Lime Country and Bester join forces.
Lime Country Thoroughbreds and James Bester teamed up on Thursday to purchase a filly for $230,000 by the now Arrowfield Stud-based sire Written Tycoon (Iglesia) at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale.
Catalogued as Lot 868 and offered by Aquis Farm, the filly is out of three time-winning Rothesay (Fastnet Rock) mare Matildare, who is herself a half-sister to Listed-placed mare Gold Anthem (Made Of Gold).
Gold Anthem is the dam of multiple Group 1 winner Starspanngledbanner (Choisir), who stands at Coolmore Stud in the northern hemisphere, while he resides at Rosemont Stud in the southern hemisphere.
Meanwhile, Matildare is also a half-sister to Listed-placed mare Gold Chant (El Moxie) - the dam of Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Amicus (Fastnet Rock) and Listed scorer Cheer Leader (Snitzel).
Further afield this is the family of Group 1 winner Circles Of Gold (Marscay) - the dam of multiple Group 1 winners and successful sires Elvstroem (Danehill) and Haradasun (Fusaichi Pegasus), while this is also the family of multiple Group 1-winning globetrotter and now Swettenham Stud shuttler Highland Reel (Galileo).
Greg Griffin of Lime Country said they specifically targeted a well-bred filly, so that should any go amiss in the run up to the yearling sales there was a plan b they could take.
"She is a beautiful filly and we know the filly well through the Makybe guys and selling for them before," said Griffin. "We thought we would take a bit of a different tack and thought that if we were going to spend some decent money we would try on a filly as it gives us another option and hopefully stay away from the big colt wars.
"She has a pedigree with genuine upside and we'll look to bring her back, all going well, but if not if there is some hiccup we have a back-up plan. She will come back to January or Easter. She is well-bred filly from a fast family, why wouldn't you pick one of those sales?"
Griffin said they tried to buy Matildare when she was offered last year at the National Broodmare Sale - when carrying the filly in utero - but lost out to Aquis Farm, who parted with $350,000 for her.
"She has a little bit more scope than many of her family that we've had," said Griffin. "We bid on the mare last year in June and got beaten, so it was nice to get the filly. We thought we'd have to go to that. We had a chat with people round the grounds and we managed to put a little syndicate together and one of the guys phoned me this morning and said he really wanted her."
CEO Tubba Williams said he expected the filly to sell well, but the price-tag did exceed their expectations.
"The Written Tycoon filly sold exceptionally well in making $230,000," said Williams to Racing & Sports Bloodstock. "This was above expectations, but she's a queen.
"She was bought by Lime Country who are high-end pinhookers and they do an amazing job with their yearlings and they've bought a filly, that although was a lot of money, I think there will be upside.
"She's one of those rare fillies that is a queen. She's a great colour, got scope and strength and has an amazing action. She's correct and one of those horses that has a presence. There are a lot of nice horses but not many have that x-factor presence that she does. She's also by a very successful stallion and has a nice pedigree."
Aquis Farm finished the day having sold eight for an aggregate of $522,000 and Williams was very satisfied with the results.
"Importantly we had a number of other good sales," said Williams. "We sold a Deep Field colt well (Lot 899 - $120,000) and also sold a Spieth colt for $50,000 (Lot 886). He was bought by Merrick Staunton of Simple Bloodstock Services and will go back through the New Zealand sale next year - it was a good result for our young stallion."
Catalogued as Lot 886, the colt is out of prolific stakes placegetter My Only Hope (Redoute's Choice) and from the family of New Zealand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Burletta (Three Legs).
"The colt was one of those horses that was an Aussie two-year-old sprinting type," said Williams. "He had good muscle, a good forearm and gaskin and a good action. He was a good size without being too big and you could see him being an early two-year-old type with a bit of quality.
"I'm happy with what Spieth is leaving. He's not a high profile horse by any means but one that people will take notice of when they see what he is leaving."
Williams said Aquis were making a conscious effort to appeal to pinhookers by putting fair reserves on their weanlings.
"Aquis sold a lot of foals last year," said Williams. "We are trying to present good horses into the marketplace. We put a fair reserve on them and they make their money. Pinhookers did well out of Aquis last year and I think they'll do well again this year. This is a slightly different business model but one we hope will be successful."
Williams was also very complimentary about Magic Millions' online bidding platform and said the competition from all over the world was very encouraging.
"The sale overall had some very good prices. The Zoustar colt was a magnificent horse bought by Peter O'Brien. Across the board I can't believe how buoyant the market has been from mares right through to the weanlings today.
"The market appears to be really quite resilient. It's quite unbelievable to think that there are people bidding from around the country who were unable to attend. The face of sales will change the world over. There will be a lot more online sales and advances in technology will assist that. There will always be on-ground sales but I can really see that people are starting to embrace online sales and bidding when they can't attend which is quite amazing."
