Quality mares sell on gavelhouse.com Plus

Rondinella was sold for $600,000.

Black-type performers Rondinella and Sudbina, who were offered to dissolve the long-standing breeding partnership between Haunui Farm and Frantic Bloodstock, were sold via online auction platform gavelhouse.com Plus this week.

The quality duo are both in foal to the former Waikato Stud and now Coolmore stallion Super Seth, and they were bought for $600,000 and $575,000 respectively and are set to remain at Haunui Farm.

“It’s the end of a very successful partnership between Cathy Franich and ourselves,” Haunui’s managing director Mark Chitty said. “We bred some really nice horses together over a number of years, both on the racetrack and through the sale ring, but it’s come to an end now.

“I was delighted to have some new partners that wanted to come on board and continue our involvement with both Rondinella and Sudbina. They’re good people from within the industry, one an Australian client and one a New Zealand client, and I’m looking forward to working with them and continuing to breed from these lovely mares.

“We had to deal with some strong competition to buy both of them. When you’re going into an open market, you never really know what you’re opening yourself up for, and especially with high-quality mares from prolific families. Rondinella, of course, comes from our foundation family, while Sudbina is from a mare Paul Moroney bought for us out of Europe and has a great pedigree behind her as well. We thought the best way forward was to offer them for sale and let the market decide their value, and I’m thrilled that we managed to buy them both.

“The two mares know nothing about all of this going on, apart from the fact that they’ve been paraded a few extra times! So we’ll let them stay in their paddocks, eat grass and develop a couple of Super Seth foals that we’re really looking forward to, and then we’ll make other plans from there.”

The other mare offered by Haunui and Frantic Bloodstock was Tinnelly, an unraced half-sister to Sudbina, who was bought by Elsdon Park for $50,000.

“We wish them all the best with Tinnelly,” Chitty said. “I think her daughter Chilling Out is quite special. She’s a rising four-year-old mare who’s currently spelling here on the farm and looks super. She’ll go back into work in a fortnight and there’s a lot more ahead for her.

“Tinnelly is a half-sister to Sudbina and it was just a case of us not needing to have them both. I also think it’s always good when other New Zealand breeders get parts of the family, because they can do different things and take the families in new directions. -NZ Racing News