Leading Western Australian studmaster Brent Atwell is backing the commercial appeal of Newgate Farm first-season sire Ozzmosis and he used the Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale to buy a mare to visit the 2023 Coolmore Stud Stakes (G1) winner.
Atwell paid AU$240,000 (US$158,400, AU$1=US$0.66)—co-highest price at the one-day sale that wrapped up a week of auctions at Inglis' Riverside Stables complex in Sydney—for the unraced Pierro mare Sous La Terre, who is closely related to the champion Zoustar filly Sunlight.
Sous La Terre, who was sold by Tyreel Stud, was offered in foal to leading Queensland-based stallion Spirit Of Boom, the sire of unbeaten Perth 3-year-old Keshi Boom.
Twin Hills Stud's Olly Tait bought the other AU$240,000 sale-topping mare, adding the Snitzel mare Starla to his Southern New South Wales-based broodmare band. The mare, sold by Coolmore Stud on behalf of Woppitt Bloodstock's Debbie Kepitis, was offered in foal to Wootton Bassett.
Atwell, whose Darling View Thoroughbreds roster is led by Western Australia's premier sire Playing God, said Sous La Terre was "probably my favorite mare in the sale".
She is a half sister to group 3 winner Solar Charged, herself the dam of Sunlight, group 3 winner Sisstar, and Clean Energy, the impressive Warwick Farm 2-year-old winner May 8.
"Obviously you have to see what's in front of you, but the pedigree's to die for," Atwell said. "There's plenty of updates coming through with Clean Energy and I was looking for a mare to go to Ozzmosis and she will be the one.
"He's obviously a really good horse, a group 1 winner, and I wanted to send a mare to him in his first season."
Sous La Terre's first foal Terrestar is a last-start Sydney winner for Michael, Wayne, and John Hawkes and owner Neil Werrett.
Tait's acquisition Starla, meanwhile, was purchased as a long-term investment and her mating with Coolmore's Wootton Bassett, whose first Southern Hemisphere-bred yearlings sold this year, a factor in the studmaster's decision.
Starla, a five-time winner who had success at metropolitan level in Sydney and Melbourne, is a daughter of the stakes-placed Houston Benefactor.
"When you're buying mares, you're obviously buying a pregnancy as well as a mare and we do this commercially, this is how we make our living, so we've got to try and get as much back from the purchase of the mare from the foal they're carrying as possible," Tait said. "The fact she's in foal to Wootton Bassett was a huge positive for us. They sold very well and they're very good looking but by the time this one gets to the sales it'll be up to what they've done on the track.
"Hopefully he can be a good stallion as he is in the Northern Hemisphere."
The Australian Broodmare Sale generated AU$7,622,500 (US$5,030,850) in turnover and an average price of AU$59,551 (US$39,304). Those were declines of 5.3% and 20.1%, respectively, from 2023. With 128 sold from a catalog of 211, the clearance rate was 58.4%. Last year's clearance rate was 63.5%.
The aggregate for four days of selling came in at AU$59,233,500 (US$39,094,110), with the higher-class portions of the market performing best. Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch believes the auction house had met its end of the bargain in running a competitive market.
"On the whole, the market is very, very keen to recognize and reward quality. I think that was in evidence," Hutch said. "There are still plenty of people prepared to speculate and again that was in evidence. People were looking to buy pregnancies to bring back through the Australian Broodmare Sale and the Great Southern Sale next year or people looking to grow out yearlings and buy nice young mares.
"Look, all things considered, it's been a pleasing week."
