Gordon Cunningham’s persistence in persuading Australian breeder John Camilleri to sell a Fastnet Rock colt in New Zealand paid off when the yearling made nearly $2 million at the Karaka sale.
The colt out of Celebria, bred by Camilleri’s Fairway Thoroughbreds, was knocked down for $NZ1.975 million ($A1.6 million) to Coolmore Stud, which outbid Australian trainer Peter Moody.
Cunningham’s Curraghmore Stud, near Hamilton, has sold a number of horses for Camilleri since the Australian raced multiple Group One winner Fairway, originally sold from Curraghmore for $40,000.
“John said to me one year he’d give me a top horse, so when I saw this lad in February I put my hand up,” Cunningham said of the colt, the fifth-best seller ever at Karaka.
“It took about three or four months to convince him, but I think he’s pretty happy now.”
The colt, a half-brother to Gathering and Florentina, is the highest-selling yearling in the Australasian sale ring so far in 2013, topping the $A1.35 million paid by Coolmore for a Fastnet Rock colt at the Gold Coast Magic Millions sale.
It was well and truly Cunningham’s best sale, topping the $1 million he received in 2004 for the colt that would become Group Three winner Offenbach.
“He’s got the attitude of a top horse, he knows how good he is,” Cunningham said.
“I’m really hoping he can go on and become a genuinely right up there with the best horses we’ve sold.”
Tom Magnier of Coolmore Stud and Moody were bidding in $50,000 chunks up to $1.95 million when Magnier sealed the horse with a smaller $25,000 bid.
“You always want to get a horse for as cheap as you can, though obviously that wasn’t cheap,” he said.
“It kind of worked really, didn’t it?”
Curraghmore later sold a Fastnet Rock filly out of Episode for $700,000 to Bart Cummings, second among the fillies only to an $800,000 Zabeel-Destined filly bought by Sydney buyer Alan Bell.
The Destined filly is a half-sister to current New Zealand Filly of the Year series leader Fix.