Photo: Peter Rubery (Race Images)
Triple Group One winner Provence (Savabeel) will join Yulong Investments’ star-studded broodmare band after being purchased by the thoroughbred juggernaut at Inglis’ Chairman’s Sale on Thursday for A$1.8 million.
Bred by Tony Rider, Provence is by champion New Zealand stallion Savabeel and out of winning Flying Spur mare Sombreuil, who is also the dam of inaugural $3.5 million NZB Kiwi (1500m) victor Damask Rose.
Retained by Rider, Provence was raced by the Milan Park principal in partnership with Social Racing, and she was entrusted to the care of Stephen Marsh. She went on to win seven of her 24 starts for the Cambridge trainer, including the Gr.1 Thorndon Mile (1600m), Gr.1 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m) and Gr.1 Mufhasa Classic (1600m), and earned nearly $1.2 million in prizemoney.
She garnered plenty of attention in the Riverside Stables sale ring, but Yulong proved to be too strong and the farm’s chief operating officer Sam Fairgray was rapt to secure her and said she will head to their newly acquired Segenhoe Stud in the Hunter Valley.
“It is fantastic to have a lovely Savabeel like her to join the broodmare band,” Fairgray said. “We will retire her and send her up to Segenhoe and get her ready for the breeding season.
“She has got a lot of quality about her, obviously being by Savabeel, and she is a half-sister to one of the best three-year-old fillies in New Zealand (last season). The pedigree is only going to keep on improving.”
Milan Park Stud Manager Grant Bennett was pleased with the result and said it has been great to be a part of Provence’s journey.
“It is a really good way to finish a story,” he said. “We were there when she was born in the foaling paddock, we raised her, we handled her, weaned her, spelled her and nursed her through her rehab for any injuries.
“It is really special to be a part of the last part of the story and now she embarks on the next part of her life with Yulong.”
