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Villa San Michele most expensive of ten mares bought by operation.
Yu Long Investments continued to expand their broodmare band at the Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale on Sunday, purchasing ten lots on the online auction with Villa San Michele (Medaglia d'Oro) the most expensive of the ten after the operation went to $260,000 to secure the mare from the Segenhoe Stud draft.
Catalogued as Lot 321, the unraced four-year-old mare was offered in foal to Newgate Farm's Deep Field (Northern Meteor) and she is out of Group 3-winning Redoute's Choice (Danehill) mare Florentina, making her a half-sister to stakes-placed pair Villa Carlotta (Street Cry) and Fasano (Lonhro).
Florentina herself is a half-sister to 2010 Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Gathering (Tale Of The Cat), while she is a three-quarters sister to Listed scorer California Turbo (Fastnet Rock).
Meanwhile, her third dam is Twyla (Danehill), who is a three-quarter-sister late breed-shaping sire Redoute's Choice, Al Maher and Platinum Scissors.
Chief operating officer Sam Fairgray said he was happy to secure the mare, rating her an exciting breeding prospect.
"She's from a very good family, a mare with a pedigree behind her, a lovely mare to have in our ever-expanding broodmare band. We're undecided who she will go to as of yet."
Meanwhile, Segenhoe's Peter O'Brien - who was selling the mare as agent for John Camilleri - said he was over the moon with the result and was quick to praise Inglis for holding the sale, given the difficult circumstances facing the industry.
"I'm delighted, completely delighted. She was a queen of a mare with a pedigree to die for so she deserved a good price and she absolutely got that and more," said O'Brien.
"It's not often you get a Medaglia d'Oro mare that ticks every box, in foal to a hot stallion the quality of Deep Field.
Yulong have been great supporters of us in buying weanlings, yearlings and broodmares for a long time and the most important thing for us was that this mare went to a good home and that's absolutely the case with Yulong purchasing her, which is fantastic.
"We supplemented some of the better mares into the sale and they have sold brilliantly. It's really a huge credit to Inglis for how they promoted the sale, their professionalism in the lead-up and during challenging circumstances given the global outlook and the quality and ease of the overall format of the Inglis digital auctions. It really is beyond reproach.''
Segenhoe Stud finished the day as leading vendors, selling 11 lots for an aggregate of $1,150,500 at an average of $104,591.
Yu Long also purchased winning Redoute's Choice mare Apprise from Segenhoe Stud for $145,000. Catalogued as Lot 324, the mare was offered in foal to Arrowfield Stud stallion Dundeel (High Chaparral), meaning the resulting foal will be bred on the same cross as Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Super Seth.
Apprise is out of Group 2 winner Vormista (Testa Rossa) and to date her only foal to race has won. Her first three foals have sold as yearlings averaging $148,000.
Given their firepower, Yu Long unsurprisingly finished the day as the sale's leading buyers, spending $1,043,500 on the ten lots, for an average of $104,350.
"Overall we've bought some really nice mares by really nice stallions in foal to some really nice young horses and proven stallions. We're happy."
"It's great to get mares by Street Cry, Redoute's Choice, More Than Ready etc, really nice mares for the Yulong broodmare band to support our stallions.
Like O'Brien, Fairgray was vehement in his praise of Inglis: "The Inglis digital format, it's great. Vendors are very good with the information they share, you can do your research and it works really well."
