China Horse Club proving a big friend to SA bloodstock
Mike de Kock’s dual grade 1 winner Queen Supreme purchased for $900,000
15 November 2021 - 14:10
byDAVID MOLLETT
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China Horse Club has become an important ally of SA bloodstock and has purchased Mike de Kock’s dual grade 1 winner Queen Supreme for $900,000 at the Fasig-Tipton November sale in the US.
De Kock did an outstanding job with the daughter of Exceed And Excel in SA, but UK trainer Andrew Balding never got to the bottom of the mare. She ran unplaced on her UK debut in the Joel Stakes and it was a similar story in last weekend’s Breeders Cup Filly/Mare.
Before the Del Mar race, Balding had told the media he expected a decent run from Queen Supreme but she was never a serious contender.
There was plenty of interest from both Japanese and Australian buyers when Queen Supreme came under the hammer at Fasig-Tipton, but China Horse Club made the final successful bid.
It would be interesting to know if they were pointed the mare’s way by Andreas Jacobs, owner of Maine Chance Farms and also chair of the International Advisory Council. He would be well aware of the value of a mare by prolific sire Exceed And Excel.
China Horse Club was founded in 2013 by its chair, Teo Ah Khing, and is regarded as Asia’s premier lifestyle, business and thoroughbred racing club. To date it can boast more than 700 wins in 15 countries as well as 40 grade 1 triumphs — the latest at the recent Breeders Cup meeting at Del Mar in California.
Its winner at the picturesque seaside track where “the surf meets the turf” — which this writer is lucky enough to have visited — was Life Is Good who scored a runaway six-length win in the Breeders Cup Dirt over one mile.
Teo Ah Khing was present to welcome the winner and told reporters: “This is why China Horse Club is involved in horse racing to share in unforgettable moments and allow people who couldn’t otherwise be exposed to the elite level of the sport to race and, in this case, to win.”
The list of big-race triumphs for China Horse Club is impressive:
2014: Longines World Championship Three Year Old (Australia).
2015: Australian Horse Of The Year (Dissident).
2015: Australian Sprinter Of The Year (Dissident).
2015: New South Wales Horse Of The Year (First Seal).
2015: Victoria Horse Of The Year (Dissident).
2017: American Outstanding Three-Year-Old Filly of The Year (Abul Tasman).
2018: American Triple Crown winner (Justify).
In the UK, the China Horse Club colours have been carried successfully in the Epsom Derby and Juddmonte International and — in Ireland — they have also won the Irish Derby.
On the bloodstock front, the Club is both vendor and buyer. It sold five yearlings at an average of A$373,000 at the Inglis Sale in Sydney in April. It also bought an I Am Invincible filly for A$1,050,000.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
China Horse Club proving a big friend to SA bloodstock
Mike de Kock’s dual grade 1 winner Queen Supreme purchased for $900,000
China Horse Club has become an important ally of SA bloodstock and has purchased Mike de Kock’s dual grade 1 winner Queen Supreme for $900,000 at the Fasig-Tipton November sale in the US.
De Kock did an outstanding job with the daughter of Exceed And Excel in SA, but UK trainer Andrew Balding never got to the bottom of the mare. She ran unplaced on her UK debut in the Joel Stakes and it was a similar story in last weekend’s Breeders Cup Filly/Mare.
Before the Del Mar race, Balding had told the media he expected a decent run from Queen Supreme but she was never a serious contender.
There was plenty of interest from both Japanese and Australian buyers when Queen Supreme came under the hammer at Fasig-Tipton, but China Horse Club made the final successful bid.
It would be interesting to know if they were pointed the mare’s way by Andreas Jacobs, owner of Maine Chance Farms and also chair of the International Advisory Council. He would be well aware of the value of a mare by prolific sire Exceed And Excel.
China Horse Club was founded in 2013 by its chair, Teo Ah Khing, and is regarded as Asia’s premier lifestyle, business and thoroughbred racing club. To date it can boast more than 700 wins in 15 countries as well as 40 grade 1 triumphs — the latest at the recent Breeders Cup meeting at Del Mar in California.
Its winner at the picturesque seaside track where “the surf meets the turf” — which this writer is lucky enough to have visited — was Life Is Good who scored a runaway six-length win in the Breeders Cup Dirt over one mile.
Teo Ah Khing was present to welcome the winner and told reporters: “This is why China Horse Club is involved in horse racing to share in unforgettable moments and allow people who couldn’t otherwise be exposed to the elite level of the sport to race and, in this case, to win.”
The list of big-race triumphs for China Horse Club is impressive:
2014: Longines World Championship Three Year Old (Australia).
2015: Australian Horse Of The Year (Dissident).
2015: Australian Sprinter Of The Year (Dissident).
2015: New South Wales Horse Of The Year (First Seal).
2015: Victoria Horse Of The Year (Dissident).
2017: American Outstanding Three-Year-Old Filly of The Year (Abul Tasman).
2018: American Triple Crown winner (Justify).
In the UK, the China Horse Club colours have been carried successfully in the Epsom Derby and Juddmonte International and — in Ireland — they have also won the Irish Derby.
On the bloodstock front, the Club is both vendor and buyer. It sold five yearlings at an average of A$373,000 at the Inglis Sale in Sydney in April. It also bought an I Am Invincible filly for A$1,050,000.
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