– This article originally appeared on stuff.co.nz and is reproduced with permission
Champion New Zealand racehorse Avantage sold for a whopping $3.96 million when purchased by global breeding giant Coolmore Stud in a record price for an online auction.
The nine-time group one-winning mare, trained by Jamie Richards at Matamata, was retired from racing earlier this month and put up for sale on New Zealand Bloodstock’s online platform Gavelhouse Plus.
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After a 15 minute bidding duel yesterday, Tom Magnier of Coolmore – the world’s largest breeding operation of thoroughbreds – placed the successful bid in a record for any horse sold online, NZ Racing Desk reported.
The daughter of top sire Fastnet Rock became the third highest-priced mare ever sold via auction in the southern hemisphere behind Milanova, who fetched $5 million in 2008, and the $4.2 million outlaid for Sunlight last year. All three were purchased by Coolmore.
Another champion Richards-trained mare, Melody Belle, fetched $2.6 million at the Magic Millions sale on the Gold Coast in May.
Purchased for $203,000 by David Ellis as a yearling at the Karaka sales, Avantage was prepared by Richards to win 16 of her 28 starts and $2.16 million in prizemoney.
Owned by the Te Akau Avantage syndicate, the six-year-old’s racing career was brought to a sudden halt last Friday after suffering a tendon injury, when favourite for the group one Tarzino Trophy at Hastings.
The last of Avantage’s nine group one wins was at Te Rapa in April, in the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (1600m).
It was the mare’s fifth group one in the first four months of this year.
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