The half sister to The Star Magic Millions Gold Coast 2YO Classic fancy Croatian Belle topped Day Six of the 2023 Gold Coast Yearling Sale today when selling for $250,000.
Offered by Baramul Stud the filly was subject to strong bidding late this afternoon before the hammer fell on the bid of Randwick Bloodstock's Brett Howard, deputising for buyers Todd Howlett and Sean Dyson.
The filly, catalogued as Lot 1066, is by freshman sire Exceedance and is the second foal of the lightly raced High Chaparral mare Croatian.
A half sister to the group performer A Man to Match, Croatian is the dam of the unbeaten Ben & JD Hayes trained juvenile Croatian Belle.
Raced by a large syndicate of women, Croatian Belle will be out to give her connections a massive payday when she contests Thursday's rescheduled $2 million The Star Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic. She is also eligible for a slice of the $500,000 Racing Women's Bonus.
Croatian Belle has created a big impression with back to back wins at Moonee Valley.
"She was brought for Sean Dyson from Singleton in New South Wales," Howard said. "He's a young guy who has raced horses for a little while and he's trying to get some nice horses around him."
"His cousin is Todd Howlett, who will train all the horses and Todd is based just out of Singleton - he is a well-respected country trainer."
"Sean is in the process of developing a property just outside of Singleton, which Todd will eventually move to and operate his training business."
Howard said connections would be keenly tuning into Thursday's big race to see if they can receive a significant pedigree update.
"It's great if she runs a good race and if she wins it, that’s a bonus," he said. "It'll appear on the page and it helps the filly's residual value but outside of that she is just a really nice filly."
"Lindsay Park obviously have Croatian Belle and they said they were underbidders and James Bester said he was on her as well. I always feel if you hear from those sorts of people, it gives you a bit of confidence that hopefully you're on the right track."
A swag of other youngsters sold for six figure prices across the afternoon including a lovely Churchill colt who was purchased by Hong Kong based Chi En Andy Fei for $170,000. That colt was offered by Valiant Stud.
Across the first section of the Book Two sale this afternoon over $4.8 million was traded on 70 lots sold at impressive average price of $68,721 and clearance rate of 80 per cent.
"Walking around from midday onwards it felt really good leading into the sale," Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch said. "There were plenty of people on the grounds."
"The results from today are very much in line with last year, with a slight increase of median, average and gross - which gives good confidence to the lower and middle end of the market."
"There were plenty of horses making well above their reserve, which means there is plenty of money left in the buyers' pockets, so I suspect they will be back tomorrow."
"I was pleased all the way to the finish," Bowditch added. "It was very solid trade."
To view the sale results so far or to make an offer on a passed in lot click here.
The final day of the 2023 Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Day Seven, will be held from 10am (Qld time) tomorrow (Monday).
SALE STATISTICS
(Day 6 - 2022 in brackets)
Lots Catalogued: 100 (100)
Lots Sold: 70 (70)
Lots Passed In: 18 (18)
Lots Withdrawn: 12 (12)
Sale Gross: $4,810,500 ($4,529,500)
Top Price: $250,000 ($180,000)
Average Price: $68,721 ($64,707)
Median Price: $60,000 ($55,000)
Sold %: 80 (80)
DAY SIX TOP SELLERS
$250,000 - Exceedance-Croatian filly (Lot 1066)
Vendor: Baramul Stud / Buyer: Todd Howlett/Sean Dyson (NSW)
$170,000 - Churchill-Bella Epoch colt (Lot 1024)
Valiant Stud (As Agent) / Chi En Andy Fei (HK)
$160,000 - Zousain-Wodan colt (Lot 998)
Riverdene Stud (As Agent) / Brett Thompson Racing (Qld)
$160,000 - Spirit of Boom-Defiant Dame colt (Lot 1073)
Eureka Stud (As Agent) / Archer Park Racing (Qld)
$150,000 - Zousain-Tennessee Diamond colt (Lot 982)
Riversdale (As Agent) / Matthew Smith Racing (NSW)
