Muscle Mountain's sister tops Christchurch sale

Just days after Muscle Mountain broke his own New Zealand record, his full sister has sold for $130,000 at the NZB Standardbred Yearling Sales in Christchurch.

The Greg and Nina Hope-trained speed machine lowered his own 1980m mark by more than a second when winning by nearly three lengths at Addington on Friday night. He stopped the clock at 2:21.8 with driver Ben Hope saying he did it "reasonably easily".

"He's like no other horse I've driven," Ben said.

It was his 24th win in just 38 starts, with stakes earnings exceeding half a million dollars.

This afternoon it was the trotters up for sale at the NZB Yearling sales in Christchurch with a lot of attention on Lot 174, Muscle Mountain's full sister (Muscle Hill - Paramount Faith).

And again it was the Hopes who were front and centre, paying $130,000 to secure her.

"We thinks she's a really good buy," says Ben, "she's royally bred and we fell in love when we saw her even without looking at her breeding"

When Ben and his parents did look at her pedigree they were convinced.

"We had to have her."

The $130,000 was the sales topper for the day, with the only other yearling fetching six figures being Lot 179, a Tactical Lady - San Diego colt bought by Tony Herlihy for exactly $100,000.

The opening day in Christchurch had its struggles, with only around half the yearlings actually being sold.

The first pacers will go under the hammer from 1pm Tuesday, with the sale winding up on Wednesday.