China Horse Club gearing up to sell three yearlings at Saratoga

While poised to once again expand its breeding programme in America, China Horse Club will first offer three blue-blooded yearlings at the two-day Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Sale led by a fancy Pioneerof The Nile filly out of Grade 1 winner and $2.4 million acquisition Embellish The Lace.

The trio of yearlings, which also features a Curlin colt from the immediate family of the sire of Grade 1 winner Maximum Security and a precociously made Uncle Mo filly, is the result of the most recent wave of bloodstock purchases by the club.

Michael Wallace, who oversees racing and bloodstock for the China Horse Club, said: "These are the first yearlings coming through from when we made a fairly sizeable investment to increase our broodmare band in America. It's well known that our policy is to sell everything we breed, hence we have three magnificent horses here.

"We just felt that these three were a good fit for Saratoga. We're really happy with how they have shaped up and there is something there for everybody," Wallace added after inspecting the yearlings on the sale grounds soon after they arrived.

All three are consigned with Bluewater Sales and are set to step into the Humphrey S Finney Pavilion sale ring during the second session of the two-day sale that begins on Monday.

Michael Wallace (left): 'We want to bring a bit more focus on America'Credit: Edward Whitaker

China Horse Club maintains about 25 mares in the United States, with those individuals boarded at a variety of farms including WinStar, Hunter Valley, Claiborne, Dromoland and Bluewater.

"It's a small group [of mares] that we'd like to expand, and probably from this year into 2020 and 2021, we'll increase that number," said Wallace. "Australia has been our main focus up until this point and now we'd just like to increase the numbers here.

"We have stallions coming off the track in America that we've had some success with in [Grade 1 winners] Audible and Yoshida, who will go on to stud. And we've got plenty of proven stallion equity already. With all these types of horses coming through, we have to expand the broodmares to support them."

China Horse Club, which has raced Audible, a son of Into Mischief, and Yoshida, a Japanese-bred son of Heart's Cry, with WinStar and other partners, also maintains about 30 broodmares in Europe and about 80 in Australia.

"It's probably time to step up in America," said Wallace, explaining that the further connection with America racing and breeding is a strategic move with China Horse Club's investment in a racing facility located on the Caribbean island of St Lucia, which is set to open in December.

"We want to bring a bit more focus on America and put ourselves out there a bit more and engage the American market to potentially look at the St Lucia project as an offshoot or a chance for people to come and experience an island getaway and take in some racing. It sounds like a perfect combination.

"It's got the best of both worlds, for the horse nuts and the holiday makers all in one. It's perfect. I might move there myself," he added with a laugh.

For now, however, Saratoga is the China Horse Club's immediate focus, and Wallace said that the club may buy as well as sell yearlings at the boutique venue.

"Absolutely," he declared. "We're fully ingrained in the market."

China Horse Club will begin selling at Saratoga with Hip 132, a grey Curlin colt out of the unraced Tapit mare Tapas, a half-sister to multiple Grade 2 winner Justwhistledixie, who is the dam of 2013 Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner New Year's Day (sire of Maximum Security) and multiple Graded winner Mohaymen (a son of Tapit).

Tapas was purchased by China Horse Club for $1.3 million while in foal to Medaglia D'Oro at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton November Sale.

Wallace said: "The Tapas colt is a really well-balanced, great-moving horse, and very sound of mind - he's always been a lovely horse, tough and good on the feed bin. He's everything you're looking for in a colt. Obviously, being by Curlin is a big plus."

China Horse Club's next yearling to sell will be Hip 211, a bay Uncle Mo filly who is the first foal out of Grade 2 winner and multiple Grade 1-placed Dothraki Queen, by Pure Prize. Produced by a half-sister to Kentucky Oaks winner Blushing K D, Hong Kong Horse of the Year Electronic Unicorn and Canadian champion Ambitious Cat, Dothraki Queen was a $950,000 China Horse Club purchase from the same sale at which Tapas and Embellish The Lace were acquired.

Altogether, China Horse Club spent $9,355,000 while acquiring 15 mares at Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland during the 2016 November bloodstock sales.

Regarding the Uncle Mo filly at Saratoga, Wallace said: "She's a very fast-looking filly, with a lot of hard muscle about her. She's probably the most precocious of the three to my eyes."

Meanwhile, the dark bay Pioneerof The Nile filly is consigned as Hip 218 and thus is one of the last yearlings in the Saratoga catalogue, which ends with Hip 223. However, the filly's family is full of top-tier runners, including those that made their marks at Saratoga racecourse.

Her dam, Super Saver's daughter Embellish The Lace, won the historic Grade 1 Alabama Stakes at the track, and Embellish The Lace's half-brother, Afleet Express, captured Saratoga's signature race, the Grade 1 Travers Stakes. The family also includes Grade 1 winner Materiality and Grade 2 winner and Kentucky Oaks runner-up My Miss Sophia.

"The Pioneerof The Nile filly is just a queen, a lot like her mother," said Wallace. "She has a wonderful page. She also has a wonderful step on her and she is very broad across her bum and she has a great extension through her shoulders. She's always been a star filly from day one.

"If you could breed 25 like her every year, life would be easy. They're hard to come by. You invest a lot of money in the mares and you go to proven stallions and that's what you hope to get. It's pleasing to see the results and now it's up to the buyers."

More on the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Sale:

Warrendale hoping history repeats itself at Saratoga

Read the Racing Post's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale supplement