Boomer and Daandine Stud team up for daughter of Snitzel at Magic Millions

Newgate Farm turned another shrewd investment into a brilliant result for the farm, when they sold Group 3-placed Diddles (Snitzel) to Craig Rounsefell of Boomer Bloodstock and Daandine Stud for $1 million at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale on Thursday. 

Henry Field’s operation purchased the daughter of Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) for $300,000 at last year’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale and she was sold on Thursday in foal to their resident stallion Deep Field (Northern Meteor). 

Catalogued as Lot 1229, the mare is out of Group 2 winner Mimi Lebrock (Show A Heart), making her a half-sister to Barbaric (I Am Invincible). Mimi Lebrock herself is half-sister to Group 3 winners Heavenly Thought (So You Think) and Shoko (Sebring). 

Daandine have proved time and time again as top-class breeders, with Written Tycoon (Iglesia) and Newgate Farm’s gun first-season sire Capitalist (Written Tycoon) graduates and Rounsefell told Racing & Sports Bloodstock the farm’s aim was to bred precocious types to be sold at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

“Type wise, she is just a quality mare,” said Rounsefell. “She is a great mover and has a lot of quality and intelligence about her. She had a lot of talent on the track and was a very early two-year-old, who showed a lot before getting injured and she is from a super family. 

“Daandine Stud have obviously bred some really good horses, like Written Tycoon and most recently Capitalist and with this mare they really believe we can breed another Golden Slipper out of. 

“They have a broodmare band of around 15 mares and it is all focussed on breeding horses for Magic Millions in January. Everything is very much geared around producing two-year-olds, so everything around the type of mare they buy and how they mate them, it is all geared to that.”

Rounsefell said the fact the mare was offered in foal to Deep Field was another huge attraction for Daandine with the Stud having bred on the stallion’s best performers multiple Listed scorer Isotope. 

“Daandine has had a lot of good fortune with Deep Field, they bred Isotope, who is one of their top performers on the track, so an early cover to him was a big plus and we will sit down over the next couple of weeks and work out a plan for her,” he said. 

Of the market, Rounsefell commented: “It is a very strong market and there are a lot of different players at that higher end that didn’t used to be the case in Australia, so it is really strengthening up. When you have the prize-money on offer and the return at the yearlings sale there is a lot of new investment coming into the country.

“It is strong and very deep, which is not something that Australia had previously. You are still able to buy horses and with this big catalogue are able to buy horses at both ends of the market.”  

Henry Field told Racing & Sports Bloodstock that Diddles was one of the most popular offerings Newgate had ever taken to a sale and that he was delighted to see the mare head to Daandine. 

“Diddles was the most paraded mare Newgate has ever taken to a sale,” he said. “She was busier than most busy yearlings, which is an amazing thing at a mare sale. She was amazingingly popular and it seemed like every buyer on the complex was on her at some level.

“It was a real thrill she has gone to Daandine Stud, who are great friends of ours and they obviously bred Capitalist and they are brilliant breeders and I am pretty confident she will end up being a very important mare for their broodmare band in the future.”

Later on in the afternoon, Newgate Farm enjoyed another $1 million result, when Torryburn Stud went to that figure for Group 3-placed mare Jedastar, who was offered in foal to Widden Stud-basd sire Zoustar (Northern Meteor). 

Catalogued as Lot 1331, the daughter of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) is out of Listed-winning Dehere (Deputy Minister) mare Devoirs, making her a sister to stakes-placed Rulership. 

Devoirs herself is daughter of Velasco (Flying Spur) and she is also the dam of Group 3 scorer Debellatio (Smart Missile), while further back this is also the same family as Group 3 winner Rich Hips (Written Tycoon).   

Torryburn’s Melissa Copelin told Racing & Sports the strength of the market had thwarted a lot of their attempts to secure the mares they wanted, but that they were happy to be leaving the sale with Jedastar in tow. 

“We had a couple of mares on our shortlist today and it looked like we were going to get outbid on all of them, so we decided to let some go and pick the fastest one and she was on our list.” said Copelin. 

“We were a little bit deflated after Tuesday, we had four on our list and all of them made over $1 million. We didn’t have any on our list for Wednesday and we had to sit there all day today and let a few go through and wait until the end and pounce on her. Newgate always sells quality mares and we have bought off them before and we have a lot of faith and trust in them, so we are very happy to get her.”

Copelin said Jedastar will most likely head back to Zoustar this spring. 

“She is a very nice neat mare and very typical of I Am Invincible and what struck us most about her was her walk, she is really athletic and used herself very well. She just looks fast still, even as a broodmare. 

“I would think we will try and go back to Zoustar, we think it is a really good mating and she really matches up well with the sire. A lot of the mares we were looking at had double Danehill and that was why she was on top of our list because she only has the one strand. We like to sell horses for $1 million but we don’t like to buy them for that much!”

John Cornish’s Torryburn have enjoyed enormous success buying elite mares from the Newgate Consignment, most notably Miss Interiors (Flying Spur), who was purchased by Damon Gabbedy’s Belmont Bloodstock for $625,000 on behalf of Torryburn at the 2017 edition of the Inglis Chairman’s Sale.

Torryburn have gone on to sell three of her progeny for an aggregate of $2,185,000, headed by Group 2 winner Home Affairs (I Am Invincible), who was purchased by Tom Magnier for $875,000 at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. 

Field said he was confident Jedastar would prove to be the same success story as Miss Interiors and become a very important mare for their blossoming broodmare band. 

“Torryburn is another farm that has had massive success buying elite mares off Newgate, a couple of years ago they bought a mare of ours called Miss Interiors for $650,000 and she produced Home Affairs and Asyar and sold lots of really nice yearlings,” said Field. 

“The Cornish Family are good mates and they always try to buy a mare for us every year. In the case of Jedastar she was freakily fast and beautiful. She was incredibly popular and was out of her box all the time and she was always going to sell really well and I wish Torryburn all the success with her.”

As well as being a top-class consignor of yearlings, Newgate have carved a name for themselves as being a top-class consignor of mares and Field said he was proud of what the farm has achieved in a relatively short space of time. 

“We are so lucky and we are really proud of what we are building at Newgate,” said Field. “We set out a few years ago to build an elite mare consignment and really tried to assemble the best collection of mares every year to sell on the broodmare market and we have been supported by so many high own mare owners that give us their bloodstock to consign - we are just thrilled that everyone who has supported us has enjoyed such great results.”

"It is an amazing industry with great depth and wonderful mechanics behind it with really great prize-money and a broad spread of ownership.”