Sunlight’s brother headlines remarkable day at the Inglis Easter sale
Widden Stud’s Zoustar colt bought by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier for eye-watering $3 million as 13 other lots break the seven-figure barrier
The brother to champion filly Sunlight (Zoustar) was sold for a decade-high $3 million at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale yesterday, completing a remarkable second session that saw 14 million dollar lots change hands and put the 2022 edition on a pedestal of its own.
Of the 20 million dollar lots sold at Riverside Stables across two days, the six highest-priced yearlings were all sold yesterday, as colts syndicates and buyers of high-end fillies, owners and trainers all jostled in an attempt to secure some of the best-credentialled yearlings offered to market in Australasia this year.
After the enormous surge in trade yesterday, which hit $81.925 million in single day spend, the Easter aggregate of eclipsed the 2008 Easter sale aggregate of $150.159 million, a mark long-time auction house staff said would never be bettered following an extraordinary buying spree by Darley and the Ingham family who had just sold its Woodlands empire to Sheikh Mohammed.
The 2022 Easter aggregate closed last night at $151.325 million last night, a jump of 15 per cent, while the average shot to a remarkable $406,788, also up ten per cent and the median was at $300,000, up from $260,000 at the close of the 2021 Easter sale. They are the highest markers on record in Inglis’ 117-year history.
Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch was almost lost for words when asked to describe what had transpired at the Easter sale this week.
“It is unprecedented, genuinely unprecedented. We have been in the fortunate position whereby circumstance has meant that we set new records at the Classic yearling sale, the Premier yearling sale, the Ready 2 Race Sale, so inevitably the mind wonders, ‘what is the record at Easter?’” he said.
“So, I looked back and it was back in 2008 when there were 630-odd horses in the sale and they turned over $150 million and a bit, so you think, ‘that’s impossible, you can never beat that’.
“To sit here today and to be in position to have horses good enough to allow us to beat it and to have bidders who were committed enough and brave enough to want to go and buy horses to the extent they have is hard to comprehend.”
The day, though, belonged to Widden Stud, the 155-year-old thoroughbred farm, who sold the Zoustar (Northern Meteor) brother to Sunlight to the colt’s partnership led by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier, who was the Easter sale’s leading spender.
The Zoustar colt the equal third highest-priced yearling ever sold at a southern hemisphere yearling sale after the Redoute’s Choice (Danehill) half-brother to Black Caviar (Bel Esprit), later to be known as “Jimmy” who made $5 million at the 2013 Easter sale, and a $4 million Fastnet Rock (Danehill) colt sold at the same auction.
Two colts, by Redoute’s Choice and Rock Of Gibraltar (Danehill), were also sold for $3 million each at the 2006 the 2007 Easter sales respectively.
Standing out the back of the Riverside Stables ring, BK Racing and Breeding’s Ben Vassallo, flanked by Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup, held the call at $2.8 million before Magnier and his Coolmore cohorts, standing on the opposite side of the back parade ring, gave the go-ahead for the price to hit $3 million.
The underbidders were left shaking their heads in disbelief at missing out on the star colt as auctioneer Brett Gilding brought down the gavel.
Widden Stud principal Antony Thompson was stunned after witnessing the sale from the best seat in the house.
“I can’t believe it. Words can’t describe the rollercoaster being behind the auctioneer there and seeing that horse make $3 million, it is just overwhelming,” said Thompson as tears of joy welled up.
“It is stunning work from the team, the guys, our partners in him. I’m blown away.
“You go into the ring and you’re hoping they sell well, but you never know late in the sale. You’re worried if they (buyers) have done their budgets and all those things.
“We knew we had a very special horse, but wow, that is a very special horse. We are just flabbergasted.
“To top any sale, but to top an Easter Yearling Sale is pretty awesome.”
With a powerful consortium of backers, which includes Sir Peter Vela and the syndicate’s trainer Chris Waller, Magnier said it was important the group was united in its approach to sourcing potential stallion prospects.
“Obviously, we bought Sunlight and the foal at home by Justify is our best foal at home, so it’s a family that we know well. When you are trying to make stallions you need to have horses like this. He was probably the best type in the sale,” Magnier said.
“When you go and fund colts like this, you have to have everybody agreeing that this is a colt that ticks every box for the whole team.
“We will obviously need a bit of luck, and they can’t all be good, but you are doing the right thing if you are trying to buy the good pedigrees and the good types.”
Solar Charged (Charge Forward), a sister to Listed winner Causeway Queen (Giant’s Causeway), was bought for $650,000 at the 2014 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in foal to Sebring (More Than Ready) by Thompson and Qatar Racing to support then high-profile recruit Zoustar (Northern Meteor), an investment that paid off with the stallion being crowned leading first season sire through the deeds, among others, of Sunlight.
With Sheikh Fahad’s support, alongside Tweenhills’ David Redvers and Hannah Wall as well as Telemon Thoroughbreds’ Dan and Rae Fletcher, Widden Stud has sent Solar Charged to Zoustar five times in six years. She had a colt by Sebring (More Than Ready), who was born in 2017.
From that, the six yearlings to head to a yearling sale have realised $5.7 million. They also retained a share in Sunlight, the three-time Group 1 winner who put Zoustar on the map via her Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) victory, before selling her to Coolmore at the 2020 Gold Coast broodmare sale for a Magic Millions record of $4.2 million.
“We have invested heavily in some nice mares and obviously stallions and you come here with the best of the best,” Thompson said.
“You have to stump up, there’s some beautiful horses on the complex and the buyers are very professional, they do all their due diligence, and Coolmore have been wonderful supporters of the farm. They bought the top-priced horse off us in Melbourne as well (by I Am Invincible for $950,000) and they, of course, bought the full-sister to this bloke in Sunlight.
“They like buying off Widden, I think they feel confident in what we do. Hopefully, one day this guy is a stallion for them in the barn at Coolmore and we can send our mares back to him.”
Thompson admitted to a few sleepless nights as anticipation built about the prospects of the remarkable colt, but even he dared not to dream that the horse could make $3 million.
“I always thought he was a million dollars-plus, but you don’t know once you get past that where they are going to go, but we did have every serious colts syndicate and major player around the ground admiring him and commenting on him,” he said.
“A lot of people wanted to tell us he was the best colt in the sale. Talk’s cheap at an auction and everything else is expensive when putting your hand up at an auction. You just try to keep an open mind and remain grounded about it all. We put him on the market at $1 million as I knew he was always going to make more than that and there was no way I was going to sell him for anything less.”
Widden rounded out its Easter sale by parting with a Fastnet Rock filly for $1 million, which pushed the stud’s aggregate to $10,345,000 from 21 lots sold at an average of $492,619.
Magnier follows path well trodden
With studs in Ireland, America and, of course, the Hunter Valley, Coolmore has succeeded in part, Magnier said, by following proven sire lines and the addition of the $2.25 million Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) brother to 2018 Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Estijaab follows that well-worn model.
The highest-priced of seven million dollar yearlings sold by leading Easter vendor Arrowfield, which cracked the $30 million mark after selling 58 yearlings across the two days, the colt is the seventh foal out of Group 1-winning mare Response, who like Solar Charge is also by Charge Forward (Red Ransom), making him a sibling to not only Estijaab but also the stakes-placed Remarque, while he is a half-brother to After Call (Fastnet Rock), who is also stakes-placed.
Japan’s Northern Farm was underbidder on the colt, who was catalogued as Lot 374.
“Snitzel is a four-time champion sire and everybody is looking for the next Snitzel, the next Fastnet Rock and hopefully we’ve already got the next I Am Invincible (in Home Affairs) and they’re the boxes you need to tick when you’re looking for these stallions pedigrees,” Magnier said.
“The Messaras produce great horses and they have done a great job with Snitzel. The Danehills, through the Fastnet Rocks, the Sadler’s Wells through the Galileos, you’ve got to try and follow those lines and who knows where it’s going to come from, but if you’re buying progeny by the top stallions you’re in with some chance.”
Coolmore also bought a Zoustar (Northern Meteor) colt out of Group 3-winning mare Sexy Eyes (Written Tycoon) from Milburn Creek later in the day for $1.25 million to go with $1.4 million colts by Snitzel and Written Tycoon (Iglesia) and a $1 million son of I Am Invincible on day one.
In total, the Coolmore syndicate spent $10.3 million.
Hawkeses embrace high-end fillies
Father and sons Wayne and John Hawkes were also active at the top-end of the market at the Easter Sale, purchasing ten yearlings including two top-line fillies from Arrowfield Stud on day two, headed by a Snitzel filly out of Group 1-winning sprinter Silent Sedition (War Chant) for $2.2 million.
Soon after they went to $1.7 million for a Dundeel (High Chaparral) filly out of Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Stay With Me (Street Cry), herself a daughter of champion two and three-year-old Miss Finland (Redoute’s Choice).
They were catalogued as Lot 424 and Lot 448 respectively.
Wayne Hawkes believes the Snitzel filly had the strength and power of a colt, a trait he believes will hold her in good stead on the racetrack.
“When you’re buying these fillies and they look like colts, it’s a bit special,” he said.
“What more can I say about her than what everyone already knows? When you see these fillies that are winning against the boys and that’s what (her dam) did, I was there when Silent Sedition won at Moonee Valley the night that she won (the Group 1 William Reid Stakes).
“There’s fillies that win the Group 1s and then the special fillies that win in open company. She was a star and she was a star filly of the sale.”
Despite having the support of owners to secure a number of well-credentialled yearlings, Hawkes said the competition from the buying bench was like nothing he’d experienced before.
“Gee it’s tough and I’m standing with a $2.2 (million yearling). I don’t think we’ve been flogged this much at a sale in so long,” he said.
“We got hammered today, so to get the number one draft pick was good but the best horses are here and that’s where they are.
“The price has certainly gone up, no doubt about it. With prize-money going up and up and up, it’s just flowing through to the yearling sales.”
Arrowfield principal John Messara was elated that his stud had once again been crowned leading Easter vendor.
“Overall, our result was outstanding, we were very pleased with the outcome. We broke our own record, by a huge margin, by $9 million which is ridiculous, and we are very proud of that,” Messara said.
“The market is strong, but I keep saying to people that every asset class has been on the rise, boats, stocks, houses, and interest rates are very low.
“Prize-money has been rising and that certainly helps. It’s been a combination of things which has brought a bit of confidence in the marketplace.”
Arrowfield farewelled the last yearlings by top sire Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice) at the Easter sale and also admired the deeds of Snitzel, but Messara said the sale was another example of a long-term investment undertaken by the stud and its partners.
“It’s very gratifying, because there has been a massive investment to get to where we are today in stallions and mare and capital to get ourselves to a position where we can produce this level of horses,” he said.
Tyreel torn by filly’s $2 million result
Another filly by an elite stallion with a huge pedigree page to bring big money at Riverside Stables was Tyreel Stud’s $2 million daughter of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), the half-sister to The Everest (1200m) winner Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt) and Hong Kong Group 2 winner Aethero (Sebring).
Linda Monds was reluctant to part with the filly, the fifth foal out of Pinocchio (Encosta De Lago), but could not ignore the interest in the yearling who was bought by Mitchell Bloodstock for racing enthusiast and south west Sydney businessman Phillip Visalli of the Yellow Brick Road Company.
Chris Waller will train the horse, the equal highest-priced yearling ever sold by I Am Invincible.
“I just felt she was such a special filly. I thought she deserved every bit of the sale figure she achieved and it’s definitely a bittersweet moment,” Monds said.
“From the time she foaled down, I always said the first filly out of the mare I would keep and all the way through I was going to keep her.
“I even had a race name in my head for her and right up to the time she walked into the ring, I didn’t think she’d reach the value that I thought she was worth. It’s blown me away that she has actually sold.
“I spent a lifetime dreaming about breeding, but I know she will go on and do us proud, and I have mum at home and I’ll breed another one.”
Pinocchio has a Pierro (Lonhro) weanling filly and is in foal to Snitzel.
Bill Mitchell revealed the filly came on his client’s radar as soon as he laid eyes on her last week at the complex.
“She was an expensive filly, but high quality, with great residual. She’s a beautiful filly, and we were very happy,” Mitchell said.
“She is a beautiful filly, strong, good natured and it was pretty plain for everyone to see she was an outstanding filly. It’s just a matter of if you can buy her or not.
“She was as good a filly as there was on the grounds, without a doubt.”
Harron lands impressive I Am Invincible filly
Another quality I Am Invincible filly to make seven figures was the third foal out of Group 1 winner Ruud Awakening (Bernardini) who was bought by agent James Harron for $1.7 million.
Sold by Newgate Farm on behalf of breeder Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock, the filly is a half-sister to recent Pago Pago Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) winner Rise Of The Masses (Russian Revolution), a colt trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott for his breeder. She was catalogued as Lot 393.
“Sir Owen Glenn and (Go Bloodstock manager) Steve O’Connor do a great job and it’s an excellent result for the farm,” Newgate Farm stud manager Jim Carey said.
“It is a huge credit to everybody at the farm, from the people who foaled her down and brought her through (to the yearling sale) and they’ve always had a huge wrap on her.”
The emergence of Rise Of The Masses did not harm the filly’s value whose underbidder was Chris Waller and agent Guy Mulcaster.
“It was a huge result for us (with Rise Of The Masses) and his sire Russian Revolution is absolutely smashing it,” Carey said.
“He had another winner (on Tuesday at Hawkesbury) and Rise Of The Masses came off the farm, like this filly, and hopefully she progresses as well as he is.
“She has an absolutely fantastic temperament, she has got a great action and she’s very straight-forward.”
Prior to selling the Ruud Awakening filly, Sir Owen combined with Waterhouse and Bott and Bruce Slade’s Kestrel Thoroughbreds to buy Lot 369, a Snitzel colt who is a three-quarter brother to Group 1 winner Stratum Star (Stratum) and Kia Ora Stud’s Group 3-winning first season stallion Prague (Redoute’s Choice).
Sold by Bhima Thoroughbreds, he made $1.4 million.
Justify half-brother to star filly Loving Gaby creates southern hemisphere record for sire
The most expensive yearling of the season by high-profile first season Coolmore shuttler Justify (Scat Daddy), the half-brother to top-class sprinting filly Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible), was sold for $1 million on day two of the Easter sale, the first of the session to hit the seven-figure mark.
Buyer Wayne Hawkes, one third of the father and sons training partnership alongside father John and brother Michael, was bidding via the phone to Inglis’ Sebastian Hutch and he was rapt to take home “the best Justify of the year”.
Hawkes and Hutch sat just two tables away from each other, front on to the Riverside sales ring, which continues the growing prevalence of the auction “ducks and drakes” being played by many buyers who are reluctant to give up their identities during the bidding process.
The colt’s dam Maastricht (Mastercraftsman) was placed four times at stakes level for the Hawkeses and owner Alan Bell who retained the mare with Kia Ora Stud to breed Group 1-winning filly Loving Gaby.
Maastricht was sold for $2.25 million to Coolmore at the 2019 Chairman’s Sale when in foal to I Am Invincible. Kia Ora retained its 50 per cent share and consigned the $1 million Justify colt who was catalogued as Lot 267.
“We trained mum and she was pretty good, she ran second in so many races for Alan Bell and we knew she had the quality,” Wayne Hawkes said.
“The first one was Loving Gaby and we all looked at her at the sales, the first year of the Warwick Farm sales (in 2018), and we thought she was a staying filly, so we got that wrong, and this colt is her best since Loving Gaby and he is no doubt the best Justify of the year, I don’t care what anyone says.”
The unbeaten US Triple Crown winner, renowned for his size and power, has thrown his physique into many of his foals and Hawkes believes the $1 million colt was similar to his sire.
“He was just a big, strong, beautiful horse and if he can’t run, I’ll give up, simple as that,” the trainer said.
“Big is not always best, but when they’re athletic like he is, it doesn’t matter. All it means is that you go easy on them at the start. My father said there’s got to be some chance of getting him here as a two-year-old this time next year … and the first foal is a star.
“We all get a bit carried away, but she was a proper horse.”
Coolmore has supported Justify with an unprecedented number of high-quality mares, Maastricht among them, and the stud is also giving away a Ferrari to the buyer of the first southern hemisphere-bred horse by him to win one of the major Group 1 or a designated stakes race.
“The keys to the Ferrari? I’d be happy to win a race this time next year at The Championships. You know what, if he ends up as a good horse I will be happy with the keys to a Honda,” joked Hawkes.
The older half-sister to the Justify colt, two-year-old filly Greece (I Am Invincible), is being trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace. She showed immense ability at the barrier trials in Sydney before floundering on a Heavy 10 track in the Reisling Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) on debut last month after which she was immediately sent for a spell.
Hawkes also reflected on the day one purchase of the Dundeel (High Chaparral) half-brother to Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Profondo (Deep Impact) out of Honesty Prevails (Redoute’s Choice) for $1 million.
“H is just a beautiful horse and Dundeel’s doing a hell of a job. She’s already thrown a Group 1 winner in Profondo. Things didn’t go quite right this autumn. You know when you’re on the wrong hop with big colts it’s never ever easy,” Hawkes said.
“(The Dundeel colt) was a beautiful horse from the first time we saw him up at Arrowfield about three weeks ago. He had the wow factor then and he was one of Paul Messara’s favourites.
“I am not sure if Paul Messara is a good judge or not, and we’ll soon find out, but it won’t matter because he’ll blame me if it doesn’t go to plan.”
Later on in the afternoon, Kia Ora Stud donned their buying hat once more when adding a colt by Snitzel to their portfolio, once again teaming up with TFI to buy the Arrowfield Stud-consigned yearling for $1.4 million.
Catalogued as Lot 377, the colt is the third foal out of Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Rising Romance (Ekraar) making him a brother to this season’s Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Yearning (Snitzel) and stakes-placed two-year-old Magic.
Kia Ora’s Shane Wright was delighted to secure the colt and he believes the page is only going to improve in the next few years.
“What a colt he is,” said Wright. “The cross is already proven with Yearning and Magic looks like he’s got so much potential coming through. The family is really going to keep getting better and better.
“This colt was a standout, we had two or three colts right at the top of the list and we were able to buy one yesterday. It’s not easy to come away with them, there’s plenty of competition and there was a lot of competition for him and in a way it’s good there were all the right people on him. To come home with him is quite exciting.
“Physical is a very big thing and we want a racehorse that looks like it can run and when you’re looking at stallions for the future you want a stallions’ pedigree and this Snitzel colt definitely has that.”
Over the two days, Kia Ora, teaming up with various other buyers, purchased 12 yearlings for an aggregate of $10,440,000, while they sold ten yearlings for a gross of $4,185,000 at an average of $418,500 and Wright said it was an exciting time to bring horses to market in Australia.
“Kia Ora have been busy. We bought 12 here at this sale and have sold some nice ones. We sold a Justify for a million and I believe that’s the first (million-dollar) Justify sold in the southern hemisphere. We’ve bought some nice horses too, colts and fillies. It’s a busy time but the Australian market is in a great place and it’s a good time to do it.
“The fillies, you look through every one and they all have really good pedigrees and they are from families in Australia that are just going to keep improving, so you’re buying fillies with that residual value and always looking to the future, but hopefully there’s a couple of exciting years racing them first.
“There’s so much competition here, especially with the colts syndicates. There’s five, six syndicates getting around and TFI have an amazing track record with the colts they’ve bought in the last couple of years so it’s definitely a good one to be partnering with.”