The availability of English’s first foal and a half-sister to Learning To Fly ensured a bidding frenzy midway through Monday’s opening day of this year’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
The I Am Invincible colt who was the result of English’s first trip to the breeding barn readjusted the mark for the highest-priced lot of the day when sold for $1.55 million only to see the Pierro-Ennis Hill filly who followed her through go for $200,000 more.
The half-sister to Group 2 winner Learning To Fly, a daughter of American Pharoah, was knocked down to Michael Wallace on behalf of Kuldeep Singh Rajput from Gandharvi Racing, who saw her as the ideal racing and breeding proposition.
“He’s looking to build a quality racing and long-time breeding prospect and with her credentials she hopefully fits that,” Wallace said.
“She’ll probably take a little bit longer than what Learning To Fly took, she was a big masculine filly, so this filly make take just a little bit longer, especially being by Pierro, but there’s no rush.”
Gandharvi’s buy is the third foal from Ennis Hill, a daughter of Fastnet Rock who is a sister to Golden Slipper and Blue Diamond placegetter Lake Geneva and Acrobat, whose only racetrack appearance resulted in a brilliant Inglis Nursery win.
“It’s the family that I deem to be the most dominant family in Australia currently, there’s so much going on and it’s going to continue to thrive,” Wallace said.
Like Learning To Fly, the Pierro filly will be trained by Annabel Neasham and Coolmore, which bred and offered her for sale, will retain a small interest.
The colt who preceded Learning To Fly’s half-sister through the Riverside sale ring will also be trained by someone who knows his family well with Gai Waterhouse involved in the group who bought English’s first foal.
Waterhouse prepared to English to win six of 27 starts, including a Doomben 10,000 at Group 1 level, but she is perhaps best known for her second placing in Chautauqua’s third-straight T J Smith Stakes win.
Waterhouse, her training partner Adrian Bott, Kia Ora Stud and TFI teamed up to buy the I Am Invincible-English colt, which was offered for sale by Newhaven Park, whose colours English carried during her racing career.
