‘We’ve got a lot of confidence in this sale’
A $260,000 Written Tycoon filly headlines opening day of the Adelaide Yearling Sale
Victorian champion sire Written Tycoon (Iglesia) enjoyed more sales ring success during the first session of selling at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale, when a daughter of the sire was knocked down via an online bid to Chinese investor Wei Jiaoqi for $260,000, topping the day’s trade in the process.
Yulong, who have had strong drafts at each of the yearling sales on Australia’s east coast, reiterated their support of the sole South Australian yearling sale.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence in this sale bringing stock like [this filly] here. This is a sale we’ve had great success with in the past and today’s result certainly solidified that and proved you can bring a good horse here and get good money,” said Yulong’s head of sales and nominations, Harry King.
“We’ve come here with 15 horses, our thoughts on the sale have been very positive. We’ve had a lot of foot traffic and that’s a huge credit to the Magic Millions team for getting the buyers here, getting them keen and getting busy in the sales ring.
“The last couple of days we haven’t had a quiet one, we’re still continuing to show horses, people are very healthy and happy in the buying bench, and we’re enjoying that for sure.”
“It’s well documented that we are very active in both parts of the market. Mr Zhang has seen how healthy and vital the Australian breeding and sales market is here, and wants to be active in all parts of that, and we’re getting great results in doing so.”
Out of the unraced mare Saaryaa (Dubawi), the filly hails from a family that includes the Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner Fiorente (Monsun) and Listed scorer Tom Melbourne (Dylan Thomas).
“She was a Written Tycoon through and through, out of a very lovely Dubawi mare as well. [Written Tycoon] goes from strength to strength, he could very well have another [Golden] Slipper winner to add to the tally in the coming weeks. This filly looks very sharp, and we saw great results with her in the sale ring.”
Yulong concluded the first day of the sale having sold four lots for an aggregate of $372,000, while they closed out with an average of $93,000.
‘Quality’ So You Think colt heads to Clarken and O’Shea
A week on from claiming Adelaide Cup (Gr 2, 1200m) success with Silent Surrente (Fiorente), Will Clarken and Niki O’Shea secured a win in the sales ring when they went to $240,000 to secure a stunning colt by So You Think (High Chaparral) early on day one of selling at the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale.
Catalogued as Lot 25 and offered by Mill Park Stud, the colt is out of winning mare Miss Otto (Elusive Quality), making him a brother to Group 2 winner, and now Twin Hills Stud-based sire, Peltzer (So You Think).
Bidding ringside at the Morphetville sales complex, the stable’s racing manager Lachie Weekley was thrilled to snare the colt, who was knocked down to Clarken Bloodstock in partnership with Suman Hedge Bloodstock and prominent South Australian businessman Rob Chapman.
“He’s just got a lovely action and a really nice demeanour, beautiful head on him, great eye,” Weekley said.
“Very importantly he came off a terrific farm in Mill Park Stud down at Meningie, from Chris Watson and the team, their record is second to none and one of the best in the land.”
The partnership, who purchased four lots at this sale last year for a combined total of $285,000, had to stay strong to win the colt, and plan to continue the momentum on the second day.
“We were right at [our limit on him]. We wanted to be pretty strong on him, obviously he’s a quality colt so we didn’t want to miss out and there was some good competition as always, with those nice horses.
“The clients that we bought him for, they were keen to attempt to try and buy the best horse here and that’s what we saw him as. We did the job early and there’s a couple over the next day or two and that’ll be us.”
A close relation to 2019 Adelaide Guineas (Listed, 1600m) winner So We Are (So You Think), Weekley said the colt will be given time to mature and develop.
“He’s just a lovely horse and we’ll give him a bit of time. He’d be more that sort of three-year-old type. We’ll just let the ball come on to the bat.”
Mill Park finished the first day as the leading vendors by aggregate, having sold 12 yearlings for $1,031,000, the only vendor to break the million barrier.
Baramul Stud enjoys six-figure success
Gerry Harvey’s Baramul Stud enjoyed a solid afternoon in Adelaide, selling 12 yearlings for an aggregate of $952,500. Their day was headlined by a pair of youngsters, a colt by Vinery Stud’s leading first-season sire Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) and a filly by Coolmore’s star shuttler Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), who were both purchased for $180,000 apiece.
The daughter of Wootton Bassett was snapped up by John Singleton, while the colt was bought by New Zealand-based Ohukia Lodge, with James Mitchell doing the bidding on their behalf.
The Ole Kirk colt is the second foal out of Statuesquely (Medaglia D’Oro), a dual winning Group 3-placed mare. The stallion has made a brilliant start with his first runners, siring six winners headed by the ill-fated Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) scorer King Kirk and Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) scorer O’ Ole.
Luke McDonald, racing and bloodstock manager to Baramul’s owner, Gerry Harvey, told ANZ Bloodstock News he was delighted with the day’s results and was not surprised to see the Ole Kirk youngster well-received given the sire’s strong start this season.
“Ole Kirk, he’s the sire on fire, isn’t he? [The colt] was well found, well received, and a beautiful horse. God, he was a stunning horse and he’s gone to a good home so very happy with how day one has ended up and hopefully it continues to day two.”
The Wootton Bassett filly is the third foal out of the unraced I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) mare Victoria Road, a granddaughter of the stakes-winning Tears I Cry (Danehill) and hails from the same family as Group 2 winner Thronum (Sntizel).
“We loved her. She was a very sharp filly and has gone to a great home in John Singleton. I just got off the phone to him and he’s over the moon. There’s a good association with John and Gerry. I think Gai will train and she will suit her stable, she’s a sharp type, very precocious and has got a lot of quality to her so looking forward to see what she can do on the racetrack,” said McDonald.
In addition to those results, Baramul also sold a Toronado (High Chaparral) filly out of a winning Street Cry (Machiavellian) mare Submissive, herself a half-sister to multiple Group 3 scorer Ingratiating (Frosted) and she went the way of Tony Ottobre’s Cape Schanck Stud, who paid $160,000 for the youngster.
“We had three [great results]. We had a Toronado who made $160,000, sold to Tony Ottobre and he’s going tremendously well,” McDonald said.
McDonald said the team were looking forward to Tuesday’s action where they will offer a further 17 lots.
He continued: “I’ve got high expectations about [Tuesday]. We’ve probably got our better set tomorrow and we’ve got a couple of Wootton Bassetts and Zoustars who have been very well received.
“We’ve got a lovely filly by Zoustar out of Beauty Betty who just oozes quality, just super athletic, so we’ll look forward to seeing how she sells in the sales ring. And of course we’ve got a couple of other Wootton Bassetts, they’re just so easy to sell at the moment.
“Everyone wants them and they’re good types, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Closing remarks
At the end of trade, Magic Millions reported that 138 lots sold at a clearance rate of 73 per cent and recorded an aggregate of $6,732,500, a drop of 8.6 per cent at the same point 12 months ago.
The average closed at $49,504 compared with $51,208 recorded at the same point last year, while the median jumped 14 per cent, finishing at $40,000.
Barry Bowditch,the managing director of Magic Millions, was pleased with the way trade picked up after a steadier start to proceedings.
“I think today started quite slowly and I think that would have a lot to do with the way the numbers fell today. I think the quality of horses picked up as the day went on and you could see, whether it be the clearance rate or the competition in the ring building as the day went on.
“All in all a 72 per cent clearance rate, an average of almost $50,000, they’re reasonable numbers and something to build on for tomorrow,” he said.
Bowditch expected tomorrow’s trade to continue to pick up in similar fashion to the latter part of the first day of trade.
“I think more of what we saw in the back half of today. I think it was solid trade as the day went on, it was consistent and the confidence built and I can see tomorrow’s numbers look the same. I think there’s plenty of people out there that have still got money to spend,” he said.
“There’s plenty of nice horses still to go through the ring and I think whether you’re looking at the passed in lots from today or looking towards tomorrow, there’s so much opportunity there. I can see the sale building upon what today was and ending up with an acceptable clearance rate and a very consistent average with the years gone by.
“Obviously China was strong today, Hong Kong, New Zealand. But then you look at all the states, whether it be Western Australia or Victoria or New South Wales and then the locals, they support their own product here, I think a great cross-section of buyers which we’ve become accustomed to in South Australia here at the Adelaide sale and today was no exception.
So pleased across the board at that good participation, whether it be trainers, traders, end users, there were plenty of different cross-sections competing on different horses.”
The final day of the Adelaide yearling sale gets underway at 10am (ACDT).
Sale statistics – day one
2025 2024
Catalogued 227 226
Offered 191 198
Sold 139 (73%) 146 (74%)
Aggregate $6,833,500 (-8.6%) $7,476,500
Average $49,162 (-4%) $51,208
Median $40,000 (+14%) $35,000
Top Lot $260,000 $400,000