The crew behind the success of star two-year-old Storm Boy, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and Cunningham Thoroughbreds, have come together to pay $360,000 for the half-brother to another of the stable’s unbeaten juveniles, Shangri La Express.
Soon after striking a stallion deal with Coolmore for Storm Boy, the Cunninghams’ bloodstock agent Jim Clarke was there to co-sign on Lot 674, the colt by Written Tycoon out of Sent From Above, in what was one of the top prices on the final day of the Inglis Classic Sale.
Shangri La Express, Sent From Above’s first foal to the track, is unbeaten through two starts and won the Golden Gift in the spring. He resumes in the Pierro Plate at Randwick on Saturday.
Waterhouse/Bott’s bloodstock manager, Claudia Miller, said there were some similarities and some differences between the Written Tycoon yearling and his older half-brother.
“Mum (the dam) has done a great job, she has had one to race for Shangri La Express. We really liked the foal on type, he was a bit different to Shangri La Express, a bit leggier, which is what you tend to get with the Written Tycoons,” he said.
“He will race in the same colours as Storm Boy and we were delighted to get him at $360,000.”
Waterhouse/Bott, who have dominated Sydney two-year-old racing this season, were involved in purchasing eight horses across the week, with this colt the same price as Written Tycoon filly purchased through Dodmark Thoroughbreds on the first day.
Waterhouse and Bott have had 14 winners by the Yulong-based sire from 25 runners, including last Saturday’s Widden Stakes winner Lady Of Camelot.
Later in the day, the half-brother to Inglis Millenium winner Fully Lit was sold to Rising Sun Syndicate and Satomi Oka for $420,000. Lot 750 is a colt by North Pacific was offered by Glenlogan Park.
Earlier, BK Racing went to $320,000 for a filly by Hellbent, Lot 649, offered by Riverstone Lodge.
The filly, who comes from the extended family of champion stallion Savabeel, will join John O’Shea’s stables, according to BK’s racing manager Ben Vassallo.
“She’s a very athletic filly, I thought she was the best-bodied filly at the sale. Hellbent Is obviously a son of I am Invincible, and he just goes from strength to strength, winning the Inglis Millennium (with Fully Lit).
“I thought that would make it harder to buy the filly today, but she came in right around our expectations and we are very happy to leave the sale with her.’
“John has a handy Hellbent filly by the name of Howler in the stable and we have a good relationship with John and Tom and the team, it’s just a matter of building up the ranks and getting the fillies in the barn to follow in the footsteps of the ones that are about to step out.”
It was the first purchase for BK Racing at the Classic Sale, having bought three outright and two in partnership at the Gold Coast.
Earlier in the day, Hong Kong buyers were to the fore when Ricky Yiu paid $300,000 for Lot 613, a Capitalist colt from the draft of Fernrigg Farm, and George Moore paid the same price for Lot 662, a colt by Farnan offered by Valiant Stud.
Yiu had topped day one of the sale with $360,000 paid for a Street Boss colt, and continued his shopping with the son of Capitalist and Queen Of Eight, who has already produced two stakes horses.
Moore secured the first Lot of day three, a Russian Revolution colt for $100,000, and the son of legendary retired Hong Kong trainer John Moore was back for the Franan colt, who is a half-brother to juvenile stakes winner Chilled.
The sale average finished down on last year at $93,559, while the median dropped to $70,000.
