Bought with Silverdale Farm for $250,000 from the draft of Widden Stud.

Suman Hedge Bloodstock and Silverdale Farm bought a colt by Newgate Farm's young sire Capitalist (Written Tycoon) for $250,000 on the second and final day of the Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale.  

Sold by Widden Stud as Lot 543, the colt is the third foal out of the Group Three placed Sebring (More Than Ready) mare Sebrina. His second dam is Group Three winner Crown Princess (Beautiful Crown) who produced six winners from seven foals to race and is a half-sister to the dam of Magic Millions Guineas (RL, 1400m) winner Deiheros (Bon Hoffa). 

The colt was the only weanling that Hedge and Silverdale Farm bought and Hedge told Racing & Sports Bloodstock on Monday that the market was strong and he was relieved to secure the colt after being outbid on a number of other lots. 

"It's extremely strong. There is a lot of depth to the buying bench and people are happy to spend so we found it very competitive," said Hedge. 

"We had a decent short list of horses that we were interested in and we were really beaten badly on most of them, so it was nice to be able to buy one." 

Hedge said that the plan is to resell the colt as a yearling next year.  

"He'll be resold next year. He is a horse that had a really good presence and movement," he said.  

"He is very well balanced, not too heavy and is strong in the right parts. He's a good representation of his sire and he's out of a mare that is stakes placed, who is in turn out of a stakes winner, so there is a bit of depth to his pedigree. 

"We felt that he had one of the deeper pedigrees out of the types that we liked. I also think that, as well as the horse presented, there is good improvement in him as well. 

"We won't fully commit to a sale just yet, we'll let him get to Silverdale and settle in and then make an assessment in a couple of months time as to which way to go. He's the kind of horse that if he got to January you wouldn't be surprised or he might be one that is brought back to Premier, he could do that as well." 

The colt was sold by Widden Stud, as agent for Jock and Jennifer Mackay of Cangon Stud Farm, who were presenting their first Great Southern draft under the Widden Victoria banner since purchasing the Sun Stud property earlier this year.

"Being the first sale as the new brand in Victoria we wanted to make sure we sold well and to have a horse make $250,000 at Great Southern is just awesome,'' Widden Victoria's Phil Marshall said.

"This colt was a horse that really stood out in what is a really strong sale.

"He was popular from day one, he had a heap of X-Ray hits, heaps of double and triple inspections so we knew fairly early on he was going to be in the top five per cent of the sale. All the big guys here were on him.''

Capitalist had three lots sold during the Select Weanling session for $435,000, at an average of $145,000 and median of $100,000 to finish the session as the leading sire by average. 

Hedge said that he felt the market was very strong despite the current lockdowns and travel restrictions and credited Inglis with enabling people to participate without being at Oaklands. 

"It's been such a strong sale. I know that for everything we were buying there was a lot of competition," said Hedge. 

"It's hard to think how much stronger it could have been (without everyone able to attend). Clearly some of the New Zealanders who target this sale and some of the pinhookers couldn't get here, but I think Inglis were really well organised and they addressed that the best they could by getting the agents who were able to come to work in with those guys and their clients. 

"There has been a pretty strong presence and it didn't feel like there was any void in the market. It felt like everyone was participating and every lot that was of appeal sold particularly well. 

"I thought it might be a bit opportunistic with people unable to come, but that wasn't the case and the market was really strong," he added.

During the 2019 Select Weanling session 354 weanlings were sold at a clearance rate of 80 per cent for a total of $11,425,250. The median was $18,000 and the average finished at $32,275. This year, 275 of the 351 lots offered were sold producing a clearance rate of 78 per cent. The average was up 26 per cent to $40,739 and the median rose 22 per cent to $22,000.