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Three-time Group 2 winner sells for $1,202,500 via gavelhouse plus.
Three-time Group 2 winner Spanish Whisper (Lope De Vega) smashed the previous online record when selling via Gavelhouse Plus to owners Daniel Nakhle and Darren Brady - who managed to ward off strong international competition to buy out shareholders - for NZ$1,202,500.
The online record was broken 24 hours before the sale finished and Nakhle and Brady, who bred the daughter of Lope De Vega (Shamardal) - are now considering their options as to which stallion they will elect for her first cover.
"We've bred and raced her, fallen in love with her and I have a big grin on my face from having been able to secure her tonight," Nakhle said.
"We looked around the international market for mares with similar credentials and at the price I think we've got great value.
"Darren and I have invested heavily in the family with an outstanding half-sister by Savabeel on the ground and her dam going back to Savabeel, we now just need to do some homework and choose a stallion in Australia for her to visit before she comes home to New Zealand."
Spanish Whisper started her career in New Zealand with co-trainers Peter and Dawn Williams and the first of her three Group 2 came when she landed the Matamata Breeders' Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) as a juvenile in 2018, while she also finished third in the Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) that same year.
At the beginning of her three-year-old year Darren Thomas' Seymour Bloodstock bought into the mare and she was sent to Australia, joining the Lindsay Park Stable, for whom she landed the AV Kewney Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and the Let's Elope Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) in 2019. The mare retired a winner of four of her 23 starts, with prize-money earnings of $469,213.
Spanish Whisper is out of unraced Encosta De Lago (Fairy King) mare Cutting Remark, who is herself a half-sister to 2008 Hobart Cup (Gr 3, 2400m) winner Offenbach (Danehill) and the dam of Listed winner Tukiyo (Haradasun). Further back this is the same family as multiple Group 1 winner and successful sire Rock Of Gibraltar (Danehill).
"We have really enjoyed racing her with Darren and the Lindsay Park team and now share in the ownership of others with them so we can still look forward to cheering on runners in the Seymour Bloodstock colours," Nakhle said.
"I know it's a lot of money but I honestly think she is better bought than sold at that, I hope the boys consider my favourite Danehill line horse Merchant Navy as a potential mate," said Thomas.
"I reckon Pilko [Mark Pilkington] and I would be stitched on buyers of the resultant progeny if offered in the 2023 Karaka Sale."
"The feedback on her as a type was very bullish and she was easy to recommend so it was no surprise to have clients bidding from Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Europe as well as New Zealand," http://gavelhouse.com general manager Haylie Martin said.
"This was certainly the fairest approach in terms of transitioning the ownership from the racing into the breeding phase of her career and obviously the safest with her being able to stay in the paddock at Newhaven Park."
New Zealand 1000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Hasahalo (Savabeel) held the previous price record, having sold for NZ$670,000 earlier this year to the China Horse Club.
