Racing: Aussie record sets sales ring buzzing

Bob Ingham set the sales ring buzzing at the Australian Easter yearling sale when he paid an Australian record A$2.5 million ($2.74 million) for a half-brother to double Melbourne Cup-winner Makybe Diva by sire sensation Redoute's Choice.

Ingham came to the session having resolved to secure the colt despite not laying eyes on him until he entered the ring and said he was thrilled with the price.

Woodlands Stud bloodstock manager Trevor Lobb opened bidding at $1.5 million and it was all over with six bids in less than 60 seconds.

"When he walked in the sales ring was the first time I saw him," Ingham said.

"I employ the best people and they said he was the absolute standout so I came here with my mind made up to buy him."

Yesterday Woodland Stud paid A$1.1 million for another Redoute's Choice colt. He is out of Marauding mare Eldarin, a sister to the dam of multiple group one winner Grand Armee.

The previous top priced yearling sold in Australia was a A$2.2 million Danehill colt bought by Lee Freedman last year but the Australasian record still stands at the NZ$3.6 million paid at Karaka five years ago for the colt who went on to race as Don Eduardo and win the 2002 AJC Australian Derby.

The sale topper will be trained by John Hawkes, who described the colt as a sensational type.

"He is a lovely specimen and a horse who I think will get better as he gets older," Hawkes said. "He's a half brother to a champion and by a champion sire at present, although he's still got to be able to gallop so we will see what happens. Everyone has big expectations and if he doesn't gallop it will be disappointing but any ability he's got, we'll get out of him."

Hawkes took a moment to remember the late Jack Ingham, Bob's brother and lifetime business partner. The brothers made a fortune from their chicken empire which allowed them to indulge their passion for the thoroughbred and Woodlands Stud has produced some of the finest including reigning Horse of the Year, Lonhro.

The star colt continued the outstanding performance of new sire supremo Redoute's Choice who produced all the session toppers at the sale. On Wednesday it was a A$1.8 million colt out of a half sister to multiple group one winner Encounter.

Another of his sons sold for $A1 million on Wednesday to bloodstock agent Angus Gold on behalf of Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.

Redoute's Choice star continued to shine yesterday with two of his sons, including that bought by Woodlands Stud, selling for more than A$1 million within minutes of each other.

* New Zealand buyers snapped up three of Redoubte's Choice's progeny.Cambridge bloodstock agent Dean Hawthorne paid A$900,000 for a Redoute's Choice colt out of Back Pass, a United States-bred mare who had one win in Britain.

New Zealand trainers Steven McKee and Roger James also bought colts by the stallion, McKee paying A$450,000 for a colt out of the Woodman mare Forest Girl, offered by Sir Patrick Hogan's Cambridge Stud.

James paid A$425,000 for a colt out of the Palace Music mare Royal Scam, while Graeme Rogerson bought three Redoute's Choice yearlings, paying A$270,000 each for two of them.

Rogerson was one of the sale's prolific buyers, with 14 lots purchased. His biggest buy was a $A360,000 Zabeel-Palia filly out of the Cambridge Stud draft.

Other New Zealanders to pay big sums at the sale were Rob McAnulty, who paid A$A325,000 for a Zabeel-Kelly Flinn colt, and Don McLaren, who outlaid A$300,000 for a filly by Fusaichi Pegasus out of Bonanova.

It was a successful sale for Hogan's Cambridge Stud, with 19 of its 23 lots selling and 17 of them fetching A$100,000 or more. The biggest buy from the Cambridge Stud draft was A$525,000 for a Zabeel filly out of the smart mare Dantelah.

Other New Zealand studs to do well included Bloomsbury, which sold a Zabeel filly out of Volksraad mare Zola for $A450,000, and Trelawney, which had sales of $A380,000 for a Zabeel-Quintilla filly, $A300,000 for Zabeel-Clinique colt and $A280,000 for a Viscount-Silk Ending colt.

- AAP, NZPA