Guess it is not surprising given the roster of stars raced out of the Purdon and co stable over the years but many of the purchases by Mark and Nathan at Karaka on Sunday have close connections to a number of those same stars.
Their biggest buy of the day -$130,000 for a Captaintreacherous colt from Elle Mac. A superstar filly in her time at Rolleston winning 6 Group Ones,Elle Mac had the rare achievement of being Two Year Old Filly of the Year and later 4 year old Mare of the Year raced by Jean Feiss.
Mark and Natalie trained her unraced first foal Gigi Hardid. Stonewall Stud bought the next one a three year ol which has qualified.This is her third foal.
The stable had an association with the previous generation too, handling Fight Fire With Fire and Mark Dennis close relations of the Christian Cullen mare Goodlookinggirl ,the dam of Elle Mac.
Mark and Nathan then outlaid a reasonable $55,000 for a Captain Crunch -Forgotten Dreams filly who is a close relation o Hug the Wind a big winner for both Mark and Barry Purdon and also to Chase Auckland whose G1 wins included the Sires Stakes Final the Woodlands Northern Derby and the NZ Free for All besides some top performances against the best of Australians.
The stable gave $35,000 for a lesser connection,a filly from River Polka from the Central Districts but a daughter of Vincent the much loved and admired former All Stars resident
Next up was a son of former well performed stable filly,Rozelski, by Vincent.Rozelski is also the dam of Cosmic Major a big winner for the Kennard Syndicates “Spankem” partnership.
Next lot was Special Occasion a Captaintreacherous colt from Silvia,closely related to Your Good Fortune,another Kennard Syndicate horse with Neil Pilcher as a partner and later placed in the WA Derby.Another was Nota Lada who also had Neil as a co-breeder with Tony and Ann Parker. The Parkers had had major success out of the Purdon stable previously with another relation, one of the best winners of Mark’s early training career in Sharp and Telford,a top perfomrer as it was and potentially even better but for injury.
A $70,000 purchase, an unnamed filly by Bettor’s Delight from Amaretto Dream with double crosses of Abercrombie and Albatross. Her granddam, the outstanding race filly Adios Dream, is also the granddam of Jesse Duke,G1 winner of a Sires Stakes,a Jewels and a Young Guns Final and another of Jean Feiss’s astute buys.
All of which shows in the breeding game class runs in families and the apple oes not often fall far from the tree.
PIC: Elle Mac locks horns with Ashley Locaz in a trial during her race career at Addington. Her third foal now seeks to create some more history.