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Sokolski and Kheir among group to buy Verry Elleegant’s brother
Several members of the team associated with Verry Elleegant will race her brother, who was sold in Sydney on Tuesday as part of the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
The son of Zed and Opulence was knocked down for $260,000 to a group including prominent owners Brae Sokolski and Ozzie Kheir.
Sokolski and Kheir bought into Verry Elleegant as a three-year-old and Sokolski's Yes Bloodstock manager Matt Scown said the colt was always going to appeal at the right price.
"It was meant to be in a sense, we loved the colt, he reminded us a lot of the mare and he had very similar attributes physically," Scown said.
"He was a real cool dude. Everytime we went and saw him he didn't turn a hair, he had a great presence to him and, obviously, with the relationship to the mare he was a bit of a no-brainer to us."
The colt, who was prepared for sale by Lime Country Thoroughbreds, is the seventh living foal from the Danroad mare Opulence, who has had five to race for four winners.
Verry Elleegant is clearly the best of them, counting a Melbourne Cup and Caulfield Cup among 11 Group 1 wins and an Australian Horse of the Year title, while she has also thrown Listed Rangitikei Gold Cup (1600m) winner Verry Flash, who is also by Zed.
Verry Elleegant started the Australia phase of her career under Darren Weir but was transferred to Chris Waller early in 2019 and Scown said the Hall of Fame horseman would also train the Easter graduate.
"We spoke to Chris beforehand expressing our high interest in the colt and he was of the same opinion to us; he was a bit of a no-brainer as a horse," he said.
"He'll come up to Yarraman Park for a short spell and I'll just talk to Charlie (Duckworth) and Chris and the team and when we're ready to break him in he'll go into the system and from there on it's with Chris. He's in safe hands."
The price tag of the brother to Verry Elleegant was dwarfed by some others on Day 2 of the Easter Sale, which included a $1.5 million Snitzel colt from a daughter of Blame and a brother to Golden Slipper winner Estijaab, who is by Snitzel out of Response, sell for $1.4m.
