Good Judges Land on $700,000 Ole Kirk Colt

Tara Madgwick - Friday January 10

Vinery Stud’s Ole Kirk has already sired two stakes-winners from his first crop of two year-olds in ill-fated King Kirk and O’ Ole, who runs in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic on Saturday, and the son of Written Tycoon had a sales highlight at the Gold Coast on Friday when his colt from Pop Girl made $700,000.

$700,000 Ole Kirk colt from Pop Girl

Consigned by North Bloodstock on behalf of his breeder Neil Werrett, the athletic bay is the third foal of metro winning Snitzel mare Pop Girl, who was also bred and raced by Werrett and is a daughter of Group III placed import Music Review.

The colt was purchased by Mark Player and Rob Roulston of PR Thoroughbreds and interestingly he has a full brother that made $200,000 at the sale last year and has been named Designer with Team Hawkes to train.

Pop Girl is married to Ole Kirk and had another colt last year by him and she is back in foal to him again.

“We have a great affiliation with Ole Kirk. A horse that is dear to us. Our partners really want to back Ole Kirk and we thought Pop Girl was the best example at the sale by the stallion,” said Mark Player.

“Lovely horse, comes off a really good farm and just a horse that we wanted to take home and hopefully the stallion can continue on the fantastic start so far.”

The price was a little higher than they expected to pay, but Player is happy to have the colt with a trainer still to be decided.

“The price is more a reflection of the quality of the horse. This market is a fantastic market and full credit to Magic Millions for having a market as strong as this. The ones you really want, you have to fight for. We spent a lot of time this week being underbidders and it is nice to get out on top of the market,” he said.

Advertisement

“The way we like to do it is that we like to buy our colts for the year and then we sit down with our partners and have lunch and we then have quite vigorous debates around the table as to who should go where, but we try and match the horse to the trainer.”

The Ole Kirk colt is the second purchase at this sale for PR Thoroughbreds, who also secured the Gun Runner colt from Golden Slipper winner Estijaab from the Emirates Park draft for $500,000.

$500,000 Gun Runner colt from Estijaab

“Absolute champion sire out of a Slipper winner and I think we all know how well Snitzel works with fast mares so we just applied the theory that a fast American sire working with a champion Snitzel mare had to be just a good a chance of success,” said Mark Player.

“We were very attracted to him and he was very high on the list of colts we wanted to get.

“Great walk, great attitude and he had that rich chestnut colour. Great head carriage and we went back again and again. He walked beautifully and had a great presence about him.

“His temperament seems bulletproof and has handled everything at the sales. He’s one of those horses that improved each day of the sale. That was another big tick for us.”

Advertisment
More Reading...
Resolute Racing Purchase Top Lot Goffs Orby Day 1
The Goffs Orby Yearling Sale kicked off overnight and the top lot on Day 1 was a colt by Blue Point purchased by John Stewart’s Resolute Bloodstock for €675,000, while Wootton Bassett produced the top selling filly, whose half-brother Trinity College is now in Australia.
China Horse Owners Alliance named new Inglis China Representative
Inglis is thrilled to announce the China Horse Owners Alliance (CHOA) as the company’s new China Representative.
2025 G1 Epsom Handicap Field and Barrier Draw
The field and barrier draw has been decided for the Group I Epsom Handicap on Saturday with odds-on favourite and unbeaten mare Autumn Glow drawing the extreme outside gate in a field of 14.
Equimillion This Long Weekend – Draws and Start Lists
Racing NSW have their annual Equimillion event coming up this long weekend at Sydney International Equestrian Centre at Horsley Park and for people interested in off the trackers it’s a showcase for the sport, so let’s take a look at who’s who in the zoo.
Dozens of Drawcards - NZB Ready to Run
As the NZB Ready to Run Sale goes from strength to strength with its stunning results in the sale ring and on the racetrack, the catalogue for the world’s leading sale of two-year-olds continues to get better and better.
Youngsters Impress Leading into Magic Millions Horses in Training Sale
The build up to the 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Horses in Training Sale has intensified with a swag of impressive breeze up performances over the past week.
Tara Talks Racing - Insights from a Legend - Darren Beadman
Beiwacht upstaged his more fancied rivals to win the $1million Group I ATC Golden Rose last Saturday in course record breaking style to become the hottest colt in Australia giving us the opportunity to chat to a legend that has been very much involved in his story so far.
Karaka Million Dreaming for Out of the Blue
Te Akau Racing marketing manager Julia-Rose Hayes has had plenty of success syndicating horses selected by her father, David Ellis, and that has continued with her latest syndicate.
Pedigree Potential –NZB Ready to Run – Nicks that Click
A quality packed catalogue for the 2025 NZB Ready to Run Sale is now online and in the lead up to the sale we’ll go looking each week for some horses of interest that jump out on pedigree for various reasons.
Autumn Glow Epsom Challenge - Just How Big Is This Task?
With the unbeaten Autumn Glow set to run as the first odds-on favourite this century in the Epsom Handicap on Saturday we thought we’d run some data to see how big this mountain is that she’s attempting to climb, and turns out, it’s pretty big.