$700,000 Dubawi colt another special opportunity for partners behind Justify

China Horse Club and WinStar Farm’s Maverick Racing, the same team that scooped up eventual Triple Crown winner Justify for $500,000 as a yearling in 2016, pounced on Tuesday to acquire the Dubawi colt out of superstar Zenyatta’s half-sister Eblouissante for $700,000.

Michael Wallace, who oversees bloodstock for the internationally active China Horse Club, said the dark bay colt’s pedigree offered a special opportunity on the second day of the Keeneland September
yearling sale’s three-session Book 1.

He said: “Obviously, he’s a different sort of colt than what we are used to seeing here in America. With a horse like him, if he can be successful, it will open up a lot of avenues to be in the stallion barn in both the northern and southern hemispheres."

At this point the partnership is not sure if the colt, bred by Jane Lyon’s Summer Wind Farm and named Bluenote, will be aimed to race in America or Europe.

Wallace noted: “We’ll get him home and assess him a little bit and then take a bit of a guide on how he works along, whether he’s a dirt horse or a turf sort of colt. There are obviously options on both potentially."

Eblouissante, a now ten-year-old Bernardini mare, won twice, once on an all-weather surface such as Zenyatta relished when she won the Breeders’ Cup Classic during one of her three championship
seasons, and once on dirt.

Balance, a Thunder Gulch half sister to Eblouissante and Zenyatta, won three Grade 1 races on dirt, while another half-sister, Treasure Trail, produced Long Island Sound, runner-up in the Grade 1
Secretariat Stakes on turf.

Michael Wallace (left): “We’ll get him home and assess him a little bit and then take a bit of a guide on how he works along'Credit: Edward Whitaker

Wallace is very familiar with the family as China Horse Club paid $1.3 million at the 2016 Keeneland November sale for then broodmare prospect She’s Not Here, a multiple Grade 2 winner on turf produced by stakes winner Where’s Bailey, another half-sister to Zenyatta, Balance and Eblouissante.

“We’re breeding her up nicely and we’re happy with her produce,” he said. “The pedigree is world-class if the yearling colt can prove to be successful on the track.”

She’s Not Here produced a Curlin filly in February and has been bred back to Quality Road.

China Horse Club and Maverick have bought five yearling colts in partnership through the first two sessions of the Keeneland September sale, with the Dubawi colt being the highest priced of that group.

Three of the colts have cost over $500,000 each, with a son of first-crop sire and champion sprinter Runhappy bought on Monday for $575,000. Two of the colts are by Into Mischief, including a $560,000
bay who is a half-brother to Grade 1-placed True Timber and from the family of Breeders’ Cup Classic and Dubai World Cup winner Pleasantly Perfect.

Wallace said the Keeneland market had a frothy quality on Tuesday.

“Book 1 always has something of a polarising factor," he said. "The top horses can bring lots of money, but it can be difficult if you miss the mark by just a fraction. That’s the way the world over, and if people want quality, when they find it, they’re very happy to pay for it."

China Horse Club and WinStar have also been sellers during the initial sessions of the Keeneland September sale. While China Horse Club withdrew Hip 61, a full-brother to champion Classic Empire, the
operation sold Hip 293, an Uncle Mo filly out of the Unbridled’s Song stakes-winning mare Cara Marie, for $500,000 to Albaugh Family Stables.

Among the WinStar-bred yearlings sold, Hip 181, a Medaglia d’Oro colt out of stakes winner Wait Til Dawn, by Giant’s Causeway, brought $600,000 from Godolphin.

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