Astute Yearling Purchases Reap Rewards

Media Release - Friday April 10

The unique 2020 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale format was deemed a success by many considering the testing circumstances. 

Duncan RamageDay two of selling was a momentous day for DGR Thoroughbred Services' Duncan Ramage who was delighted with the sale prices fetched by yearlings out of two very special mares he purchased for clients as yearlings; First Seal and Yattarna.

To this day, Group One-winner First Seal is Duncan's most expensive yearling purchase, costing NZ$700,000 at the 2013 NZB Karaka Yearling Sale. 

Purchased for the China Horse Club and the late Dato' Tan Chin Nam (Think Big Stud) from Gordon Cunningham's Curraghmore Stud, First Seal has excelled in everything she has been asked to do. She won over A$1.25 million in prizemoney and can now add producing the 2020 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale topper to her impressive list of accomplishments.

Knocked down to Coolmore Stud's Tom Magnier for A$1.8 million, First Seal's sale-topping colt (Lot 447) is by Champion Sire Snitzel and was offered by Sledmere Stud on behalf of the colt’s breeder China Horse Club.

First Seal has made her mark as a broodmare producing the $1.8 million Inglis Easter sale-topper "It was a fantastic result for the China Horse Club. They had an enormous amount of fun racing First Seal, and it would have been a huge thrill to sell her first foal for $1.8 million," Duncan said.

In what can only be described as a stellar racing career, First Seal was crowned Champion Female Sprinter in Australia for the 2015-16 season. Five of her six career wins were at Group level, and she recorded major victories in the G1 Coolmore Flight Stakes, G2 Surround Stakes, G2 Tea Rose Stakes, G2 Millie Fox Stakes and G2 MRC Tristarc Stakes.

She was also runner-up in four top-tier Group One races including the G1 Spring Champion, G1 Coolmore Classic, G1 Vinery Stud Stakes and G1 Canterbury Stakes.

Group winning Exceed and Excel mare Yattarna achieved another memorable milestone in her career when her first foal, a filly by I Am Invincible (Lot 292) fetched A$400,000 to the bid of Sir Owen Glenn's Go Bloodstock.

Duncan purchased Yattarna for A$90,000 from Kambula Stud’s 2014 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft on behalf of Think Big Stud and a syndicate of owners.

Advertisement

Yattarna won two of her nine starts and finished her racing career on a high when winning the G3 ATC James HB Carr Stakes at Royal Randwick at her very last appearance. She was subsequently sold for A$600,000 at the Inglis Chairman's Sale in 2017 to the China Horse Club. 

In a highly successful career that has spanned over several decades, Duncan acknowledges the magnitude of due diligence that goes into selecting a great racehorse, "When I purchase yearlings for clients, there is a massive amount of work that goes into identifying individuals with the potential to develop into exceptional racehorses.”

“As a Bloodstock Agent it is very rewarding when horses go on to do just that, then take it a step further by achieving excellence in the sale ring, then hopefully going on to play a part in producing a new generation of champions,” Duncan said.

Duncan looks forward to following the career of his most recent purchase, "I was thrilled to secure a lovely Dundeel filly at this weeks Inglis Easter Sale. She has a beautiful physique and a pedigree that suggests she will develop into a nice staying type of filly,” he said.

“She’s not dissimilar to our John Sargent trained Dundeel filly Stick 'Em Up who will run in the Australian Oaks at Randwick tomorrow.”

News from DGR Thoroughbreds

Advertisment
More Reading...
Yes Yes Yes 3YO Shooting for G2 on Monday
Last year’s Gr.2 James and Annie Sarten Memorial (1400m) set Savaglee up for Group One glory in Christchurch, and Matamata trainer Pam Gerard is hoping to follow a similar blueprint in 2025 with her Yes Yes Yes 3YO Affirmative Action..
Early Return Home for Cogburn
Group I winning Not This Time son Cogburn (USA) will return to WinStar Farm in Kentucky earlier than planned after disappointing fertility results during his first Australian covering season at Widden Stud.
Sires With Winners - Saturday October 25
Here is the full list of 136 stallions which had winners throughout Australasia today with winners and result details.
Doubtland 2YO All On Red Smashes Them Again at Ascot
Widden Stud's Doubtland has a potential 2YO topliner in Perth in the shape of exciting WA colt All On Red, who remains undefeated from two starts after another comprehensive Ascot Saturday win.
A Century of NZB National Yearling Sales Success: Cox Plate
Moonee Valley’s A$6m Group One WS Cox Plate (2040m) is known as the weight-for-age championship of Australasia and has been won by many of Australia and New Zealand’s greatest thoroughbreds.
Transatlantic Takes $1million Five Diamonds Prelude
Transatlantic’s lucrative spring carnival continued at Randwick with an arrogant victory in the $1m Five Diamonds Prelude.
Cream Rises at Trentham
A half-sister by Hello Youmzain (Fr) to dual Group I winner Mustang Valley, exciting filly Cream Tart is set to line up in one of the major three-year-old races over New Zealand Cup Week following her impressive win in Sunday’s Upper Hutt Car Sales LTD Three-Year-Old (1400m) at Trentham.
Second Wootton Bassett Son Added to Coolmore Stallion Roster for 2026
Set to join Camille Pissarro as the second G1 winning son of Wootton Bassett on the stallion roster for Ireland in 2026 is Henri Matisse, who this time last year was about to claim his first G1 victory at the Breeders Cup meeting at Del Mar.
Good News Week for Geisel Park
Geisel Park’s black-type mare Laced Up Heels is in foal off a maiden cover to Champion Australian Sire Zoustar and an orphan foal has found a new mum.
Wootton Bassett Colt Leads Coolmore G1 Trifecta
The last British Group I race of the flat season was run overnight at Doncaster with Aidan O’Brien producing a trifecta of two year-old colts led by a son of the late Wootton Bassett (GB) in Hawk Mountain, who was too good for a pair of Frankel colts.