Renowned as the trainer of the world's best sprinter, Peter Moody switched his focus to the staying breed on Thursday when he paid $1.2 million for a colt with a Melbourne Cup pedigree.Black Caviar's trainer needed to go higher than anticipated to secure the half-brother to three-time Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva which was the star attraction on the final day of the Australian Easter Yearling Sale in Sydney."We were thinking maybe around a million (dollars)," Moody said."It's a little bit mo
Renowned as the trainer of the world's best sprinter, Peter Moody switched his focus to the staying breed on Thursday when he paid $1.2 million for a colt with a Melbourne Cup pedigree.
Black Caviar's trainer needed to go higher than anticipated to secure the half-brother to three-time Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva which was the star attraction on the final day of the Australian Easter Yearling Sale in Sydney.
"We were thinking maybe around a million (dollars)," Moody said.
"It's a little bit more than what we initially thought but we're happy to be taking the colt home.
"I've seen all that mare's foals except for Makybe Diva as a foal and I thought he was the nicest foal that she had thrown.
"I was really attracted to him and I really liked the colt. He looks like a trainer's horse. He doesn't look like a show pony."
Bidding on the Street Cry-Tugela colt opened at $300,000 before the yearling was knocked down to Moody for the second-highest price of the three-day sale.
Black Caviar's half-sister by Redoute's Choice out of Helsinge fetched $2.6 million on Wednesday. She was bought by BC3 Thoroughbreds and will be trained in Victoria by Danny O'Brien.
Makybe Diva holds a special place in Australian racing history courtesy of her three consecutive Melbourne Cup triumphs from 2003 to 2005.
Her dam Tugela has also produced Group winners Musket and Valkyrie Diva as well as stakes-placed Shadowofexcellence while Street Cry is the sire of 2009 Melbourne Cup winner Shocking.
"I've had very little to do with the Street Crys but she (Tugela) is obviously a damn good producer and he's an extremely nice colt," Moody said.
Moody said shares would be split among stable clients while the colt's breeders Tony and Deslee Santic also approached the trainer to retain an interest.
The colt's sale helped ease the disappointment of some high profile withdrawals including the full brother to So You Think who was taken out of the sale last week when he was diagnosed as a wobbler.
William Inglis and Son managing director Mark Webster said the sale ended strongly on Thursday although expectations had been higher after the confidence booster of the High Court decision in favour of Racing NSW over rights fees.
"There were some high profile withdrawals that pulled us down a little bit," Webster said.
"There were a couple that I thought could have made over a million (dollars).
"The sale was on a very similar standard to last year."
The only other million dollar yearling was a Fastnet Rock colt out of Catreign which was secured by Coolmore on the first day of the sale.
Of the 451 yearlings catalogued, 330 were sold for a gross of almost $73 million and a clearance rate of 82 per cent.
The average was $221,000 which was similar to 2011 with a median of $160,000.
Webster also said the international buying bench had been strong with plenty of interest from Japan and Hong Kong.