With six yearlings selling at the 2019 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, it was the stunning Exceed And Excel x More Than Real filly that led the way.
The most expensive filly to sell on day one of the sale, the filly Exceed and Excel out of American mare More Than Real (USA) (More Than Ready {USA}) sold for $1.2million to Hermitage Thoroughbreds.
“She is a lovely filly. The general process is to walk away and look at a horse one, two or three times, but we only looked at her once and put her straight on the vet list. She passed with flying colours and there was no need to go back on what we saw the first time around,” Koolman said.
“He is a great stallion, Exceed and Excel. He does it here and he does it in Europe as well.”
Many of the Hong Kong-based investors in Hermitage are in Sydney this week and Koolman said there was universal support in the Hermitage Box to go to seven figures for the filly, who is a half-sister to Listed winner Miss Debutante (Fastnet Rock).
“She’s easy to fall in love with. She’s kind on the eye, everyone in the room here likes her and fell in love with her,” he said.
“We are pretty sure where she’ll be going. If it aint’ broke don’t fix it and I think Chris (Waller) will have a bit of fun with her.”
While she is bred to be a sprinter, Koolman wouldn’t put an expectation on what type of racehorse the filly would develop into.
“I’d make a fool of myself if I told you she’d be a sprinter and she goes out and wins an Oaks. We bought The Autumn Sun to win the Derby, and he won’t see a Derby, so you don’t want to make yourself sound stupid,” he said.
