Photo: Angelique Bridson
Back-to-back lots through the Karaka sale ring on Thursday’s second day of the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale produced unprecedented results for a pair of Kiwi sires.
Cambridge Stud shuttle stallion Hello Youmzain hit a new high when Lot 283, a colt out of the Zabeel mare Cool Tart, was knocked down to Hongwei Chen for $700,000. The colt was offered by Barry Donoghue’s BMD Bloodstock.
It was a new record price not only for Hello Youmzain but also for Donoghue, continuing a remarkable spring in which he also bred his first Group One winner with Globe in Caulfield’s Might And Power Stakes (2000m).
“Today’s result with the Hello Youmzain colt was an enormous thrill and very special,” Donoghue said.
“We knew we were going into the sale with a really nice horse and we were expecting him to be popular. But we had a reserve of only $150,000, and whatever happened beyond that was a bonus. We couldn’t be happier.”
BMD Bloodstock offered 16 horses across the two days of the Ready to Run Sale, selling 14 of them for a total of $2.69 million and an average price of $192,500.
Hello Youmzain, whose yearlings have sold for up to $425,000, was New Zealand’s leading first-season sire in 2024-25 and has sired 16 winners to date from his first southern hemisphere crop including three-time Listed winner Platinum Diamond and fellow stakes-winning filly Lucy In The Sky.
Photo: Angelique Bridson
With Lot 284 withdrawn, the very next two-year-old through the ring on Thursday morning was Lot 285 – Ohukia Lodge’s colt from the first crop of Mapperley Stud stallion Armory out of the stakes-winning Golan mare Cora Lynn.
The half-brother to nine-race winner and Gr.3 Sydney Stakes (1200m) placegetter Weona Smartone was a $625,000 purchase by Cameron Cooke and Busuttin Racing.
Armory ran second behind Russian Camelot in the 2020 edition of the Gr.1 Cox Plate (2040m) before retiring to Mapperley in 2022. The Galileo stallion’s first runner, Silhouette, won the Fusion Electrical 2YO (900m) at Trentham on October 26.
“As an individual, this colt was one of our picks of the sale,” Trent Busuttin said.
“He was always going to be expensive, but you’ve got to buy the ones you like. Cameron Cooke selected him for one of his clients, and we’re lucky enough to get to train him.
“Armory has already had a winner. It’s always good to buy off New Zealand farms and support the New Zealand stallions.”
