As the only two stables to have prepared Australian-bred Group 1 winners by Frankel, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and Chris Waller have more insight than most when it comes to the progeny of the champion European stallion.
Waller secured dual Group 1 success with the Yulong-owned Hungry Heart, while Waterhouse and Bott oversaw Converge’s victory in the JJ Atkins Stakes.
Neither needed much convincing to be part of the action when two highly anticipated filles by Frankel entered the sales ring on Thursday.
Waller and bloodstock manager Guy Mulcaster parted with $825,000 for Lot 488 from Newgate and Waterhouse and Bott combined with Matt Houldsworth to pay $1 million for Lot 513 off Yarraman Park. It was the first time either party had purchased a Frankel yearling under their own name.
They seem significant prices, the latter is more than three times the Gold Coast sale average, but given the context that Frankel’s yearlings averaged more than $A1 million in the European sales season in 2023, it arguably represents good buying.
Just 30 yearlings by Frankel have been sold through Australian sales rings since 2016, with an average price of just under $550,000, but the majority of those sold have been colts.
In terms of fillies offered at Magic Millions, the two sold on Thursday were just the third and fourth ever offered on the Gold Coast, with one of the other two being Hungry Heart, who sold at this sale in 2019.
Much as he did on the racetrack, Frankel as a stallion creates a buzz wherever his progeny go. He has raced to 136 global stakes winners, 17 of which have come in Australia, quite remarkable considering he has never stood here.
He is on track to eclipse the world record for the most stakes winners by any global sire, currently held by his own sire Galileo on 373. At the same points of their career, Frankel has 10 more stakes winners than Galileo (126) despite having 471 fewer runners!
Accordingly, his service fee in 2024 has rocketed to £350,000 ($A665,000), the equal most expensive stallion in the world.
The good fortune for the Australian market is while, unlike Galileo, he hasn’t shuttled, he has been offered to Southern Hemisphere time. This Australian-foaled yearling crop is his largest yet, with 31 foals, while there were a further 31 in the 2023 foal crop.
While both fillies purchases on Thursday had strong dam-side pedigrees, the Frankel factor was first and foremost for those signing the docket.
“We came here looking for a Frankel filly. The stats are really good in Australia. Chris (Waller) liked her - he trained Hungry Heart so I think that was about where it finished,” Mulcaster said of Lot 488.
“She’s a lovely, athletic filly that came off a good farm so we’re happy with her. Very happy with her.”
That filly is out of Boujie Girl, a Grade 1-placed half-sister to an Arkansas Derby winner, but it wasn’t that part of the pedigree page that caught Mulcaster’s attention.
“We were more worried about the Frankel bit. The type and Frankel, we were happy with her,” he said.
Waller has had more winners by Frankel than any other Australian-based trainer with 12 winners from 13 runners.
“We came here looking for a Frankel filly. The stats are really good in Australia. Chris (Waller) liked her - he trained Hungry Heart so I think that was about where it finished” - Guy Mulcaster
Similar to Waller, the Frankel appeal was front and centre for Waterhouse and Bott regarding Lot 513, who became the fourth seven-figure yearling by her sire sold in Australia.
“She’s by Frankel, she’s a Classic filly, you’d imagine her being able to run over 1400 and 1600 metres and he is the champion stallion in the world, so we feel very privileged to be training her,” Waterhouse said.
“He stamps them very well, they’re very fluid-moving horses and his winners to runners are very high. The best mares go to him because he costs a lot of money and that’s half the battle isn’t it?”
Indeed, the credentials of the dam of Lot 513, Cercle D’Or, are hard to question.
A winner herself, she is out of a half-sister to Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner and European champion Golden Horn. Her Lope De Vega foal Ozara is a recent American stakes winner.
