Starspangledbanner filly from Diggers Rest finds herself an owner

Remember the daughter of Starspangledbanner who was sent all the way from Diggers Rest in Victoria, Australia, to Doncaster in Britain for the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale in August?

The filly, consigned by Mike and Brodie Becker's Stockwell Thoroughbreds who bred her to northern hemisphere time at their stud near Melbourne, was unsold at £29,000 but her around-the-world trip was not in vain as she now has a new home.

The half-sister to two winners from the family of high-class performers Hasselhoof and Lord Ted is being boarded at Brook Stud in Newmarket on behalf of leading New Zealand owner Kevin Hickman after a private deal to buy her was struck by agent Ric Wylie.

Hickman is best known for campaigning the brilliant four-time Group 1 winner Silent Achiever and the Starspangledbanner filly will eventually carry the same silks when trained by William Jarvis.

“Kevin always has three or four horses in training with William at any one time,” said Wylie. “Our interest in this filly started when we purchased her mother from Mike Becker.

“This filly was at foot, but at the time wasn't as interesting as her mum, as Kevin was looking for mares to visit Tavistock and with her obvious connections we sought out the dam and purchased her.”

The compatibility of the dam, the Rock Of Gibraltar mare Alpine Belle, with Tavistock is no doubt based on the fact her talented half-brother Hasselhoof is by Cambridge Stud's excellent young stallion.

“The filly was inspected at the sale and we passed her over as Kevin had other plans and we didn't bid,” Wylie continues, “but when she wasn't sold I mentioned the fact to him and we negotiated her purchase. We're very happy to keep control of the immediate family.”

Starspangledbanner, who had struggled with subfertility in the early years of his stallion career, was supposed to stand at Coolmore in Ireland in 2015 but missed the plane from Australia after suffering a bout of colic.

After making a recovery he covered a select book of mares to northern-hemisphere time at Rosemont Stud in Victoria and several resultant offspring have been offered for sale north of the equator by innovative vendors such as Stockwell Thoroughbreds.

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