Anthony Freedman hit the sweet spot at $32,000 for a pair of colts by Ilovethiscity at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale.
The first was the Listed winner and $616,000 earner King Of Hastings, and the second was Kings Consort, who blazed his way to glory in Saturday’s $1,000,000 The Showdown (1200m) at Caulfield.
Making his fourth start, Kings Consort finished strongly under Mark Zahra to defeat Brazen Beau’s dual Listed stakes-winner, Bello Beau, by a short neck, with the Bel Esprit filly Volander a further one and quarter lengths back in third.
Stable representative Brad Taylor said Anthony Freedman, who trains in association with son Sam, buys purely on type in Adelaide.
“When Anthony goes to Adelaide, he shuts the book and finds horses on type and this is another one of his fantastic buys,” Taylor said.
“He’s a freak of a judge, and with the help of Julian (Blaxland) and Sam, our bloodstock agents, he picks good horses and the owners reap the rewards.
“It is a big result as we had the favourite (Crosswinds), but unfortunately, he sustained an injury and missed the race.
“We had Mark as the rider, so on Wednesday morning we thought we’d throw him in rather than go to Bendigo next week for a maiden.
“He’s a horse that has always shown a little bit, and he’s a horse that is going to get further. When they went a nice tempo, and Mark peeled out at the top of the straight, I thought he was going to be closing hard.
“Shades of Artorius.”
Zahra was booked to ride the $1.1million sale topper Crosswinds and admitted knowing nothing about his stablemate.
“The world works in mysterious ways,” Zahra said.
“We were on Crosswinds, and he was due for a jump-out last week. To be honest, when he didn’t accept, and this one accepted, I said ‘I’ve never heard of this horse, what happened here?
“One went sore, so I picked this up and thought, alright away we go and luckily he’s got the money.”
Consigned by Leneva Park to the 2021 Adelaide Magic Millions Yearling Sale, the son of Noor Elaine Farm’s Ilovethiscity was knocked down to Anthony Freedman Racing/Blue Sky Bloodstock (FBAA), for $32,000.
Black-type is hard to find in the pedigree of Kings Consort. The first sighting comes under his fourth dam, Genuine (Lunchtime), the dam of stakes-placed Never Too Close.
King Consorts dam Peckish (Snitzel) failed to trouble the score in four starts, although her dam Kvante (Filante) was an honest performer in Sydney for Gary Portelli.
Peckish has a yearling filly by Puissance De Lune (IRE).
Group 1 ATC Randwick Guineas winner Ilovethiscity stands at Noor Elaine Farm, where he stood for $8,800 in 2021.
