A COLT in the second crop of foals by former champion Australian juvenile Pierro fetched the top price of $210,000 at the Inglis Great Southern Sale at Oaklands Junction, Melbourne, last week.
According to Inglis, the Pierro weanling colt was among the best ever offering of weanlings at a sale in Victoria.
A total of 314 weanlings sold over two days, headed by the top-priced Pierro colt, who was produced from Call Me Pretty, and sold from Erinvale Thoroughbreds at Buckley, Victoria, to Bruce Harvey of Ascot Farm in New Zealand.
Peter Liston and his son Toby were happy with response from buyers of the first crop of youngsters by Testa Rossa stallion Unencumbered, who stands at their Eddington property Three Bridges Thoroughbreds. The colt from Vintage Quality sold from $87,500.
The colt, a half brother to stakes winners Born To Rock and Prettyhappyaboutit, is likely to remain in Victoria for next year’s yearling auctions.
A total of 13 weanlings fetched $100,000 or more at last week’s auction, a considerably higher number than the four lots at last year’s sale.
The average price for the 222 sold weanlings in the Platinum Session jumped to $31,140, up by 37 per cent on last year’s record figure of $23,392.
A colt by this season’s in-form Australian stallion Written Tycoon topped the first day of the sale at $170,000.
Sold from Written Tycoon’s Victorian home base of Woodside Park, Tylden, the colt is a half brother to wonderful group 2 Melbourne campaigner Sea Battle.
Demand for weanlings by first-season sires continued at the Great Southern Sale, with a colt by Irish-bred son of Monsun, Fiorente, from stakes-placed Danehill mare Fiamarrosa, selling for $160,000.
Standing at Sun Stud (formerly Eliza Park) at Kerrie, Victoria, Fiorente was a champion Australian stayer winning the group 1 Australian and Melbourne Cups.
Peter Liston and his son Toby were happy with response from buyers of the first crop of youngsters by Testa Rossa stallion Unencumbered, who stands at their Eddington property Three Bridges Thoroughbreds. The colt from Vintage Quality sold from $87,500.
Other good first-crop weanling sales include a colt by Arrowfield Stud’s High Chaparral which made $130,000 and a colt by British-bred Akeed Mofeed, a dual group 1-winning son of Dubawi, sold for $120,000.
The final entry of the supplementary catalogue, Mihalic, a three-year-old filly by Hard Spun, provided the Great Southern Sale top after fetching $310,000.
Last season, Mihalic won the VRC Maribyrnong Trial Stakes-LR as a juvenile, while gaining a stakes placing this season.
The racing stock from David Moodie’s Contract Racing was highly sought after with 17 of their entries fetching $640,000.
These included Crystal Lily’s relation Crystal Wind for $135,000, and Triscay’s grand-daughter Lamhere at $110,000.
Cobbley, a dual-winning daughter of Falbrav and in foal to Foxwedge, fetched $110,000 on the first day of the broodmare section.
Margaret Keenan’s 70 years of dedicated service to the Gundagai-Adelong race club
MARGARET Keenan, who passed away aged 85 last month, dedicated an incredible 70 continual years of her life to serve the Gundagai-Adelong Race Club (GARC).
In institution at the GARC, she regularly planted herself behind the race-day secretary’s desk alongside the longtime secretary/manger Len Tozer to help each meeting run smoothly.
It was timely that at April’s TAB Saddle-Up Sunday meet at Gundagai, Margaret and her close family were invited by officials of trackside Racing NSW to a gala lunch, had a race named in her honour, as well as having a presentation made to her, for her long services to the GARC.
Another southern districts racing participator also passing away recently was 84 year-old Gordon Hulm, a trainer who was based at Tumbarumba.
Well-known in the region, Gordon not only was a successful trainer from a small team of horses, however offered young riders a chance to enter the racing industry, lending them his time and knowledge.
Thoroughbred industry welcomes promise of research and development levy
IF re-elected, Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce will grant a research and development levy for the Thoroughbred industry.
This was welcomed by Thoroughbred Breeders Australia (TBA) president Basil Nolan when announced last week.
The levy will see the Department of Agriculture match funds raised by the Thoroughbred industry in a dollar-for-dollar scheme for research projects that will be spent safe guarding and improving equine health and production.
It is expected about $400,000 will be raised each year by a small levy on stallion and mare owners, with the government agreeing to match that sum for an initial three years if re-elected, meaning about $800,000 will be available to fund research each year.
