The Tale of the Cat filly purchased from Blandford Lodge. I see her as a pontential 2YO runner &, accordingly, she has been entered for the Karaka Million
My mission at the Karaka Select Sale this week was to secure four quality fillies for the Challenge No.1 Syndicate.
I’m pleased to report that the job is done and I’ll delighted with not only the quality of the fillies, but also the prices I had to pay.
Murray Baker will train Lot 950, the Tale of the Cat filly from Our Pineau (Carnegie). This is a running type; she has real class and represents a great family including the much talked about 2YO of this season, Pussy Willow. The price tag was $65k. My budget was $50k and I’ll admit I was on my ‘last legs’ when the hammer finally went down!
John Sargent will prepare Lot 967, the Elusive City filly from Piece of Cake (Snippets). This is an elegant filly and I found her very hard to fault; so too did my vet, Dave Keenan. She is a sister to Lamington Vegas who won the Listed Ryder Stakes at two and was Listed-placed against the older horses at three. She cost $34,000.
I got one absolute bargain, Lot 620, the Sakhee’s Secret filly from Careless Tease (Honour Grades). She’s of medium size, very correct, has a beautiful temperament and I took little convincing (in my own mind) that she was ‘right’ for this package. Richard Collett will train this filly who is part of the first Southern Hemisphere crop of Sakhee’s Secret, himself a Newmarket July Cup winner. She’s from an international family, so she’s got real residual value if she can run. By the way, the price was $10,000!
Shaune Ritchie will train Lot 697, the Iffraaj filly from Douzaine (Minardi). I suspect this is one tough filly and Shaune was keen to take on that challenge. She has size, scope and class and I thought was great buying at $30,000.
Iffraaj was in huge demand at last year’s Karaka Sale but such is the fickle nature of this business, he wasn’t anywhere near so popular this time around. I’ve got great faith in the horse, so much so that I bred my best mare to him last season.
The filly is closely related to the Group One winners Culminate & Captivate – I hope she’s nearly as good as those lovely mares of recent times.
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE CHALLENGE NO.1 SYNDICATE, CLICK HERE