Priceless – The Last Filly from a Blue Hen
Retired to stud in 1995, this much loved blue hen has made a lasting impression through the deeds of her many successful offspring and her final hurrah may well come with this beautiful filly born at Segenhoe Thoroughbreds at the start of the month.
24 year-old Procrastinate is a mother again this spring for the very last time producing a filly by champion racehorse So You Think for Fairway Thoroughbreds.
Winner of the Group III VATC Tristarc Stakes, Procrastinate was a talented performer by the Mr Prospector sire Jade Hunter (USA), who shuttled to Australia for three seasons in the mid-nineties.
She first went to stud for Indian Pacific Bloodstock at Edinglassie Stud and proved an immediate hit leaving a stunning Danehill (USA) filly as her very first foal.
She was the most expensive filly at Inglis Easter in 1998 when bought by James Bester for $575,000 and would go on to be the best filly in South Africa racing as Laisserfaire.
With 12 wins, five of them in Group I races, Laisserfaire remains Procrastinate’s best performed foal, but plenty of her others have also measured up to Black Type.
In total, Procrastinate has had 16 foals, 13 foals have raced for 10 winners headed by Laisserfaire and then Group III winner A Time for Julia, stakes-winners Time Thief, Foreplay and Personify, not to mention minor winner Trephina, who has left Group winners Centennial Park and Ballack.
Procrastinate came into the ownership of Fairway Thoroughbreds in 2007 when she was bought on their behalf by BBA Ireland for $660,000 at the Inglis Broodmare Sale.
Some might wonder at the wisdom of buying a rising 17 year-old mare that had already left several stakes-winners, but the investment has been an outstanding one.
Since joining the Fairway Thoroughbreds broodmare band, Procrastinate has scarcely missed a beat.
Her first foal for her new owners was Galileo (IRE) filly Dreams and Whistles that sold to Patinack Farm at Inglis Easter for $725,000 and her second, a Redoute’s Choice filly called Too Many Choices, sold for $600,000, again at Inglis Easter.
Procrastinate then made it a hat-trick of fillies when dropping another beautiful baby by Redoute’s Choice in 2009 and this one was retained – A Time for Julia (pictured below), who has won over $400,000 racing in the Fairway Thoroughbreds colours.
Since then she has left colts by Encosta de Lago and Fastnet Rock that were also sold at Inglis Easter and have both won races, the latter colt, three year-old Armada now a bright prospect in the Peter Moody stable.
Also still to come, a Foxwedge yearling filly that has also been retained.
“She’s done an amazing job and has earned her retirement,” said Peter O’Brien of Segenhoe Thoroughbreds.
“She will see out her days here as a nanny and has left John (Camilleri) a couple of lovely fillies now to breed on with in the future.”
You can ask no more of a broodmare.
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