The Hong Kong Jockey Club made a late play to secure its second yearling at Karaka this week, taking home a Sebring colt for $375,000 from the Trelawney Stud draft on Wednesday.
Catalogued as Lot 573, the colt is the second foal out of the stakes-performed winner Are There Any (Exceed And Excel), who has produced the Jamie Richards-trained stakes-placed juvenile Challa (Dissident).
Trelawney Stud’s Cherry Taylor revealed they bought Are There Any for A$170,000 via agent Bruce Perry at the 2016 Magic Millions Gold Coast Broodmare Sale when she was in foal to Dissident.
They then kept her in Australia, sending her to Sebring, with the mating resulting in yesterday’s sales ring success.
“We bought the mare and the first foal was bought by David Ellis and this is the second foal,” Taylor said. “We thought he’d make between $200,000 and $300,000 and we thought if we had three people on him we might get slightly more, so it was a big thrill to get NZ$375,000.
“We are also thrilled that he was bought by Mark Richards of the HKJC because they have been great supporters of ours and they are really good judges.
“We have done lots of work in Hong Kong over the years, we have a lot of friends up there and we are very happy for them to have him.”
Taylor has been satisfied with the Book 1 sale for Trelawney Stud, with 17 of their 20-lot draft finding new owners.
“(The market) probably has been as expected. It has been a reasonably tough market,” she said. “If you have had the great big Savabeel colt you can get those away easily and then your middle and bottom market has been tough.”
The HKJC’s Mark Richards was not surprised by the competition the colt came under and the fact he was by Widden Stud’s sire Sebring only added to the appeal.
“He looks like a running type with a strong backend on him. I liked the way he just went about the job and hopefully, fingers crossed, he can be a (Group One winner like) Lucky Bubbles for us,” Richards said.
“He was very attractive from day one when I first saw him here. He took a day perhaps to settle in but when I went back and had second and third looks he was as good as gold.
“We needed something like that. We have got to look for fast, precocious horses and horses who can hopefully stay the test of time as well. He looks like a sound horse.” -ANZ Bloodstock News
