Duo of purchases headlined up by top-class filly Bonham who will race on
Sheamus Mills made his presence felt at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale on Tuesday, purchasing two lots for an aggregate of $3,100,000, with the most expensive of the pair being Group 1 winner Bonham (Per Incanto), who he secured for $1.6 million.
Catalogued as Lot 707, the three-year-old filly has won four of her six starts, headlined by a win in this season’s Levin Classic (Gr 1, 1600m).
Bred by Little Avondale Stud, Bonham was purchased for NZ$160,000 by Gary Harding at Book 1 of the 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka National Yearling Sale, she is out of placed Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) mare Fortune’s Choice.
Fortune’s Choice is herself a daughter of Listed-winning and Group 1 placed Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) mare Banc De Fortune, who herself produced fellow stakes winner Eagle Island (Fastnet Rock).
Banc De Fortune is out dual Group 1 winner Danendri (Danehill), who produced Group 3 winner Zingam (Zabeel), further back this is the same family as dual Group 1 winner Faint Perfume (Shamardal) and Group 3-winning Chains Of Honour (Redoute’s Choice) and Roy Had Enough (Pierro).
Mills told Racing & Sports Bloodstock the filly was a very rare offering and she would be kept in training for her four-year-old career and be aimed at a possible tilt at the Golden Eagle (1500m).
“I thought she was a rare offering,” said Mills. “You go to these sales every year and there are race fillies come through when they are at the very end of their career, but there are not many come through as three-year-old fillies with six starts, four wins including a Group 1 - that generally doesn’t get offered much. I spotted her very early on and then when I saw her in the flesh I really suppose I got excited and really, really wanted to buy her.
“She is an absolute Queen. She will be kept in training and that was the major incentive and as a four-year-old mare, who gets a mile, although watching her tapes I think she is actually better suited to 1400 metres. She is by Per Incanto out of a Redoute’s mare and I think 1400 metres might be her go, so you have to give some consideration for races like the Golden Eagle.
“We already have Odeum who will be set for that race, so it will be nice to have two horses headed in that direction.”
Mills said he was excited about her racing, but given her pedigree and race record she already had her career as a broodmare locked in and she has already been booked to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit).
“She’s locked her broodmare credentials in the bank already and Per Incanto out of a Redoute’s Choice mare is a proper Australian pedigree,” said Mills.
“She doesn’t have to be a superstar to make a lot of sense financially, she’s pretty much already booked for Vinnie when she finishes and if we can start to reel off some good fillies and colts out of her I think those figures can make sense.”
Later on in the afternoon, Mills teamed with Micheal Christian’s Longwood Farm and Peter Morgan to acquire dual Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed Rimraam (Commands) from the Shadwell dispersal for $1.5 million and she was offered in foal to Dundeel (High Chaparral).
The mare was purchased by Shadwell for $340,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2016 and Mills said he remembers loving her as a yearling and was over the moon to be able to purchase her on Tuesday.
“I remember seeing her as a yearling and I loved her then,” said Mills. “She was an outstanding yearling, but I didn’t have the money to buy her then even though I would have loved to and obviously she went and franked those looks on the track.
“She’s a really good sort and obviously this game is a bit of a beauty contest and She is a very, very good looking mare with a very good race record from a very good family.”
Mills said the daughter of Commands (Danehill) would be covered by Yarraman Park’s I Am Invincible this upcoming spring.
“Michael Christian from Longwood has got some really nice mares and she really fits in well. He is going down the high-quality, low on numbers route. She has been booked into Vinnie today, we have already done the booking - so that is exciting.”
The mare’s first foal - a colt by Tavistock (Montjeu) - was purchased at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale last month and Rimraam herself is out of three time-winning Singspiel (In The Wings) mare Swansea, making her a half-sister to fellow dual Group 3 winner and now Novara Park-based sire Sweynesse (Lonhro).
While further back she hails from the same family as Listed winner Fantastic Ways (Secretariat) - the dam of Grade 3-winning trio Miss Fortunate (Deputy Minister), Trial By Jury (Deputy Minister) and Worldly Ways (Generous).
Mills said the Shadwell dispersal represented a unique opportunity for breeders to enter in families that had not been available on the market and he was keen to cash in on his opportunity.
“Angus [Gold] buys my style of horse,” said Mills. “They have plenty of length and plenty of room. This dispersal was testament to Angus and of all those horses to walk through the ring today is what all breeders aspire to achieve and they achieved it over a period of time.
“This portfolio takes money and time and it is easy to think that if you had the money you could achieve this, but it takes more than that. It is interesting to see with some of these pedigrees, that it won’t be long until you see some of his horses in the third generation and we are going to be seeing these horses for a very, very long time.”
