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Mills, Longwood and Morgan team up to purchase daughter of Foxwedge
Having purchased Group 1 winner Volpe Veloce (Foxwedge) for $675,000 at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale last year, Henry Field’s Newgate Farm enjoyed an impressive return on that investment when they sold the daughter of Foxwedge (Fastnet Rock) - who was offered in foal to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) for an eye-watering $1.9 million to Sheamus Mills Bloodstock, Longwood Thoroughbred Farm and Peter Morgan at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale on Thursday.
Volpe Veloce was the most expensive mare sold by Newgate over the three days and they finished the sale as the leading vendor (excluding the Shadwell dispersal), selling 28 mares for total receipts of $13,205,000 at an average of $471,607.
Catalogued as Lot 1114,Volpe Veloce announced herself as a true star of the track in New Zealand when she won her first seven starts, including the Eight Carat Classic (Gr 2, 1600m) and Karaka 3YO Mile (RL, 1600m) - and further two at stakes level.
However, her crowning glory came when she landed the 2018 Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), beating the likes of multiple Group 1-winning mare Melody Belle (Commands).
The mare retired the winner of 12 of her 30 starts, which included seven wins at stakes level and accumulated $639,442 in career prize-money.
The daughter of Foxwedge is out of Group 3 winner Bardego (Barathea) making her a half-sister to Listed winner Delago Bolt (Delago Brom).
Bred by Nick Vass, Volpe Veloce has been synonymous with the Newgate Farm brand, with the operation having sold her for $120,000 to Lyndhurst Farm at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale in 2014. She was then bought by Richardson Racing for NZ$240,000 at the New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale in 2015.
Newgate re-entered her life last year when the farm secured the mare for $675,000 at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale and Field told Racing & Sports Bloodstock he had earmarked her as one of the headline pregnant mares at the sale and was happy to see her realise that price-tag.
“She was the number one pregnant mare at the sale and she was really well received as expected,” he said. “She was an incredible mare and an elite mare on the track and a great pedigree to boot. It was no surprise there was some incredible competition for her and I’m just delighted she has ended up with Michael Christian.
“She was bred by Nick Vass and she was the first Group 1 winner we bred off Newgate and it was lovely to be part of her story.”
Newgate have had a lot of success purchasing mares off the track and then putting them in foal to commercial stallions and re-offering them the following year.
The New South Wales-based farm followed his same path when purchasing dual Group 1 winner In Her Time (Time Thief) at last year’s Inglis Chairman’s Sale for $2 million, putting her in foal to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and then re-offered her again at this year’s Chairman’s sale, selling her to Yulong for an $2.2 million.
“We have had a lot of success selling these high-end mares, some of which we have bought previously,” said Field. “There are numerous examples of this, but the main thing is that people who have bought off us have done incredibly well and as long as people who continue to buy off us continue to do well there will always be a good market for us.”
Mills told Racing & Sports Bloodstock he was delighted to be able to help Christian source elite mares for his broodmare band and Volpe Veloce was one of the main mares they wanted to target, believing she will retain her value for years to come.
“She’s a queen, it’s a word that is thrown around quite a lot, but she really is. It was smart play on Newgate’s part, with last year’s Chairman’s Sale being a digital sale and she was not present, given the fact she was stuck in New Zealand,” said Mills.
“It was smart play by Newgate, who bred her and they knew what a smart type she was, and no one else would have seen her and they bought her accordingly in a market that couldn’t have been more depressed, given the COVID climate and the online nature of the sale. I’m not sure they would not have got her for that at a live auction.
“She is certainly a mare that will retain her value. These top-class mares are almost like art work; they hold their value extremely well and a mare like that could have three or four foals and go back through the ring and not make much less. I think Volpe Veloce fits into that bracket, I believe she will hold her value for a very long time.
“Michael Christian has been extremely trusting in asking me to help advise him on a few of these sorts of mares over the last few years. He’s setting up an absolute stellar broodmare band and he’s gone and purchased a new property in Victoria, which is a huge patch of land that has been very successful over the past few years and he’s now getting the horses to match - it’s nice to be part of the journey.”
Mills, Longwood and Morgan purchased three mares over the three days of trade, outlying $3,700,000 for the trio at an average of $1,233,333.
Earlier on in the day, Mills teamed up with James Harron to secure winning Fastnet Rock (Danehill) mare Harto for $650,000 and she was offered in foal to Coolmore Stud-based sire So You Think (High Chaparral).
Catalogued as Lot 1301 and offered by Strawberry Hill Stud, the mare is out of dual Group 2 winner More Strawberries (More Than Ready) and her two foals to race have both been winners, headed by stakes-placed Merovee (Frankel).
More Strawberries herself is half-sister to Group 1 winner and now Geisel Park-based sire All American (Red Ransom).
As with Volpe Veloce, Mills said Harto was the type of mare that would retain her value and he also believed the fact she was in foal to So You Think was a huge upside.
“I was super excited to get her for that. I paired up with James Harron and bought her for a client,” said Mills. “She was amongst the elite types of this sale. She has a great family and she has an extremely sexy pedigree.
“I am a massive So You Think fan and I was happy to see him finally come of age at this year’s Easter sale, when people started to pay proper money for his progeny. I think he has been totally underestimated for years and it was nice to see him get the credit he deserves at the yearling sales. I think he is only going to go from strength to strength and I can’t see why those recent results will go backwards, I think they will only go forwards.”
