It wasn’t quite the historic result of two years ago, but blueblood mare Special Lover produced another Premier Yearling Sale session-topper at Oaklands Junction on Monday.
The Pins mare had the highest-priced lot of the second and final day of Book 1 at this year’s Inglis sale when her filly by I Am Invincible sold to Riverstone Lodge, Julian Blaxland and Anthony and Sam Freedman for $500,000.
It came two years after her sister, who was also offered by Noorilim Park, became the first seven-figure filly sold in Victoria when knocked down for $1.1 million at the same sale.
Named Socrazyinlove, that filly boasts a win and a third placing from three starts, while older half-sister Miss Roseiano was a winner of the Group 3 Blue Diamond Preview and placed in a Group 2 Blue Diamond Prelude.
The fillies hail from the legendary Eight Carat family, and Blaxland said the opportunity to get involved in a filly from that family by Australia’s champion sire of the moment was too good to knock back.
“She’s from a blue-chip family and she’s by a three-time champion sire in I Am Invincible, who is a wonderful sire of fillies,” he said.
“Nick (Taylor) and the team at Riverstone are putting together an elite broodmare band, so hopefully she can perform on the track and be a nice mare for them later on.”
Blaxland said the bay or brown filly reminded him of multiple Group 1 winner Loving Gaby.
“She mightn’t be a pre-Christmas style of filly, but she’s certainly more of the Loving Gaby-mould of the I Am Invincible fillies and is just a really nice prospect,” he said.
“She’s a lovely filly, there’s plenty going on (in the family) and hopefully she can add to the pedigree.”
The Special Lover filly was the only lot of Day 2 to get to $500,000, which was the equal-third highest-priced lot of the two days of Book 1, which ended on Monday.
The highest-priced lots of the sale were the two $1 million colts, by Toronado and Frankel respectively, who went through within 10 minutes of each other on Sunday.
Toronado also had one of the top lots of Day 2, a colt from Masked Crusader’s half-sister Miss Conduct who sold to Mulberry Racing for $475,000, the same price Yulong paid for an Earthlight colt who is a half-sister to Matisse.
Shortly after Monday’s last lot left the ring, the Book 1 gross of $52,509,500 was just over $200,000 down on last year, but the average rose from $127,632 to $140,025.
That was in no small part due to clearance rate dropping from 82% to 76% but the median was up to $100,000 from $90,000.
While Book 1 is over, the Premier Sale continues on Tuesday with the 237 lots who make up Book 2 to be sold from 10am.