The first Wootton Bassett yearlings to be sold in New Zealand have made a big impression at Karaka this week, headed by a well-related filly that fetched $800,000 on Tuesday morning.
Best known in our part of the world as the sire of multiple Group One winner and star Cambridge Stud shuttle stallion Almanzor, Wootton Bassett is by the former Haunui Farm shuttler Iffraaj and was champion two-year-old in France in 2010.
He started his stud career in France in 2012 but only began shuttling to the southern hemisphere when Coolmore added him to their roster in 2021.
Wootton Bassett’s nine crops in the northern hemisphere have produced 265 winners from 464 runners, with 40 individual stakes winners headed by Almanzor and eight other Group One winners.
Nine members of Wootton Bassett’s first southern hemisphere crop are being offered in Book 1 of the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sales this week. Across the first two days of the Book 1 session on Sunday and Monday, five of his yearlings sold for a total of $1.4 million and an average price of $280,000.