Leviathan owner Frank Cook was able to restrain himself for the first two days of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, but he finally released the shackles at Riverside on Tuesday when he paid $340,000 for a filly by emerging sire Lucky Vega, his sole purchase of the Sydney auction.

Frank Cook (left) and Louis Le Metayer (right) signing for a $340,000 Lucky Vega filly at the Inglis Classic Sale. (Photo: Inglis)

Cook and his wife Christine enjoyed a stakes race double on Saturday, with brilliant three-year-old filly Arabian Summer winning the Group 3 Kevin Hayes at Caulfield and Too Darn Hot colt Rivellino taking out the $2 million Inglis Millennium at Randwick.

Three-year-old Linebacker was runner-up in the Eskimo Prince and the NZB The Kiwi-bound Evaporate resumed with a third placing in the Group 2 Autumn Classic at Caulfield.

Randwick Bloodstock’s Brett Howard has been a long-time advisor to Cook, an alliance which has netted horses such as Group 1 winner Shout The Bar, but the agent has been tied to Star Thoroughbreds’ Denise Martin in recent years, leading to Louis Le Metayer lending assistance.

“I normally do my own thing, but I went a bit over the top with Magic Millions. I love the horses and I love all the inspections, but I knew down here I just wanted to buy a good filly for (Sydney trainers) Lee and Cherie Curtis and that was a total focus,” Cook said.

“So, this time I said, ‘all right, Louis, you go and do the job. Here's my starting list’. He looks at everything and I gave him Lee and Cherie Curtis' starting list.

“Then we filtered them down on the iPad and we ended up with, I think, eight on my synergy list, which was between Louis, my picks and their picks.

“We eliminated them down and we ended up with only two fillies. One was the Zoustar filly (out of Moss Trip) that was sold the other day and this filly.” 

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Astute Bloodstock’s Le Metayer is more than happy that the Cook and Curtis familys ended up with the Yulong-bred second crop Lucky Vega filly, the first foal out of a Fastnet Rock half-sister to Group 1 William Reid winner Silent Sedition.

“We actually sent a couple of mares to Lucky Vega. He is free of Danehill and he was a fast horse, he was a precocious horse and he trained on as a four-year-old,” Le Metayer said of Lucky Vega, a Group 1 Phoenix Stakes-winning son of Lope De Vega. 

“This filly who is out of a Fastnet Rock mare and if you look at the Lope De Vega out of Fastnet Rock mares, it's only been done (24 times) and it's produced two Group 1 winners, Gytrash and Santa Ana Lane, proper horses.

“And I love this filly because physically she's outstanding but she's also got a deep pedigree.” 

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Yulong shuttler Lucky Vega has three first-crop southern hemisphere-bred winners including Inglis Millennium runner-up Within The Law.

Zhang Yuesheng’s Yulong wasted no time in reinvesting their return on the Lucky Vega filly, purchasing a Proisir colt for $360,000 early on day three, while trainer Chris Waller and agent Guy Mulcaster were also active during the third session.

The powerful combination also outlaid $360,000 on a Snitzel colt out of the Group 2 placegetter Re Edit from the draft of Arrowfield.

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