Chinese multi-millionaire Yuesheng Zhang, possibly the biggest buyer of thoroughbreds worldwide this year, has completed the purchase of 26 gallopers from Aidan OBriens Ballydoyle stables.
Zhang owns the Yulong conglomerate and his racing general manager, Australian Sam Fairgray, was heavily involved in the selection of OBriens gallopers.
Mum's the word: A Galileo colt from champion race mare Atlantic Jewel, pictured, is headed to race Down Under.Credit:Wayne Taylor
The buys are by some of the worlds best stallions, notably Galileo, who is responsible for 12 of the horses. The other purchases whose progeny are Australia-bound include five by the deceased champion US stallion Scat Daddy. There are also three by Invincible Spirit and one each by No Nay Never, Camelot, Shamardal, Fast Company, Society Rock and Magician.
Eleven of Yulongs buys are unraced, with David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig selected to train Empireofthedragon, a three-year-old by Galileo from the former champion Australian mare Atlantic Jewel, a winner of 10 of her 11 races including four group 1s.
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Peter and Paul Snowden will train Land Force, who is by No Nay Never, with the stallion having produced 30 individual winners from his first crop in Europe this year.
Yulong has bought three stud farms in Victoria and their first yearlings will hit the sale rings with 10 lots at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sales and 11 at the Victorian Premier Sales.
They have two Frankels and an Invincible Spirit yearling among their Magic Millions draft along with two I Am Invincibles, with the remainder by More Than Ready, Sebring, Medaglia dOro, Dissident and Exosphere.
Ten fillies and a lone colt make up their Victorian list, with the colt by Choisir and fillies by Street Boss (2) and one each by Exceed And Excel, Teofilo, Holy Roman Emperor, Kermadec, Choisir, Spill The Beans, Shooting To Win and Brazen Beau.
French connection
Two of the notable buyers at the Tattersalls sale a week ago – Dean Hawthorne and Cambridge Studs new owners Brendan and Jo Lindsay – continued on their task of upgrading their broodmare bands at the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale in Deauville this week.
Hawthorne, who is racing manager for Melbourne-based Jonathan Munz, bought two more Galileo-linked mares, paying €450,000 ($707,000) for a winning daughter of the great sire named Tiberias, and €110,000 for Embroidered Silk, also by Galileo and in-foal to Coolmore shuttle sire Caravaggio.
Weve come to Europe looking for Galileo blood that doesnt have any Danehill blood to bring back to Australia. The plan is for Tiberias to be mated with Fastnet Rock which is the same cross as Chris Wallers top mare Unforgotten, Hawthorne said. Galileo is going really well in Australia as a broodmare sire and is working with a variety of stallions.
Queensland-based bloodstock agent John Foote went to Deauville looking for suitable mares on behalf of the Lindsays, who signed for seven broodmares at Newmarket.
They returned to New Zealand, and Foote after the day two session had signed for another six mares at a cost of €605,000.
On day one a filly foal by Dubawi from dual group 1 winner Just The Judge sold for €1 million to the Godolphin group and a raced performer, Lilys Candle, fetched €1.1 million and will race in Japan with the countrys biggest breeder Katsumi Yoshida purchasing the galloper. A Galileo two-year-old filly named Solage brought €1 million to the bid of Ballylinch Stud.
Sister power
American Pharoahs kid sister Chasing Yesterday has inherited the family ability with the filly the early favourite for next years Kentucky Oaks after a fighting win in the group 1 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos last Saturday.
Prepared by Bob Baffert, Chasing Yesterday is by the hugely successful sire Tapit whereas American Pharoah is a son of Pioneer Of The Nile, with both out of the mare Littleprincessemma.
American Pharoah is finishing up his first shuttle trip to Coolmore Studs Hunter Valley base.
Chasing Yesterday has had five starts and won four. She is obviously an extremely valuable filly who is spelling until next year when she will have her campaign aimed at winning the Kentucky Oaks.
The last filly to win the Starlet Stakes-Kentucky Oaks double was Abel Tasman, the 2017 American champion filly who carried the silks of the China Horse Club and was a six-time group 1 performer under the care of Baffert.
Abel Tasman, who amassed earnings of $US2.8 million ($3.88 million), will once again command huge interest with the mare selling at the Keeneland January Sale on January 7. The daughter of Quality Road is the stand-out lot among the 1500-plus catalogued for the four-day sale, with the mare tipped to bring a high seven-figure sum when she goes under the hammer.
Pivotal moment
English stallion Pivotal has surpassed the efforts of two of Europes most famous stallions – Danehill and his sire Sadlers Wells – as a sire of broodmares, with his daughters providing eight individual group 1 winners in the 2018 racing season.
Pivotal has made a name for himself as an excellent stallion Down Under through the likes of Blair House and the Godolphin-owned Avilius, with the latter trained by James Cummings and winning black type races.
However, Pivotals efforts as broodmare sire in Europe have placed him in elite company. Pivotal was foaled in 1993 and was able to win two of Englands major sprints during a short racing career, with the Kings Stand-Nunthorpe Stakes double.
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