Lead Story
Record result for Kingstar and Extreme Choice as Yulong go to $2 million for star colt at Magic Millions
James Thomas
ANZ News
(Credit: Magic Millions)
Yulong Investments claimed the most sought after offering on day two of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale when Zhang Yuesheng’s outfit bid $2,000,000 for a well-related son of sire sensation Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt).
That price equaled the figure Coolmore’s Tom Magnier paid for day one’s session-topping son of Frankel (Galileo).
Agent James Harron was consigned to the role of underbidder, while teams from Te Akau Racing and Newgate Farm were also involved in the protracted seven-figure tussle.
The colt, who was offered by Matthew Sandblom’s Kingstar Farm, is a sibling to three winners, most notably his sister Wollombi. The Yulong-owned daughter of Extreme Choice enjoyed her biggest result when landing the 2023 Vanity Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m).
“He’s one of the most special colts in the whole sale, especially today, and he’s the only target we definitely needed to buy,” said Jun Zhang, Yulong’s general manager.
“We can see some stallion potential in him, and we own the sister as well. She’s in foal to Diatonic, so we’re trying to create our own family. This is another reason why we had to get him. Extreme Choice is a very successful stallion and could be an important stallion in the future, which is why we are trying to get into the bloodline.”
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Despite subfertility preventing Newgate’s Extreme Choice fielding big numbers, he has still punched out a high concentration of significant talents. He is the sire of six Group 1 winners, including Devil Night and Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner turned Newgate stallion Stay Inside, both of whom were bred by Kingstar Farm. His 25 black-type performers mean he is operating at an impressive stakes horses-to-runners ratio of 17 per cent.
Yulong are among those who have enjoyed elite-level success with the stallion as Devil Night claimed last year’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in the familiar green and white silks.
Devil Night was bought by Yulong for $1.4 million at the 2024 edition of the Gold Coast sale, Kingstar’s previous best result in a sales ring. Extreme Choice’s previous record was provided when Chris Waller, Guy Mulcaster and B2B Thoroughbreds paid $1.7 million for the brother to Group 1 winner Apocalyptic at last year’s Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.
“It’s very rewarding because a lot goes into getting this horse here,” said an emotional Adam Cook, manager of Kingstar Farm. “A lot has to go right, especially with a son of Extreme Choice. You’ve got to get the mare in foal, and then she’s got to have a nice foal. Fortunately all the stars and moons aligned with her and this horse got here safe and sound.
“It’s been a very nerve-wracking three months and the guys at the farm have made sure everything’s gone right to ease my nerves and stresses as such as they could. It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions getting this horse to here.”
Sale statistics after two sessions
2026 |
2025 |
|
|---|---|---|
Catalogued |
450 |
480 |
Offered |
393 |
433 |
Sold |
326 (83%) |
352 (81%) |
Aggregate |
$93,975,000 (-3.5%) |
$97,555,000 |
Average |
$288,266 (+4%) |
$277,145 |
Median |
$200,000 |
$200,000 |
Top Lot |
$2,000,000 |
$2,300,000 |
Sponsored by IRT
Cook added: “It’s impossible to get a full-relation to a Group winner by Extreme Choice. He’s the best son of Extreme Choice that we’ve bred, and we bred Stay Inside and Devil Night. Although this fella might not be here for the Magic Millions [race meeting] this time next year, I can’t wait to see him as a later two-year-old. I think he’ll be an awesome three-year-old; he has strength, scope, and a beautiful stallion’s head. Everything was just right with him and I guess that’s reflected in the price.”
At the sale so far, 326 yearlings found a new home at clearance rate of 83 per cent. In turn, the aggregate stands at $93.975m (down 3.5 per cent year-on-year), the average price closed at $288,266 (up 4 per cent) while the median was identical to the same point in the sale 12 months ago at $200,000.
“A very, very strong day’s trade, I thought,” said Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch. “I thought it felt deep, genuine, diverse - and fun. There was a lot of vibe to it. It was what we like to create here at Magic Millions. It was a busy day, it had a bit of everything. All in all we’re delighted with how today went.
“There’s solid trade being done under the median, and that’s holding solid at $200,000. We’re thinking we’re tracking well through the middle market. The feel is that the sale continues to build momentum.”
Field returns to source of success
The first seven-figure transaction of the day came when Henry Field struck a bid of $1.5m for Milburn Creek’s Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) colt out of Embrace Me (Shamexpess). The Newgate Farm managing director signed the ticket on behalf of a partnership that includes China Horse Club and Clarke Bloodstock.
The dam won the Typhoon Tracy Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m), while she is out of a half-sister to the New Zealand Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) scorer Military Move (Volksraad). The Newgate team already know plenty about the pedigree as they purchased this colt’s Zoustar (Northern Meteor) half-brother Ballpark, a maiden winner since the catalogue was released, for $800,000 in 2024.
“He’s a beautiful horse out of a fast mare raised on a great farm in Milburn Creek, and bred by a great breeder,” said Field. “We’ve had so much success buying Snitzel colts; the likes of Invader, Russian Revolution, In The Congo and Wild Ruler.
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“For us, this was a pretty exceptional horse. You’ve got to buy what you love and we loved him, so let’s hope he’s a good horse for us. He’s very much in the mould of those good horses. He’s neat, sharp, has great strength, great power through his forearm and gaskins, and a great attitude.”
He added: “We’ve been together for ten years, we’ve produced 15 individual stallions, so it’s been an amazing partnership with China Horse Club and all our other partners. It’s lasted for so long and we’ve had so much success with this particular stallion. We thought this colt was a real standout so we’re really happy to get him.”
As well as stocking up the colts fund portfolio, Newgate was also busy on the selling front. By the close of trade, 20 yearlings had been sold for aggregate receipts of $6.545m and an average price of $327,250.
“We’re happy with what we’ve bought and we’ve sold every horse we’ve offered so far, which we’re really happy with,” said Field. “Hopefully we can get runners, whether they’re from the consignment or the ones we buy. We’ve had so much success from Magic Millions, both buying and selling. We’ve sold two champion two-year-olds out of this consignment and we’ve bought many, many good horses. It’s a great formula and they put a great show on. We’re pleased to be here.”
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Coolmore spree continues
There was a second $1.5m son of Snitzel later in the day when Tom Magnier secured the colt out of French Listed winner Iffranesia (Iffraaj) from the Arrowfield draft. The colt is a sibling to three winners, not least his brother Beadman, who struck in the Ken Russell Memorial Classic (Gr 3, 1200m) for the China Horse Club and Newgate partnership.
As with Magnier’s other Magic Millions purchases, the seven-figure colt will head into training with Chris Waller, where he will come under the care of his sibling’s namesake, yard foreman and Hall of Famer Darren Beadman.
“He’s a nice horse and he’ll go to Chris, so Mr Beadman better make sure this is a good one as well!,” joked Magnier. “He’s a lovely colt and we’ve had a little bit of luck with Arrowfield before, obviously the Messaras know how to breed a good horse by Snitzel, and we’ve had luck with the stallion before with Shinzo and Switzerland.
“There’s a great group of people in our colts fund and they all loved the horse. He’s one of the best colts on the ground, we couldn’t be happier with the type. We think he’s a mature type and everybody on the team really liked him so fingers crossed.”
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Arrowfield’s Paul Messara said: “It was a hard one to sell because I don’t think we’ve produced many horses as good as that in the past. He’s a brother to Beadman and we’re looking for another one. It’ll be a long time before we breed a horse as nice as that. Congratulations to the Coolmore team. They’ve bought a beautiful horse today.”
On the late Snitzel’s legacy, Messara added: “He’s a standout stallion. He’s gone now. He’s at the top of the tree and he keeps producing week in, week out. When you’ve got such a dominant horse like that, it’s hard to fill the hole. It’s a big gap. We’ve got The Autumn Sun coming through and hopefully he’s going to take up that mantle.”
The colt was Magnier’s third pickup of the day, following on from an $800,000 I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) brother to champion three-year-old filly In Secret from Segenhoe Stud, and a well-bred Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) colt from Lime Country Thoroughbreds signed for alongside Charles Shanahan at $650,000.
“Very nice mover,” Magnier said after securing the $800,000 I Am Invincible colt. “Again, everybody liked him. He’s strong, hopefully he’s early. Obviously it’s a pedigree that everybody knows, but I’m very happy with him. We’ve got a colt by I Am Invincible before, so we’re effectively digging for gold where we found it before. He’s a nice horse. We love buying off Segenhoe and the main thing for us is that everybody on the team liked him.”
He added: “Chris has some of the family there that he likes, so if you can get anything close to In Secret, you’ll be doing well.”
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Rising Sun get into current family
The day’s most expensive filly fetched $1.2m, with members of the Rising Sun Syndicate team sitting alongside Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott as the I Am Invincible filly out of the Group 3-placed Key (Exceed And Excel) passed through the ring.
The trainers know a bit about the pedigree behind the Kia Ora Stud-consigned youngster as the mare also bred I’m Ya Huckleberry (Home Affairs), who debuted for the stable with a runner-up finish in the Arrowfield Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) at Randwick in October.
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“It’s a very current family, and a family with so much black-type depth,” said Bott. “It’s a family we know well as we’ve got the half-brother in training, who we have a very high opinion of having seen him on the racetrack on one occasion, that automatically attracted us to her. Physically, the way she presented at this sale really made her a must-have for us. We’re very fortunate we were able to partner up on this filly and we’re delighted we’re able to secure her.”
Rising Sun Syndicate’s Kosi Kawakami said: “We’re looking for the best filly we can get for our owner from Japan. We looked at this horse and fell in love with her, she’s the best. Obviously knowing her brother being trained by Gai and Adrian, they would be the best trainers to go for.”
He added: “We had to go hard because we had to secure her.”
Japanese interests are no stranger to the Gold Coast Yearling Sale, with trainer Mitsu Nakauchida securing last year’s top lot, the Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) filly out of Sunlight (Zoustar), at $3.2m.
Kawakami shared a Japanese perspective on the sale, saying: “The best of the best of Australian bloodstock is here. We had Mitsu Nakauchida here last year. We went to look at the Sunlight filly for him, which they obviously paid big, big money for. It’s big in Japan as well with people putting focus on this sale. We get a lot of buyers from Japan as well, and it’s an honour to be able to buy a million dollar filly from this catalogue.”
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Harron snaps up ‘elastic’ Snitzel colt
The $1.2m mark was hit for a second time when James Harron, bidding with Tony Fung Investments (TFI), landed the Snitzel colt out of Coolmore Classic (Gr 1, 1500m) heroine Krone (Eurozone). The day’s fifth seven-figure lot was offered by Rosemont Stud.
“[He’s a] lovely colt,” said Harron. “He was one of our picks across the board with all the team, ourselves and TFI, everyone just loved him. He’s an athletic horse, Krone was obviously very successful on the track, a very sound, consistent mare, so he was a great package. We’re very happy to get him.”
The agent added: “I think he’ll be early. He’s just very light on his feet; he doesn’t carry a lot of excess, he’s very easy on himself, a real quality colt. He’s really elastic in how he moves and just how he gets about the ground, so I get the impression he’ll just skip across the ground and be one of those really athletic types of racehorses. He really caught the eye from the very beginning.”
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Early action
The second session got off to a notably bright start with two of the first three lots bringing particularly punchy prices.
Peter Moody and Mick Malone teamed up to land the very first lot into the ring at $800,000. Arrowfield’s Snitzel filly had one of the more unusual pages in the catalogue being out of Delta Queen, a daughter of leading South African sire Var (Forest Wildcat).
This means the youngster is bred on the same cross as Newgate Farm’s first-crop stallion In The Congo, who got the better of Anamoe (Street Boss) to land the Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) during his time in training.
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Delta Queen won a Grade 3 in her native country and is out of the globetrotting River Jetez (Jet Master), who struck in the Met (Gr 1, 2000m) at Kenilworth and the Balanchine (Gr 2, 2000m) during her time with Mike de Kock. Not only did River Jetez win a Grade 1 herself, she also bred a Group 1 winner at paddocks, with Delta Queen’s sister Rivarine striking in the Computaform Sprint (Gr 1, 1000m).
“That’s a great way to start the day and, I don’t know if you can ever say you got a bit of value at that money, but we’ve loved her from the day we got here,” said Malone. “Me and Moods have had luck buying horses together, like Ole Dancer of late, so it’s good to team up again. He’s a champion and a great trainer. We’ll put a good group of clients together, myself and Pauline [Alix, wife] will stay in, and we’ll just enjoy her. She’s a beauty.
“We’ve had a bit of luck buying Snitzels over the years and they’re not making them any more. She’s off a great farm too in Arrowfield, we bought Snitzerland off them years ago. She reminded me of all those nice Snitzels we’ve seen in the past.
“She had that lovely big loose action on her – unbelievable temperament. I don’t know how many parades she would’ve had but she’d have been flat out. You try and replicate what you’ve bought that’s worked in the past and, to me, she had the exact same shape as has worked before. It’s those neater, sharp types where I feel you need to play.”
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On the filly’s South African heritage, with the family also including a Horse of the Year in Pocket Power (Jet Master), Malone added: “That form holds up well here and it mixes well with our Australian pedigrees. I think Snitzel upgrades those mares so well too. It’s in the lap of the Gods now, but I think she has enough pedigree that when it’s all said and done, we’ll be able to breed out of her if she doesn’t live up to what we hope on the track. That’s what we’re trying to do when we spend that sort of money.”
Just two lots later, Te Akau Racing principal David Ellis went to $850,000 for the Extreme Choice filly out of Group 3 scorer Deroche (Needs Further). The October-foaled youngster was offered by Newgate Farm.
“I wrote in my book ‘Golden Slipper filly - just buy her,’” said Ellis. “I don’t put that very often! I thought she looks like a ready-made two-year-old but has the scope to be a nice three- and four-year-old. I probably paid an extra hundred [thousand] to what I thought she’d make, but with the good ones you’ve just got to buy them. Very happy.”
The Gold Coast Yearling Sale continues on Thursday at 10am local time.
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Sale snippets
Lot 259: Extreme Choice ex Euroboss by Street Boss, filly
Price: $525,000
Buyer: Knine Inc/Rising Sun Syndicate
Vendor: Newgate Farm
“She’s obviously one of the best Extreme Choice fillies we saw in the whole catalogue and we loved her from first sight,” Kosi Kawakami said. “She’s got a beautiful walk, she’s strong, good bones, she ticks all the boxes and we really like her as a horse. I thought we’d go higher, so we’re very happy to secure her for this price. There’s not too many around so everybody wants them. It was a great buy, I thought.”
Lot 263: Zoustar ex Exo Lady by Exosphere, filly
Price: $650,000
Buyer: Waller Racing/Mulcaster Bloodstock
Vendor: Milburn Creek
“We saw her on the farm early, saw her again when she got here and I thought she’d just kept
improving all the way through the preparation,” Mulcaster said. “She looked like a good Zoustar
and obviously we had to pay for her but we had a fair bit of interest in her. We’re really happy
to have got her.”
Lot 304: Zoustar ex Fuddle Dee Duddle by Red Ransom, filly
Price: $625,000
Buyer: James Harron Bloodstock/Michael Freedman Racing Filly Partnership/Tony Fung Fillies
Vendor: Longwood Thoroughbred Farm
“I’ve followed [the family] all very closely,” Harron said. “We tried to buy Brereton back in
the day and she was the closest thing I’ve seen to him since. I thought she was beautifully
put-together. Gorgeous head and a really strong-bodied filly, very powerful. I just loved her
the minute she stepped out of the box. Really pleased to get her with TFI and Michael Freedman
for our fillies partnership. Everyone came together and loved her so we’re very pleased to get
her. We’ll find out what she wants to be but she looks very forward. They [Zoustars] tend to
improve as they get a bit older but she is very forward, she’s got great strength, a great mind,
was really focussed on her job the whole week, so who knows.”
Lot 362: Extreme Choice ex I Am A Star by I Am Invincible, filly
Price: $575,000
Buyer: Shane Nichols Racing
Vendor: Newgate Farm
“This is probably the first one that has looked like her mother,” said Nichols, who trained the filly’s dam, prolific Group winner I Am A Star, to ten wins including in the Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m). “I got some photos of I Am A Star as a yearning who was sold a month later and a month older and they are very similar. Slightly built but a good running type so we were happy to secure her. We’ve got a bit of her to still syndicate up so there are shares available and hopefully we’ll get that done fairly promptly. Nice to get another one from that mare. She has been good to us and I hope that she’ll continue to be so. I thought [the price] was the mark or maybe a bit more. In this market I think it was probably fair and reasonable. I probably was near the top of what I wanted to spend on her, give or take, but happy enough at this stage.”
Lot 387: Snitzel ex Intrepidacious by Shooting To Win, filly
Price: $650,000
Buyer: KPW Bloodstock
Vendor: Silverdale Farm
“You just have to look at her,” Kevin "Millie" Walls said. “She’s a quality filly. They were
jumping around everywhere out there and she didn’t turn a hair. She’s been here for over a week
at the sales and I’ve seen her about ten times. She never turned a hair, great walker, great
constitution. We just buy on-type and then work out what we have to pay. We went one more [bid]
but it was around the mark.”
Lot 410: Zoustar ex Julinka by Sebring, colt
Price: $625,000
Buyer: Hong Kong Jockey Club
Vendor: Westbury Stud Ltd
“We’ve had good luck buying these Zoustars for Hong Kong. This colt is really athletic, sound
and light on his feet,” said Boomer Bloodstock’s Craig Rounsefell, southern hemisphere agent for
the Hong Kong Jockey Club. “He’ll head to Limitless Lodge and in two years be offered at the
Hong Kong International Sale at Sha Tin. He’s a quality colt from a very deep family. He is
tailor made for what we are looking for. Zoustar is one of the leading stallions in Australia
and he is an all-rounded horse. He vetted very cleanly and given the physical, there is always
competition for those horses. We got the pointy end [price] and we were lucky it fell our
way.”
Lot 434: Hellbent ex La Tigeresa by Street Cry, filly
Price: $600,000
Buyer: Michael Freedman Racing/AWB
Vendor: Widden Stud
“Hellbent is doing a super job, particularly with his fillies,” Michael Freedman said. “A really
good job all round. She’s a [good] moving filly and looked quite sharp off a very good farm in
Widden. I love buying off a good farm. On the price, he added: “We had to stretch a bit more as
when you do all the groundwork and you like these sorts of horses, within reason you’ve got to
make sure you don’t go home without them.”
Lot 442: Stay Inside ex Lady Lilly by Nyquist, filly
Price: $550,000
Buyer: Shane McGrath Bloodstock
Vendor: Newhaven Park
“We’re big fans of Stay Inside. We’ve loved all his horses here in catalogue and she was a filly we really honed in on,” Shane McGrath said. “He’s a stallion that has already done the job and he’s an up-and-comer with the shape and make of the stock by him. Newhaven is a great producing farm and she’s out of a Grade 1 [performing] American mare. We just loved her. She was Clint’s [Clinton McDonald] pick of the sale and a filly he wanted to hone in on. We were delighted to get her at that price because if someone else wanted to keep going we would have because we wouldn’t have gone home without her. Fast American mares work so well down here but for us and that sort of money, she’s got to go on and do the job. She looks like a two-year-old.”
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