Less than three weeks out from I Wish I Win’s return to the races, Peter Moody stumped up for a half-brother to one of his stable stars when the 2023 Karaka Yearling Sale continued on Monday.
Moody went to NZ$375,000 for the colt by Ocean Park out of Make A Wish, who is the dam of last year’s Golden Eagle winner.
I Wish I Win was retained to race by Waikato Stud after being famously unfit for sale as a young horse due to offset legs, but Moody said there were no such issues with the colt who is the eighth foal of a Pins mare who produced Group 3 winner Another Dollar after an earlier union with Ocean Park.
“He probably hasn’t got the physical attributes of I Wish I Win at this point but Ocean Parks take a little bit more time,” Moody said.
“We didn’t buy him thinking he was a running two-year-old or anything like that. I would think we’ll see him at the races until well into his three-year-old season and we’ll just give him all the time in the world.
“He’s a horse that I saw down at the farm, for obvious reasons, when we were fortunate enough to bring the Golden Eagle trophy over to Waikato and took obviously a solid interest in and his improvement from then to now really took me by surprise.
“I’ll probably leave him over here at Waikato a few months and let him grow out a bit more and look forward to getting him back over home later in the season.”
I Wish I Win joined Moody midway through last year and won his first two starts for the Pakenham trainer before finishing unplaced in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap (1600m).
The Savabeel gelding bounced back to win the $10 million Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill on October 29.
The four-year-old had an 800m jumpout at Pakenham last Tuesday, finishing fourth in a workout won by stablemate Chain Of Lightning, and will continue preparations towards the Group 1 Black Caviar Lightning (1000m) at Flemington on February 18 with an 800m Cranbourne trial next Monday.
Moody said the only race locked in for I Wish I Win after the Lightning was the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m), also at Flemington, on March 11.
*** The I Wish I Win half-brother was one of the headline lots of second day at Karaka that saw a colt by first-season stallion Too Darn Hot out of Iffraaj mare Lady Sayyida, who is a half-sister to Ocean Park and the dam of Group 2 winner Excelida, set a new sale high after selling for $750,000.
The Trelawney Stud colt is also bound for Victoria, to be trained by Ciaron Maher & David Eustace after being bought by Cameron Cooke on behalf of a client.