Injured spring hopeful Autumn Angel sold to Yulong for $1.225 million on Inglis Digital on Tuesday, with the four-year-old Group 1 mare the latest Australian Oaks winner to join Zhang Yuesheng’s massive broodmare band.
The Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained daughter of The Autumn Sun, last season’s Australian Oaks winner, suffered a tendon injury at trackwork last week, prompting syndicate manager Wylie Dalziel and his fellow owners to offer Autumn Angel for sale as a broodmare prospect through Inglis’ online platform.
Surpassing her $1 million reserve as bidding intensified soon after the 4pm countdown, Autumn Angel was purchased by Yulong entity Walnut Farm and it again underlined Zhang’s quest to acquire Oaks winners.
Yulong also paid $1.6 million for last year’s Australian Oaks and New Zealand Oaks winner Pennyweka, who is currently in training with Ciaron Maher, at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale in May while 2018 Australian Oaks winner Unforgotten ($2.75 million) is also owned by Zhang.
Yulong homebred filly Hungry Heart also won the Australian Oaks in 2021.
The past four New Zealand Oaks winners - Pulchritudinous, Pennyweka, Belle En Rouge and Miss Sentimental - are also either already in Yulong’s broodmare band or currently in training under Zhang’s ownership.
The 2021 Queensland Oaks winner Duais, retired to stud as a three-time Group 1 winner, and 2019 victor Winning Ways were also acquired by Yulong.
Autumn Angel, meanwhile, retires to stud having raced just 11 times in a record that saw her also win a Group 3 Ethereal and Group 2 Kewney Stakes and bank almost $1.2 million in prize money for her connections during her brief racetrack career.
“She has a great pedigree and (is) by a stallion that is well on his way as a highly commercial stallion of the future,” Yulong general manager Vin Cox said.
“No plans as to her future at this early stage, we will get her home and into the system."
By the same sire as last season’s Group 1 Australasian Oaks winner Vibrant Sun and South Australian Derby winner Coco Sun, as well as Saturday’s raging Flight Stakes favourite Autumn Glow, Autumn Angel is a daughter of Group 3-winning mare Angel Of Mercy who was bought out of the 2022 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale from the draft of Arrowfield for $230,000.
Her three-quarter brother Baraqiel won at Moonee Valley last Friday night to take his record to five wins from just seven starts for Bennett Racing and Team Corstens.
“We’ve had a great run with Autumn Angel and we will never know what might have been on the racetrack, all the signs were there that the best was yet to come,” Dalziel said.
“The Autumn Sun is flying and everyone from the pre-trainer to Moody and Katherine were excited about her Spring prospects and beyond.
“There are nine owners including some long-time clients and they all were quick to back the decision to offer her as a breeding prospect and she was put in front of all the right people with Inglis Digital."
Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch said multiple buyers had locked horns during the bidding process in the hope of adding Autumn Angel to their broodmare band.
“You can never really be sure where the value of these mares is going to sit. She was obviously a fantastic race mare with really good credentials to go on and be a broodmare and she attracted bidding from major operations in Australia,” Hutch told The Straight.
“She’s made what she’s made and hopefully she goes on to be a good broodmare.”
Hutch could also understand why Yulong had pursued Oaks winners so vigorously in the sales ring in recent years.
“Certainly in terms of Oaks winners in Australia and specifically Australian Oaks winners, if you look through the record of those mares as producers it’s incredibly strong,” he said.
“Ultimately, it stands to reason that any filly that is capable of standing up to the respiratory test and the class test that an Oaks requires is probably a demonstration of their superior ability and they’ve been excellent transmitters of that ability to their offspring.
“I was shocked to see statistics around how effective those mares have been as producers.”
Australian Oaks winners since 2000 to have gone on to be Group 1 producers include Republic Lass, Sunday Joy, Dizelle and Rising Romance.
