'She's Australian forever' - Winx's only foal sold for record A$10 million as champion mare's part-owner Debbie Kepitis stuns sale

Winx's part-owner Debbie Kepitis stunned the bloodstock world on Monday when she paid a record A$10 million (£5.2m/€6m) for the champion mare's Pierro filly at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.

In an electric few minutes at Riverside Stables in Sydney, bidding advanced quickly from an opening salvo of A$2m for the only foal out of Winx, with several local and international players involved.

The initial A$2m play was made by Inglis Bloodstock’s chief executive Sebastian Hutch, acting for trainer Robbie Griffiths, before the company’s managing director Mark Webster, on behalf of US investor John Stewart, jumped in at A$2.5m.

Kepitis, seated at her auditorium table surrounded by her family, bid A$3m, before Webster raised it to A$5m. Kepitis hit back at A$6m, Webster went to A$7.5m, then Kepitis returned serve at A$8m.

Webster bid A$9m before Kepitis raised the stakes to A$10m, and with that Stewart conceded defeat, forcing Webster to hang up the phone and gesture to Jonathan D’Arcy his client was out, prompting the auctioneer to bring down the gavel to end the historic proceedings.

With Woppitt Bloodstock officially declared as the buyer, onlookers found it hard to hold their applause as the filly left the ring as the highest-priced yearling sold at public auction in Australia.

Kepitis, who raced Winx and bred this filly with Peter Tighe, confirmed Winx's trainer Chris Waller would be sent her record-breaking acquisition. 

Debbie Kepitis and Chris Waller after the A$10 million purchase of the Pierro filly out of WinxCredit: Inglis

Kepitis said she couldn’t bear the thought of not retaining ownership of the filly, whose mother took her and co-owners Tighe and the late Richard Treweeke on the ride of a lifetime, winning 37 races, 33 in succession and 25 at Group 1 level including four historic Cox Plate triumphs.

Speaking through tears of joy post sale, Kepitis was relieved she had been able to buy out her co-owners even if it came with a A$10m price tag.

"I didn't come here to buy this horse originally," she said.

"We put her up for auction and then, in the last few weeks, all of our family started to miss our daughter, our granddaughter, so we just decided that, as best we could, if we could get her we would.

"I'm privileged to have been able to secure this filly on behalf of my family, to be able to hopefully see if she can get to the racetrack and, if she can't get to the racetrack, she'll be an amazing mum.

"She's Australian forever and she's going to be just fabulous. Hopefully she'll do a Winx, but it doesn't matter if she doesn't."

Winx, who was bought as a yearling for A$230,000 at Magic Millions, has had a stop-start breeding career, having lost her first foal by I Am Invincible – an episode that almost claimed her life – and failed to produce an offspring by Snitzel. She last visited Snitzel again and is reported to be in foal once more.

It was Coolmore who consigned as lot 391 the bay filly born on October 7, 2022 and sired by their high-flying stallion Pierro, and Paddy Sheehan, who had been by Winx’s side during that traumatic first foaling at Coolmore’s Jerrys Plains stud, had the honour of leading the filly through the Riverside Stables ring in front of a packed auditorium and concourse.

Coolmore's Tom Magnier said: "I knew she was going to make a very high figure because somebody's buying history – this is a classic, it's a collectors' item – and there's only one person who deserved today and that was Debbie and [husband] Paul and the family."

For Tighe, who had last week expressed his interest in retaining a share in the filly, Monday’s record price tag was “something you couldn’t imagine” and her sale was “good for racing, good for breeding, good for everyone”.

He added: “People want something and they’re prepared to pay for it and if you can afford it, good luck to you. It’s great for Debbie, who bought her, and it’s great for the ownership group who benefit from the sale.

“We do it because we love our horses and the sport. It's a funny thing to say, but we didn’t come here today for the money, we came here for a purpose and I think we’ve achieved that by getting the horse out into the breeding world.

“We look forward to many more great stories, which have all stemmed from Winx.”

Hutch, another caught up in the moment, said: “I think what struck me, and I was very much engaged in the auction, were the gasps when the bid went to A$5 million.

The filly out of Winx is led up before her turn in the sales ringCredit: Mark Kolbe

“It was almost like, ‘Wow, we didn't think this was going to happen’. So that was quite cool. In any sport, there's always got to be a champion, and in any given year there's going to be a winner of something. Horses like Winx operate on a different planet to the rest of them.

“It felt like a ‘I was there’ moment.”

Stewart, the high-rolling new figure on the US scene with his Kentucky-based Resolute Racing, had pledged he would do "whatever it takes" to acquire the filly, but he didn’t let the disappointment get to him, paying A$3m later in the session for a Coolmore-sold I Am Invincible filly out of Group 1-winning mare Booker.

Stewart posted on X: “Mission accomplished. I said before that my goal was for the filly to stay in Australia. Congratulations to Debbie Kepitis and everyone in Australia! The Winx filly is right where she belongs.

“I hope I played a small part in discouraging some of the international players out of the auction.” 

The tag of most expensive yearling ever sold at auction in Australia, as well as in the southern hemisphere, before the arrival of the Winx filly in the ring had belonged to another member of the country’s equine royalty.

Back in 2013, also at Inglis, a Redoute’s Choice half-brother to the incredible sprinting mare Black Caviar as well as Group 1 winner-turned-sire All Too Hard, made A$5m to BC3 Thoroughbreds. He sadly died only a few months later.

The world all-time yearling auction high was set in the bullish times of 1985, with $13.1m spent on Seattle Dancer, a half-brother to Seattle Slew, bought by a consortium including Robert Sangster, John Magnier and Stavros Niarchos, at the Kentucky July Selected Yearling Sale.

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