Lope De Vega colt tops the charts on opening day
The principle of supply and demand ultimately determines the value of any product, and so it was of no great surprise that the only lots by Lope De Vega (Shamardal), Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) and I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) on offer on the opening day of the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Yearling Sale commanded the three highest prices.
Buying on behalf of prominent Queensland owners Ron and Judi Wanless, KPW Bloodstock’s Kevin Walls secured Lope De Vega’s crack colt for a sale-topping price of $600,000, which was followed closely by Michael Freedman’s successful bid of $580,000 for the filly by Extreme Choice, Newgate Stud’s phenom who will have three more lots up for auction on the second and final day on the Gold Coast.
After a competitive opening day of trading, Mitchell Bloodstock and Gall Bloodstock – two families already entwined in I Am Invincible’s incredible success story – will be hoping to write another chapter after they teamed up to purchase the sale’s sole ‘Vinny’ representative for $500,000.
But it was the less fashionable Lope De Vega, whose achievements (at least in the southern hemisphere) have been dwarfed by those of Extreme Choice and I Am Invincible, who ended the day with top honours thanks to Walls’ determination.
The former Trelawney Stud manager is known to buy primarily on type and he could not resist the appeal of Lot 913, whose impressively versatile sire is still having an influence in Australia some 12 years after he last stood on these shores.
Yulong principal Yuesheng Zhang is known to be an admirer of Lope De Vega – his Group 1-winning son Lucky Vega is doing a very solid job on the farm’s roster in Nagambie – and so there is a better than even chance that the Chinese mining magnate (or at least one of his representatives) was the online underbidder.
Regardless, it was ultimately Walls who emerged victorious from a heated bidding battle for the Glenbeigh Farm-consigned colt, whose unraced dam Palme d’Or (Siyouni) is a half-sister to stakes winner Francesco Guardi (Frankel).
Given that Francesco Guardi won the 2022 Moonee Valley Gold Cup (Gr 2, 2500m) for his former trainer Chris Waller, and Lope De Vega’s most recent Australian Group 1 win came courtesy of Arapaho’s stout staying effort in last year’s Sydney Cup (3200m), it would seem rather unlikely that Palme d’Or’s first foal will be a precocious two-year-old performer.
It would be unwise to pigeonhole the colt prematurely, however, especially given Lope De Vega has also sired a plethora of Group 1-winning sprinters including Santa Ana Lane, Vega Magic, Gytrash and Vega One.
“As soon as he walked out of the box, I just hoped he met our criteria,” said Walls.
“Once he did he was always going to be on our radar, and Ron told me to buy him – so that’s what I did.”
Kerry Stephens, who runs Glenbeigh in tandem with her partner Denis Griffin, was understandably delighted to secure such a sizable sum for the colt’s breeders at Ballylinch Stud, where Lope De Vega stands.
Griffin used to work at Ballylinch before emigrating to Australia, and maintaining that pre-existing relationship has paid off handsomely as Glenbeigh secured top billing on their first foray to this sale.
“He’s a beautiful horse and it’s a great result,” Stephens told ANZ News.
“This is our first draft at this sale so we’re obviously delighted to sell the top lot on the opening day. We had put a reserve price of $250,000 on the colt, we thought that he might sell for around $300,000 so to get double that for him was a very nice surprise.
“I’d like to thank the breeders at Ballylinch for entrusting us to sell the colt for them. I’m sure they’ll be very happy with the price, and we are too. I’d also like to wish Ron and Judi all the best with the colt, and we’ll certainly be following his progress closely in the future.”
Extreme Choice was the dominant force on day two of last week’s National Broodmare Sale, when a pair of mares carrying his prized foals were the subject of intense duels in the auditorium, and the county’s most expensive stallion again proved his worth when Lot 1002 changed hands for $580,000.
Freedman partnered with bloodstock agent Andrew Williams to acquire the filly, whose stakes-winning dam Volks Lightning (Volksraad) has hit the ground running in the breeding barn with her first foal Volkano (Too Darn Hot) dominating his rivals by 4.5 lengths on his debut as a juvenile.
The filly looks to have an abundance of speed and the same applies to the prized daughter of I Am Invincible (Lot 872), whose stakes-winning dam Loveyamadly (Bel Esprit) holds the 1100-metre track record at Flemington.
The mare has already produced two stakes winners in Immortal Love (Snitzel) and I’mlovin’ya (Capitalist), so Newhaven Park principal John Kelly fully expected her ninth foal to be held in high regard.
“I’m thrilled for the filly’s owners, it’s a great result for them,” he said.
“She came to us in great order from Sledmere, she has performed perfectly all week and she sold accordingly.”
The identity of the filly’s buyers could perhaps be predicted in advance given that the Mitchell and Gall families have such a long association with I Am Invincible, the three-time champion sire who stands at Yarraman Park for a 2026 service fee of $220,000 (inc GST).
Yarraman is run by directors Arthur and Harry Mitchell, while their brother Bill is now primarily in the bloodstock business having formed an agency with his son James in 2020.
The duo pounced on the filly in partnership with Ray and Brett Gall, who bred I Am Invincible’s dam Cannarelle (Canny Lad) and were part of the colt’s ownership group before sending him to stud at Yarraman upon his retirement from the racetrack in late 2009.
The quartet therefore know a good Vinny yearling when they see one, and according to James Mitchell this filly oozed class.
“She has paraded beautifully all week,” he told ANZ.
“She’s got a lovely action and a beautiful head and eye on her. Obviously she’s by a champion stallion who we’ve always loved and has been so good to the Mitchell and Gall families. We’re thrilled to have her and Ray [Gall] is a great racing man, so he’s over the moon as well.
“The thing that stood out to me the most was her attitude, she just handled the sale so calmly and never put a foot out of line. She’s well-made and has a good girth, all round just about faultless really.”
On future plans with the filly, Mitchell added: “I don’t think she’ll be rushed. The I Am Invincible’s, while they show immense ability early, I think the best thing you can do is take them through slowly and show patience with them.
“She will go back to Yarraman Park and then will head into the break and then after that it is just about taking her along.
“We haven’t assigned a trainer yet so we’ve not made any immediate plans, but I’d say she’ll be given a chance to run at two post-Christmas and ideally we’d be looking for a really lovely backend of the two-year-old season and into the three-year-old season. Hopefully she can go on to be a nice mare, they certainly train on the ‘Vinnie’s’.”
Other notable sales included Lot 897, the Zoustar (Northern Meteor) colt sold by Barramul Stud for $380,000.
Barramul has consigned the sale topper at this auction for the past two years, and while that dream still remains alive for stud principal Gerry Harvey with nine offerings – including a chestnut Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) colt – set to go through the ring on the second and final day, the farm just missed out on the podium after the opening session.
Their Zoustar colt was typical of the breed, and with his dam Mnemonic (Hussonet) having already produced a pair of stakes winners, the Macedon Racing team of John Symons and Sheila Laxon were persuaded to purchase him for just under $400,000.
“We’ve bought a lot of horses from Gerry over the years, including a Zoustar colt [Star Of Macedon] that ran third at Caulfield on the weekend,” said Symons.
“Gerry’s great for the industry and we thought this colt was probably underpriced for what we paid for him. If he’d been up for sale here in January, he probably would have made at least $700,000.”
Across the day almost $7.4 million was traded on 122 lots sold at an average price of $60,578 (up from $44,961 on last year) and clearance rate of 76 per cent.
“It was a really strong market here today,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said.
“It’s great to see such a diverse buying bench with good local and interstate participation which has been complemented by the international market – Hong Kong, Philippines, China, New Zealand and others.
“Whether it was a colt or a filly of quality that entered the ring there was good participation and great competition.
“Looking at the figures from previous years it’s hard not to be pleased with the increases across the board in today’s sale.
“Vendors are very willing to meet the market – those who got their horses on the market received good competition and it was a solid and genuine day in the sales ring.
“There’s plenty to look forward to tomorrow. It will bring down the curtain on what’s been a massive couple of weeks on the Gold Coast.”
The final day gets underway at 11am on Tuesday morning, with Newgate’s three remaining offerings by Extreme Choice – Lots 1040, 1077 and 1150 – almost certain to be in high demand.