Well-travelled mare sells to Paul Willetts for $230,000 at the Gold Coast National Sale
With most of the world forced into some form of lockdown for the best part of 18 months, Tashaarok (Invincible Spirit) has been steadily collecting stamps in her passport, but at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale on Wednesday the mare’s worldwide trip came to an end - for the time being at least - when she was purchased by Paul Willetts Bloodstock on behalf of Three Bridges for $230,000.
The story of how this Irish-bred daughter of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) ended up in foal to former shuttler Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) and catalogued as part of the Sledmere Stud draft at one of the biggest broodmare sales in Australia starts with Darley Flying Start graduate John Bourke.
“I did my Flying Start business plan and I submitted it this very week last year based on the idea of breeding northern hemisphere mares on southern hemisphere time and selling them through the Australian market, so offering a sort of rarity in that marketplace,” Bourke told Racing & Sports Bloodstock on Wednesday.
“It just so happened I then got the job with Jack (Cantillon) and he was also quite keen on the idea and Dermot (Cantillon) his father had done the same thing a few years before.”
Tashaarok also has a story to tell. She was purchased by BBA Ireland for 82,000gns at the 2015 Tattersalls December Foal Sale, before being bought by Shadwell for 135,000gns at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2016.
She was then offered by Sheikh Hamdan’s operation at the 2018 edition of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale and was bought by Elias Kritikos for a mere 3,000gns, after which she joined the stable of Cyprus-based trainer Georghios Nicolaou, for whom she ran seven times and was placed on one occasion.
For a mare, who has no form to speak of, in a country not famed for its racing, how then did she appear on anyone's radar?
As well as working alongside the Cantillons, Bourke also works for dual Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m)-winning trainer Joseph O’Brien and during his time there subsequent Polonia Stakes (Listed, 5.5f) winner Lady Penelope (Night Of Thunder) - who is a half-sister to Tashaarok - was beginning to show her talent in training.
“I also work for Joseph O’Brien and he obviously trained Lady Penelope, who is Tashaarok's half-sister,” explains Bourke.
“Mike Kelly specialises in finding fillies that have gone off to foreign countries and he sourced the mare for us from Cyprus, just before Lady Penelope won the Listed race in Cork and we bought her straight out of a stable out there. We got a very basic picture and video of her from out there, but you could still see she was a fine, big strapping, good moving mare, the type they love in Australia.”
When one looks closer at Tashaarok’s pedigree there are names on the page that would be familiar to the Australian buying bench, with her third dam Somfas (What A Pleasure) being the grandam of Stella Vivia (Titus Livius) and she in turn produced this season’s VRC Blamey Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m) winner Sea Of The Stars (Ocean Park) and Listed winner and now Aquis Farm-based sire Spieth (Thorn Park).
Further down three-time Group 1-winning Windsor Park shuttler Charm Spirit (Invincible Spirit) also features on the page.
“We had identified her as a nice prospect with an international pedigree that might appeal to the Australians with Charm Spirit in there, Spieth amongst others and she really has dropped down to a lovely moving roomy mare, which they obviously really love,” said Bourke.
“We chose Night Of Thunder, because he got good results from the one crop he sired down there.”
Bourke and Cantillon’s initial plan was to get her covered by Night Of Thunder on southern hemisphere time - making the resulting foal a three-quarter sibling to Lady Penelope - and then lure an Australian buyer at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale.
However, with the world in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, no Australians were able to make the trip to the Tattersalls sale and she was passed in at 100,000gns forcing the team to rethink their carefully formulated plan.
“We took her to Tattersalls, but with coronavirus, things just didn’t pan out, none of the Australian’s were there and she was unsold,” said Bouke.
“We then had to revert to Plan B, which meant shipping her down to Australia, which obviously was expensive, but I was lucky enough to work for Roy and Treen Murphy at Sledmere when I was on the Darley Flying Start and I kept in contact with them. The Murphy’s were happy enough to take the mare for us and board her there and bring her to the sales for us.”
Since then, in terms of pedigree things began to fall into place for the plan to work out. Night Of Thunder - who shuttled to Australia for one year in 2016 - had his abilities as a stallion advertised through the exploits of his talented son Cherry Tortoni, who took out the Moonee Valley Vase (Gr 2, 2040m) last year and also finished second in the VRC Australian Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m). Meanwhile, Invincible Spirit’s exploits as a broodmare sire came to the fore when Masked Crusader (Toronado) landed the William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in March and both of these factors boosted Bourke’s hopes of a good result on the Gold Coast.
“The stars sort of aligned for us in terms of Night Of Thunder, because Cherry Tortoni was second in the Guineas down there, having already won a stakes race,” said Bourke. “Then Invincible Spirit had his first Group 1 winner as a broodmare sire when Masked Crusader won the William Reid, so her pedigree all of sudden became very relevant again.”
Bourke said the fact the mare did all her racing in Cyprus did garner a few question marks from prospective buyers, but that her physical appearance made up for whatever shortcomings she had on the track.
“Royston did say the Cyprus form was one of the things people picked up and questioned and I suppose that was a really big risk, but I think the fact that she was a really good model by Invincible Spirit, a half-sister to a very good horse, carrying a three-parts sister to that same good two-year-old and I just think it all worked out well in the end and people were just happy to overlook the Cyprus factor,” he said.
“I suppose she has done just about the most travel than anyone in the last two years. She made it from Cyprus, to Ireland, to England and to the Hunter Valley and then to the Gold Coast all in one year and she will now end up at Three Bridges which is a great result.”
Bourke said he would be keen to try a similar venture in the future and would even consider trying it in reverse.
“When I think back to how we were at the December sales having not sold her I would have said we wouldn’t touch a project like this again,” he said. “However, now we have proved that if you take the correct model to market in Australia and especially given how healthy it is down there, you can get a good result. I now think I would definitely do it again.
“We have learned plenty of lessons and we got great help from Treen and Royston, who were obviously a massive help.
“I would also like to explore the possibility of doing the reverse of it, breeding to something like Pride Of Dubai, who did very well in Europe and bringing him back to the market here. I think it has opened plenty of doors for us and it was a great experience.”
Bourke was also quick to heap praise on the efforts of the team at Sledmere: “So much of the success was down to the hard work of the team at Sledmere.
“I had been speaking to Royston all week and he had pinpointed at the beginning of inspections that she might fetch around the $150,000 mark, so was testament to Royston and Treen’s hard work at the sale that she eventually sold for $230,000 which was a brilliant result.”
