Battle-Waggon sold

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32679, 7 August 1971, Page 8

Battle-Waggon sold

"The Press" Special Sendee WELLINGTON. The owners of the highly successful Matamata stallion, BattleWaggon, have announced his sale for a sum which shattered all previous bloodstock sale records in Australia and New Zealand. The four-man syndicate has declined to reveal the exact price, but it is reliably reported to be SUSIm (NZ910.000). The previous highest figure paid for a stallion sold from New Zealand is the $BO,OOO reputedly paid for Agricola by Australian interests last December. A spokesman for the Battle*

Waggon syndicate, the Matamata veterinarian, Mr G Thompson, said the transac- > tion, which has been under negotiation since March, was ’ on the verge of being con- ■ eluded. The principal at the pur--1 chasing end is Dr Robert A. . Franklyn, who heads one of the world’s largest breeding * concerns and is believed to I represent a syndicate. Dr Franklyn, who has bought New Zealand fillies in 5 the past, owns three propert ties in Kentucky where . Battle-Waggon wil Istand. . He made - international news several years ago when he purchased the European 3 champion, Vaguely Noble i for 136,000 guineas at auc- ) tion, won the Prix de I’Arc i de Triomphe with him and t later syndicated him for SUS4m. * The sale is a high powered

- rags-to-riches story for the * horse and caps the brief - career of the agency which r negotiated the deals. The s firm is the Southern Cross ■ Bloodstock Agency of which a Wellington man, Mr G. . Tucker, is principal. u Mr Tucker was the Keeper f of the New Zealand Stud g Book for more than 20 years, t> but he left the Racing Conference in 1969. s Battle-Waggon himself is a evidence of the tremendous ’- capital value which can ace crue rapidly in the thorough bred world. il He was bought for 3000 a guineas by the U.K. based a Anglo-Irish Agency in 1966 on e a commisison for its then New Zealand agent, Mr J. K. c Cameron, of Cambridge. d Mr Cameron arranged the r purchase on behalf of a northern studmaster, but when the d horse was on his way finan-

i.eial .difficulties arose and (Battle-Waggon arrived in New i Zealand without a home to go i to. From his first crop Battlei Waggon had a high percent- , age of winners and his sale comes close behind the sale . of some of these to America. I His biggest winner is the , brilliant Panzer Chief, which ■ was second to Ktrrima among last season’s three-year-olds i and won $37,425 during the itenn. < A half-share in Panzer < Chief was recently sold to American interests for a re* I ported $75,000. Susan Jane, I last season’s top three-year-i old filly has been sold for i $lOO,OOO and the season’s best . two-year-old colt, Gold Braid, went for the same price. The New Zealand Derby ■ winner, Fairview Lad, is anther ttle-Waggoi export ■ at $50,000.