Forsman determined to buy classy filly at Sydney yearling sales
Not even the big Sydney wet was going to stop Kiwi trainer Andrew Forsman getting the horse he wanted from the yearling sales this week.
And that provided the New Zealand highlight of the Inglis Classic Sale in Sydney.
The weather in New South Wales has been so bad it even caused the A$2 million Inglis Classic, for graduates at all Inglis sales, to be canned at Warwick Farm last Saturday, with the huge money two-year-old event transferred to today’s Warwick Farm meeting.
That raises the rather odd situation of one of Australia’s richest juvenile races being run at noon (Sydney time) on a Wednesday afternoon in front of a few thousand people, at best.
The quite dramatic breaking of the NSW drought has, most importantly, ended bushfire concerns, but it didn’t make yearling shopping much fun at a sale that was surprisingly devoid of major Kiwi buyers.
Until Forsman, who with training partner Murray Baker has won the New Zealand premiership the last three years, stepped in late on Monday night.
Forsman won a long and sustained duel with a knockout A$250,000 bid to buy an American Pharoah filly from To Please A Lady, an Australian mare who has left six multiple race winners from seven starters. It is the family of duel Derby winner Rebel Raider and Jungle Edge.
The usually understated Cambridge trainer was is no mood to lose the bidding war.
“I was going to get her and at that price I still think she is very good buying,” said Forsman.
“I have looked at a lot of yearlings this year, like we do every year, and been beaten on a couple.
“But I liked everything about this horse. She is a magnificent type and I am sure the American Pharoahs will do a huge job. And he (American Pharoah) is the best stallion the mare has been to. So while it is rare for me to go after a yearling quite that hard I am thrilled I got her.”
Forsman says the filly still doesn’t have an owner, a risk he was happy to take. “I have had a few calls already and I think if I believe in a yearling this much then you have to buy it. So I’d expect her to find an owner, or owners, pretty quick. But as it stands, she is still available.”
Forsman’s bold Sydney buy comes at a time when key rivals like yearling sales giants Te Akau and even fellow Cambridge trainers Tony Pike and Stephen Marsh have taken a jump on many local trainers with their ability to syndicate horses and find owners as well as getting undoubted results on the track.
Meanwhile, the Baker-Forsman stable will set new weight-for-age star True Enough for the $200,000 Bonecrusher NZ Stakes at Ellerslie on March 7 after he was nosed out by Tiptronic in the Herbie Dyke at Te Rapa on Saturday. Having already won the Couplands Mile and Zabeel Classic this season, True Enough has become one of our most consistent elite horses having incredibly run in the money in his last 13 starts, six of those at group level.