A daughter of Snippetson (Aus) who is a full-sister to the popular Tasmanian-owned Kenjorwood (Aus) set a record price for a yearling in that state on Thursday when fetching A$160,000 from Kenjorwood's owners at the Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale. Lot 85 is the sixth foal out of the stakes-performed and two-time winner Flying Diva (Aus) (Flying Spur {Aus}). Kenjorwood, who is now trained in Victoria, has won 10 times and placed a further 17 times for earnings of over A$686,000.
“We came to the sale with no real plan to buy her,” said Leigh Winwood after outlasting Denise Martin of Star Thoroughbreds and trainer Henry Dwyer in the bidding on the Grenville Stud-consigned bay. “We wanted to see her on type and she turned out to remind us so much of the brother. She has great presence and is a real free flowing filly–very athletic–everything you look for in a horse.”
“After seeing her today we decided we were interested and worked on a budget of $80,000,” Winwood explained. “We only placed one bid at A$160,000 and it did the trick. We went well over the budget, but we just wanted to buy her–and they say you should buy the one you love, not the one that's left.”
There was one other six-figure sale of the day: a Written Tycoon (Aus) filly (lot 63) offered by Armidale Stud and hammered down to Prime Thoroughbreds for A$100,000. The highest-priced colt was a son of Needs Further (Aus) (lot 129) also offered by Armidale and bought by John Blacker for A$90,000.
A total of 96 yearlings changed hands during the single-session sale for A$2,310,000, compared to 101 sold last year for A$2,340,000. The average, at A$24,062 (+3.9%), was also a record, while the median was up 11% at A$20,000. The clearance rate, at 78%, was down from last year's 83%.
“To hold our mark on what was a spectacular sale last year is a fabulous result for the Tasmanian breeders,” Magic Millions Managing Director Vin Cox said. “It has become evident that mainland buyers are zeroing in on this sale with good reason following the outstanding racetrack success of previous graduates. Today we saw the record price for a Tasmanian Yearling obliterated to A$160,000–congratulations to the McCulloch family of Grenville Stud, it would be tremendously rewarding for them to attain such a result. With the support of Tasracing we've been able to grow this sale exponentially over the last few years.”
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