$1m mare gets shot at early return on investment for new owner
Even if Banana Queen did not race again, Nick Wakim would have been happy with his purchase at last week's Inglis Chairman's Sale.
But, while she is fit, well and in work with Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou , Wakim figures he may as well race her on, which is why she will head to Scone for Saturday's $250,000 Group 3 Dark Jewel Classic (1400m).
The daughter of So You Think was one of nine seven-figure results at the Chairman's sale, knocked down to Wakim's Hilldene Farm for $1 million, and Wakim sees no harm in giving her the chance to bolster her racing record before heading off to the breeding barn.
"If she races well here, the stable were planning to take her up to the Queensland carnival, but we'll see how we go," Wakim said.
"She's got to run very well for us to continue on with her. The plan was to purchase her and then to send her to stud this year.
"But if she can run a good race for us, or potentially win, it would be the cherry on top of the purchase last week."
Banana Queen appealed as a missing link from the broodmare band that Wakim is compiling at Hilldene Farm, which is near Seymour in Victoria.
By So You Think, the five-year-old is out of the unraced Fastnet Rock mare Tropicana Lady, who is a sister to Thousand Guineas winner and proven producer Irish Lights and traces back to legendary North American producer Fall Aspen.
"It's a very deep family and you couple that with So You Think emerging as a good broodmare sire," Wakim said.
"I'm an owner/breeder, so I'm always looking to upgrade my broodmare band with bloodlines that I don't have, and I don't currently have a So You Think mare.
"I have a lovely So You Think weanling filly on the ground, but I don't have a broodmare.
"She's a magnificent-looking mare, she's fit, she's healthy and I think she'll make a tremendous broodmare when that time comes for her."
Banana Queen is a winner of five wins of her 19 starts, including Group 3 success in last year's Tibbie Stakes (1400m) at Newcastle, while she was also placed behind Group 1 winners Espiona and Atishu in the Group 2 Golden Pendant (1400m).
She ran fifth, beaten less than 1-1/2 lengths in the Group 3 Hawkesbury Crown, five days before the Chairman's Sale and will start from barrier six in the Dark Jewel, in which Dylan Gibbons will ride.
