Piping Hot start tipped to Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale

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World’s bloodstock investors’ focus to be on the Gold Coast as star fillies and mares go under the hammer

For more than seven hours today, the world’s thoroughbred breeding industry’s attention will be squarely on the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, a day which has the potential to break records. 

The Gold Coast race fillies and mares session, the first of three days of breeding stock sales taking place on South East Queensland’s holiday hotspot, promises to be as captivating as it is important for Australasian investors as well as for breeders with a global interest in their bloodstock holdings.

From the time the first of 245 lots enters the ring at 12pm, until the last offering of the day walks out at about 7.30pm, the competition for the elite mares is set to be intense, to the extent the Magic Millions daily turnover record of $4.2 million and the Australasian record single-lot price of $5 million, set at an Inglis sale 15 years ago, could both be under threat.

The action starts with Lot 502, the Group 2-winning and Group 1-placed mare Vangelic (Vancouver) and her presence is almost certain to provide a big benchmark for the 2023 sale. Just six lots later, the New Zealand Group 2 winner Wolverine (Tivaci), who was purchased by Australian Bloodstock and has raced in Australia at three, will go through the ring, while Group 2 winner Zennzella (Snitzel), Lot 511, is also expected to be in high demand. 

Ciaron Maher and David Eustace’s Group 1-winning mare Snapdancer (Choisir) will command the attention of high-end commercial breeders, while 60 minutes later potential blue hen mare Piping Hot (More Than Ready) will be the first supplementary lot through the ring, catalogued as Lot 676. 

The Milburn Creek-consigned, John Warren-owned Piping Hot, who is in foal to champion sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), is the dam of Group 1-winning, Royal Ascot-bound filly Coolangatta (Written Tycoon), making her arguably the most valuable in-foal mare to go through an Australasian sales ring in “many a year”.

Her credentials mean buyers could be forced to break the auction house record of $4.2 million which Coolmore paid for champion filly Sunlight (Zoustar) at the 2020 National Broodmare Sale and the $5 million John Magnier’s Irish stud paid for Milanova (Danehill) at the Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale 2008 to take her home.

Approximately 30 minutes after Piping Hot’s moment in the spotlight, Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) winner Paris Dior (Pierro) is scheduled to go through the ring and, soon after, last-start Surround Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Sunshine In Paris (Invader), a potential session topper, will also go through the ring. 

In between, stakes-winning filly Isotope (Deep Field), Group 1 winner Forbidden Love (All Too Hard) and Bjorn Baker’s Group 2 winner Shades Of Rose (Rubick) will go under the hammer, in what promises to be an enthralling day of trade.

Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said the National sale was one that “the world will be paying attention to, and rightly so”.

“It’s a pivotal day on the calendar each and every year, there’s a lot of anticipation and it’s a day that culminates so many careers and big ownership groups off the racetrack,” Bowditch said.

“It is a day where we could see a hell of a lot of fireworks.”

Bowditch added the race performances of the elite mares was matched by their physique.

“There are a lot of fast race fillies who are very well conformed going through the ring and that’s what excites me the most,” he said. 

“A lot of the physicals and the performances are lining up perfectly together with these mares. 

“They’re beautiful fillies and race mares who have got big pedigrees and big performances and I think any breeder in the world needs to be paying attention to Magic Millions.”

The Eureka Stud-consigned Isotope, a multiple stakes-winning mare for Black Soil Bloodstock and trainer Tony Gollan, is a half-sister to Group 1-winning Australian mare Yankee Rose (All American) who, in turn, is making her mark as a broodmare in Japan as the dam Liberty Island (Duramente), a three-year-old who added a third Grade 1 win from five starts to her record with a blistering victory in the Yushun Himba (Gr 1, 2400m) on Sunday.

Arrowfield Stud’s bloodstock manager Jon Freyer said Australia’s premium fillies and mares were continually on the radar of international investors and that would again be the case at the Gold Coast this week.

“Some of these really high-class Australian horses have been able to compete on the world stage with distinction, so it’s no surprise that you see fillies like Yankee Rose and Bounding, who have gone overseas and done brilliantly well as broodmares,” Freyer said yesterday.

“Over a period of years, you’ve got a lot of these bloodlines that have melded throughout the world and the genetic pool in Australia is nearly as good as anywhere these days. You send a mare like Yankee Rose to Japan and she can throw a champion and, likewise, you’ll send to the UK a filly like Coolangatta, who may well end up staying up there, and you wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up doing something similar in the UK.

“It’s just an ever-evolving situation with how bloodstock moves around the world.”  

Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng bought 63 mares at last year’s National sale, spending $29.275 million across the three days and, at the Chairman’s Sale earlier this month, he bought ten per cent of the catalogue, including four of the nine million-dollar mares sold during Inglis’s evening offering.

Coolmore has also been a major investor in mares in recent years and purchased Nimalee (So You Think) for a sale-topping $3.6 million at Chairman’s.

 While those two big entities are expected to be a force again, Bowditch stressed that the size and diversity of the catalogue meant there were chances for mare investors to be involved in the sale across all segments of the market.

“I think we’ve got a quality line up of mares who deserve to be supported very well over the next three days, and I think that will happen, but there will be huge opportunities in the market, particularly at the lower-to-mid end,” the Magic Millions managing director said. 

“The buyers need to be here, they need to be paying attention, they need to get the agents to do the work for them if they can’t get here because there’s a lot of opportunity here.

“I would encourage every buyer to keep their lists long, bid their best and they’ll be very happy with what they take home.”

The race fillies and mares’ session will close out with the Edinburgh Park dispersal of 40 mares, whose careers have been nurtured by breeder Ian Smith.

A 15-lot stallion nomination auction to raise money for the family of the late Dean Holland and the National Jockeys Trust will start at 11.30am, before the mares’ sale starts at midday.

To view the catalogue for the National Broodmare Sale, click here, while the fundraiser for Dean Holland’s family and the NJT can be found here.

Potential highlight lots on day one

Lot Name

508 Wolverine

548 Coventina Bay

568 Forbidden Love

575 Isotope

638 Shades Of Rose

645 Snapdancer

676 Piping Hot

693 Paris Dior

700 Sunshine In Paris

1359 Serena Bay