Prominent owner active on day one at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale.

The first lot through the ring at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale on Wednesday - a colt by the now pensioned Arrowfield Stud stallion Not A Single Doubt (Redoute's Choice) - created early drama when he was purchased for by prominent owner Garry Harding for NZ$320,000, who was a getting his name on the buyers sheet for the first time ever at the sale. 

Catalogued as Lot 2 and offered by Jamieson Park, the colt - who was the only lot by Not A Single Doubt in the catalogue - is out winning and stakes-placed O'Reilly (Last Tycoon) mare O'Naturelle, meaning the colt is bred on the same cross as Shout The Bar, who added a second Group 1 to her CV when she landed the Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) last month. 

O'Naturelle herself is a daughter of Group 2 winner Naturo (Postponed), making her a half-sister to stakes-placed Orutan (Pins). 

Further afield this is the same family as Listed winner Aegean Sea (Beaufort Sea), who in turn produced Group 1 winner Electronic (First Norman) - the dam of 2015 Galaxy Handicap (Gr 1, 1100m) winner Sweet Idea (Snitzel). The colt breezed in a time of 10.49 seconds. 

Jamieson Park offered the colt at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale earlier this year, but they decided to breeze him after he failed to make his $250,000 reserve, a decision that paid dividends on Wednesday. 

Harding said he was not originally going to attend the sale, but decided to make an appearance at the last minute. 

"Originally, I wasn't going to attend the sale but I started to get itchy feet and as my stocks were getting a bit depleted I decided to get here," Harding said

"I loved the colt, but I didn't like the price. We've bought a lot of yearlings here but this is my first ever Ready To Run purchase. We only came here to get this one colt.

"I love the sire and the mare had some talent, according to Sam Munro [Jamieson Park].

"He is very well balanced and the page is good. We will try him here (New Zealand) first and if he shows us anything we will look at Australia."

Despite claiming to only having come to the sale for the Not A Single Doubt, the lure of  Lot 125 proved too much for Harding as he went to NZ$270,000 for a filly by Westbury Stud shuttler Reliable Man (Dalakhani). 

The filly is the sixth foal out of the winning Redoute's Choice (Danehill) mare Zuzela, whose progeny is headed by dual stakes placegetter Wroclaw (Big Brown). 

Zuzela herself is out of prolific stakes-placed mare Zastov (Zabeel), who is herself a half sister to Listed winner Madam Stravinsky (Stravinsky).