Andrew Forsman is set to open a satellite stable in Melbourne this year and bloodstock agents Andrew Williams and Bevan Smith are keen to fill it with top fillies.
Forsman has secured 10 boxes at Macedon Lodge and the Cambridge trainer has been busy at Karaka this week purchasing potential residents of the facility.
He teamed up with Williams and Smith to purchase the top-priced filly on the opening day of New Zealand Bloodstock’s Book 1 sale and on Tuesday the trio dug deep once more to secure another filly destined for Forsman’s trans-Tasman operation.
They identified lot 488, the Written Tycoon filly out of Group Three performer Save The Date, as one of the fillies of the sale and they were relieved to secure her out of Cambridge Stud’s draft with a final bid of $460,000.
“She is a filly we have been waiting for, we had to wait until day three, which was a little agonising in itself,” Williams said.
“We are very happy to get her. We went over budget by $10,000 in order to get her, but hopefully that is a good decision in the long-term.
“We are excited to get her and she is going to get every chance with Andrew Forsman and hopefully we see her in the Melbourne spring as a three-year-old filly.
“We need to buy quality in order to compete in Melbourne. We have got to take fillies like this and put them through Andrew’s system and let’s hope they are good enough to be running in Melbourne in the spring.”
While Williams is dreaming of Melbourne targets with the filly, he is hoping to snare more immediate riches in New Zealand in the Karaka Million 2YO (1200m) next year.
“She is a horse that we have looked at multiple times throughout the week and singled out her and the Savabeel filly on day one.
“We bought Ethereal Star at this sale last year with Andrew Forsman and she is a stakes winner and runner-up in the Karaka Million (1200m) a fortnight ago, so let’s hope we can have similar success with this filly.
“We will point her in that direction (Karaka Million) and see if we can get her there. You need to have a lot of luck to get a runner pre-Christmas, everything needs to go right.
“We thought she was forward enough physically, her demeanor and everything about her was faultless.”
Williams has been active at Karaka this week and has been pleased with the seven yearlings he has bought to date.
“I think a filly like this exemplifies the sale,” he said.
“I think the cream of the crop are really rising and everyone is on them.
“I think it is also strong in that $150,000 to $200,000 bracket, which is a credit to the buying bench and what New Zealand Bloodstock has done to get those people here. Whether they be from Australia or further afield, as well as the domestic buyers.”