The first thing we learned is that racing does not need a crowd to be a great sport, the racing we saw at Randwick last Saturday had everything – fairytale winners, great human and horse characters with success on this big stage shared by many.
1/ Worth the Money - The first thing we learned came early in the day and was then later reinforced and that was well bred expensive colts can be a great investment.
$1.1 million Not a Single Doubt colt Doubtland won the Group III ATC Kindergarten Stakes and then later in the day we saw $1.4 million Redoute’s Choice colt King’s Legacy defeat another $1.6million Redoute’s Choice colt Prague in the Group I ATC Sires Produce Stakes.
Breednet have a very neat feature on our stallion pages that allows you to quickly check and see the most expensive yearlings by all sires. Call up any stallion page and click on the sale results tab and you will see the page below, where you can click on Career Top Sellers to see that horse’s most expensive yearlings ever sold.
2/ De Ja Vu - Twin Hills Stud announced last week that Hallowed Crown was relocating from Darley to join their roster and he featured on Saturday with his first stakes-winner when Colette won the Group III ATC Adrian Knox Stakes earning herself a shot at the Group I ATC Australian Oaks.
Two years ago Twin Hills took over Smart Missile from Arrowfield Stud and he immediately went through a purple patch producing a string of stakes-winners including Group I winner Maid of Heaven and the ill-fated Smart Melody.
Hallowed Crown is from the family of champion sire Zabeel and is by a Kentucky Derby winner in Street Sense, so if he does get classic three year-olds we should not be surprised.
3/ Sex Bias – Dundeel produced his tenth stakes-winner when Entente won the Group III ATC Carbine Club Stakes and with 7.3% stakes-winners to runners is proving to be a very good stallion, but his sex bias towards colts is quite remarkable.
All of those stakes-winners are colts and geldings which does make it tough when you are trying to sell one of his fillies.
His own sire High Chaparral was very much seen as sex biased to colts early in his career, but as time went on he produced plenty of Group I winning fillies including Youngstar, Princess Jenni, Fenway, Hiyaam and Montoya’s Secret, so if you do like a Dundeel filly you will be getting her at a discounted price and rest assured Dundeel will sire female stakes-winners in the future.
4/ Old Guard Still Rule – The Group I ATC TJ Smith Stakes produced a seasonal showdown for the best sprinters in the land with the big gun three year-olds Bivouac, Exceedance and Loving Gaby taking on their elders.
At the post they came up short, with the old guard – Nature Strip (5YO), Santa Ana Lane (7YO), Redzel (7YO) and Pierata (5YO) dominating on a heavy track.
It does make you wonder about the three year-old who is conspicuous by his absence and that’s Yes Yes Yes, who was retired to stud following a tendon injury. When we look back now on The Everest we can see that in my view it was the defining sprint race of the season.
Run on a good track and featuring many of the TJ runners including the first four home, it was won by Yes Yes Yes, who had to break the course record to beat them clocking 1:07.32.
He might not have a Group I win on his resume, but there is little doubt it could be argued Yes Yes Yes is the best three year-old sprinter this season.
5/ Saleyard Gift – People don’t expect to buy Inglis Easter yearlings for $20,000, but John Crowley did and he ended up with Doncaster winner Nettoyer trained by his wife Wendy.
With the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale online getting underway today there are opportunities aplenty and given the pandemic and its financial ramifications those with the money to invest may find this buyer’s market the once in a lifetime chance to get the horse of your dreams.
