The Hong Kong Jockey Club bought six attractive yearlings at the recent Goffs Orby Sale in Ireland for a total cost of €1.645 million (HK$14.108 million).
Showcasing has proven to be adept as a sire of high-class, speedy runners and the Club went to €420,000 to secure Lot 179 by the stallion. The athletic colt is out of Casila, whose half-sister Inca Princess produced G1 winner and Melbourne Cup runner-up Johannes Vermeer. The second dam is the Royal Ascot G2 winner Miletrian.
The Club paid €375,000 for a colt with a Hong Kong Derby connection. The Kodiac youngster, Lot 80, is from the family of Sound Print, who won the Sha Tin showcase back in 1992. A closer relation is his half-sister, Responsibleforlove, a Listed winner in Italy and G1-placed in the US, while his dam is a half-sister to G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile hero Vale Of York.
Lot 78 is an Oasis Dream half-brother to three winners out of a black type-earning half-sister to the G1-winning miler Maids Causeway, from the top-class family of G1 Hong Kong Vase winner Vallee Enchantee.
Lot 241 is out of a half-sister to Pure Champion who won the January Cup and the Centenary Vase in Hong Kong, was a G3 winner in Ireland when named Steinbeck, and landed a New Zealand G1 for good measure. The Club secured the Mastercraftsman colt for €140,000.
The Club was successful in buying another youngster by Mastercraftsman, Lot 171, for €200,000. The chestnut is a half-brother to the two-time Sha Tin 1000m winner I Am Power, out of a full-sister to G1 Golden Jubilee Stakes winner Soldier’s Tale.
There is speed, too, in the family of Lot 161, purchased for €160,000. The Fast Company colt is related to Atlantic Viking, who numbered the (Listed) Dash Handicap at Epsom among nine sprint wins.
Purchase details
Lot 78 b c Oasis Dream ex Uimhir A Haon (Montjeu) €350,000 (approx. HK$3,002,000)
Lot 80 b c Kodiac ex Vee Gita (Vettori) €375,000 (approx. HK$3,216,000)
Lot 161 b c Fast Company ex Bett’s Gift (Teofilo) €160,000 (approx. HK$1,372,000)
Lot 171 ch c Mastercraftsman ex Bridge Note (Stravinsky) €200,000 (approx. HK$1,715,000)
Lot 179 b/br c Showcasing ex Casila (High Chaparral) €420,000 (approx. HK$3,602,000)
Lot 241 br c Mastercraftsman ex Excellent Mariner (Henrythenavigator) €140,000 (approx. HK$1,201,000)