Campbell’s A$925,000 Snitzel filly comes up trumps at Inglis’ main Victorian sale

Philip Campbell is synonymous with the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale and the former principal of renowned Blue Gum Farm continued to make his mark at Oaklands Junction on Monday, selling a blueblood Snitzel filly for A$925,000 (£488,000/€570,000).

The highest-priced yearling sold at the Premier sale this year was bought by prominent owner Jonathan Munz, whose long-time agent Dean Hawthorne signed the docket for the sister to high-class sprinter-turned-sire Bruckner.

In a session where quality horses were well sought after - eight lots sold for A$400,000 or more on day two to match the high-end numbers traded on Sunday - it was the most talked about filly on the complex that delivered.

At the end of the main Premier Session, Inglis was closing in on A$51 million in trade with 383 horses changing hands at a clearance rate of 76 per cent. The average of A$132,693 was down five per cent year-on-year while the median held firm at A$100,000.

Hawthorne believes the sale-topping filly, the second most expensive filly ever sold at the Victorian sale, could be capable of racing in feature races in 12 months’ time.

“We haven’t bought in the sale ring for a few years, GSA, but this filly, they don’t come along like this, these Snitzel fillies, very often and so we thought we would have a crack at her,” the Kiwi agent said.

“With that pedigree, she had one of the best pages in the book and you get here and the type matches, away you go.

“She had that big middle, a big gaskin and hindquarter and looked like she was going to be a two-year-old. She moved very well and I watched her a lot, she just seemed to get on with the job.

“They are the ones you can see fronting up in the autumn two-year-old races in Melbourne and Sydney. They’re the ones you’re after. If it all goes to plan, you’ve got a good type for a broodmare as well.”

The filly is a daughter of Jestajingle whose progeny have been a regular at the Premier sale. Her first foal, an A$725,000 Premier graduate, is the Group 3-winning, Coolmore Stud Stakes runner-up Bruckner, who will enter his second season at Widden Victoria in 2024, while her third foal Tuned sold for A$500,000 at last year’s sale to Annabel Neasham.

Jestajingle is a half-sister to stakes-winning two- and three-year-old Jukebox, with the pair being out of Perth Listed-winning juvenile Jestatune.

Campbell and his wife Patti sold their Euroa-based Blue Gum Farm to Trilogy’s Jason and Mel Stenning and Sean and Cathy Dingwall in 2022 after four decades developing the property and becoming a leading vendor at the Premier sale.

Blue Gum Farm clients Mike Howard, Keith Brown and Campbell, along with some other partners, acquired Jestajingle from Western Australian breeders Neville and Susan Duncan, themselves long-time supporters of Blue Gum Farm.

The Campbell-led syndicate also sold a Snitzel colt out of Vaujany to David Ellis for A$1.3 million through Blue Gum’s Magic Millions draft in January.

“Magic Millions was a great start with the A$1.3 million colt owned in the same interests and with this filly we started to dare to dream a little while ago that she would get the seven figures,” Dingwall said. 

“We would have had two in a year, which would have been unbelievable, but she got pretty close and it’s wonderful.”

The stand-out yearling of the two-day Premier Session catalogue joins Munz’s GSA Bloodstock portfolio, which also includes elite mares Shoals, Toffee Tongue, Passive Aggressive and Madrigals, the dam of Saturday’s Group 3-winning, Inglis Sprint scorer Estriella.

“We’re going along nicely and breeding a lot of good horses. Estriella the other day, we bred her, a filly called Love Palm in New Zealand was Group 2-placed out of the same mare, so we’ve got some great mares, but you’ve just got to keep topping up now and again,” Hawthorne said. 

“It’s a family we haven’t got that’s got plenty going on. All good breeders need to top up every now and again and Jonathan is a top breeder.”

Anthony and Sam Freedman, who train from Munz’s Mount Eliza-based Pinecliff facility as well as Flemington, is “odds-on” to take on the impressive filly.

The Freedmans have trained Group 1 winners Shoals and Super Seth for Munz.

Blue Gum Farm also sold a Snitzel half-sister to stakes winner She Dances for A$650,000 on Sunday and it closed out the Premier session having sold 23 for A$4.32 million at an average of A$187,826.

The results were an important reinforcement for Dingwall and his business partners, having claimed the leading vendor title in 2023, their first at the helm of the stud and Blue Gum’s fourth in five years.

Blue Gum also sold the equal second highest-priced yearling at the Premier sale this year.

Yulong, with numbers on its side, was the leading vendor by aggregate this year, selling 39 for A$5.029 million at an average A$128,949.

Dingwall said: “The farm has been a proven producer and more and more buyers are very selective and buying off those farms that are proven producers.”

Jestajingle has a weanling filly by Snitzel and she missed to Anamoe last year.

Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch was pleased that day one’s clearance rate had improved to 80 per cent but again indicated yesterday’s buyers largely had choice with less competition than during the pandemic years.

“In terms of turnover, they’re positive figures. Evidently, the demand for horses in the top percentage of the market has been strong and there’s been good competition from a variety of people participating on those,” Hutch said.

“But the deeper into the market you got, the more selective it became. Buyers are in the position where they have plenty to choose from and, it’s one of these things, you put a catalogue together, you promote it as best you can.”

That said, Hutch was not questioning buyers’ willingness to invest at Premier.

“You can only ask people to do so much and we felt like we had a good cross-section of people involved,” he said. 

“I think a lot of people have pleasantly surprised us by the extent of their participation and that’s the sort of support that we’re grateful for. It’s a long sales year for a lot of people. There’s a lot of money spent this year already and there’s a lot of money to be spent.

“Look, I am hopeful by the close of play tomorrow that we will reflect on the figures for day one and two and they’ll be very acceptable.”

The one-day 239-lot Showcase Session to conclude this year’s Melbourne sale starts at 10am local time on Tuesday.

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