Hawkes Racing welcomes $4 million colt to team

Hawkes Racing could house two horses worth a total of $9 million after Emirates Park named them as the trainers of a $4 million purchase at Wednesday's second session of the 2013 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

John, Michael and Wayne Hawkes are in the running to train the half-brother to Black Caviar and All Too Hard after BC3 paid $5 million for the Redoute's Choice colt 24 hours before Emirates Park won the bidding duel for a Fastnet Rock colt out of 2003 Oakleigh Plate winner River Dove.

"He'll definitely go to John Hawkes," Emirates Park chief executive officer Trevor Lobb said.

Lobb said Emirates Park thought the colt was worth the punt because of his exceptional physical attributes and mental demeanour, which the operation hoped would ensure he developed into a stallion prospect.

"He was the colt to us but if he gallops, he's the stallion for us all too," Lobb said.

"Just to look at him, he's the athlete. He's a great walker with a great attitude to life.

"He's just one of those horses that we have had over the years. When they have got that (attitude) about them, they generally make racehorses.

"Hopefully, he does what we are hoping for on the racecourse. At what level, time will tell."

The colt was the fifth of Fastnet Rock's progeny to fetch more than $1 million at the 2013 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and the third of Wednesday's trading to reach seven figures.

The Queen's bloodstock agent John Warren paid $2.4 million for a half-brother to dual-hemisphere Group I winner Starspangledbanner on Tuesday while Coolmore teamed up with the China Horse Club to buy a filly out of the US-bred mare Dream Play.

Story: Brad Waters RaceNet