Trish Dunell
An elegant Fastnet Rock filly will be on her way to Sydney after she was secured by experienced agent Adrian Nicol at Karaka.
Offered by Hallmark Stud, she was purchased on Monday for an international syndicate for $725,000.
“She’s a beautiful filly – the best individual I saw here,” he said. “I thought she might go for more than $600,000 and less than $800,000, so I was happy to go to $725,000 for her.
“Being a full-sister to a Group One winner, it just became a no-brainer.
“She’ll be going to Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. We’ve put a partnership together, which includes the Niarchos family.
“It’s a similar group to the one we put together for a Frankel colt we bought a couple of years ago.
Nicol has been buying horses in New Zealand for more than four decades now.
“I’ve been coming over here for 44 years,” he said. “I went to Trentham in the 1980s and paid $700,000, which was a lot of money then, for a filly called Trichelle for Robert Sangster. She won a Group One, but unfortunately she died after that.”
Nicol’s latest purchase is a sister to the Gr.1 Levin Classic (1600m) winner and Gr.1 New Zealand 2000 Guineas (1600m) runner-up Age Of Fire.
She is out of the unraced Galileo mare Dragon’s Tail, whose two other Fastnet Rock foals – Dynastic Lady and Fastnet Fire have also been winners.
The dam hails from a strong Northern Hemisphere black type family, which includes the Gr.1 Lockinge Stakes (1600m) winner Fly To The Stars. – NZ Racing Desk.