GLOBETROTTING Testa Rossa mare Ortensia would command up to $3 million in the sale ring according to Jonathan D’Arcy after her latest Group 1 triumph in last weekend’s Nunthorpe Stakes in England.
The Paul Messara trained mare was sold at the 2007 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling sale for just $50,000 and has already repaid her connections well over $2m.
Inglis director Jonathan D’Arcy believes that Ortensia could earn as much again, if not more, should she be offered for sale.
“Given her performance on the racetrack and being such a strong and athletic type and the fact that she is free of Danehill really makes her quite an interesting mare,” D’Arcy said.
“I would think she’d be worth somewhere between $2m and $3 million on the current market.”
The previous highest five priced maiden mares sold at auction in Australia are:
Samantha Miss ($3,850,000 – Inglis Easter 2008)
Virage De Fortune ($3,400,000 – Inglis Easter 2007)
Princess Coup ($3,000,000 – Magic Millions 2009)
Divine Madonna ($2,700,000 – Magic Millions 2008)
She Will Be Loved ($2,400,000 – Magic Millions 2008)
“When the likes of Virage De Fortune and Samantha Miss, the market was a lot stronger than it is at the present time, but even allowing for that Ortensia is a very valuable mare on the world stage,” says D’Arcy.
“Len Rhodes down at Corowa has owned this family for quite a while and he bred Intelligent Star and Blaze The Turf and it does trace back to Eau D’Etoile who Jim Fleming bred Bint Marscay and Filante out of. It’s a top class family.
“Ortensia’s dam Aerate’s Pick has a very nice Encosta De Lago colt who has bene entered for Easter and she’s going to Fastnet Rock this season so Len is certainly looking after the mare in every way,” he added.
ORTENSIA’S Dubai and UK heroics are another priceless advertisement for the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale whose recent graduates include the likes of ‘internationals’ Black Caviar, Starspangledbanner, Sacred Kingdom and South African Horse of the Year, Igugu.
“The average has risen over 10 percent over the last four or five years and the graduates coming out of the sale have been some of the best that the company has produced so we’re delighted with the Premier,” D’Arcy told Sportsman.
LOCAL buyers can anticipate a serious challenge from overseas interests when Ortensia’s full-brother goes under the hammer at the Magic Millions Horses-In-Training Sale scheduled for October 31 on the Gold Coast.
The colt, being sold on behalf of Baramul Stud, is the fifth foal of his dam, Picnicker mare Aerate’s Pick.
Now a two-year-old, the chestnut colt was sold for $130,000 at the 2012 Magic Millions Yearling sale and bought with the intention of returning for the firm’s H-I-T sale.
“He’s quite a stylish type of horse,” Magic Millions Barry Bowditch told Sportsman.
“He is a horse that is going to pulled out his box by everyone. He’s going to be well sought after given that he is sibling to one of the hottest sprinters in the world.”
Ortensia’s dam, Aerate’s Pick, foaled an Encosta De Lago colt in 2011 but unfortunately missed to Australia’s reigning Champion general Sire Fastnet Rock last season.
ORTENSIA’S international heroics are due in no small part to her sire, Testa Rossa, whose iron horse like qualities have helped him carve out a reputation as the `trainer’s horse’.
A six-time Group 1 winner himself from 900m to a mile, Testa Rossa boasts an incredibly winners-to-runners strike rate of 71.7 percent.
His 41 stakeswinners have won from 1000m to 2800m and age does not weary them.
Indeed, Ortensia has raced 33 times so far has won stakes races in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Dubai and England.
She was a highly credible fifth in the International Sprint in Hong Kong in 2010.
Steve Brem, the bloodstock agent responsible for buying Ortensia, is one of the Vinery Stud resident’s many fans.
“I have always liked them,” Brem says, “I have bought two or three of them in my time including a handy horse by him called Geared Up – he was no topliner but he won about three times his purchase price before he was on-sold.
“Funnily enough I also selected and recommended probably Testa Rossa’s second best horse (Rostova) but neither of my buyers liked her as much as I said, so I had to watcher go through to somebody else.
“Testa Rossa was a fantastic horse and he’s always been an admirable sire. He’s done a great job for a lot of breeders,” Brem told Sportsman.
