Te Akau make million-dollar splash on the Gold Coast
Colts by I Am Invincible and Zoustar to join tangerine army as Ellis continues his Australian expansion
Four horses on the opening day of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale made a million dollars or more and two of them were purchased by New Zealand powerhouse Te Akau Racing as David Ellis ramped up the operation’s permanent Australian presence.
Ellis used day one to make a statement, first going to $1.3 million for a colt by champion sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), before swooping for a colt by Zoustar (Northern Meteor) for $1.1 million.
Fillies by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and I Am Invincible also sold for seven figures, helping the 210-lot session average reach $281,767, a record for the first day of a Magic Millions January sale, as buyers demonstrated their willingness to invest from the opening minutes.
And Ellis didn’t wait long to enter the fray, either, linking with an international ally in Coolmore to buy the session-topping I Am Invincible colt for $1.3 million. He will be trained out of Te Akau’s new Cranbourne stable in Victoria.
Te Akau’s current pin-up horse, Imperatriz – who is also by I Am Invincible – flew the flag for the fledgling Cranbourne base, which opened at the start of the season, by winning three Group 1s during the Melbourne spring for trainers Mark Walker and Sam Bergerson. This early momentum prompted Ellis to break new ground, buying seven-figure yearlings in Australia for the first time.
By the same sire as Coolmore’s dual Group 1-winning stallion Home Affairs, who was also raced by the the Magniers’ colts syndicate, the colt is a brother to Group 2 winner Shuffle Dancer and the stakes-placed Forbidden City, while he is a half-brother to the stakes-placed Never Talk (No Nay Never). Catalogued as Lot 19, he is the fourth foal out of Palace Talk (Street Cry).
“We thought he was a beautiful colt and we bought him for Coolmore Stud and we’re just delighted that we can train these sorts of horses at our Cranbourne stable for them,” Ellis said.
“Tom and MV [Magnier] and their father have been supportive for a long time and they want to take that to the next level now that we’re in Australia full–time.”
The majority of the Te Akau-purchased Magic Millions yearlings are set to be educated in New Zealand, but the high-priced Yarraman Park-bred colt will go through Coolmore’s breaking-in and pre-training system.
When buying Te Akau’s second million–dollar acquisition on day one, Ellis had to fend off fierce competition from a host of underbidders in James Harron, Newgate Farm’s Henry Field and agent George Moore, whose father John owned and then trained the colt’s close relation Eagle Way (More Than Ready).
The Segenhoe-bred-and-sold Zoustar colt is the first foal out of three-time winner Ready To Soar (More Than Ready), who is herself a sister to Eagle Way, winner of the 2016 Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m) for trainer Bryan Guy before being exported to Moore’s Hong Kong stable.
“I have had a great relationship with David for years, dating back to when I was with Coolmore, and I am absolutely stoked for him and Mark Walker,” Segenhoe general manager Peter O’Brien said.
“You can see they are making a statement as far as setting up their Cranbourne stable and buying some nice yearlings.
“We’ll definitely be supporting them by giving them horses to train.”
Ellis added: “We’ve been very impressed with the quality that is here and we want to train these horses so if we want to train them we’ve got to come here and buy them.”
Mills takes confidence from Waterhouse
She’s not quite the ugly duckling that’s turned into a swan, but the fourth million–dollar horse sold on day one, the $1.25 million Snitzel filly, is one agent Sheamus Mills is glad he went the extra bid, even if it was more than two-and-a-half times what she sold for as a weanling.
The youngster is the fourth foal out of the Group 2-placed juvenile Serena Bay (Sebring), who was bought by Newgate Farm’s Jim Carey for $480,000 out of the Edinburgh Park Stud dispersal at last year’s Magic Millions National Weanling Sale.
The Snitzel filly is half-sister to Alinea (Written Tycoon), who was fifth in the Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m), while she also counts the stakes-placed Summer Loving (Exceed And Excel), who won a barrier trial on Tuesday morning for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, among her half-siblings.
Armed with that knowledge as Waterhouse and Bott played their hand, Mills decided to go above and beyond his initial budget for the Newgate Farm-consigned filly.
“That was like death by 1,000 paper cuts, I never thought that was going to end to be honest. But you’ve got to be staunch with the good ones, don’t you? They stand out and everyone seems to want them,” Mills said.
“I got a little bit of extra incentive when I realised that Gai was on it. I think she’s got the last two, including the one that trialled this morning [Alinea], so she’s got to think something of them if she’s punching us along this far.
“Thanks to Gai for that last little bit of incentive.”
Asked about her development from May to January, Mills said: ““I went back and looked at my notes and I loved everything about her, but I said that she had a bad head.
“I don’t know how – they might have done some facial surgery or something … I don’t know what they can do these days, fix the joints, fix the knees, fix everything – they somehow fixed the head.
“Either I got it wrong in the first place, or she grew into the [beautiful] swan as the old nursery rhyme goes.”
He added: “We kept knocking the catalogue down more and more and more, I think we ended up with five horses through the week as the horses we identified as the five we thought were must-haves, and I’d be surprised if the other four are viable.”
Gollan adds another Barbie to his collection
Earlier in the afternoon, the first seven-figure lot sold in 2024 was bought by Tony Gollan and Jennifer Acton, whose late husband Alan raced the I Am Invincible filly’s dam Outback Barbie (Spirit Of Boom) to stakes success with Brisbane’s premier trainer.
Acton will retain a share in the Yarraman Park-consigned $1.2 million filly, who Gollan said reminded him of her four-time stakes-winning mother.
“She was popular from the minute they saw her down at the farm. I’ve seen her videos as a foal and all the way through and she has always been a prospect to come to the sales,” said Gollan, who also trains Outback Barbie’s two siblings, this season’s Calaway Gal (Listed, 1000m) winner Barbie’s Sister and the unraced three-year-old filly Coastal Barbie.
“She looks like those athletic I Am Invincible fillies and was well mated. She moves well like her mother did as a yearling and with buying first foals, why wouldn’t you when they look like that?”
“It is great that the [Acton] family is still happy to be involved. A nice filly like this at a Queensland stable, we’re very privileged.”
Alan Acton was tragically killed in a helicopter crash on his Queensland property last April.
Coolangatta’s sister stays in hands of breeder Warren
John Warren parted with Piping Hot (More Than Ready), the dam of elite sprinting filly Coolangatta (Written Tycoon), when she sold for $3 million at the Gold Coast last May and on Tuesday he made a “spontaneous” $800,000 decision to buy back into the family by purchasing the dual Group 1 winner’s sister.
Warren, the Highclere Stud owner and the bloodstock and racing advisor for King Charles, bred the Written Tycoon (Iglesia) filly, the fourth foal out of Piping Hot, on a foal share basis with Sheriff Iskander and sold her through the Milburn Creek draft.
“We were very open minded and we didn’t have a particularly preconceived idea that we were all guns blazing to buy her, but we decided that when you can convert the dollars into pounds and then halve it with the foal share [it made sense],” Warren said.
“As a potential broodmare down the line we thought she’d make a lovely addition to the few mares that we’ve got here in Australia. So, we’ll enjoy her hopefully long-term as a broodmare prospect and have fun racing her on the way there.”
Piping Hot and Coolangatta are both now owned by Coolmore with the pair in foal to Home Affairs and Justify (Scat Daddy) respectively.
Warren, whose spur-of-the-moment purchase means he is yet to choose a trainer for the yearling, but admitted the filly was more in the mould of her Yulong-based sire rather than Coolangatta.
“She is much more like Written Tycoon than Coolangatta, but none of us know what the engine’s like inside, so how can you compare apples and oranges? In my experience, I have seen plenty of full-brothers and sisters that look different and perhaps were equally as good as one another.”
Warren also has a Lope De Vega (Shamardal) filly out of Muchly (Iffraaj) selling through the Arrowfield draft on Saturday night, as Lot 991.
“I think the whole Australian market is phenomenal and I think you’re very lucky that you’re not dictated by a very few buyers that hold a market up,” Warren said.
“I think the syndication process here is outstanding and your prize-money is phenomenal. It’s a boom industry on the world stage, the government gets right behind it and I think you’re the envy of the world.”
The first hour of the sale was deemed as pivotal to dictating how the market may play out and syndicator Darby Racing, on the back of Ozzmosis (Zoustar) winning the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in the spring and Overpass (Vancouver) winning The Quokka (1200m) and Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in Perth last year, made its intentions clear early in the session, buying three horses in the first 11 lots and another three later on.
The China Horse Club, Newgate, Go Bloodstock and Trilogy Racing syndicate was the leading buyer on day one, spending $2.67 million on five colts.
Other buyers to make a strong start on day one included leading trainers Ciaron Maher, with various other buyers, (seven for $2.605 million) and Chris Waller and his agent Guy Mulcaster (seven for $1.705 million).
Among Maher’s day one haul was a first season daughter of Darley’s champion sprinter Bivouac (Exceed And Excel), who he bought out of the Mill Park Stud draft for $675,000.
The filly is the second foal out of the winning mare Secretly Discreet (Lonhro), herself a daughter of Group 1 winner Maybe Discreet (Shamardal).
The David Peacock-bred filly, who was offered as Lot 154, also came with the ringing endorsement of a rival trainer, multiple Group 1 winner Gerald Ryan, who even took a share in the horse.
Maher’s bloodstock manager Will Bourne said the filly was “very much an athlete, strong, great through the hocks walking away from you” and felt that she’d be a filly that could come back and compete next year as a two-year-old.
“They’re not heavy horses, [the Bivouacs], I must admit. They’re leaner, more athletic types, but I think that’s going to be advantageous to get them to the races at two, they’re not too heavy, and Ciaron’s dominant horses have been lighter types like Coolangatta,” Bourne said.
“They don’t take a lot of training, so I am hoping that enables [this filly] to get back here for the race next year.
“I’ve never had a trainer come up to me and take ten per cent, but Gerald Ryan has come up and taken ten per cent of her, so that’s been a first for me.”
The opening session was stronger than Bourne had expected leading into the sale.
“I didn’t think it was going to be as buoyant as it is, but it’s very strong through the middle,” he said.
“There are not many getting passed-in but the ones that are, you ring up to try and buy them and it has already gone.”
The early activity helped settle the market, which led to a clearance rate of 85 per cent through seven hours of trade, a session which achieved turnover of almost $46 million at an average of $281,767 and a median of $210,000.
“We were very confident in our first 30 lots and to start with a very healthy clearance rate, and then the two million-dollar horses set the tone of the day,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said.
“Having a median of $210,000, a record day one average and a clearance rate of 84 per cent, it was a solid day.
“We had two exceptional fillies go through the ring today and sell accordingly.”
Bowditch is confident that there will be plenty of activity again on day two, which starts at 10am.
“There will be ones who slip through the cracks but if we can find that median where the lower to middle end can raise it, it will be another good outcome,” he said.