Horse racing: Derby victors go back to Karaka well

Lot 333, the Almanzor colt out of a half-sister to Group One winner Inspirational Girl, was purchased by bloodstock agent Bruce Perry for $675,000. Photo: Trish Dunell

The pairing that bought last Saturday's Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) winner Asterix went back to the Karaka well on Tuesday to try and replicate their success.

Bloodstock agent Bruce Perry went to $450,000 to secure Asterix out of Curraghmore's 2020 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run Sale draft for owner Sam Kelt and struck gold in the $1 million feature at Ellerslie on the weekend.

Buoyed by that success, the pair went back to Karaka this week to try and find their next Derby contender and landed on lot 333, the Almanzor colt out of a half-sister to Group One winner Inspirational Girl, from Cambridge Stud's draft.

Having bought the colt's dam, Perry had kept a close tab on him since he was a foal.

"I had seen him on the farm and all the way through," Perry said.

"I bought the dam for David Redvers at Magic Millions to go to Roaring Lion and then Brendan and Jo (Lindsay) came up and wanted half off David, so he sold them half.

"With the unfortunate passing of Roaring Lion, David sold out to Brendan and Jo."

Perry included the colt in a short list for Kelt to inspect and he said Kelt was taken by the yearling and Perry was able to secure him with a final bid of $675,000.

"He is a lovely, athletic horse with a great pedigree. He has a beautiful temperament and is a beautiful mover," Perry said.

"Sam came out yesterday and had a look at him. He had looked at a few and I said this is a horse he should look at and he fell in love with him."

Perry has purchased a number of Almanzor's progeny and he continues to be impressed by the offspring the Cambridge Stud sire is leaving.

"We are pretty exposed in the Almanzors and we are pretty happy with where we are at," he said.

"We are confident to go again, and we thought he was one of the top two or three colts of the sale.

"They are taking time, as we expected. We have got a lovely horse in Andalus who has had Group Two and Group Three placings in two starts. He is going to be a lovely older horse.