The day’s most expensive filly fetched $1.2m, with members of the Rising Sun Syndicate team sitting alongside Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott as the I Am Invincible filly out of the Group 3-placed Key (Exceed And Excel) passed through the ring.
The trainers know a bit about the pedigree behind the Kia Ora Stud-consigned youngster as the mare also bred I’m Ya Huckleberry (Home Affairs), who debuted for the stable with a runner-up finish in the Arrowfield Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) at Randwick in October.
“It’s a very current family, and a family with so much black-type depth,” said Bott. “It’s a family we know well as we’ve got the half-brother in training, who we have a very high opinion of having seen him on the racetrack on one occasion, that automatically attracted us to her. Physically, the way she presented at this sale really made her a must-have for us. We’re very fortunate we were able to partner up on this filly and we’re delighted we’re able to secure her.”
Rising Sun Syndicate’s Kosi Kawakami said: “We’re looking for the best filly we can get for our owner from Japan. We looked at this horse and fell in love with her, she’s the best. Obviously knowing her brother being trained by Gai and Adrian, they would be the best trainers to go for.”
He added: “We had to go hard because we had to secure her.”
Japanese interests are no stranger to the Gold Coast Yearling Sale, with trainer Mitsu Nakauchida securing last year’s top lot, the Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) filly out of Sunlight (Zoustar), at $3.2m.
Kawakami shared a Japanese perspective on the sale, saying: “The best of the best of Australian bloodstock is here. We had Mitsu Nakauchida here last year. We went to look at the Sunlight filly for him, which they obviously paid big, big money for. It’s big in Japan as well with people putting focus on this sale. We get a lot of buyers from Japan as well, and it’s an honour to be able to buy a million dollar filly from this catalogue.”
Article c/o ANZ Bloodstock News
