Quality & value in Arrowfield’s Classic yearlings
There is a compelling reason to buy at the 2018 Inglis Classic Sale, especially if the budget is tight.
Twenty of the last 32 stakeswinners offered at Inglis Classic were sold or passed in for $50,000 or less. That includes Group 1 winners I Am A Star ($40,000), She Will Reign ($20,000), and Yankee Rose ($10,000).
There’s also a good reason to make sure the 33-strong Arrowfield consignment is on the inspection list. An outlay of $115,000 at the 2014 Classic Sale would have bought Arrowfield graduates Spill The Beans, Odyssey Moon & Untamed Diamond, all by Snitzel. Their earnings total a cool $1.5 million, and that’s not including their combined residual value.
Spill The Beans was passed in at $45,000, and $60,000 would have secured him. With sale options exhausted, he raced in Arrowfield’s silks from the Gerald Ryan stable, winning five of his 11 starts including three Group races and $560,000 before retiring to stud at Aquis Farm.
Adam Cook had to bid only $25,000 to buy Odyssey Moon, subsequently sold for $120,000 to James Harron on behalf of Edmund & Belinda Bateman. The colt won the $250,000 ATC Inglis Nursery (R) LR, then proved competitive in 2YO Group company, finishing second in the ATC Sires’ Produce S. G1. He sealed his $720,000 career with a Group 3 sprint success at Flemington before retirement to Twin Hills Stud.
Untamed Diamond was knocked down to New Zealand trainer Richard Collett for $30,000, about $5000 less than the Sale average and an investment her owners, Richard among them, have no cause to regret. She’s won 7 races including this season’s Waikato Racing Club Sprint LR and three races in Sydney for prizemoney of almost $300,000.
Yes, it’s true that the Classic Sale has strengthened considerably since 2014, supported by greatly improved rewards for racing in New South Wales. The 2017 Sale average was more than twice the figure achieved three years earlier.
Yet Arrowfield’s 2017 draft still offered attractive options for buyers on a budget, with 15 lots sold for $50,000 or less. One of those purchases, the Zoustar-Jessica Rose colt bought by Lauriston Thoroughbred Farm, has already turned a handy profit, selling for $150,000 at October’s Inglis Ready2Race Sale.
What can value-seekers find in Arrowfield’s 2018 Classic draft, the first to be presented by the Stud at the spectacular new Inglis Riverside Stables?
First season, emerging and progressive stallions with good numbers in leading stables offer the same opportunity presented by those three Snitzel yearlings in 2014. Happily, Arrowfield has a strong collection of yearlings by four young sires in those categories.
Freshman sire Olympic Glory is not only a close physical match for Snitzel, he also had a similar racing profile as a precocious, high-class sprinter. However, he was an even better racehorse, achieving Champion status at two, winning four European Group 1 races at two, three & four and retiring with a Timeform rating of 130. Olympic Glory has five colts and three fillies in Arrowfield’s draft, with Group 1 winners Bonneval, Macedon Lady, Malaguerra, Tawqeet, Tycoon Lil & Victory Vein among their relations.
Dundeel, already off the mark with his first 2YO winner Cutadeel and placegetter Sunreel, has three fillies & two colts in Arrowfield’s Classic consignment out of mares by Redoute’s Choice, Snitzel, Encosta de Lago and Dehere.
Animal Kingdom’s ten 3YO winners this season include Group-placed Peaceful State, Melbourne winner Shalya and impressive debutante I Am Queen. He has two fillies and two colts on offer under Arrowfield’s banner.
Smart Missile has shot to the top of the current Third Season Sires’ table, thanks to his fourth 2YO stakeswinner Irish Bet and a host of city winners, among them Jane’s Angel, Memory Bank, Sparky Lad, Stylish Missile and The Avenger. Fully booked in his first five seasons at stud, Smart Missile is represented in major stables from Baker, Freedman, Hawkes & Hayes to Lees, Price, Ryan, Snowden & Waller, and has more than enough firepower to maintain his upward mobility. Arrowfield will present five colts and a filly by Smart Missile at Inglis Classic, including relatives of Serenade Rose, Gunnison & Heatherly, and a son of Group 1 winner Clean Sweep.
