Waller splashes out on $1.6m Frankel colt
Chris Waller has broken new ground at racetracks around Australia and has now set a personal milestone at the Easter Yearling sale.
Waller paid $1.6 million for a colt on the third and final day of the sale on Thursday, double the price of any yearling he has bought before.
Waller’s faith in his bloodstock adviser Guy Mulcaster has stood the test of time and he is only too happy to welcome the colt by Frankel out of More Strawberries to the country’s leading stable.
“Guy said of the five Frankels at the sale he was the one most like his sire and was one we would be able to sell shares in,” Waller said.
John Singleton sent his 2010 Golden Slipper placegetter More Strawberries to England to be served by the unbeaten champion to southern hemisphere time.
Mulcaster has been an instrumental part of the Waller success, sourcing European horses to race in Australia and advising on yearlings.
“We decided we were going to have a bit of a go with him and we did,” Mulcaster said.
“If he goes anywhere near as good as his dad it would be pretty good and his mum wasn’t too bad either.”
The colt was not the most expensive yearling for the session with Sheikh Hamdan’s agent Angus Gold paying $1.75 million for a Redoute’s Choice colt out of National Colour.
Gold said the colt would head to South Africa where his half-brother is a winner for leading trainer Mike de Kock.
“We have the first two out of the mare and both have above-average ability according to Mike de Kock,” Gold said.
The other high-profile lot sold on Thursday was a half-brother to multiple Group One winner Criterion.
Astute Bloodstock’s Louis Le Metayer paid $750,000 for the Pierro colt out of Mica’s Pride.
Criterion is scheduled to have his final race start on Saturday when he defends his Queen Elizabeth Stakes. He will stand at Newgate Farm in the spring.
“He’s got a lot of strength. He’s got a lot of quality about him and he’s obviously by Pierro,” Le Metayer said.
“We have some clients in an international syndicate.
“Whether he’s going to be trained in Sydney we haven’t decided. We’ll break him in and reassess from there.”