Zhang Yuesheng has paid more than A$1 million for South Australian Fillies Classic winner Let’sbefrankbaby during the opening day of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in the United States.
The Chinese businessman and Yulong principal, who has established a giant breeding and racing operation in Victoria over the past decade, bought the former Robbie Griffiths and Mathew de Kock-trained Group 3-winning five-year-old daughter of Frankel for US$700,000 (A$1.06 million).
Let’sbefrankbaby was the last of Yulong’s three-mare haul during Keeneland’s first session on Wednesday (AEDT) where Zhang also paid US$1.8 million (A$2.74 million) for Anisette and US$700,000 for Bunskie under the Willingham Stud banner.
Twenty four hours earlier, Zhang also bought two high-class mares, War Like Goddess ($1.8 million) and Full Count Felicia (US$1 million), at the Fasig-Tipton sale.
Let’sbefrankbaby, who was also Group 3-placed and Group 1-performed, won four of her 17 starts for Griffiths and de Kock before being shipped to the United States in September.
Out of Baby Pink, a Listed winner in Ireland by Invincible Spirit, Let’sbefrankbaby was bred by Glentree Racing’s Bruce Wilson who sold her at the 2021 Inglis Easter sale for $400,000 to her trainers and bloodstock agent Peter Ford.
She was raced by prominent South African owners, Drakenstein Stud’s Gaynor Rupert, Larry Nestadt and Gary Barber, who chose to give her one start in America before putting her in front of an international market in Lexington, Kentucky.
Let’sbefrankbaby was unplaced in the Grade 3 Dowager Stakes at Keeneland on October 20 for trainer Mark Casse prior to going under the hammer at America’s biggest breeding stock sale.
The most expensive of Yulong’s Keeneland trio, Anisette, is a three-time Grade 1 winner by Cape Cross stallion Awtaad while Bunksie, an unplaced Speightstown mare who is in foal to Into Mischief.
She is a half-sister to Grade 2 winners Three Witches and Spellbound, the latter the dam of Grade 2 winner Soothsay, and the Grade 3 winner Kid Cruz.
Ananda Krishnan’s Hunter Valley operation Kia Ora Stud was also active at Keeneland, purchasing Canadian Grade 1 Natalma Stakes winner Last Call for US$550,000 (A$840,000), while Milburn Creek’s John Muir spent US$400,000 (A$611,000) on Fuente Ovejuna, a Listed-winning Lope De Vega mare from the family of US Grade 1 winner Mast Track and French Group 1 winner Jemayel.
Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm bought the session’s highest-priced lot, trainer Christophe Clement’s five-time stakes winner Roses For Debra, for US$2.4 million (A$3.66 million).
“She was very elegant, very well put together,” Pope said.
“She was very fast. I needed some mares of speed to add to the stallions that I like to breed to. We’re mainly taking the opportunities as they come up, and then later on we’ll be looking for mares to breed to (Whisper Hill runners) Charge It and Tapit Trice.
“(We are) thinking Curlin (or) Justify (to breed to Roses for Debra). We have a couple of good options there that both work on the grass and the dirt, and it’s a good cross.”
There was US$62.3 million traded on day one, up 15 percent year-on-year, at an average of US$436,154, which declined four percent compared to 2023.
“We saw a strong domestic market, but we had great participation from Australia, Japan and Europe,” Keeneland vice-president of sales Tony Lacy said.
“Everybody was here, and everybody was very, very active. I think they felt like there was something for everybody, and that’s what we try to create here.”
Tim Rowe
