Pair of million-dollar colts headline solid first day at Inglis Premier
A colt by Frankel (Galileo) bought by American heavyweight John Stewart in a new partnership with Team McEvoy, and a son of Toronado (High Chaparral) described by respected breeder Ric Jamieson as possibly his best product of the year shared top billing at $1 million on a reasonably robust first day at Inglis Premier on Sunday.
Rosemont Stud reaped dividends from their recent investment in foreign mares and support of their home auction when the Frankel colt became the second million–dollar lot in the Geelong farm’s history, knocked down to Resolute Racing’s Stewart in partnership with the horse’s future trainers Tony and Calvin McEvoy and their regular partners Belmont Bloodstock.
The purchase brought some consolation as the first horse for Stewart and the McEvoys, who were underbidders on the Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) filly out of Tony McEvoy’s former star mare Sunlight (Zoustar) who topped January’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale at $3.2 million.
And bloodstock agent Andy Williams swooped on behalf of a Hong Kong owner to secure Gilgai Farm’s Toronado colt, who’ll soon be gelded and groomed in New Zealand ahead of his transfer to the territory and a trainer yet to be determined.
The two magnificent colts were the highlights of a decent opening session on Sunday which, like Inglis Classic, largely defied the worst fears of vendors shaken by softness in the bottom half of the market at the Magic Millions Gold Coast and Karaka. Sunday left Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch pleased with “a reasonably encouraging day’s trade”.
At the close of auctioning at Oaklands, the average was $148,364 and the median $110,000. With the clearance rate of 70 per cent expected to rise, 176 lots had been sold and 76 passed in.
That compared to the book 1 average of $127,600 and median of $90,000 last year, off a clearance rate of 82 per cent. On day one last year, 216 lots were sold and 36 passed in, with the gross $28.16 million.
In strong results for Victorian interests at their home sale, going by stats of more than three yearlings sold, Swettenham Stud’s Toronado was the leading sire by averages and Yulong’s Written Tycoon (Iglesia) was third; Gilgai, Rosemont and Yulong were the top three vendors by average; and the top nine lots were sold by Victorian farms.
The top five lots sold were colts.
A solid first half of the day had been highlighted by another strong result for Rosemont, when Yulong parted with $500,000 for Lot 115, a colt by Zoustar (Northern Meteor) out of Melbourne Group 3 winner Crack The Code (I Am Invincible).
But that was emphatically eclipsed in the afternoon when the two million–dollar lots moved within the space of a few minutes – the fourth and fifth seven-figure yearlings in Premier history.
Williams emerged victorious from a tense and spirited duel for Gilgai’s Lot 197, the first yearling to fetch $1 million by Swettenham Stud’s Hong Kong-popular sire Toronado. He’s the fifth foal out of the Group-placed Hardly Surprising (All Too Hard), dam of Melbourne city-winner The Swooper (Divine Prophet).
“Had it been a filly, it would never have left my farm. It was my favourite horse at the farm,” said Gilgai’s Jamieson, a breeding byword at Premier for having created the sale’s greatest product, Black Caviar (Bel Esprit). “He’s right up there with my best for the year.”
Matings maven Jamieson said he chose to sell the colt at Premier to avoid a clash with two other Toronados he’s sending to next month’s Inglis Easter sale.
“I had four Toronados to sell overall, and you can’t take them to the same sale or they’ll compete with each other,” he said. “They’re all good horses, but I think this fella’s a bit of an exception.”
Jamieson said the colt was the product of “about as strong a mating as I could make with the Toronado”, of whom he was a “huge fan”.
“He’s my favourite stallion – outside of Ole Kirk,” quipped Jamieson, breeder and part-owner of that Vinery Stud stallion.
Williams said the colt reminded him of another Gilgai-bred son of Toronado sold at Premier, in 2018, in Group 1-winning sprinter Masked Crusader.
“I’m very grateful to be able to buy a horse like this. He’s a bloody ripper,” Williams said.
“He’s off a very good nursery in Gilgai. I went back to 2018 when Masked Crusader sold here and found a picture of him and his walking video, and – woo – they were similar.
“We’ve been waiting for this horse. We purposely didn’t buy at Magic Millions, New Zealand and Classic, and it was worth it.
“I’ve seen him every day since Tuesday. He’s got better and better. It’s just great.
“He’s an unbelievably forward horse, with a lot of strength about him, a fantastic head, and an unbelievable temperament.
“It’s very hard to breed a horse who looks like him physically, and obviously Ric Jamieson has bred some good horses in his time. We put a lot of faith in those nurseries, and he’s by a proven Hong Kong sire in Toronado, and he vetted clean. They’re hard horses to buy.”
With the room still abuzz from that sale, Resolute Racing’s Stewart – acting through an agent bidding by telephone – hit the million-dollar bell again four lots later, securing Lot 201 – Rosemont’s Frankel colt out of Canadian Group 3 winner Heavenly Curlin (Curlin), who they bought privately and imported in-foal to the esteemed stallion in 2023.
“It’s unbelievable,” Rosemont principal Anthony Mithen said minutes later. “To achieve a result like that, here on your home deck – we’re playing at home this week and it feels pretty good.
“I’m still shaking a bit. It’s a lot of money. It takes a lot to get the horse there. You hold your breath on multiple occasions.
“He was a horse we really thought would be a headline act here at Melbourne, and I’ve stated for a few years now that we want to really support our backyard.
“We’re proudly Victorian, we feel like we’re doing some good things for the Victorian breeding industry and racing industry, but you’ve got to put your best horses where your mouth is. It’s easy to say all those things, but you’ve got to back it up with the good stock.
“We were really keen to bring a much admired bunch of horses, and they have been. So, really pleased.”
Mithen, whose farm also reaped $1 million in 2020 for the I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) colt who became four-time Waterhouse-Bott winner Journalism, said he’d expected Sunday’s Frankel colt was a “half million-plus” prospect.
“It’s hard to sell them for a million dollars,” he said. “Hopefully in two years time we can be toasting this horse as an Australian Guineas winner.”
Heavenly Curlin has brought back to Australia a line of one of this country’s strongest families, with her second dam the blue hen Shantha’s Choice (Canny Lad), mother of the breed-shaping Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) and two other top-level winners amongst four stakes winners in total.
“With a pedigree like that, from the family of Redoute’s Choice, it’s a massive family,” Mithen said.
“Heavenly Curlin was a very talented mare. She deserved a very good mating and I think we gave her the best one possible and that result showed today.
“We made a strategic move to increase the quality of our broodmare band, breed them for the open market, and increase our racing stock as well, which I think we’re doing.
“It’s nice to get rewarded when you’re not afraid to have a go. Hopefully, there’s room in this horse for us with John Stewart.”
Calvin McEvoy said the purchase was a “very exciting” way to start the stable’s partnership with Stewart, which arose after overtures towards the big-spending American from the younger McEvoy.
“We’re really over the moon,” he said. “It’s been a hard day to sit around and wait. I’ve been biting my fingernails hoping it would all work out, and it’s very exciting for our team to be taking home such a quality colt.
“We couldn’t fault him. He had a great swagger, was the right size, and had all the qualities we look for in a horse, and a good pedigree to back it up.
“This is our first horse together [with Stewart]. We’ve been talking for the last 12 or 18 months. I’ve probably been a little bit pushy and he’s been fantastic to deal with.
“We nearly got one at the Gold Coast but missed out, but it’s great to get a really nice horse now. It’s just up to us now to turn his investment into hopefully a Group 1–winning colt.”
Hutch said he was “pleased with how things played out” on day one.
“If you’d said to me at the start of the day this would be the set of figures we’d end up with, I’d have been very pleasantly surprised,” he said.
“We’ve cleared 70 per cent and that’s going up. The gross has been solid, the median is up year-on-year, and the average is up year-on-year.
“The clearance is slightly down but not significantly, and so while there are very evidently challenges in the market, and parts of the market that are more difficult than what they were through 2022 and 2023, I think really it’s been quite an encouraging day.”
Yulong’s Vin Cox was delighted to secure Rosemont’s Zoustar colt from Crack The Code, a Melbourne Group 3 winner out of triple stakes winner Most Secret (Bletchley Park), saying the farm’s owner Zhang Yuesheng was especially keen on the colt.
“He’s a big, strong, forward colt, he’s by a good stallion out of a good stakes-winning mare,” Cox said. “The boss took a really good shine to him and when the boss does that he’s hard to hold out.”
Five lots hit $400,000 or more, the other two being Morning Rise Stud’s colt by Home Affairs bought by Mulberry Racing for $440,000, and Blue Gum Farm’s Toronado colt bought by Hong Kong trainer Ricky Yiu for $400,000.
Toronado had five lots sold at an average of $382,000, Widden Hunter Valley’s Zoustar had three move at $303,333, while Written Tycoon had four sell at $275,000.
Gilgai sold four lots at an average of $367,000, Rosemont had eight yearlings sell at $298,750, and Yulong pushed 17 lots at $186,471.
Yiu topped the buyers’ table with five purchases accumulating $1.28 million, ahead of Yulong with four for $1.23 million, and Lindsay Park with Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock, who bought five yearlings for a total of $790,000.
The two million–dollar colts were the fourth and fifth to reach seven figures at Premier. An I Am Invincible colt fetched $1.4 million in 2017, while $1.1 million was paid for both an I Am Invincible filly in 2023 and a Written Tycoon colt in 2021.
Sale statistics – Day 1
2025 — 2024
Catalogued 283 — 280
Offered 252 — 252
Sold 179 — 187
Aggregate $26,177,000 (+0.2%) — $26,124,000
Average $146,240 (+4.6%) — $139,701
Median $100,000 (-4.7%) — $105,000
Top Lot $1,000,000 — $625,000