By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk
Big money is flowing in for what is being described as “one of Australia’s top broodmares from one of the best families in the stud book”.
Multiple Group winner Carlas Pixel, who is currently in foal to boom stallion Captaintreacherous, is currently at $150,000 on gavelhouse.com standardbred, and the auction is still two days away from closing.
“We knew she was going to attract a lot of interest,” says NZB Standardbred Manager Cam Bray, “she is an absolute class act and her foal is set to be in high demand too.”
To illustrate the point, the foal’s full brother, foaled in 2021, recently fetched an Australian record of $270,000.
Based in Australia, Carlas Pixel (Courage Under Fire – Pixel Perfect) is being offered for sale by Nixon Bloodstock. Principal Shannon Nixon has sold his Victorian property and is moving away from the breeding side of the industry.
“It’s a rare opportunity to secure a broodmare of her quality,” says Bray.
Carlas Pixel herself was royally bred. Her sire Courage Under Fire famously won his first 24 starts and over $1.5m in stakes, while her grand dam Amarillen was Australian broodmare of the year in 2017.
On the racetrack the now nine-year-old Carlas Pixel won 19 races from 60 starts, totalling nearly half a million dollars in stakes. Her last win was in the Group 1 Schweppes Ladyship Mile at Melton in Victoria in January 2019. She also won the Group 1 Ladyship at Menangle in 2018. Her best mile rate was 1:49.5
Since being listed on gavelhouse interest has been strong on both sides of the Tasman. Among the active bidders have been breeding powerhouse Breckon Farms.
As of Monday the mare had fetched $150,000, with bidding closing at 7.09 on Wednesday evening.
It is already a gavelhouse standardbred record for a broodmare with the previous mark being held by Albuquerque at $63,000. That was in June last year.
She won eight from 68 but her real claim to fame is being Millwood Nike’s mother. At the time of auction Millwood Nike had created plenty of hype but had only won two from two. Now she’s still unbeaten and 14 from 14.
“We have no idea what Carlas Pixel will go for,” says Bray, “but it will be fascinating to see how things pan out over the next few days.”
To see the gavelhouse auction click here :
