Not Just Another Princess

Princess of Sylmar wasn’t the only filly to receive a royal reception at Fasig last night. Wine Princess (Ghostzapper) (hip 161), a graded stakes-winning and Grade I-placed daughter of Horse of the Year Azeri, turned heads when hammered down to DATTT Farm for $3 million. The 5-year-old was yet another expensive purchase in foal to War Front, and she is carrying her first foal. 

Denali Stud’s Craig Bandoroff signed the ticket alongside his DATTT Farm client, who he declined to name. 

“He wanted her,” Bandoroff said. “War Front’s a magic thing, she’s a beautiful mare, and she was one of the best physicals here, in our opinion. He’s bought expensive mares before, but he’d decided to up his game and play at a high level.” 

Bandoroff noted that no decisions had been made as to whether the resulting War Front foal would be retained to race or sold. 

“Hopefully we’ll get a good foal out of her and figure out who we’re going to breed her to and take it from there,” he noted. “He may race the foal, we may sell it–there’s no set plan, it’s pretty fluid. When a guy bids $3 million he can be pretty fluid.” 

Bandoroff noted DATTT Farm has a dozen mares, all of which reside at Denali. Denali sold a War Front colt bred by DATTT for $1.3 million to M.V. Magnier at Keeneland September. 

“We’ve been managing the program,” Bandoroff said. “He’s probably got 12 mares. In the past it had been breed to sell, and now it could be either. We’ve sold some yearlings for him very well, and they were all out of the highest caliber mares he’s bought.” 

Last night was not the first time Wine Princess has been a hot commodity in a sales ring. The daughter of two Horses of the Year was a $475,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Jimmy and Becky Winemiller, who raced her to victories in the GIII Monmouth Oaks and GII Falls City H., and a third in last year’s GI Spinster S. Azeri was herself expatriated to Japan after realizing $2.25 million at Keeneland November in 2009, and she has produced a trio of seven-figure yearlings in that country, the most recent being a Deep Impact (Jpn) weanling colt that realized $2.5 million at the JRHA Sale in July. -Kelsey Riley