classic, plus Magic Millions Book 1 – so the top end of the commercial market in Australia.

2022 was a pivotal sales year for Dundeel as this crop was his first conceived when his fee was raised to $66,000 and is also his biggest ever crop.

His yearling average for his colts since that year has remained consistent while the fillies average fluctuated wildly due to the widespread school of thought held by yearling buyers (and obviously auction houses) that they were not as good.

Statistics now show his fillies are in the process of evening up the differential with the colts and that thinking is also translating to the sale ring where he achieved his best fillies average this year since 2022.