As the other underbidders gradually folded, it developed into a two-way battle between top Australian trainer Ciaron Maher\u2019s head of bloodstock, Will Bourne, and formidable rival, David Ellis.<\/p>\n
The Te Akau Racing principal had a particular connection to this colt, having bought Sword Of State himself for A$600,000 from the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale six years ago. <\/p>\n
Ellis pushed himself to the limit in pursuit of the colt, summoning one last bid of $50,000 after the million-dollar mark had been reached, but Bourne came out on top with a winning bid of $1.1 million. <\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Ellis is a hard guy to beat, especially here on his home deck,\u201d a relieved Bourne said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this is a lovely horse. We got some great support from a new client, Mr (Sanxiong) Gao, and we\u2019re thrilled to have him on board. <\/p>\n
\u201cCiaron Maher sent me the videos of this horse when we were working through a shortlist five days ago. He was one of Ciaron\u2019s picks. I\u2019ve just got off the phone with Ciaron now. He\u2019s delighted and he wants me to sell the last shares, so I\u2019m going to go and do that now.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bourne sees the million-dollar colt as a more precocious type than Ceolwulf, who was a $170,000 purchase from the 2022 Ready to Run Sale and has come of age as a four and five-year-old with triumphs in the Gr.1 Epsom Handicap (1600m), Champions Mile (1600m) and two editions of the King Charles III Stakes (1600m). <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a few similarities, although one was a cheaper purchase that developed into a really nice horse over time,\u201d Bourne said. \u201cThis one has a lot of strength and is very much a yearling sales horse. There\u2019s a lot of power there. I feel like he\u2019s a different type of horse \u2013 he\u2019s very imposing and a proper colt. We\u2019ll get him home and try to turn him into something.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bourne has been impressed with the start made by Sword Of State, who stood for a $20,000 service fee this season. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got one that we bought last year that\u2019s showing really good ability at home, and obviously we\u2019ve seen the horse that Bjorn Baker has (Warwoven),\u201d Bourne said. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor a young stallion to start the way he has is a credit to Cambridge Stud. We\u2019re happy to support them. They do such a good job and are so supportive of the industry here and the community. Sword Of State is a nice stallion on the up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 LOVERACING.NZ News Desk <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the other underbidders gradually folded, it developed into a two-way battle between top Australian trainer Ciaron Maher\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7804,16659,6275,15293,18660,146352,91125,1132,9878,111,139,69,3333,1436,146351,146353,8466,213,120078,13672,120077,9423,45710,102,133387],"class_list":["post-252259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-7804","tag-cambridge","tag-colt","tag-continued","tag-crop","tag-dizzying","tag-karaka","tag-million","tag-monday","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-price","tag-rise","tag-salestopping","tag-saletopping","tag-second","tag-sports","tag-stallion","tag-state","tag-stud","tag-stuns","tag-sword","tag-with","tag-yearling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}