'We were delighted to buy her' - Coolmore pounce for Coolangatta in record-breaking deal

Dual Group 1-winning sprinter Coolangatta has been retired after Coolmore negotiated a multimillion dollar deal to buy the four-year-old for a record price for a mare sold off the track in Australia.

The international operation, which has regularly been locked in duels with Yulong for Australia’s most sought after breeding stock, confirmed on Wednesday night that it had purchased the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained mare for a figure believed to be more than the A$4.2 million (£2.16m/€2.5m) the Magnier family paid for Sunlight at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2020.

Coolangatta, who is in quarantine following her trip to Royal Ascot in June, will be immediately retired to stud, with Coolmore’s second-season sire Home Affairs to be the A J Moir Stakes and Black Caviar Lightning Stakes winner’s maiden mating.

Coolmore Australia’s Tom Moore said Coolangatta had been on the stud’s radar from the time she blitzed her rivals at the official Sydney two-year-old barrier trials in September 2021 and that her subsequent race record warranted her being considered among the best fillies and mares of recent years to go to stud.

Coolangatta: dual Group 1 winner's final start came in the King's Stand Stakes at Royal AscotCredit: Edward Whitaker

“We were delighted to buy her and we think she’s an ideal mare to go to Home Affairs this season,” Moore told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“They were both high-class two-year-olds that trained on to be multiple Group 1-winning three-year-olds, they were both Lighting Stakes winners down the straight at Flemington, and Coolangatta will follow on from the likes of Sunlight and Booker who went to Home Affairs in his first season.”

The acquisition of Coolangatta comes after Coolmore’s Tom Magnier also bought her dam Piping Hot, who is a half-sister to Blue Diamond Stakes winner Reaan, for A$3m at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in May, a three-session auction which saw Forbidden Love sell for the top price of A$4.1m to Yulong. 

Moore said: “Piping Hot’s only a ten-year-old mare in foal to I Am Invincible, so to be able to mould that family over the next ten to 15 years is part of the attraction of Coolangatta and it’s also another indicator of Coolmore’s commitment to the industry here in Australia.”

Coolmore has an established relationship with Ozzie Kheir, who raced The Everest winner Yes Yes Yes, whose first-crop two-year-olds will hit the track this season, as well as elite European-bred horse Sir Dragonet.

That partnership is likely to have played a significant role in Coolmore being able to reach a private deal to buy Coolangatta away from the competition that there would have been for the four-year-old mare had she been offered at public auction.

Moore said: “Tom Magnier has a great relationship with Ozzie and we raced Yes Yes Yes together and we stand him in partnership together and Ozzie bought Sir Dragonet with his partners off Coolmore and brought him out here to win a Cox Plate, so we’ve had a lot of luck together.

“It was great to be able to broker a deal with Ozzie and his partners who had so much fun with this mare.”

Ciaron Maher Racing bloodstock manager Will Bourne revealed the offer from Coolmore proved too good to refuse for Coolangatta’s connections, which included prominent Melbourne racing identities Kheir and John O’Neill.

“She is the most expensive mare [off the track] ever sold in Australia, so the offer wasn’t to be sneezed at,” Bourne told ANZ Bloodstock News. 

“She’s given us so much joy and excitement and the timing was right . . . when Coolmore made such a substantial offer wanting to send her to stud this year, so it was hard to ignore.”

A A$280,000 purchase by Maher from the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale from the Milburn Creek draft, the Highclere Stud-bred Coolangatta backed up her stylish Randwick barrier trial as an early season two-year-old to win the Gimcrack Stakes, a performance which saw her installed as the Magic Millions 2YO Classic.

Piping Hot: Highclere's mare and dam of King's Stand favourite Coolangatta was knocked down to Tom Magnier for A$3 millionCredit: Magic Millions

She won the A$2m race on the Gold Coast two starts later, having landed the B J McLachlan Stakes in between, before rounding out her campaign with a third in the Golden Slipper Stakes.

At three, Coolangatta completed her Group 1 double either side of a spell, prompting a campaign aimed at Royal Ascot and the King’s Stand Stakes, in which she tired late to finish unplaced. 

Bourne said: “There’s plenty of Australian two-year-olds who have speed but when they go to open age they struggle, so for her to win a Group 1 at weight-for-age as a three-year-old, it just goes to show how much quality she had.”

Earlier this year, Coolmore paid A$3.6m for Nimalee at Inglis’ Chairman’s Sale, staving off the challenge from Yulong, as well as Piping Hot, Paris Dior (A$1.6m) and Vangelic (A$1.5m) at the Magic Millions mares’ sale on the Gold Coast.

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