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Hermitage and Waller take home daughter of Catchy, Anthony Mithen snaps up daughter of Heart Of Thrills

The popularity of daughter of I Am Invincible's (Invincible Spirit) gathered momentum throughout the day at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale on Wednesday, with Hermitage and Chris Waller snapping up a filly by the sire for $1.2 million, while Anthony Mithen also paid that same figure for another filly by the stallion. 

The filly purchased by Hermitage and Waller is the first foal out of top-class race filly Catchy (Fastnet Rock), who landed the 2017 edition of the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m). The filly was offered by Bhima Thoroughbreds and catalogued as Lot 242.

Catchy herself is a daughter of dual Group 2 winner Cats Whisker (Fusaichi Pegasus) . 

This was the second filly by I Am Invincible Hermitage purchased at the sale, having teamed up with Coolmore to buy the filly out of Listed winner Vezalay (Shamardal) for $1,250,000 on Tuesday. 

Mulcaster - who signed the docket for both fillies - said he was happy to have been able to secure the youngsters and they will both head into training with Waller. 

"We are so lucky with the support from Hermitage and we have picked out two lovely I Am Invincibles fillies and we managed to get one yesterday in partnership and we have got this one today," said Mulcaster. "We couldn't see much between them. 

"Catchy was such a great racemare and this filly is such an athlete and it's just a pleasure to be able to buy two such lovely yearlings such as these. She is going to obviously, like the other one, go to Chris Waller and they will just go through the system together."

Catchy was raced by Dorrington Farm's Robert Crabtree and he said it was a bittersweet feeling selling her first foal, but admitted that the price-tag justified his decision. 

"It's bittersweet really," Crabtree said.  "You'd love to keep them, but you have to pay the bills and you have to be seen to be a seller.

"I would have loved to have kept a bit of her and when I found out that Guy Mulcaster had bought her for the Chris Waller stable I said, 'Can I stay in for a little bit', but it didn't work out this time.

"I guess that really just says everything is very good business when the vendor would like to stay in and there's still no room for him.

"But we're happy."

Hermitage paired up with various partners over the two days of action to purchase three yearlings for a total outlay of $3,350,000. 

Later on in the afternoon, a filly out of Heart Of Thrills (Show A Heart) also made $1.2 million when selling to Rosemont Stud's Anthony Mithen. 

It was no surprise to see Mithen buy the daughter of I Am Invincible, with the filly hailing from a family he knows well. The Rosemont Stud owner part-owned her Listed-winning sister Thrillster (Starspangledbanner) and her stakes-placed other sister Free Thrills (Unencumbered). 

"She's a half-sister to Thrillster and it's a lot of money to pay for any horse really but it's a family that we revere and we hold very close to our own hearts," said Mithen. 

"It's a family we love. We've owned Free Thrills and she is in foal to Starspangledbanner as well as Thrillster, who is in foal to I Am Invincible and now we've a lovely filly to race."

Mithen said he expected the filly to make more than she did, but was happy because they were reaching the top end of their budget. 

"I actually thought she'd make one-and-a-half ($1.5 million) and close to two (million) and we wouldn't own her as we were tapped out," he explained. "That was our maximum, but it was nice to secure her.

"Hopefully, it's a family that keeps on giving for us. She was the filly of the sale. I don't rate myself any keen judge but there were some very smart people that had her highly rated and on the top of lots of lists.

"I am sure they'll be queued up at the door to train her. I was delighted to buy her. I can't wait to meet Thrillster's I Am Invincible foal due in August. I am hoping that foal might be able to pay for that filly."

Catalogued as Lot 333, the filly's third dam is Group 2 winner Soliel Rouge (Red Tempo) and she is the grandam of Group 1 winner All Thrills Too (St Covet), Group 2 scorers Adaline (Court Of Jewels) and Gotta Have Heart (Show A Heart) and stakes winner Crossyourheart (Show A Heart), who in turn produced Group 3 winner and now Spendthrift Farm-based sire Swear (Redoute's Choice).