Shelling out $1,500,000 for a filly who won little more than a maiden at Kembla Grange from three starts sounds a risky business but it is working out well for Hill 'n' Dale owner, John Sikura.
Sikura teamed up with James Harron to purchase the Encosta de Lago filly Taste Of Heaven at the 2014 Teeley Assets Dispersal.
As her price suggests this was no ordinary filly being a sister to Manhattan Rain and Echoes Of Heaven, a three-quarter sister to Rubick and a half-sister to Redoute's Choice, Sliding Cube, Platinum Scissors.
At the opening session of Book 1 of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale on Monday a colt by Medaglia d'Oro out of Taste For Heaven was purchased by Kanayama Holdings for US$400,000.
This colt is a full-brother to the filly that was purchased by Julian Blaxland's Blue Sky Bloodstock, on behalf of Queensland's Aquis Farm, for US$525,000 as a weanling at Keeneland in 2016.
That filly is named Olympic Medal (USA) and is in training with Kris Lees.
John Sikura also purchased Rubick's sister Drifting Cube for $1.1 million at the Teeley Asset Dispersal and wiped that off quick smart when her weanling colt by War Front made a sale topping US$1.4 million to the Coolmore team at Keeneland in 2016.
Now we would like nothing better than to report that this colt named Captainofthebounty proved money well spent but after showing some early promise with three placings from his first four starts he is 7-start maiden who has earned about 7,000 quid.
It didn't all come up smelling roses for Sikura on day one.
A Tapit colt out of his $6million purchase Take Charge Brandi was RNA ($775,000).
Another huge letdown on the opening day came when the Pioneer Of The Nile half-brother to Triple Crown hero Justify was another Reserved Not Attained ($950,000).
China Horse Club and Maverick Racing teamed up for three purchases on day one.
The first was a Medaglia d'Oro colt out of the stakes-winning Quality Road mare Overprepared for $200,000; a half-brother to the Gr 1 Cigar Mile runner-up True Timber by the red-hot sire Into Mischief came at a cost of $560,000 and a colt from the first crop of Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Runhappy (Super Saver) out of stakes-winning Speightstown mare Tarty To The Party for $575,000.
Gird your
loins for the second session that features the first foal of Stonestreet Farm's
$1.6 million Magic Millions purchase Bounding (Lonhro) (pictured). The Group 1 winning half-sister
to Epsom Derby hero Anthony Van Dyck has a Curlin colt on offer.
The stakes-placed Fastnet Rock mare Ameristralia will also be represented by her first foal, a colt by Malibu Moon.
A Medaglia d'Oro filly that will be of interest to Australians is Mt. Brilliant Farm's half-sister to 4-time Group 1 winner and $7million earner Hartnell out of the winning Anabaa mare Debonnaire.
