Sister of Prowess shines bright on the final day at Karaka as trainers James and Wellwood reach to NZ$1.1 million

After watching the sister to their superstar mare Orchestral sell for a record-breaking NZ$2.4 million at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale on Monday, Roger James and Robert Wellwood shelled out NZ$1.1 million (£500,000/€597,000] for the sister to another of their superstar mares in Prowess. 

Offered and bred by Hallmark Stud, the filly is out of the placed mare Donna Marie, who the operation purchased for NZ$20,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock National Weanling, Broodmare & Mixed Sale in 2014.

As well as Prowess, the mare has produced three further winners including the stakes-placed Ajay Tee, while her other daughter by Proisir topped last year’s edition of the sale when she sold to Moody Racing for NZ$1.6 million and she was also offered by Hallmark Stud.

Donna Marie’s yearling will sport the red and white colours of Colin and Helen Litt, the owners of Orchestral, and James said he couldn’t fault the youngster. 

“From the first time I saw her, I thought she was exceptional. They just don’t come as balanced. I couldn’t fault her,” he said.

“Orchestral's owner [Colin Litt] asked me to rate her out of ten, and I said ten. I couldn’t knock her in any respect, and so you shouldn’t be able to at that money.”

James and Wellwood bought Prowess herself for NZ$230,000 at the same sale in 2021 and the trainers both agreed Tuesday’s session topper would be seen earlier than her dual Group 1-winning sister, who didn’t make her debut until the April of her juvenile career, a 1200-metre contest she duly won by nine lengths. 

“Prowess was a big, rangy filly that we had to wait for. This one is so balanced – you could imagine her doing things at the tail end of her two-year-old year and then being very competitive as a spring three-year-old,” James said.

“Her attitude is bombproof. I saw her the other day. She was tired and almost dead on her feet, she’s been so popular, but the minute she was asked to walk, she had an overstep of about nine inches. She’s one filly that’s just going to give her guts for you.”

Regarding the price, James said they were on their last legs and admitted he had found the market over the past few days ‘tough.’ 

“We weren’t keen to keep going,” he said. “We’ve found the sale very tough. I think it’s probably a reflection on the New Zealand prize-money. We were trying to buy three to syndicate, and normally we’d look at 200 to 250 [thousand], and we didn’t even get a bid in. We don’t think we’re usually wrong with values, but we were this year, and I think it’s a reflection on our increased stakes.”

Dual Group 1 winner Orchestral stormed back into form in Saturday’s Aotearoa Classic at Ellerslie and James issued an update on the daughter of Savabeel.

“She’s come through the race really, really well. She had a light trot and canter this morning and had her tail in the air going off the track. You love to see that after a run. She’s on her way up,” he said.

Not since 2018 have multiple lots realised seven figures at Karaka and Wellwood said it is very hard to know what the well-bred lots are going to make. 

“It is always hard to know how much these high-end fillies are going to make, obviously she’s a full-sister to Prowess, who we won a couple of Group 1s with, they are always competitive, people all around the world are looking at them, so it’s very hard to value those fillies and were very fortunate to be able to get her on what was our last bid,” he said. 

“She has the same athleticism as Prowess, but she was probably a bit bigger than this filly and she might come a little bit earlier than Prowess did. This filly, Prowess and the filly that sold last year are all a bit different, but all lovely fillies and I’m sure the Baker family are happy with the family too.”

Hallmark Stud’s Denny Baker was understandably over the moon with the result. 

“The filly has all the physical attributes to make a runner. She has balance, she is good from hip to hock and has good hocks. She also has a deep girth, a flat shoulder, long forearms and a long rein. Her x-ray and scope reports were excellent. In other words, she fits an old saying as all these things suggest she is less likely to fail,” he told ANZ Bloodstock News. 

“We had her on the market at NZ$300,000 and we were very excited when she went past the million. You might check with Roger James but by all accounts he had a leaning towards our filly over the Symphonic filly which they bid on yesterday [Monday].”

Hawthorne makes his mark

Later on in the day, Dean Hawthorne, acting on behalf of GSA Racing’s Jonathan Munz, purchased another daughter by Rich Hill’s Proisir for NZ$850,000.

Offered as part of the Curraghmore consignment, the filly is out of the unraced Tavistock mare Golden Hind, who is herself a half-sister to New Zealand 1,000 Guineas winner Planet Rock and Group 3 scorer Ringo. 

"She will be for the GSA racing team and where she goes, we don't know. I mean, we had three cracks here, we went up to about NZ$1.8 million on the sale topper and a million on the next one and this filly we rated right up there with those top ones,” Hawthorne said.

“I think she's a nice sort of miler filly, 1400 - miler. I mean Tavistock mares throw speed. I think once she matures, because she's an earlier foal, she'll come earlier than what we think. Not saying she is going to be a flying two year old, but I think she's gonna be a lovely Guineas filly, which is what we've bought her for, to win a Guineas.”

Stats round up for Book 1

At the close of selling, the Book 1 aggregate reached NZ$75,322,500, down five per cent on 12 months ago albeit from a slightly smaller offering of 588 yearlings, while the average rounded out at NZ$164,819, a drop of two per cent, and the clearance rate was the same at 78 per cent.

The Book 1 session was one for the history books when a record-breaking NZ$2.4 million sale of the sister to Orchestral took place on the second day, marking the most expensive filly to be purchased at Karaka and the highest-priced yearling in 25 years.

Securing his leading buyer title for another year was Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis, who purchased 26 yearlings over the last three days for a total spend of NZ$4,497,500. For the first time, Karaka-based Haunui Farm took the title of leading vendor, selling 24 yearlings for NZ$6,740,000.

“Yearlings out of Donna Marie have made NZ$2.7 million in two years - it's quite incredible. Hallmark is a small farm just half an hour south of here, so for them to do well is fantastic,” said New Zealand Bloodstock's managing director Andrew Seabrook. 

“The top two lots were bought by New Zealanders, which is really, really rare. In fact, this will be the first sale that New Zealanders have outspent the Australians. I can't remember a sale ever where that's happened.

“Even though we had more Australians on the sale grounds than we've seen for a number of years, they perhaps didn't have the firepower of the last couple of years, so it was great to see the positive New Zealand racing scene resulting in a bigger New Zealand buying bench.

“That was really encouraging. So that's what you're putting down, even though some of those horses are going to Australia, there's still Kiwi trainers, agents and owners that are investing in the New Zealand product.

“So for us to be down three per cent, remembering that we were up 12 per cent last year, which was the only sale to increase - so I'm happy.

“The Book 2 results aren't actually far behind Book 1. Some really good horses have come out of Book 2. Fantastic initiative from Gerry Harvey and Russell Warwick to put all their draft up unreserved - they've got the biggest draft. They must have 30 or 40 horses in Book 2. So that's a great incentive for people to go out and bid on those horses.”

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