‘There’s always competition for nice mares’ – Rivals not fazed by Yulong-Coolmore dominance as opportunities persist at elite level

During the 10 minutes Chayan paraded as the final lot of the Inglis Chairman’s Sale to be sold, and the theatre of the auction reached its crescendo, you could be forgiven for pondering the state of the Australian breeding stock market.

Yulong and Coolmore, the two heavyweight combatants of the domestic and it could be said the international market, had paired off in a sales ring duel to buy the Group 2-winning rising three-year-old filly.

She cost $5.6 million, the second highest-priced filly or mare sold at public auction in Australasia, behind that of Imperatriz’s $6.6 million when sold at the Magic Millions two years ago.

Before Tom Magnier bid one final time, to defy Yulong, he grabbed the phone from offsider Paddy Power who was dialled into another Coolmore operative in Ireland.

Whether he was seeking further instruction or he was informing the man on the other end of the line that he was having another bid is unclear.

But what transpired was the fact Yulong did not bid again and Chayan will now race in the Magniers’ colours in the spring for trainer Annabel Archibald and her husband Rob, a former Coolmore Australia racing manager.

It was the 16th time since 2019 Magnier had bought a mare for $1 million or more at the Chairman’s Sale, to go with the 20 Coolmore has bought at the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale.

Sunlight ($4.2 million), Zougotcha ($5.25 million), Nimalee ($3.6 million) and She’s Extreme ($3.4 million) are other high-priced mares purchased at a live public auction by Coolmore during that period.

Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng, who bought five of the nine seven-figure mares at the Chairman’s Sale this year, has been a major factor in pushing up the value of Australasia’s elite breeding stock, particularly from 2022 onwards.

On top of the fillies and mares Zhang has acquired privately – the unbeaten Kiwi filly Well Written and this season’s Blue Diamond winner Streisand spring to mind – Yulong has also bought 50 mares for $1 million or more from either the Magic Millions or Chairman’s Sales.

It could lead to the perception that the dynamics of the market has led to a concentration of quality mares in too few hands.

However, statistics since the 2019 sales show that 49 per cent of the seven-figure mares sold have ended up in the hands of either Yulong (29%) or Coolmore (21 per cent).

Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson sold two of the seven-figure mares at the Chairman’s Sale, Benedetta ($1.9 million) and Philia ($1.4 million) and bought two mares for $750,000 and $675,000 respectively.

Also chair of Aushorse, the marketing arm of Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, Thompson has been a consistent buyer of a high-end mare or two every year in partnership with the likes of Qatar Racing’s Sheikh Fahad.

“I did some stats on it early days because… everyone got a bit disheartened and said, ‘oh, there’s no point, Yulong is buying everything’, and I said, ‘look, they’re buying less than a third of the million dollar mares through the ring, and when you go to half a million, it’s a lot less again,” Thompson says. 

“So, yes, we’ll get beaten by them one out of three, but two out of three, there’s someone else we’ll probably run into. It doesn’t really change for us, who we’re bidding against, we just keep bidding (up to our valuation).”

To back up Thompson’s point, of the 175 mares to sell for $1 million or more since 2019, 94 different entities either outright or in partnership have signed for the high-quality stock.

James Bester, a long-time associate of Coolmore as well as the late Kia Ora Stud owner Ananda Krishnan, believes the top-end of the mares’ market is “as close as you can get to a blue-chip investment in thoroughbreds because those are the yearlings out of mares like that who go to the sales and attract all the top end buyers”.

“I think that when you compare the Australian prices to northern hemisphere prices at Tattersalls and at Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton, there is still relative value to be found here,” Bester says. 

“As for the top end buyers, Coolmore recognises more than anyone the value of long-term investment in the very best bloodstock, shall we say.

“It’s less influenced by a sale-to-sale sort of mentality. And obviously, Yulong is a major competitor for any high-end buyer, hence that magnificent duel for Chayan. 

“And then, of course, you still have the Yoshidas and you still have some of the top studs like Arrowfield and others investing.

“It’s just continuing a trend that has been there for a while, and I don’t see it receding at that top end anytime soon.”

Thompson agrees largely with Bester’s view.

“There’s always competition for nice mares, and that’s never going to change and that’s been the case since I’ve been in the horse business,” Thompson says. 

“There’s a great cartoon I saw many, many years ago, and it was an old guy on a walking stick, hunched over, and it said, ‘a young man waiting for the price of Group 1-winning mares to fall’.

“It just doesn’t happen, does it? So, all the talk about the numbers at Chairman’s being down a bit. I think the catalogue’s down (on quality) a bit as much as the sale itself being down.

“They’re still very competitive on nice mares.”

Cressfield’s Bruce Neill, who calls Hobart home but owns a stud in the Hunter Valley, was in the buying mood at the Chairman’s Sale, in part due to necessity.

He bid on Snow In May, who runs in Saturday’s Group 3 Dark Jewel at Scone for trainer Tom Charlton, but he was “a couple of hundred shy” of the $1.05 million it cost Yulong to buy her.

Neill may have missed out on Snow In May, but Neill was able to add Group 3-winning six-year-old mare Coco Jamboo to his broodmare band for a considerably cheaper $180,000. She too will contest the Dark Jewel for trainers Annabel and Rob Archibald on Saturday.

He also paid $500,000 for European-bred Zoustar mare Regalton, who is in foal to US sire sensation Not This Time; Tropicus’ Wootton Bassett unraced half-sister Fashion Diva carrying a pregnancy to Broadsiding for $280,000 and the stakes-placed Ausbred Flirt in foal to Shinzo for $250,000.

They will go some way to replacing Neill’s $1.8 million Chairman’s buy Pippie, fellow Group 1 winner Secret Agenda and Stefi Magnetica’s dam Mid Summer Music who all died in the past two years.

He says he hasn’t really altered his mare-buying strategy despite the prevalence of Yulong and Coolmore.

“I needed two in-foal mares and I bought three,” Neill said of his Chairman’s haul bought in partnership with Astute Bloodstock’s Louis Le Metayer.

“And then I ended up buying a race filly because I thought that Coco Jamboo, at $180,000, was a Group 3 winner and a Listed performer overseas. She has a nice page, she’s an outcross, so I thought that would be a good chance for an upgrade.”

As for tackling mares that fit Yulong’s criteria, Neill said: “You know when they’re taking you on. But you can take them on and beat them. A couple of years ago, I bought a mare called Cabaca, a Fastnet Rock mare who is a half-sister to Imperatriz. 

“I paid $460,000 after we had a little bit of a bidding duel. Sometimes you can have a win.”

And it’s that bracket below the top where opportunities persist.

“There’s no doubt that the middle market has eased, and again, that offers an opportunity for all the major studs, the major commercial studs that aren’t Coolmore or Yulong or such,” Bester says. 

“That offers them a great opportunity to get in there and buy those Group 3 and Group 2 winners that appeal to them and that the very top end buyers are not actually competing on.”

But at that pointy end, the handful of elite mares who go on the market each year, are likely to end up in the ownership of one of just a few parties.

“I’ve shared this anecdote before, but Demi O’Byrne, who used to buy for Coolmore, always said, ‘you have to value them going into the ring’,” Bester says. 

“‘Put a value on them, go in, bid to that value, double it, and keep going till you get it’. 

“If you think about it, if you value a mare at $2.5 million and you have to pay $3 million, or you value it at $4 to $5 million and you have to pay $5.5 million, at that level, given the net worth of the individuals bidding on them, it’s hard to stop, isn’t it?”

Proof of that may well happen later this month on the Gold Coast.