Nutt and Clarke head west to score prized War Chant filly
Half-sister to Group 2 winner Quilista makes $240,000 at Magic Millions Perth Yearling sale.
Strong demand for the progeny of leading Western Australian stallion War Chant (Danzig) and a quality colt by first season sire Winning Rupert (Written Tycoon) has helped fuel a buoyant Magic Millions Perth Yearling sale, continuing the upward market trend of 2020.
The most expensive yearling sold yesterday, a half-sister to Group 2-wining mare Quilista (Scandal Keeper) by Yarradale Stud's War Chant, made $240,000 while a further 29 lots made $100,000 or more including a Victoria-bound $200,000 son of Newgate Farm's young stallion.
In contrast, there were 24 yearlings who made six figures last year to a top of $260,000 with three breaking $200,000 at the Magic Millions' purpose-built Swan Valley selling complex.
The Book 1 average was last night sitting at $71,302, up 9.7% year on year, with a clearance rate of 73 per cent compared to 77 per cent in 2019.
Sydney-based agent Jim Clarke and Attunga Stud's Brian Nutt signed for the top-priced War Chant filly on behalf of Victorian owner Geoff Walsh who is set to race her on the eastern seaboard.
"War Chant has got a very good Group 1-winning filly in Silent Sedition in the east already who subsequently sold very well as a broodmare ($1.5 million) and he is a proven stallion," Clarke told ANZ Bloodstock News.
"The filly has got a very big pedigree and she is going to have very good residual value with Quilista who is in foal to I Am Invincible, so there's a lot of upside. Physically, I thought she was the most impressive type of the sale." - Jim Clarke
"Brian Nutt and I looked at every horse in Book 1, but before we got here she was one that we had earmarked on pedigree as one of the ones we were particularly interested in an and she had the looks to match."
Catalogued as Lot 166 from the Willow Dale Farm draft, the Ellie Giles-bred filly is the eighth foal out of the stakes-placed juvenile winner Brocky's Ace (Surtee), making her a half-sister to five winners including Listed winner Red Can Man (Gingerbread Man) and ATC Sapphire Stakes (Gr2, 1200m) winner Quilista.
Nutt's Attunga Stud sold Quilista at last year's Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale for $950,000 to Aquis Farm's Tony Fung and the popular Hunter Valley breeder consulted the sprinter's original trainer Justin Warwick before committing to buying the filly.
"He was instrumental in my buying her. He gave me the confidence I probably didn't have five days ago. I was very happy to get her." Nutt said.
Clarke, who was attending his second Perth sale, has been buying fillies at the recent yearling sales for a separate syndicate with the view of trading them at the end of their racing career.
He thought yesterday's purchase for a client of Nutt's hit the mark price wise.
"I think, from a value point of view, it was probably pretty well spot on what she was worth," he said.
"Certainly, on pedigree she was an obvious standout in the catalogue and the fact she had the physique to back up her pedigree was the reason why we thought she was worth what we paid for her."
