Kia Ora Stud had a big day at the track on Saturday, their colours carried at Caulfield by stakes-winning fillies Serasana and Eneeza and they were active during the first session of the Tattersalls Broodmare Sale on Monday.
The Kia Ora Stud team of CEO Steve McCann and farm manager Shane Wright had narrowly failed to secure MAUIEWOWIE a few lots earlier but triumphed soon after when landing the Listed winner WONDERFUL TIMES for 460,000 guineas. The Barton Stud consigned daughter of GOLDEN HORN is out of the Group 3 winner and Group 1 Fillies’ Mile fourth WONDERFULLY, a GALILEO own-sister to the Group/Listed winners GUSTAV KLIMT, FRIENDLY and BLISSFUL and a half-sister to the Group 1 winner NAYARRA. Her third dam is RAFHA, dam of the top class sires INVINCIBLE SPIRIT and KODIAC.
Shane Wright said: “We had quite a lot on our list and we were making our way through, but she has such a deep page and she offers something that does not come our way too often. She has blacktype by her name but she has a page of champions, it is so full. When you come to a place like this you really come for the big families like this.
“She will be coming straight home, it is tempting with her form, she would be very competitive down our way in anything over a mile or 2000m plus but she has blacktype already. We will see how she travels down and we may give her time in the breeding barn next season, that decision will be made.
“We have done some work in the US as well but the Tatts catalogue and especially the Sceptre Sessions with so many quality mares in there that you have to come here if you want to be competitive internationally. We found some lovely mares and, hopefully, we can pick out one or two tomorrow as well.
“Kia Ora has been a very successful boutique farm in Australia for a number of years, it is only in the last few years that we have revolutionised what is going on. We have got quite a big racing syndicate now and we stand some good stallions – in our first year of stallions we got a Golden Slipper winner which is the pinnacle and what you want. It is very exciting times and it is great to be able to come over here to buy beautiful mares to send home to our stallions.
“Getting all these mares in together in one helps to gets your eye in on values I suppose, and what is going on rather than if they are being offered sporadically through a sale, but when there is a quality bunch of mares offered in a small amount of time over a couple of days it is very easy to get caught up in the hype… I reckon the vendors do better than the buyers!”
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