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Te Akau Racing thrilled to get their standout filly at this year’s Karaka Sale
David Ellis was under-bidder on the top lot from Day 1 at this year's Karaka Yearling Sale but he wasn't missing out two days in a row, taking home the second session's star performer.
The head of Te Akau Racing went to NZ$850,000 for a Curraghmore-prepared filly by Fastnet Rock out of Memories Of You, who is a sister to ATC Oaks winner Unforgotten.
That made her the highest-priced filly of the sale and second-most expensive yearling of 2022 to date, behind the brother to Mo'unga (Savabeel x Chandelier), who was bought in partnership by Tony Fung and Annabel Neasham on Day 1.
Lot 410 will be raced by the fillies syndicate that Te Akau has pulled together this year and Ellis said she was not only the pick of the sale, but the best filly offered in New Zealand for several years.
"When we started looking at all the horses in the sale we thought that the standard was very high and we thought we'd put a colts syndicate together and a fillies syndicate together and buy the best four colts in the sale and the best four fillies in the sale," Ellis revealed.
"This was our pick of the fillies. In fact, I'd go a little bit further, this was probably the best filly that we've seen at Karaka in the last five or six years.
"She's an absolute standout. She's got a lot of pedigree updates to come, we've trained the full sister, we've observed this family for a long time and we've had a fair bit of success with the Fastnet Rocks."
Memories Of You has had four winners from five to race, the best being Unforgotten, who not only won the Group 1 ATC Oaks (2400m) but also the Phar Lap Stakes (1500m) and Chelmsford Stakes (1600m) at Group 2 level and was placed behind Winx in a Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m).
Fastnet Rock flexed his muscle on a day that saw a range of stallions produce outstanding results 24 hours after Savabeel dominated Day 1.
Almanzor had the second highest priced lot of the day, Cambridge Stud's colt out of Inspirational Girl's half-sister Its Our Showtime who is now the third-most expensive lot of the sale after going to Bruce Perry for $675,000.
Zoustar had a colt from the Danroad mare Irion sell for $475,000, while Tivaci had a colt from New Zealand Oaks placegetter Miss Selby sell for $420,000 and a colt who is a grandson of Australian Group 1 winner Pernod sell for $380,000.
That was the same price realised by Lot 367, a filly by So You Think from the Exceed And Excel mare Lagertha.
The leading lots helped elevate the sale aggregate to $40,577,500 at an average of $148,093 with a median of $105,000 after two days.
The latter two figures are well up on last year's Covid-impacted sale, which generated a Book 1 average of $120,388 and $90,000 median, but also up on 2020 when the average was $136,725 and the median $100,000.
Book 1 at this year's Karaka Yearling Sale concludes on Wednesday with Book 2 yearlings to be offered on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.