Redoute’s Choice maintained his place as the country’s premier thoroughbred stallion and Fastnet Rock made it clear he was the heir apparent at a record-breaking Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
The three-day sale that ended in Sydney on Thursday also added further to the standing of world champion sprinter Black Caviar whose half-brother topped the sale at $5 million.
The latest foal from Black Caviar’s mother Helsinge to be offered for sale is, appropriately, a son of Redoute’s Choice whose 25 yearlings on offer sold at a sale-topping average of $624,000.
Hot on his heels came Fastnet Rock, the son of Danehill whose own racetrack prowess is being repeated almost weekly by his offspring.
Yearlings by Fastnet Rock sold at an average of $601,000 with the top-priced among them his son out of the Oakleigh Plate-winning mare River Dove who fetched $4 million.
“I think this sale marks a turnaround for the industry,” said prominent breeder and Racing NSW chairman John Messara, who stands Redoute’s Choice at his Arrowfield Stud in NSW.
“This has been an excellent, robust sale with the strongest group of buyers ever seen here.”
Among them was Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, a cousin of the world’s biggest racehorse owner Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum.
Along with Dubai businessman and Australian stud proprietor Nasser Lootah, he became the owner of the $4 million colt and several other high-priced lots.
Buyers from every prominent racing jurisdiction in the world spent a total of $82.1 million on the 280 yearlings at an average price of $293,000.
Nine yearlings made $1 million or more, the most at any Australian sale.
