Funstar bought by Northern Farm for online record price of A$2.7 million

Funstar will head to Japan and join her high-class sibling Youngstar after the Group 1-winning mare was bought by powerful breeder Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm through Inglis Digital for A$2.7 million (approx £1.5m/€1.7m), a new world record for an online thoroughbred sale and the second highest price for a broodmare in the southern hemisphere this year.

After optimistic buyers showed their hand last Friday, minutes after the July Online Sale catalogue was released, a A$1m bid saw the former Chris Waller-trained rising five-year-old mare put on the market.

Bidding stalled for the following four days before a flurry of action on Wednesday saw her price rise to A$1.4m with 30 minutes remaining until the final countdown started.

Then the drama, one for the true bloodstock sale junkies, saw a drawn out bidding war involving numerous parties which lasted nearly one and three-quarter hours.

The major players - there were three still active at A$2.1m and above - clashed via a click of the mouse as one combatant was quick to press the button while others bided their time before making their next move in A$25,000 increments.

Eventually, though, it was Yoshida who won out, ensuring Funstar would be reunited with her half-sister and former stablemate Youngstar at Northern Farm.

“I am so thrilled that we were able to purchase a beautiful mare,” said Yoshida.

“We have her sister Youngstar and also have mares related to the granddam, User Friendly.

“We are looking forward to seeing their progenies winning in Japan.”

Yoshida paid A$1.4m for Youngstar at the 2020 Chairman’s Sale and he has also invested heavily in other well-performed Australian mares in recent years, most notably in Golden Slipper Stakes winner She Will Reign, dual Group 1 winner Yankee Rose and Thousand Guineas winner Amphitrite.

At this week’s JRHA Select Foal Sale Yoshida’s Northern Farm sold a Lord Kanaloa colt out of Yankee Rose for ¥370 million (approx £2.4m/€2.8m) and a yearling colt by Heart’s Cry out of She Will Reign at the JRHA Select Yearling Sale for ¥165m.

Inglis general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch was “stoked” with how Funstar, whose pedigree has been enhanced over the past two seasons through the deeds of close relation and three-time Group 1 winner Tofane, was received by the global online marketplace.

He said: “I have seen the mare a number of times at the races and a couple of times in the past fortnight. I genuinely think she’s a beautiful mare.

“There is something particularly appealing about her physically and with her general demeanour, but for her to make A$2.7 million and to be the most expensive mare sold ‘under the hammer’ this year is extraordinary.

“Obviously we’ve had some fantastic mares sold this year but it’s almost incomprehensible that she could make A$2.7 million.”

Funstar was sold by her ownership group which included Olly Koolman, his father Anton, Arthur and Charlotte Inglis and her breeder Jack Sheather after her racing career was brought to a halt after she finished well back in the Dane Ripper Stakes at Eagle Farm on June 12.

She retired as the winner of five of her 18 starts and A$1.14m in prize-money, with her stakes record boosted by wins in the Tea Rose Stakes, Flight Stakes and the Phar Lap Stakes at three. She also won both her public appearances as a late-season two-year-old.

Koolman, who went to A$80,000 at the 2018 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale to buy Funstar, revealed on Wednesday night that connections had rejected a A$2.5m offer for her as a three-year-old at the height of her racing career and the sudden end less than three months out from the start of the breeding season had left the syndicate in a quandary with what to do with her.

“We announced a reserve of A$1 million and as soon as the sale opened a million-dollar bid came in straight away, so the mare was ‘sold’,” said Koolman.

“I was surprised to see it climb so early this morning and I really have been blown away.

“What I would like to make known, the big sales [Inglis Chairman’s and Magic Millions] had passed when she had been retired and we made a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

“There is no way she would have earned any more at a live auction. From what we understand and the attention that was paid to her, and the inspections that we had through the week, it was an absolute credit to the crew at Inglis’ to be able to attract a buying bench like they did.”

The selling of Funstar continued an incredible Australian sales season, in which demand for elite-level bloodstock across all sectors from foals, yearlings, race fillies and broodmares almost had no ceiling.

Group 1 winners Celebrity Queen and In Her Time sold for A$2.5m and A$2.2m respectively in May at the Chairman’s Sale and, weeks later, Arcadia Queen fetched A$3.2m, after initially being passed in, while Melody Belle (A$2.6m), Mizzy (A$2.2m) and Qafila (A$2m) all reached the A$2m mark at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale on the Gold Coast.

Naturally, Funstar became the most expensive thoroughbred sold through an online auction, smashing the mark set last October by New Zealand Bloodstock’s Gavelhouse when Spanish Whisper, a Group 2 winner in both Australia and New Zealand, made A$1,202,500.

Funstar is one of six winners out of European-bred mare Starspangled, who is also the dam of the stakes-placed Eleven Seconds and Baggy Green, herself the dam of the Mike Moroney-trained Tofane, the winner of the Stradbroke Handicap and Tattersalls Tiara in Brisbane last month.

Hutch says the Japanese stallion ranks will have plenty to offer Funstar when she arrives later this year.

“Northern Farm is a phenomenal breeding operation; the strength of the stallion crop up there is really incredible,” he said.

“For so long Japan has been so synonymous with one stallion up there in Deep Impact, but I believe they had 16 stallions with progeny who realised the equivalent of a million dollars or more during their [yearling and foal] sales in the past two days.

“That is probably a great demonstration of the depth of the stallion ranks that they have up there, so a mare like Funstar to join Youngstar up there, she is going to get a crack at the best stallions in Japan.”

Koolman looked after Funstar since her retirement and pending sale at Paul and Angela Fudge’s Bong Bong Farm in the NSW Southern Highlands, where potential buyers were able to inspect her leading up to this week’s auction.

“Not often am I a vendor - I’ve been a vendor on two occasions in the past two years and that was Youngstar and Funstar, normally I am a buyer,” said Koolman, who enjoyed a champagne while watching the enthralling final hour of the sale with Arthur Inglis.

“As a vendor, you put your horse on the market and there is a [digital] buying bench there that senses the feeling of ownership for a period as the timelapse goes on.

“Arthur and I were watching it together and we thought they were at overtime for a long time. If it was a football match you were watching, they would have been out on their feet.

“They were out cold. No one can play footy for that long and we were watching them go at it to and fro, and to think that they were coming from half a dozen different places to do it as well...”

Subscribe to make sure you never miss updates from Australia, New Zealand and beyond and to have ANZ Bloodstock delivered to your inbox every day