Auction house competition looms to sell hugely valuable mare Imperatriz

Inglis, Magic Millions and New Zealand Bloodstock will be asked to pitch for the right to sell ten-time Group 1-winning mare Imperatriz, the highest prize-money earning breeding prospect to be ever sold at public auction in Australasia.

Te Akau on Thursday made the shock announcement that the rising six-year-old, who had taken all before her during an unbeaten Melbourne spring campaign and added two more Group 1s to her record during the autumn, had run her last race.

It was only on Sunday that Te Akau principal David Ellis was talking up the prospects of Imperatriz tackling the spring’s A$20 million Everest, but an extensive post-campaign veterinary check on her way to the spelling paddock in New Zealand revealed that “wear and tear” had caught up with her and the ownership group “weren’t prepared to risk her”.

The Mark Walker-trained Imperatriz had finished a brave fourth the previous day in the T J Smith Stakes.

Inglis’ Chairman’s Sale, scheduled for May 9, or its digital platform could form part of the sale process if the company was to be given the chance to offer Imperatriz, while Magic Millions’ National Broodmare Sale will also be strongly in the owners’ mind.

Te Akau and Fortuna Racing’s champion mare Melody Belle made A$2.6 million at the Gold Coast sale’s 2021 race fillies and mares session, a sale which has also seen mares such as Sunlight (A$4.2m), Forbidden Love (A$4.1m), Away Game (A$4m) and Sunshine In Paris (A$3.9m) make eyewatering sums.

Another Te Akau-trained champion mare Avantage was sold for NZ$4.1m, an online record price, through NZB’s Gavelhouse platform in 2021 when she was bought by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier.

Speaking to ANZ Bloodstock News, Ellis didn’t completely rule out selling Imperatriz privately, before adding: “We like transparency, that’s the Te Akau way of doing things, and that is how we intend to sell her. 

“I would say that we do sell horses privately, for sure, but that’s not the way we’re going to sell Imperatriz at this stage.”

Ellis continued: “We sold Avantage on Gavelhouse, she made a world-record online price of NZ$4.1 million, and we sold Melody Belle at Magic Millions. 

“We’ll be asking all the sales companies to give us the way that they would promote her and sell her and then we’ll make a decision in the next few weeks about where she goes.”

Ellis and his wife Karyn spent the morning ringing Imperatriz’s owners to inform them of their mare’s immediate retirement.

“While they were disappointed they were just so thrilled and grateful for the huge thrill that Imperatriz has given them,” he said.

“She has been just a great ambassador for our stable and it’s been great that she’s been so beautifully handled by Mark Walker and Ben Gleeson [at Cranbourne] and the whole team in New Zealand. They’ve done a wonderful job with her.”

A winner of 19 of her 27 race starts and A$6.969m in prize-money, the Raffles Racing-bred and Bhima Thoroughbreds-raised-and-sold Imperatriz was purchased by Ellis for A$360,000 at the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Her dam Berimbau was bought for A$1.8m at the 2023 Inglis Chairman’s Sale, while her yearling colt by Capitalistmade A$200,000 at the Gold Coast last January.

Imperatriz’s half-sister Cabaca was bought by agent Bruce Perry for A$460,000 at last year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, while the now Yulong-owned Berimbau has an I Am Invincible weanling colt and she is in foal to Pierata. 

Inglis last year won the right from the owners of champion mare Winx to sell her only live foal, a daughter of Pierro, at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale after putting together an extensive pitch document as to why she should be offered at the Sydney sale.

That filly created worldwide headlines after co-breeder Debbie Kepitis’ Woppitt Bloodstock paid A$10m to buy out her co-owners Peter Tighe and the family of the late Richard Treweeke in the “collector’s item” filly.

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