Exciting young sire Alabama Express might be flavour of the month after siring five quick winners including Golden Slipper contender Shangri La Express, but back in May 2022 he certainly was not.
Manner Lodge Thoroughbreds were able to buy well related Lonhro mare Lucy’s Look through the Inglis Digital Online May (early) for just $8,000 with a positive test to Alabama Express and four months later she produced a filly that was offered at Inglis Premier on Monday in the Two Bays Farm draft.
The filly sold for $370,000 to Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott / Kestrel Thoroughbreds / Brad McCarthy Bloodstock and is the fourth foal of metro winner Lucy’s Look, whose grand-dam Professionelle is a blue hen producer as the dam of Group winners Sportsman, Prisoner of Love, Hoystar and SW King of Prussia, also the dam of G1 winner Vanbrugh.
Waterhouse and Bott are well aware of the merit of Alabama Express as they train his brilliant colt Shangri La Express, who has had two wins including the $1million ATC Golden Gift and a second from three starts earning nearly $700,000.
She is the highest priced yearling so far at this sale for Alabama Express and also for Two Bays Farm with Rob Carlile delighted to get such a good result for Manner Lodge Thoroughbreds, who suffered catastrophic damage to their farm at Rochester in the floods of 2022.
“They are really great people and I am so happy for them as they got wiped out in the floods,” said Rob Carlile of Two Bays Farm.
“She had over 240 parades this week and never put a foot wrong.”
Standing at Yulong, Alabama Express covered just 78 mares in 2022 before covering 206 last year when his first progeny hit the ground running!
