Son of Bernardini sells for $175,000
Five time-winner Esperance (Bernardini) was the headline act of the Godolphin draft on the Inglis Online Digital June Sale after he was purchased by Hong Kong-based A Value Consulting Limited for $175,000 on Wednesday.
The Godolphin draft proved popular on the online auction with the 17-strong draft realising an incredible $909,000 gross at an average of $53,471, while the 340-strong catalogue recorded an aggregate of more than $3.1 million at a clearance of 85 per cent.
A Value Consulting Limited’s director Alan Lee said five-year-old gedling, who was last seen winning at Rosehill on May 30, would continue his career in Macau.
“Esperance was bought for a client who is keen to race him at the top level in Macau, where we expect him to be a very competitive sprinter and Danny Wong is the trainer we have in mind,” Lee said.
“A Value Consulting Limited has bought a number of horses off Inglis Digital – including Earth Song in the May catalogue – it’s a very good platform for all trainers and horse owners and you know the price will be fair to all parties.
“As an overseas agent especially, it was very helpful that Godolphin provided all vet history and extensive information on each horse.”
Esperance was on paper one of the stand-outs of the operations’s draft, being a half-brother to Group 2 winner Obsequious (Lonhro).
The second top lot of the Godolphin draft was The Driller (Sea The Stars), who is out of Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) winner Shamal Wind (Dubawi) who sold to Heinrich Constructions for $130,000.
“We got him checked out by one of the vets at the Inglis complex and he looks to be a nice horse, not overly big but quite athletic and seems light on his feet,” Hoss Heinrich said.
“He’ll come up to Gillian’s [Heinrich] stable and he looks a progressive type being a lightly-raced three-year-old by Sea The Stars, we’re going to race him ourselves.
“He’s won a Class 1 and is a 62-rater, coming off an unlucky second last week at Geelong, so he will be easy to place in Queensland.
“We purchased Mogador from Godolphin a few years ago and we won our money back so we hope we have a similar result with The Driller.”
Meanwhile, three-year-old Warwick Farm winner Montserrat (Not A Single Doubt), fellow three-year-old Jazirat (Shooting To Win) and three-year-old maiden Shielded (Helmet) each sold for $70,000 to Darby Bloodstock, Dean Watt Bloodstock (FBAA) and Amy Johnson and Yargi Racing respectively.
Godolphin Bloodstock Manager Jason Walsh said his team was delighted with the outcome in what is the operation’s first foray into the online market.
“It was a very strong sale; we’d been awaiting our participation in the online market for a long time obviously but we’re very pleased with these results today,” Walsh said.
“Given it was our first time participating in the online platform we weren’t really sure what to expect but we had been monitoring the performance of the Inglis Digital sales for a number of seasons now and it’s proven to be very successful, so we had every confidence in the system.
“The work that both the Inglis team and Godolphin team have put into this sale and the promotions surrounding it, it certainly generated a great deal of interest in the lead-up both online and with the inspections at Riverside and that has correlated to some fantastic results.
“There were some very talented horses in the draft and we certainly wish the new owners all the best with their purchases moving forward.”
Inglis Digital business manager Nick Melmeth said: “I’m very proud of the work done by our team for this sale in particular.
“It is fantastic to be selling stock for Godolphin, but their reputation also brings with it a level of expectation, so for their draft to sell as well as it did is very rewarding.”
Away from the Godolphin draft, the Cindy Alderson-consigned Miss Vixen (Foxwedge) – who has been placed at Group 3 level and is out of stakes-winning mare Kirvinsky (Stravinsky) – sold for $135,000 to Scone Bloodstock Services. A trio of mares, all offered by Bell View Park Stud, all sold for $75,000.
