‘It’s probably the best group of horses we’ve taken to this sale’
Fresh from topping the averages again last year and buoyed by a string of stakes results for its produce this season, Segenhoe Stud is primed for a strong Magic Millions Yearling Sale with a draft Peter O’Brien rates as the best group on type his historic farm has taken to the Gold Coast.
While O’Brien does not expect to replicate the stud’s phenomenal Gold Coast sale of 2024, when seven of its lots fetched seven figures, Segenhoe’s general manager is expecting strong results from an array of “extremely high quality” individuals from his 30-strong draft.
Including full brothers to the outstanding In Secret (I Am Invincible) and her fellow elite-level-winning sprinting mare Benedetta (Hellbent), and laced with sires including Home Affairs (I Am Invincible), Anamoe (Street Boss) and Frankel (Galileo), Segenhoe’s draft is likely to push the Hunter Valley institution high on the stats table again.
On averages, Segenhoe led the sale against all comers last year, and was on top for farms with more than three lots sold in its bumper 2024. It beat all comers again in 2023 and was first for more than ten yearlings moved in 2022.
O’Brien is not tipping a repeat of 2024, but is confident buyers will be taken with Segenhoe’s draft this time around.
“We won’t be having that big number of million-dollar yearlings as we had two years ago, mainly because we’re not stacked with a lot of big, proven sires,” O’Brien told ANZ News.
“We don’t have that big, big number of I Am Invincibles or Zoustars that’ll end up making seven figures or more, although we do have some beautiful Anamoes, who’s quickly become my favourite stallion that’s ever walked the earth.
“But I would say that overall as types, it’s probably the best group of horses we’ve taken to this sale.”
Segenhoe’s draft is highlighted, unsurprisingly, by Lot 250, a bay son of triple champion sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) who’s a full–brother to In Secret, Australia’s Champion 3YO Filly and Female Sprinter of 2022-23.
The colt’s other full–sister sold for $2.3 million to the Laguna Partnership and John Sargent Racing as the third-highest lot at this auction last year, while Segenhoe sold another full-sister in the 2024 edition for $1.15 million, to Belmont Bloodstock. In Secret herself fetched $900,000 at the Gold Coast in 2021, bought by Godolphin.
Lot 250’s value is enhanced by the fact he’s only the second colt among seven live foals for dam Eloping (Choisir), and because that five-time stakes-winning mare is empty this season after missing to I Am Invincible and Anamoe late last year.
“You’d think he would have to be in the top five per cent of the sale,” O’Brien said of the muscular bay.
“It’s great that Eloping has had a colt. In Secret was a beautiful yearling and sold very well. She was quite elegant as a yearling, but this fella’s got muscle on muscle. He’s a very mature, robust, obvious sprinter type, with a terrific action. He’s as good a Vinnie as you’d see. Plus everything out of Eloping have great minds, like she does.”
Segenhoe’s Lot 972 is by Hellbent (I Am Invincible) out of the Group 2-placed Whatalovelyday (Domesday), making him a full-brother to Goodwood Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Benedetta.
Half-sister Sunset Dreaming (Impending) – a four-time winner including in city grade – has been Listed placed in Brisbane in her past two starts this summer. Another half-sister Whatafox (Foxwedge) is twice stakes-placed, while half-brother Whatalegacy (King’s Legacy) has two provincial wins and a city second from three starts for Bjorn Baker.
“I love Domesday mares, and we bought Whatalovelyday carrying this fella, and when he was born we were all patting ourselves on the back,” O’Brien said.
“He’s a big, imposing colt, with beautiful colour and head, good limbs and a good action. He’s a brother to a Group 1 winner and two other black type performers, and I think it’ll be three other black type performers soon, because I think Whatalegacy will prove a stakes horse. So she’s a proper mare, Whatalovelyday.”
Like most stud farms, Segenhoe has handled many offspring of the late, great four-time champion sire Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice). O’Brien feels Lot 183 could top the lot that he’s known.
He’s the second foal of American mare Complicit (Blame), a Listed-placed three-time winner from 1600-1700 metres who’s by the same sire – Blame (Arch) – as the dam of one of Snitzel’s recent stars, Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) hero Switzerland.
“We’ve had a lot of Snitzels in my time and I humbly think he’s the best one I’ve had,” O’Brien said. “He’s out of a good American mare, he’s balance personified, with a huge hip and a beautiful mind. You see him come to the fore when you lunge him – he’s just got this incredible action.”
Segenhoe offers no fewer than five yearlings by Darley’s debutant sire Anamoe.
They include Lot 407, a half-sister to the outstanding triple Group 1 winner Joliestar (Zoustar) out of Group 2 winner Jolie Bay (Fastnet Rock), one of the finest offspring of her influential dam Legally Bay (Snippets).
“This filly’s thrown a lot to her distaff side,” O’Brien said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to have this family all the way through, and this one has the classic physique of the family, being short-coupled, sprinting types.
“She reminds me of Legally Bay in every way, in the head and the fact she’s very precocious.
“She’s a half-sister to Joliestar and two other stakes performers, and of all our Anamoes, she looks the most precocious. She’s fast and early and with huge residual value.”
Segenhoe’s faith in Anamoe is represented by the fact they’ve sent 44 mares to him in his first three years at stud. They include city winner Catwalk (Foxwedge), who’s produced a filly who’s Lot 155 in Segenhoe’s draft.
“She ticks every box,” O’Brien said. “She’s a big strong filly who exudes quality, has a wonderful mind and a walk to die for.”
O’Brien also has a huge wrap on Anamoe’s Lot 323, the second foal of Goddess (Fastnet Rock), a half-sister to three stakes winners including Orr Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) hero Manuel (Commands).
“I’ve been like a scratched record on this filly from the day she was born. I’ve run out of superlatives to describe her. She’s the most beautiful filly you’d see in your life,” O’Brien said.
“Ciaron Maher trained Goddess. She was beating everything in the stable, but had one race and broke down, but we know the ability she had, and she’s from a brilliant family.”
Segenhoe has another Anamoe in Lot 694, the colt fifth foal of city winner Pretty Fast (Not A Single Doubt), a full-sister to dual stakes winners Doubtland, from the same family as dual black-type-winning Melbourne filly My Gladiola (I Am Invincible).
And Lot 899 is a colt out of Tessneem (Lonhro), a winning full-sister to the triple stakes victor – and stakes-producing – mare Heatherly.
Of Anamoe, O’Brien said: “He’s the most beautiful stallion with the most amazing action. He performed at two, three and four – he danced every dance. It’s a testament to him that each year he’s been at stud we’ve sent more and more mares to him, based on what’s been coming out.
“We have some lovely Anamoes going to the sale and he’s now my favourite stallion that ever took a breath.”
Another Segenhoe highlight is Lot 203, a filly by Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) out of five-time West Australian stakes winner Dance Music (War Chant). She’ll enter the sale fresh off her sire providing the quinella in Ellerslie’s Eclipse Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on New Year’s Day via colt Kinnaird and gelding Harvey Wallbanger.
Coolmore’s Home Affairs – who had the top lots at the Gold Coast and Inglis Easter as a debutant sire last year – has three winners from 11 runners in Australia and New Zealand.
“Home Affairs has put not one but two hands up to say he could be the next big thing, based on the performances of his two-year-olds in New Zealand and Australia,” O’Brien said.
“That’s surprised me a little, because I thought the earliest Home Affairs stock would be performing in the late autumn, because they’re big horses. So it’s really encouraging to see them coming out before and around Christmas.
“This one’s a leggy filly with beautiful quality. She’ll be well sought after.”
Segenhoe offers three Frankels including Lot 59, a colt second foal of Antibes (Lonhro), an unraced mare from breeder John Camilleri’s stakes-winning and stakes-producing mare A Time For Julia (Redoute’s Choice).
Other Segenhoe highlights include two fillies by I Am Invincible in Lot 45, out of fast American Listed winner Always Inthe Munny (Munnings), and Lot 455, a daughter of Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) runner-up Lankan Star (Nicconi) who O’Brien said was “extremely popular” at his farm’s yearling parades.
O’Brien is expecting a reasonably strong sale, especially in terms of the top-end lots. But like certain other vendors, he anticipates some softness at the lower end, likely a growing condition related to the increasing popularity of online sales of tried horses.
“I don’t want to sound too negative, but the reality is that the middle and the top will be fine, but the struggle might be with the horses selling for $200,000 or less,” the veteran breeder said.
“For smaller trainers with lesser animals, buying tried horses seems to be the way they’re going, and that has to have some impact on those 200k or less horses.
“That’ll be good for buyers. Especially because when you look at the results from Magic Millions, and the good horses who’ve come out of that bracket, that’s where the value is.
“I can guess some of the horses in our draft who’ll be in that bracket, and some of them are very nice animals. So there’s extraordinary value there, because the catalogue gets stronger and stronger, and the support from the farms is still the same, so there’s happy hunting to be found there.
“But still, every year the Magic Millions surprises me, and has done ever since I’ve come here with horses. I’ve said similar things before and it’s always turned out to be a great sale, and I’m sure it’ll be the same again.”
Segenhoe heads to the sale with a spring in its step after a sequence of black type results in recent weeks and months from its sales graduates, including Transatlantic (Snitzel) winning Caulfield’s Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) and Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai) taking her fourth elite success in Flemington’s Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
Victories last Saturday for Jenni The Fox (Too Darn Hot) in Geelong’s Black Pearl Stakes (Listed, 1200m) and Ninja (Farnan) in Eagle Farm’s Vo Rogue Plate (Gr 3, 1300m) extended Segenhoe’s lead over Arrowfield Stud in the unofficial Australian vendors premiership. Compiled by website blacktyperacing.au, the table allocates points for horses put through sales by vendors determined by placings in stakes races.
“Our farm has had an extraordinary start again this season, with already 15 stakes performers including Group 1 winners Transatlantic and Pride Of Jenni,” O’Brien said.
“To be well ahead on the vendors premiership says a lot about the farm itself and our team. Our horses are doing the talking for us, and because we only sell 50 yearlings a year compared to some of the bigger farms that sell 150 to 200, it emphasises how well horses off the farm are running.”