Star Mare Atishu sells for A$2.7 million
Richard Edmunds - Raceform • May 29th, 2025 12:00 PM • 3 min read
Tuesday marked the end of an era for Go Racing, whose triple Group One-winning flagbearer Atishu was sold for A$2.7 million during the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale on the Gold Coast.
The superb daughter of Savabeel was bought by one of the biggest players on the Australian breeding scene, Yulong Investments.
“She will probably go to Alabama Express,” Yulong’s Sam Fairgray said. “I think it is a really nice cross. She’s a beautiful mare, so it is exciting to have her in the Yulong broodmare band.”
Atishu carried Go Racing’s blue, white and red colours in 51 races. She recorded 11 wins, eight seconds and nine thirds, banking more than A$5.9 million – an amount that swells to over A$8.6 million with the addition of this week’s sale price.
Those amounts are a far cry from the $260,000 that Go Racing paid to buy Atishu from Waikato Stud’s draft in Book 1 of Karaka 2019.
“If you’d told us at the very start of her career that she’d earn $6 million on the racetrack and then sell for $2.7 million, to say we would have jumped at that would be an understatement,” Go Racing general manager Matt Allnutt told RaceForm on Tuesday evening.
“Quite a few of her owners headed over to the Gold Coast, so I’m sure there will be some mixed emotions this evening. The Champagne will be flowing, but perhaps a few tears too.”
Atishu began her career in the Cambridge stable of Stephen Marsh, for whom she had nine starts as a three-year-old for four wins and four placings. She was runner-up in the Listed Wanganui Guineas in the spring, then took a big step forward in the autumn with four straight wins including a seven-length blitz in the Listed NZB Airfreight Stakes and another dominant display in the Listed Warstep Stakes.
But much greater things lay in wait across the Tasman. Go Racing relocated Atishu into the stable of champion expat trainer Chris Waller, for whom she won another seven races and the vast majority of her prize-money.
Her first Group One victory came by two and a half lengths in the Queen Of The Turf Stakes at Randwick in April of 2023, when she was an autumn five-year-old. She went on to add another two elite successes in Flemington’s Empire Rose Stakes and Champions Stakes (formerly Mackinnon Stakes).
There were also Group Two wins in the Blamey Stakes and Matriarch Stakes, along with the Gr. 3 Bill Ritchie Handicap, while her six Group One placings saw her chase home the likes of Via Sistina, Fangirl and Pride Of Jenni. The latter was Australia’s Horse of the Year last season, while Via Sistina is guaranteed this year’s title.
“We’re so proud of her,” Allnutt said. “She certainly lifted the profile of Go Racing in Australia, and I think she did the same thing in New Zealand. We really needed that really good horse to be a flagbearer in our colours. She was certainly that.
“If you look back through her race record, she took on the best of the best all of the way through her Australian career. We never shied away from taking on the very best horses in Australia. Sometimes they beat us, but sometimes we beat them too.
“It’s been a remarkable ride and has left all of the team with some very special memories that will last a lifetime.
“One of the highlights for me would have to be the Mackinnon during Cup Week at Flemington, that was a very special win.
“There’s obviously the Queen Of The Turf at Randwick as well, which was her first Group One and was a dominant performance. That meant a lot because ticking that golden Group One box was a sense of mission accomplished. To pick up another two wins at that level afterwards was just amazing.
“And I still remember those three wins at Riccarton as an autumn three-year-old. She won one of those by seven lengths. We already knew she was talented, but that was the day we thought, ‘Wow, we might have something pretty special.’ That proved to be the launching pad for her career.
“Three Group One wins in Australia later, we’re just enormously proud and grateful to her for what she’s done to us over the last few years. Now we’re just hoping Maison Louis can cap a special week for Go Racing with a big run in the Queensland Derby on Saturday!”
Atishu has pedigree credentials to match her racetrack performance, being by Hall of Fame stallion Savabeel out of a winning full-sister to the triple Group One winner Daffodil. Atishu’s full-sister Mazzolino was also a black-type performer, winning the Gr. 3 Desert Gold Stakes in the Waikato Stud colours and collecting further black-type placings in the Gr. 3 Thompson Handicap, Gold Trail Stakes and Taranaki Breeders’ Stakes. She also ran fourth in the Gr. 1 Zabeel Classic and Levin Classic.
Atishu was the second highest-priced mare sold on Tuesday’s opening day of the National Broodmare Sale, with top billing going to her former stablemate Zougotcha who was bought by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier for A$5.25 million.
Another notable results from a New Zealand point of view included the New Zealand-bred Gr. 1 Robert Sangster Stakes winner Climbing Star (by Zoustar), who was a A$2.1 million purchase by Magnier.
David Woodhouse’s two-time Gr. 1 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes winner Belclare, who was also a dual Group Two winner in Sydney last week, was knocked down to China’s Wei Jiaoqi for A$700,000.
Te Akau Racing’s brilliant sprinting mare Sans Doute, who won seven races up to Listed level, sold to Victoria’s Trives Bloodstock for A$500,000.
