A colt by exciting European stallion Kingman attracted plenty of attention during his time in the sale ring at Karaka on Sunday, where he fetched a winning bid of $650,000 from Boomer Bloodstock principal Craig Rounsefell on behalf of the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Consigned from the Pencarrow Stud draft as Lot 210, the son of the European Group One winner is out of the Irish mare Marsden Cross who comes from a family that includes outstanding cross-continent Group One performer, Mother Earth.
Kingman has already garnered success from a limited number of runners in Australia including Gr.1 VRC Oaks (2500m) winner Zardozi and Gr.1 JJ Atkins (1600m) winner King Colorado.
“He was one of my main targets at this sale on type,” Rounsefell said.
“Obviously Kingman’s a fast young stallion over in Europe and there’s no reason why he’s not going to do well in Hong Kong.
“This horse had a great temperament and he is a rock-solid horse from a good farm.
“On type, he’s just a smashing horse I thought. It’s around about where we had him (price). We had a go at a few others earlier at lower prices that we missed out on, but he was our top pick of the day and one of our top picks of the sale.”
Rounsefell confirmed he was keen to add further lots in the coming days.
“There’s some different families and different stallions over here that we’re looking at, and across a whole range of budgets,” he said.
“We’ve got a good shortlist after vetting, so we’ll see how we go. It’s been a fairly strong sale today, so it’s good to put that one (Lot 210) on the board.”