Offered as part of the Ashleigh Thoroughbreds Dispersal, the weanling full brother to Group I ATC Champagne Stakes winner Captivant was always going to be a star attraction at the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale.
A handsome dark brown colt very much like his Group I winning sibling, the Capitalist colt from Speedboat sold for $625,000 to China Horse Club / Newgate / Go / Trilogy becoming the equal highest-priced weanling ever sold at this sale
Ashleigh Thoroughbreds’ Senga Bissett was thrilled with the outcome.
“That was a really great result, I couldn’t be happier. I didn’t expect that much, it’s just so exciting,’’ Bissett said.
“The horse has just been an absolute superstar all week, he’s a beautiful colt and I just hope he goes on and does a good job for Henry and the team.
“I wasn’t expecting that price, I really was hoping for $450,000, possibly $500,000 but nothing like that.’’
Newgate Farm’s Henry Field confirmed the colt had been purchased to race for the partnership, who also bought and raced Captivant, paying $550,000 for him as yearling at Magic Millions in 2020.
“It’s not something we do that often, to buy a weanling colt for our racing syndicates, very rarely, but when a special one comes up you’ve got to look at them and take them seriously and he was very special,’’ Field said.
“They’ve got to be really out of the box to buy them as a weanling…but with this particular colt, we obviously had a lot of luck with Captivant, who we’re still in partnership in with our great friends at Kia Ora and he was a really good horse for our partnership.
“When they come up, these special ones, it doesn’t really matter [about the price]. We’re end users buying for a racing partnership that’s producing G1-winning colts to stand at stud. It’s a dispersal, you very rarely see colts of that calibre at public auction at a weanling market, and he was that horse.’’
A half-sister by Commands to stakes-winner Cross Current and to the dam of Group I winner Crown Prosecutor, Speedboat has been a good producer also leaving Group III placed Warby and another winner in addition to $1.1million earner Captivant.
