Fabulass tribute to Singleton with Frankel mare topping Strawberry Hill dispersal at €1.1m

It was the end of an era spanning 50 years. The setting for the dispersal of Strawberry Hill Stud couldn’t have been better, the afternoon auction at John Singleton’s lavish property was also a tribute to the larrikin owner’s contribution to Australia’s thoroughbred industry.

Under blue skies and beautifully manicured lawns, leading international and domestic investors made the most of the opportunity to acquire young horses and elite mares whose pedigrees are steeped in Strawberry Hill’s rich history.

No buyer made more of the occasion than Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng, the Chinese billionaire, whose Victorian property has amassed hundreds of mares and many of the best to go to market in recent years. He purchased 11 of Singleton’s 20 broodmares on offer at the on-property sale, including catalogue standouts Miss Fabulass and Mokulua, who sold for A$1.85 million (£945,000/€1.1m) and A$1.6m respectively. 

With up to 100 people at Singleton’s spectacular Mount White farm, on the New South Wales Central Coast, it was his long-time great mate Gerry Harvey who opened the bidding at A$1m for Miss Fabulass, the predicted sale-topper, before the online competition took over and it was Yulong which outlasted the underbidder, believed to be Japan’s Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm.

Yulong signed under Highway Farm for the Strawberry Hill sale.

Singleton was an early adopter of sire phenomenon Frankel, one of the world’s all-time great racehorses. The Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Miss Fabulass is the result of one of those early trips to the UK.

She was offered as a dry mare after not going in foal last year. She has a two-year-old Written Tycoon filly and an I Am Invincible yearling colt.

Strawberry Hill’s champion older mares Samantha Miss, More Joyous and Dear Demi, all Group 1 winners during their elite racing careers, were sold to Yulong for a combined A$1.47m. 

Samantha Miss, the dam of Miss Fabulass purchased by Singleton for A$3.85m from the Inglis Easter Broodmare Sale in 2009, was bought by Zhang for A$320,000, while homebred mare More Joyous, an eight-time winner at the highest level, is also heading to Yulong’s Nagambie farm with a A$450,000 price tag.

Mokulua, the Moonee Valley Classic-winning daughter of Dear Demi, is in foal to Frankel on a maiden cover to southern hemisphere time. 

The lots are inspected ahead of the Strawberry Hill Stud dispersalCredit: Magic Millions

More Joyous’s daughter Woman, who is in foal to Home Affairs, was the 57th and final lot of the Strawberry Hill dispersal, and also sold to Yulong for A$575,000.

In all, Yulong bought four weanlings and 11 mares, including purchasing five in succession, for a spend of A$8.98m, more than half the sale aggregate of A$15.497m.

Miss Fabulass’ yearling son by I Am Invincible - touted as a seven-figure select sale horse next year - won’t be seen back through an auction in 2024, with Kia Ora and Tony Fung Investments adding him to their colts portfolio for A$950,000.

“We are very happy to get him into the racing colours,” said Kia Ora’s bloodstock manager Shane Wright.

“For us, he is the one who suited us the best. He looks like he is one who could get up and going early and hopefully he can win a Slipper.”

At least seven of the 20 yearlings offered were bought by end users - Ciaron Maher, Mick Price, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott were among the training cohort to appear on the buyers’ sheet - and Wright was not surprised by the level of interest.

“I think when you have a dispersal sale like this, they are beautiful families to get involved in, so it’s not surprising that end users are really getting involved,” said Wright.

Mokulua: Moonee Valley Classic winner in foal to Frankel sold for A$1.6 million at the dispersalCredit: Magic Millions

“We are happy to add a nice colt to the syndicate or a quality mare to the broodmare band.”

Wright kept good on his promise to add a Strawberry Hill mare to Kia Ora, signing later in the session for Key for A$600,000. 

Bought by agents Bevan Smith and Andrew Williams for A$1.1m at last year’s Magic Millions National Sale on behalf of Singleton, Key foaled a colt by Coolmore’s first-season sire Home Affairs just hours before her dam, Vanilla Princess, went under the hammer.

Earlier, a Frankel yearling colt, who is the first foal out of the Gary Harding-raced New Zealand Group 3-placed Key, was bought by Yulong for A$700,000 and, not for the first time this year on a young horse by the Juddmonte stallion, Evergreen Stud Farm’s Tony and Aaron Bott were the underbidders.

Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch summed up the unique sale, which averaged $281,764 and attained a median of $150,000, with all 55 horses offered finding new homes to 33 different buyers.

“What a day!," he told ANZ Bloodstock News. "It’s very unique to have an on-farm sale and it’s been a long time since the last one. 

“Just driving in here, it had a great feel about it, it’s an amazing property and the team did an extraordinary job setting it up for today.

Barry Bowditch: "Just driving in here, it had a great feel about it"Credit: Darren Tindale

“I am very pleased with how the day went.”

The 'generational' sale opened with a bang after Baystone Farm’s Dean Harvey landed an early blow, purchasing a third-crop The Autumn Sun three-quarter sister to the Group 3-placed winner Great Mystery for A$180,000 before the auction ramped up.

Newgate Farm’s Henry Field and his successful colts partnership involving China Horse Club and Trilogy Racing, pounced on lot 2, a Zoustar half-brother to Mokulua, for A$360,000. He is the fifth live foal out of Dear Demi.

Field said: “We are very happy to support John Singleton. He’s a great breeder and he’s been a great supporter of ours.

“He’s been a great friend for a number of decades, since I was a little boy, and so it’s great to buy some of his outstanding horses.

“These families have stood the test of time and this son of Zoustar is a lovely colt from the family of Capitalist and he is out of a champion mare.”

Newgate Farm stud manager Jim Carey also signed for three horses at a spend of A$680,000

Singleton, said to be emotional in the days leading up to the dispersal, was not at Strawberry Hill Stud, instead watching the action unfold online from the United States. Harvey and Katie Page paid tribute in their usual jovial way to Singleton before the first horse went under the hammer.

Clarry Conners, the trainer of Singleton and the late Australian prime minister Bob Hawke’s remarkable Golden Slipper-winning filly Belle Du Jour and Dear Demi, among others, was on hand for the Strawberry Hill curtain call.

Understandably, Conners was emotional as he watched the Pierro-Dear Demi two-year-old filly sell to Glentree Racing’s Luke Simpson for A$525,000. 

She had already had an educational preparation at Conners’ Warwick Farm stable earlier this year, however, Glentree Racing owner Bruce Wilson is expected to transfer her to a Melbourne trainer.

Conners said: “I have been training for Singo for 25 years. Really, he’s been the backbone of my stable for that time, because we’ve had a lot of good horses, a lot of success and it brings a tear to your eye, this sale today, because they are horses I’ve had a lot to do with.

“There’s a lot of beautifully bred horses and they’re gone forever, that’s the sad part about it, and it’s a bit hard to see some of them go when they’ve been so good to me.”

With tears welling, Conners said he had little doubt that Glentree Racing has a quality Pierro filly on its hands.

The veteran trainer said: “I really like the filly and I think she’s a black-type, Group 1 horse, for sure. She is just a lovely horse.

“I’ve had Dear Demi and a couple out of her, including Mokulua who I won a Group 2 with two seasons ago. I was hoping I’d get her back but she’s going to Melbourne.”

The two-year-old Pierro filly: "I think she’s a black-type, Group 1 horse, for sure"Credit: Magic Millions

Simpson said the unnamed Pierro filly fitted the Glentree Racing model of acquiring high-end daughters from strong families capable of becoming members of Wilson’s broodmare band.

“She is super athletic with plenty of scope to work with and she’ll mould into a nice staying filly down the track,” said Simpson.

“There’s plenty of options around for fillies like her.”

Singleton still has shares in numerous racehorses, including the Waterhouse and Bott-trained dual Group 3 winner Hawaii Five Oh, a four-year-old entire who he races in partnership with Harvey and radio king Ray Hadley. 

“He has put a lot of time, effort and money into the game and he’s been a colourful figure and he won’t be lost to us,” Bowditch said of Singleton’s contribution to the industry.

“He’ll still be racing plenty of horses and he has much to look forward to in the spring with horses like Hawaii Five Oh, so we will still see the blue and white colours racing on. 

“Hopefully we’ll see him participate at the yearling sales very early next year, too.”

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