Hong Kong agent Willie Leung had a blank cheque in his bid to secure So You Think’s three-quarter brother.
Leung went to $800,000, the highest price to date at New Zealand’s Premier Yearling Sale, to secure the colt by High Chaparral out of La Souvenir, a daughter of So You Think’s dam Triassic.
The colt from the draft of Windsor Park Stud was bought on Tuesday for Leung’s Hong Kong clients WK Lee and Peter So.
They had already secured Monday’s top-priced colt at Karaka, a High Chaparral-Creil colt bought for $650,000.
When asked what his clients were prepared to pay, Leung simply said there was “no budget”.
“They (Lee and So) are looking for a real, top stayer. That’s why we picked the best two colts and we were very keen to get them,” Leung said.
“We believe they are the best in the sale.”
Both horses are likely to begin there careers in either New Zealand early on before possibly going to Hong Kong.
Unlike many horses bought by Hong Kong buyers, Leung said the La Souvenir colt would be kept entire for the time being.
“For the Hong Kong environment maybe we need a gelding, but because of his breeding potential we will try to keep him as a colt,” Leung said.
Windsor Park Stud marketing manager Mike Moran, who bred the colt in partnership with his wife Helen and Chris and Carol Chamberlain, said it was a great result.
“Just to think we bought her mother (Triassic) for $16,000, kept that filly, and it was a great call to do it,” he said.
“He rated himself really highly, this colt, so did So You Think, and he still does, and hopefully this fella’s half as good as him.”
So You Think was bought at Karaka for $110,000 and trained by Bart Cummings to win two Cox Plates.
Dato Tan Chin Nam sold a controlling share in So You Think for a reported $30 million to Irish racing and breeding concern Coolmore.
NZN AAP TURF
