Baggy Green the headline act again in Valachi Downs dispersal

[Wandering Eyes]

As the Valachi Downs dispersal process drew to a close with turnover nudging $10 million, Friday night’s Unreserved Young and Racing Stock Dispersal on Gavelhouse Plus shone a spotlight on exceptional broodmare Baggy Green for the second week in succession – and once again it was Yulong’s Written Tycoon Syndicate who provided the sale-topping bid.

The powerful Australian-based operation had gone to $1.75 million to buy Baggy Green herself in the broodmare session last Friday, and they backed it up seven days later with the $460,000 purchase of Lot 18, her yearling filly by Ocean Park – a full-sister to the four-time Group One winner Tofane.

The purchase continued a love affair with this high-class family for Yulong, who paid A$3.1 million earlier in the year to recruit Tofane herself as a valuable future addition to their broodmare band.

“We’ve made a big investment this year in a family that we think is only going to continue to improve,” Yulong’s chief operating officer Sam Fairgray said.

“Having already added Baggy Green to our broodmare band, it’s great to also pick up a lovely young filly like this. She’s obviously got great residual value, being a full-sister to Tofane, so she’s a fantastic asset to have.”

As well as Tofane, Baggy Green is also the dam of Group Three winner No Compromise and this season’s Gr.1 Australian Derby (2400m) placegetter Benaud, while she is herself a half-sister to the Australian Group One winners Funstar and Youngstar.

Yulong also paid $115,000 on Friday to purchase Lot 21, a yearling filly by Zoustar out of Dark Hedges. The filly is a three-quarter-sister to Gr.1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m), Golden Rose (1400m) and JJ Atkins (1600m) runner-up Zousain, who now stands at Widden Stud in Victoria.

“This is a gorgeous-looking filly,” Fairgray said. “We just thought she was a lovely yearling at a good price, so we’ll take her back to Australia and see how we go with her.

“To come away with two really nice fillies, including a full-sister to Tofane, is a very pleasing result.”

The second-highest-priced lot of the evening was this season’s Gr.2 David & Karyn Ellis Fillies’ Classic (2000m) placegetter Glory Bound, who was sold for $430,000.

By the late Tavistock out of the Group Three-performed Volksraad mare The Tidy Express, Glory Bound is closely related to this season’s Karaka Million (1200m) winner Dynastic and stakes winner Lady Le Fay.

Two-year-old filly Val Di Zoldo, who placed in the Gr.3 Platinum Homes 2YO Classic (1200m) in February, was knocked down for $285,000, while Go Racing secured Lot 27, a two-year-old filly by Savabeel out of a half-sister to multiple stakes winner Odeon for $125,000.

At the conclusion of Friday’s highly successful sale, Valachi Downs’ dispersal offerings over the last few weeks have achieved a total turnover of $9,265,551 for 137 horses sold.

“It’s enormously satisfying,” Valachi Downs general manager Gareth Downey said.

“There’s a bit of a sense of relief now that we’ve made it to the end of three weeks of very demanding work for the team. We’ve had three very significant sales in consecutive weeks, with the weanlings, the broodmares and now the racing stock.

“It’s been a massive and quite exhausting team effort, and I take my hat off to the whole team for the way they’ve continued to front up. They’ve poured in endless energy to look after the horses, look after the buyers and make sure the whole process runs as smoothly as possible.

“The way that they’ve all done that has been so admirable, and they’re a fantastic team that I’m very fortunate to be a part of. Now we all have the chance to draw a bit of a breath.

“For us, the main measure of success with these sales was finding new homes for all of the horses, and I’m delighted that that’s been achieved.

“We sold another 52 horses tonight, and we have a huge amount of belief in all of them. We were really looking forward to racing them ourselves at Valachi, but now we’ll take a great deal of interest in their progress with all of their new owners. We’ll be cheering them on every step of the way.

“Baggy Green was obviously the highlight once again – she’s the gift that keeps on giving. She’s just an amazing mare, and coming into these dispersal sales, I couldn’t believe that we were in the position of being able to offer both the mother of Tofane and the full-sister to Tofane.

“The Baggy Green filly and Glory Bound were the logical two standouts this week, and that’s how it’s turned out. It was wonderful to see them both sell as well as we felt they deserved.

“I thought Val Di Zoldo was another wonderful result. She was a stakes placegetter at her second start, and we’ve always believed she was a lovely three-year-old filly in the making. Those were all great results for our sale, and hopefully they prove to be very successful purchases for their buyers as well.”

The last of any remaining Valachi Downs stock will be offered in the next general gavelhouse.com fortnightly mixed bloodstock auctions this month.

Entries for the next mixed bloodstock sale close at 10pm on Monday 4 July while entries are now also open for the National Online Broodmare Sale on Gavelhouse Plus. Enter your quality mares here.

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