$340,000 Capitalist filly takes centre stage in robust session at Magic Millions
Book 2 yearlings and racehorse session to bring down curtain on Gold Coast National Sale today
A strong second day of trade has helped Magic Millions recover from what was at times a lack of market activity in the auction ring on the opening day to achieve a five-year high aggregate sales revenue at the end of Book 1 of its National Yearling Sale, the penultimate session of the three-week Gold Coast bloodstock extravaganza.
The Book 1 sale came to a close last night with 17 yearlings making $200,000 or more, nine of them sold yesterday, to help turnover for the two sessions break $14.5 million, the highest figure since the 2017 auction.
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch, who had vowed to boost the clearance rate from 57 per cent after day one, was pleased with how the second day unfolded as vendors appeared more willing to meet the market and a more consistent amount of trade took place.
“I thought today had a little bit more momentum to it than yesterday had and the vendors who were willing to meet the market were achieving results and getting their horses sold,” Bowditch said.
“Obviously, this year we’ve sold a lot of yearlings all over Australia and probably more than ever before, so at some stage, given that our (international) borders are shut, the market was going to become a little bit more selective and that’s been apparent over the past two days.”
As of last night – the Book 2 sale is still to be held today – 247 yearlings had been sold for $14,591,500 at an average of $59,075 and a median of $40,000. The clearance rate was at 65 per cent.
In 2017, 297 yearlings sold for $16,135,500 at an average of $54,328.
“This is not a sale where we never hit it out of the park from a clearance rate perspective but to have the highest gross for this sale since 2017, a very healthy average and clearly the horses that were well sought after, in most cases, exceeded the vendors’ expectations,” Bowditch said.
“This is part of the cycle of our game, so to have horses selling that are facilitating (buyers’ needs), whether they are taking them back to trial them, race them or bring back to breeze-up sale, it’s an incredibly vital part of the sale.
“For a lot of these vendors, this is where they make the call that this is their last possible chance to sell these yearlings and to provide a spot to do that is important to us.
“I think this year we achieved that, albeit the clearance rate on a whole was less than satisfactory.”
Capitalist filly catches Fogden’s eye
Canungra trainer Kacy Fogden only needed one inspection to make up her mind that a Capitalist (Written Tycoon) filly from the family of champion sprinter Starspangledbanner (Choisir) was the one for her.
As it turned out, she wasn’t alone in her view of the filly, leading to strong competition just three lots from the conclusion of the Book 1 sale and she was forced to go to $340,000 to buy her.
Fogden, located at the back of the sales ring next to the pre-parade ring when bidding, has a strong association with Hong Kong owner Tony Fung but she revealed the filly will be syndicated amongst stable clients.
“She was just a queen, so athletic, and so strong,” said Fogden, who did not inspect the filly again after having her paraded on Tuesday.
“We have got a couple of Capitalists at the farm who are really nice and she is a lot like them, really strong, forward and precocious and she’s from a great family, too, so we hope that she will go early.”
Offered by Scott Seamer as Lot 1828, she is the second foal out of Kimigayo (Show A Heart), an unraced half-sister to Gold Anthem (Made Of Gold), herself the dam of Starspangledbanner and the stakes-placed Barood (Choisir) and Gold Chant (El Moxie). The filly’s older brother, Fenton, is in training with Greg Hickman and has been given just one start at Canterbury last month.
Milburn Creek’s Muir to race imposing More Than Ready filly
Milburn Creek’s John Muir will race a More Than Ready (Southern Halo) filly after his agent Suman Hedge was able to come to agreed terms with Vinery Stud for the daughter of Group 1-winning mare Allez Wonder (Redoute’s Choice) at $300,000 after she initially failed to meet her value.
From the second–last southern hemisphere crop by More Than Ready, the filly was passed in at $280,000 with a reserve of $300,000 before Hedge, who was standing to the grandstand side of the sales ring when she went through, made his first official move. He did not bid on her in the ring.
“She’s a filly that we think has all the hallmarks of a nice race filly and broodmare to go on with,” Hedge said.
“She’s by one of the leading broodmare sires in More Than Ready, out of a Group 1-winning mare, and that’s always a great starting point.
“Allez Wonder’s done a really good job at stud, throwing Kooweerup and Prompt Prodigy, so there’s a little bit there as well with Kooweerup at stud moving forward.”
The eighth foal out of Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Allez Wonder, she is also a half-sister to Group 3 winner Pretty Pins (Pins) and Breccia (Fastnet Rock), the dam of Group 1-winning Waikato Stud stallion Tivaci (High Chaparral).
The filly, a sister to the Group 3-winning juvenile Kooweerup and the Group 2-placed Prompt Prodigy and three other winners, was catalogued as Lot 1654.
Greg Bennett will break the filly in.
“It is hard to get these types of fillies of her quality with these pedigrees,” Hedge said.
“We go to these sales to get these horses and there’s generally a lot of competition for them, so when you’re breeding them and you know the horse, you can see why they protected her strongly and I think that was a fair price for that type of article.”
Allez Wonder has a Dundeel (High Chaparral) weanling filly and is back in toal to the Arrowfield Stud stallion.
Hedge also bought an Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) filly from Bhima Thoroughbreds for $200,000 late in the session. The filly, by Cambridge Stud’s high-profile shuttle stallion, is the second foal out of New Zealand winner Hi Gorgeous (Savabeel). Her second dam is Group 1 winner Calveen (Canny Lady), New Zealand’s champion sprinter, miler and older miler in 2004-05.
On day one, Hedge went to $220,000 in combination with trainers Mick Price and Mick Kent Jr for an Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) filly and $500,000 for a Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) colt, the latter offered by Milburn Creek.
Sydney trainer Gerald Ryan, meanwhile, reached a deal with Yulong to buy a Snitzel filly for $300,000 after she was passed in by the Victorian farm on Tuesday. The filly, catalogued as Lot 1573, is the fourth foal out of champion New Zealand mare Soriano (Savabeel), a dual Group 1 winner who was victorious nine times.
Capitalist colt joins Fung Investments with $260,000 price tag
Tony Fung Investments’ racing team gained another member yesterday when a son of Newgate Farm’s boom first season sire Capitalist was sold for $260,000.
The colt, offered as agent by Lustre Lodge, is the fourth living foal out of the stakes-placed Anabaa’s Legacy (Anabaa), herself the dam of the stakes-placed Wolf Moon (Wandjina).
“We thought he was a smashing colt and we loved the fact he was out of an Anabaa mare. He has got a lovely pedigree, he presented very well and he’s a nice colt to bring home,” Fung’s representative Shane McGrath said.
“We’re looking forward to getting him under saddle and he looked like, even though he’s an October foal, he’s the sort of horse that might get up and rolling nice and early. He’s a nice one for the racing team.
“With respect to Wandjina, Anabaa’s Legacy’s thrown a good one by him, so I am looking forward to what she can do with Capitalist.”
Either Fogden or Annabel Neasham will train the colt, with that decision to be made once he has been broken in.
McGrath was pragmatic about the market conditions over the past two days.
“It is a very tricky market, but at the end of the day, from a sales company’s point of view, at least they are providing an avenue for people to move their stock and people are still able to turn over money,” he said.
“Sure, the clearance rate is a little bit tricky, but it’s the end of the road for a lot of people and from a vendor’s point of view, if you love your horse, you’re going to be getting some racing colours if you’re not meeting this market.”
Ho makes late call for son of Maurice
As bidding slowed on a Maurice (Screen Hero) colt and auctioneer Grant Burns was about to bring the hammer down for $225,000, a new player emerged but Hong Kong owner Bon Ho’s sale ring tactics were not by design.
Ho’s Legend Racing bought the Arrowfield Stud-consigned colt, catalogued as Lot 1675, for $235,000 after bidding through Magic Millions’ Clint Donovan via the phone.
The colt is the second foal out of the two-time winner Arleigh (Smart Missile), whose third dam is champion filly Alinghi (Encosta De Lago), making him a brother to this season’s juvenile placed Rocstar Boy.
“He looked more of a colonial style of horse, an earlier, speedier horse (than some of the Maurices),” Donovan said.
“He’s all quality and it’s great to secure him for Mr Ho.”
As for leaving his “run” late, Donovan explained: “To be honest, I couldn’t get onto him. It was at $225,000 and Mr Ho finally called back and he said, ‘I’ve missed him?’ and I told him, ‘no, but you’ve got to be quick, though’, so we bid and we got him.”
The colt will be sent to Glenhaven Racing’s Matt Vella at Hawkesbury to be broken in.
Arrowfield Stud also sold a Snitzel filly for $230,000 soon after to Sunshine Coast-based trainer Nat McCall.
The filly, catalogued as Lot 1687, was passed in at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale but she was able to find her mark yesterday. She is the third foal of Japanese mare Bariloche (Deep Impact), a winning three-quarter sister to dual Grade 3-winning mare Dia De La Novia (Sunday Silence).
“At Easter, there is a plethora of top-class yearlings and here she was one of the stand-outs,” Arrowfield Stud’s Jon Freyer said.
“There was more focus and attention on her, We were very happy with the price and she’s a nice, racy filly and we’d expect her to get away and run early.”
Bariloche remains as part of the Arrowfield Stud broodmare band and has been used to support its roster of stallions.
“She has got a lot going for her and has got a nice pedigree. We think a fair bit of the mare and she has got a Snitzel filly at foot and is in foal to Pariah,” Freyer said.
McCall also bought an Invader (Snitzel) colt for $34,000 yesterday from the draft of KBL Thoroughbreds.
Player joins forces with O’Shea for Zoustar colt
John O’Shea found a receptive ear in International Thoroughbred Solutions’ Mark Player when he floated the idea of purchasing Widden Stud’s Zoustar (Northern Meteor) colt out of dual Group 2 winner French Emotion (Snitzel).
The colt, who was forced to be withdrawn from the Inglis Easter sale in April, was knocked down to O’Shea for $230,000, half the price the Randwick trainer thought the colt would have made had he gone through the Sydney yearling sale as planned six weeks ago.
“He was in at Easter and I think he would have made double there than what he did here, it’s just the nature of the market. He’s a beautiful, neat running two-year-old type and we’ll get him broken in straight away,” O’Shea said on the Gold Coast.
“He’s for a new client through Mark Player who is a top bloodstock agent in Victoria. I rang him up as I knew he had a stallion syndicate going, but we ended up finding an owner behind him to take the whole horse, so it’s worked out well.”
Catalogued as Lot 1777, the six-figure colt is the first foal out of French Emotion who Widden Stud paid $850,000 for at the 2018 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. She has an I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) weanling filly and is in foal to Pierro (Lonhro).
A noted straight-shooter, O’Shea said vendors who brought quality yearlings to the sale were rewarded.
He said: “The market’s transparent now and if you bring bad horses here, they will get found out, and if you bring good horses they will make good money.”
Book 2 of the National Yearling Sale and the National Racehorse Sale will be held today from 10am.
Sale results – Book 1 overall
2021 2020
Catalogued 432 293
Offered 379 254
Sold 247 191 (75%)
Aggregate $14,591,500 (+42%) $10,288,500
Average $59,075 (+10%) $53,866
Median $40,000 (+11%) $36,000
Top Lot $500,000 $360,000