Bidding for Bella - Sales companies pitch for Everest winner as buyers contemplate her price

Bella Nipotina is the definition of a trophy mare, an outlier who defied thoroughbred racing convention who any breeder from around the world would love to own.

*Australia’s auction houses are in agreeance that Bella Nipotina’s impending sale will create international interest. (Graphic: Composite)*

But just how much is the reigning Everest champion, a four-time Group 1 winner who raced competitively in stakes company for five seasons, worth on the open market?

Multiple millions of dollars is a safe assumption but a definitive answer will be known in May when the travel-hardened Bella Nipotina is sold at public auction.

After months of deliberation and assessment by the owners of Bella Niptona and her trainer Ciaron Maher, who has managed her racing career since her three-year-old season, decided on Tuesday that the daughter of Pride Of Dubai would not race again, bringing an end to her illustrious 57-start career.

Her ownership syndicate of breeder Michael Christian, his brother Brad and their wives, Andy Ingersole, Mick Johnston and Tim Porter now face the imminent decision of which sales company will have the honour of selling Bella Nipotina.

Their choice is expected to be made by the end of the week after Magic Millions and Inglis were both asked to pitch to have her in their respective signature broodmare sales.

Bella Nipotina would be the standout offering at Inglis’ night of nights, the Chairman’s Sale, on May 8 at Riverside Stables in Sydney and she would be the drawcard Lot if she were to be catalogued for Magic Millions’ opening National Race Fillies and Mares session on the Gold Coast May 27.

Both companies have recent experience in firstly securing and then selling high-profile horses for their respective flagship sales.

Inglis, which sold Bella Nipotina as a yearling at its Melbourne Premier sale in 2019, won the right to sell Winx’s first foal, a daughter of Pierro, who created worldwide bloodstock industry headlines with her record $10 million price tag at last year’s Easter sale.

Rival Magic Millions successfully auctioned Te Akau’s prized 10-time Group 1 winner Imperatriz at its National sale last year, with the six-year-old selling to Yulong for an Australasian record price of $6.6 million after going under the hammer in absentia.

Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch marvels at Bella Nipotina’s aptitude for racing, particularly during her extended 2024 preparation in which she raced in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth in the space of eight weeks before winning the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 in Brisbane.

Bella Nipotina was also twice Group 1-placed and won the Tatt’s Tiara during that stellar winter campaign, the platform for what would turn out to be her stellar spring swansong with wins in The Everest, the Russell Balding and a third in the VRC Sprint Classic, her final race start.

“That was a pretty extraordinary sequence of runs and as a way to culminate her career, it was a pretty special way to do it,” Hutch told The Straight.

“She’s got characteristics that I think any breeder would like to see imparted into the stock that they’re breeding. She was tremendously sound, tremendously tough, incredibly talented and a seemingly insatiable appetite for racing and for work.

“If you could breed horses with her aptitude for racing on a frequent basis, you’d make a very successful career out of breeding.”

Hutch’s Magic Millions counterpart, managing director Barry Bowditch, described Bella Nipotina as a rarity who would be deserving of international interest no matter which auction house is entrusted to sell her.

“She’s got great depth of page and to be given the opportunity to pitch for her is exciting. We’re talking to the ownership group and ensuring they’ve got all the information they need to make the best decision they can,” Bowditch says.

“And, obviously, we’re a valid choice given the fact we are the only sales company in well over a decade to sell mares for $4 million or more.”

Tuesday was a day of reflection for Michael Christian. Where Bella Nipotina sits in the pantheon of great mares is up to others to judge.

Winx, the only horse in Australian racing history to win more money than the $22.75 million won by Bella Nipotina, Black Caviar, Makybe Diva, Sunline and Verry Elleegant were never sold off-the-track by their owners who elected to retain their champions to breed with.

Christian has come to terms with the fact that Bella Nipotina has to be sold, but he is open to keeping a share in the daughter of his orphan mare Bella Orfana if her new owner wants a breeding partner.

The question remains, however, how much is someone prepared to pay for Bella Nipotina as a broodmare?

Finding a precedent for Bella Nipotina isn’t easy, considering she is a rising eight-year-old from the first crop of 2015 Blue Diamond and ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Pride Of Dubai.

Bella Nipotina winning the 2024 Everest. (Vision: YouTube)

Belmont Bloodstock’s Damon Gabbedy, an experienced agent who sources numerous mares for clients each year, says it’s difficult to find “comparable” mares to help value Bella Nipotina.

“Mares like Bella Nipotina are trophy mares and there’s only a few people who can buy them, and in this case one being the part-owner might be a logical contender for her,” Gabbedy said.

“But, I would say, my gut instincts are that she’d certainly be in the $3 to $4 million range.

“In recent years, obviously, we’ve had Yulong and Coolmore (buying a lot of these expensive mares). For one reason or another, if say, Yulong were keen and Coolmore weren’t, or vice versa, and that can easily happen, while you might value her at $4 million, that (scenario) can mean the horse might make $2 million.”

Fellow agent Sheamus Mills agrees that Bella Nipotina is difficult to put a price on, believing Imperatriz, who was sold as a five-year-old, is arguably the most like-for-like comparison of recent times.

“I’ve often said to people in the past that I’m the first to put a figure on horses, but once you get over about $1.5 million, it really depends on the two people on them,” Mills says.

“If you get Coolmore versus Yulong, you’re a chance to end up with a million to $2 million better result.

“I think she’s one of the hardest horses to value for that exact reason. If Yulong doesn’t like her, what does she make in comparison to if they do?

“What she is worth value-wise compared to what she potentially makes are two different things and I think it’s very important to make that distinction.”