Mares in foal to Frankel in demand as Yulong snaps up Fantasy for A$1.7 million

This week's Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale has proved without doubt, if there was any doubt before, that Yuesheng Zhang’s Yulong operation is a serious player in the Australian market.

It spent a staggering A$29.275 million (£16.51 million) on 63 mares over three days at the Gold Coast.

The Chinese billionaire is determined to become one of the nation’s, if not the world’s, leading thoroughbred breeders and there was no expense spared towards achieving that goal this week, contributing almost 24 per cent of the sale’s total turnover.

Yulong has “refined” its racing division over the past couple of years at the same time its broodmare band has swelled close to 350 at the Nagambie farm, located in Victoria’s thoroughbred breeding heartland in the fertile Goulburn Valley region.

“We tended to have a lot of horses who couldn’t go to China when they stopped shipping horses, so we kept a lot of those and tried them [in Australia], but we’ve sifted them out now,” Yulong chief operating officer Sam Fairgray said.

“We’re trying to keep the racing team tidy, have some nice fillies in work, race the odd colt and we’ve got a few horses in partnership that we bought into as yearlings as well.

“That is what we will continue to do with that model and focus on the stud side of things.”

That focus was in full view during the morning session, as Yulong bought three mares in foal to Juddmonte’s champion sire Frankel, for a combined A$3.05 million: Fantasy was the most expensive at A$1.7 million.

Offered by Coolmore, which owns the majority of grand producer Cassandra Go’s extended family, an opening bid of A$1 million was received for Fantasy and there was intense competition from there on.

“It’s one pedigree page, she has an early service date to Frankel and she is a beauty,” Fairgray said.

“If you keep getting fillies out of her, you can keep building families and that’s what we want to do to strengthen our broodmare band.

“Then, if she had a lovely colt and he won a Group 1 race, he would have serious stallion potential.”

A Group 3-placed winner over five furlongs, Fantasy is a half-sister to Group 1 winner Halfway To Heaven, Group 3 winner Theann and a sister to Group 3 winner Tickled Pink.

Halfway To Heaven herself is the dam of European champion mares Magical and Rhododendron as well as Group 3 winner Flying The Flag.

Rising 20 year old Written Tycoon is the likely first Southern Hemisphere mating for Fantasy while he is also in contention for Easton Angel (Dark Angel), a mare bought earlier in the session for A$1.3 million by Yulong.

Blue Diamond Stakes winner Tagaloa is also being considered for Easton Angel, a juvenile and five-furlong stakes winner who is already the dam of Group 3-placed Lough Derg.

“What we’ve done in previous years is that we’ve bought some nice quality mares and [Mr Zhang] has seen those good-quality mares produce nice stock and sell well as yearlings, so we’re just continuing that model.

“Obviously with our younger stallions of Tagaloa, Lucky Vega and so forth, we want to give them every opportunity, so we’re adding some nice mares that will give them a good opportunity at stud.”

Tim Stakemire, representing Sheikh Bin Khalifa, was believed to be the underbidder on Easton Angel who had a A$600,000 reserve.

“If you look at her, she looks like she would have easily been born here in Australia, she looks like a five-furlong Australian sprinting mare and I think that’s what people thought when they had her out,” vendor Brett Howard of Glenesk Thoroughbreds said.

“It is a good mating for Frankel as well and she just has the best temperament, so I will be very disappointed for Yulong if they don’t get a good foal out of her and it will be a three-quarter to Lough Derg who was Group-placed.”

Soon after buying Easton Angel, Yulong added Excellent Sunset, another mare in foal to Frankel, for A$1.05 million from the Newgate consignment.

European born, Excellent Sunset was multiple stakes-placed in the US. She was covered by Frankel to Southern Hemisphere time last September.

Of Yulong’s investment in mares in foal to Frankel, Fairgray said it was a reasoned move.

“Obviously Frankel is flying. We saw those weanlings last week sell extremely well [on the Gold Coast] and Mr Zhang’s obviously got a love for Frankel with Hungry Heart and now [three-year-old Group 3-winning filly] My Whisper and we’ve also got another couple of Frankels who are untested,” he said.

Yulong also bought ten mares during the recent Inglis Chairman’s and Australian Broodmare Sale up to the price of A$650,000 each.

Bowditch said Fairgray and his team’s hard work during the Magic Millions inspection period paid dividends during the sale.

“No one works harder at a sale than Sam Fairgray and his team and we’re delighted to have them here,” he said.

“They’re significant clients of Magic Millions and they’ve participated in the market at all levels and obviously they’ve been incredibly successful.

“All in all, there’s been a great spread of buyers. When you look through, we’ve had close to 30 buyers spend over a million dollars, which is huge.”

Strawberry Hill hit the right Key

The fourth million-dollar mare sold in foal to Frankel was Key, a Group 3-placed mare raced by New Zealand owner Gary Harding. Buyer Duncan Grimley was relieved to be in the board after swinging and missing on a number of occasions this year.

Grimley bought the mare for Strawberry Hill Stud’s John Singleton, who bred and raced Group 2 winner Miss Fabulass, but left it to agents Bevan Smith and Andrew Williams to sign up for the A$1.1 million purchase.

Shout The Bar, who made A$2.7 million at the Chairman’s Sale earlier this month, was the highest-profile mare Grimley unsuccessfully tried to buy.

“I’ve had a crack at a number of them and been half a million light on them,” said Grimley, Singleton’s long-time bloodstock advisor.

“But I have purchased the best mare in foal to Frankel in the sale. She was a good race filly and we have been keen on Frankel for a number of years.

“We sent him his first mare from the southern hemisphere and we’ve sent mares to him most years and I just think he is a superstar.”

A granddaughter of champion New Zealand mare Princess Coup, the dam of Hong Kong Group 3 winner Thewizardofoz and this season’s Anthony and Sam Freedman-trained Group 3-winning three-year-old filly Argentia, Key started her racing career in New Zealand before a brief campaign for Canberra trainer Matt Dale.

She was then shipped by Harding to Europe to be covered by Frankel before returning to Scone-based Willow Park Stud, which offered her on his behalf.

“We have great results through Frankel, both through the sale ring and racing them. If she has a filly we will be racing her and if she is a colt we’ll be selling him, that’s the way we operate.

“I’m keener to have Frankel’s out of Southern Hemisphere-raced mares than northern hemisphere-raced mares, so she fits the bill.”

Grimley was interested in another mare in foal to Frankel, the A$1.3 million Easton Angel, earlier in the session, but he was no match for Yulong.

“You have one big player at the moment [Zhang] and he is a really big fish, so when you come up against him it’s difficult and that is just the way it is,” he said.

“Coolmore has been blown away a few times this week and that hasn’t happened anywhere in the world.

“It is difficult, but we are a boutique operation, so it is no good without having quality at the top and quantity at the bottom, so that’s where we’re at and that’s why we’re doing it.”

Mares in foal to Frankel averaged A$880,000 from ten lots sold.

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