David Ellis Top Buyer, Top Lot

A relatively quiet period in the Karaka auditorium this afternoon was snapped in spectacular style as a Fastnet Rock filly brought the sale to life with a titanic bidding duel before selling for $800,000, the highest price of the 2015 Premier session.

The Lyndhurst Farm filly, sent through the sale ring as Lot 429, is a daughter of the high-class galloper Il Quello Veloce. Trained by John Sargent, the Captain Rio mare's wins in the Gr. 1 Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes and Gr. 3 Manawatu Challenge Stakes were highlights in a distinguished career spent racing almost exclusively at stakes level.

The sale-topping filly's second dam Nishaani is a sister to the remarkable Parfore, dam of Group One winners Super Easy, Tiger Tees and Terravista.

After a relatively low start at $100,000, the bidding rapidly gained momentum as several buyers showed significant interest. But it became a one-on-one battle from the $500,000 mark as Te Akau principal David Ellis and Australian trainer David Hayes traded $25,000 bids. The sale's previous benchmark of $600,000 was swiftly eclipsed as both bidders refused to surrender. But it eventually became too much for Hayes, who reluctantly withdrew with a rueful shake of the head and headed for the exit.

“I'll sell her to that famous wink again,” auctioneer Michael Kneebone exclaimed as the Karaka Yearling Sales' perennial leading buyer emerged triumphant yet again.

Ellis was visibly relieved after signing the paperwork for the attractive bay filly.

“We didn't have a Plan B if we didn't get her,” he admitted. “We waited all sale to buy her. It's always nerve-wracking when the one you want is right at the end of a sale. If you don't get it, all the others have already been sold.

“But I was always going to buy her, and I was willing to go to $1 million to do it. It's very rewarding to end up with her. I can't remember a better filly going through the Karaka sale ring in the last 10 years, and Mark Walker said she's as nice a filly as Te Akau has ever bought.”

Ellis said the filly would be syndicated in a package that also included a pair of colts that he purchased yesterday for $400,000 each.

“She'll be syndicated along with the two colts we bought yesterday, the Snitzel colt and the Fastnet Rock half-brother to Triple Honour,” he said. “We've already filled half the syndicate, but the other half is still available. There's a lot of interest. We received some increased publicity with War Affair being crowned Singapore's Horse of the Year, and with our trainers Mark Walker and Jason Bridgman performing so well there are a lot of people who want to have horses with us.”

Both Fastnet Rock and Il Quello Veloce were stakes performers at two, and Ellis said the yearling filly could be precocious enough to race well as a juvenile before coming into her own at three.

“She's the sort of filly that could go for a race like the Matamata Breeders' Stakes and perhaps the Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes, which her dam won,” he said. “Then we might consider the Group One two-year-old race in Brisbane (J J Atkins Stakes) before bringing her back here to target the 1000 Guineas and the New Zealand Bloodstock Filly of the Year Series.”

Ellis, who predictably took the title of leading buyer for the 10th consecutive year, was positive in his assessment of the sale.

“Overall I think it's been a very successful sale,” he said. “At some levels it was a bit flat but at others it was highly competitive. It's been a good sale.”

Credit - www.theinformant.co.nz