Blueblood filly Ballet’s Legacy (I Am Invincible) topped today’s Inglis Digital August (Early) Online Sale, realising $540,000.
Offered by Newgate Farm as agent, Ballet’s Legacy is a three-quarter sister to G1 winner and G1-producing Champion First Season Sire Home Affairs and a half sister to dual G1 winner and sire Russian Revolution.
She was purchased today by New Zealand-based agent Bruce Perry.
Newgate’s Henry Field was delighted with the outcome.
“The Bateman family, with the help of James Harron, have developed these beautiful families and Ballet’s Legacy is an absolute queen of a mare physically and I think Bruce Perry bought a very rare commodity today. She was worth every penny,’’ Field said.
“The farm has a very close relationship with Bruce so being able to communicate with him just how nice she is physically made a big difference. Relationships make a real difference with the mares especially.’’
Perry secured Ballet’s Legacy for a client and they will decide in coming weeks which stallion the mare visits for her maiden cover this spring.
“She’s a beautiful mare and you can’t buy into much better families, it’s outstanding and current, Home Affairs is doing the job and Russian [Revolution] is doing a great job too,’’ Perry said.
“I’ve bought a number of mares off Inglis Digital the past few months especially and I find it an outstanding product, it’s really the go-to this time of year for that sort of trade.
“At the end of the day this is what you have to pay for the top-end mares of the top families so I expected to have to pay a significant amount today but I was more than happy to.’’
Today’s second-top lot was the broodmare Jest Excel (Exceed And Excel) – the dam of G3-winning 2YO Shiki - which sold to Suman Hedge Bloodstock for $150,000.
Jest Excel was part of a Cornerstone Stud dispersal, which grossed a combined $761,700, to the delight of the farm’s Sam Pritchard-Gordon.
“We’re very happy with the results, Inglis was very professional with their service as always and these results have really exceeded our expectations,’’ Pritchard-Gordon said.
“As one would hope and I guess expect, unreserved dispersals generate good interest and ours was certainly no exception and Inglis has the capacity to generate an even greater reach and it’s been a successful day at the office.’’
Hedge confirmed Jest Excel would likely visit Zoustar this season.
“I know quite a lot about the mare, having purchased Shiki with [Riverstone Lodge’s] Nick Taylor as a weanling so I’m quite familiar with the family, plus I have a great relationship with Sam Pritchard-Gordon so that made it easier as well,’’ Hedge said.
“Shiki was such a beautiful weanling so the mare obviously leaves a good type, it’s pretty commercial stuff.
“She’ll head to Riverstone Lodge for the next phase of her career as a mum, at this stage she’ll visit Zoustar which I think will be a great match for her.’’
Also included in today’s catalogue were 74 shares offered by Bennett Racing, which sold for a combined $615,000.
The standouts among the Bennett offering were five 5% shares in recent G1 winner Fireball Miss, which sold for a total of $385,000.
“It went super well, unbelievably well,’’ Nathan Bennett said.
“Fireball Miss was obviously the standout and those shares brought what I thought she was worth, I mean that values her at between $1.5m and $1.6m which is very good for the shareholder who sold some equity down today and still retained some as well. I think he’ll be enjoying a champagne tonight.
“The whole process has been great, Nick [Melmeth] and Mary Anne [Bozsity] have helped us out enormously, I’ve had a lot of phone calls and emails from people wanting to know about the shares so everyone knew about them, it’s kept us pretty busy the past week or so.
“A lot of owners in the horses wanted more equity so they have bought some of these shares today and there’s plenty of new faces there too which is great for business and great for racing.’’
Other significant results in today’s auction included the Cornerstone-offered Tinker McPhee – which sold to Mustica Bloodstock for $135,000 - and the 3YO colt Loud And Clear, which realised $115,000 to Dynamic Syndications.
In total the August (Early) Sale grossed $4,044,900.
Entries are now open for the August (Late) Sale, which will run from August 21-26.
Entries will close at midnight next Wednesday, August 19.
To enter CLICK HERE.
