Girls to the fore in Magic opening session

Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

At A Glance

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The average for the session surged to $272,044, up from $248,000 on Day 1 last year.

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The median also jumped, up from $170,000 to $215,000.

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The gross sales for the opening day surpassed $40 million, up $5 million on last year.

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The clearance rate also soared to an impressive 91 per cent, up from 85 per cent in last year's first session.

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Moody made his move late on a Zoustar filly from Strawberry Hill Stud out of Karuta Queen (Not A Single Doubt), paying $950,000.

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The first crop of Justify (USA) made their mark, with the Coolmore-consigned filly out of Global Glamour (Star Witness) to follow her dam into the care of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, after fetching $900,000.

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Two other fillies also secured a $900,000 pricetag, with Ciaron Maher Racing buying a filly by Zoustar from Yulong and Sheamus Mills going to the same price for a daughter of I Am Invincible, which was sold by Newgate.

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The top-priced colt was a son of Deep Field out of Group 1 winner I Am A Star (NZ) (I Am Invincible) purchased by Shane Nichols.

Moody finds his Queen

Champion trainer Peter Moody launched late on the opening day of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale to secure the session-topping filly on the opening day, paying $950,000 for a Zoustar filly out of R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Karuta Queen (Not A Single Doubt).

Karuta Queen delivered Strawberry Hill Stud a $1.5 million result with a Written Tycoon filly at this Sale two years ago and while this pricetag wasn't quite at that level, her latest yearling filly, catalogued as Lot 172, lured one of the most respected judges in the game.

Moody doesn't often play at the top end of the yearling market but was happy to make an exception for the striking bay filly, who is also a half-sister to stakes winner Eawase (Sebring).

“She’s a beautiful filly and I’m very happy I got her. Obviously, I would have been really happy to pay less for her but she’s a smashing filly and we’ve seen throughout the day high quality horses have made terrific money and, unfortunately, if you’re going to play at that end, you’ve got to pay for them," he said.

“She has a very good pedigree and I think she’ll make a hell of a racehorse. I’ve got to go and find some owners for her now."

Moody said he only spotted the filly once completing his inspections on the grounds at the Gold Coast this week.

"I didn’t get to Strawberry Hill before the Sale but she’s the one that really took my eye when I got on the ground of all the colts and fillies, so I’m very pleased to be taking her home."

For Strawberry Hill Stud bloodstock manager Duncan Grimley, it was a fitting result for the filly.

"I was expecting around that type of money. She’s been a magnificent filly at the Sale and she’s improved. Everybody who saw her loved her, so there was plenty of people on her," he said.

"She was a fair bit over the reserve but that was what we were sort of expecting, not that you expect you’ll get a million bucks but yes, we were very happy with the price.

"Pete’s an outstanding racehorse trainer, so I’m delighted she’s going there."

Since foaling this filly, Karuta Queen, who as well as her Magic Millions heroics, won a G3 Red Anchor S. and a Listed Heritage S., missed in 2020, before going to Spirit Of Boom last year.

A marquee day for the fillies

Lot 172 led a sweep of the top four prices from the fillies on the opening day, a very rare phenomenon at any yearling sale.

Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch said it pointed to the quality on offer at the top end.

“I think the fillies that were extremely highly rated on type and had the pedigree and were by the right sires sold enormously well. There were plenty of them in today’s sale and I think they sold accordingly," he said.

“I think it was one of those days where the fillies did hold court and I think the colts are the ones that generally make the fireworks and we’ll see a few of them over the next few days."

Bowditch was overwhelmingly pleased with the opening session, which saw all key indicators surge on the opening day last year, setting the scene for a record-breaking week on the Gold Coast.

“I think for a Day 1 of a Magic Millions Sale it’s an extremely solid start. It was a deep, strong buoyant market, with plenty of people bidding at all levels and the clearance rate is reflective of that being at an incredibly acceptable 91 per cent," he said.

“It wasn't a day where we expected many fireworks but I thought it was a deep market and a deep lot of horses in the middle. Those horses in the middle were creeping into that higher end regularly and there were plenty of people bidding. The amount of horses above half a million that had numerous bidders on them was encouraging."

“What was encouraging to me was that we were finding buyers at all levels. There were horses that were selling for $40s and $50s, $60s and $70s all the way through the market and that’s what we need to do as a sales company, ensure that we’ve got a market for a big catalogue of horses."

Glamour filly too good to resist

Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott celebrated their first Group 1 win together with the star mare Global Glamour (Star Witness) and will hope to revisit that peak with her filly by Justify (USA), who sold for $900,000.

Global Glamour herself sold for $65,000 through the Magic Millions Gold Coast sale ring as a yearling in 2015 and after a stellar racing career which included victories in the G1 Flight S. and G1 Thousand Guineas, she returned to be purchased for $1.55 million as a broodmare in 2018.

Coolmore headed the syndicate that purchased her and after foaling a Zoustar colt alter that year, she headed to US Triple Crown winner Justify in his first Australian season.

Her resultant filly had created a big impression in the lead-up to this year's Magic Millions Sale and competition was very strong for her in the ring. Waterhouse and Bott, who paid $600,000 for her half-brother by Zoustar on the Gold Coast last year, were not to be denied and won the day.

"She’s a lovely big rangey filly. We couldn’t be more impressed by her, the team," Waterhouse said.

“She’s got all the scope that you want, she’s got a champion sire that John Magnier sent every one of his best mares to, out of a multiple Group 1-winning mare that was able to win a Group 1 race one Saturday and back up the following week, which just doesn’t happen overseas. She’s got great stamina.

“It was damn hard to get her… really hard to get. She was well and truly sought after."

Global Glamour, who lost an I Am Invincible foal last year before returning to that stallion, was raced by an all-female syndicate in her racing days, and Waterhouse said this filly would also be raced in a partnership.

“We have a partnership to buy fillies called the Valerie Partnership, named after my mother, and we’ll be there on some of the high-class fillies on offer," she said.

Waterhouse and Bott, together with their bloodstock advisor Bruce Slade of Kestrel Thoroughbreds, secured six lots on the day, including $425,000 for Lot 75, a Snitzel filly out of a mare that Waterhouse also trained early in her career, the stakes-placed Gibraltar Girl (Manhattan Rain), from the Newgate Farm draft.

"She looks a tough filly, a daughter of a Champion sire in Snitzel, I don’t think you can have enough Snitzels in the yard really, they really are remarkable progeny," Bott said.

"She's from a well-performed mare, a young mare, from a Champion Sire."

Decision Justified

The Global Glamour filly helped Coolmore's Justify make the headlines on the day his first crop of Southern Hemisphere yearlings made their first appearance at an Australian sale.

It was fitting the first Justify to be sold was purchased by a partnership led by China Horse Club, which purchased the stallion himself in partnership for US$500,000 (AU$696,000) at the 2016 Keeneland September Sale.

With chairman Teo Ah Khing ringside, China Horse Club came together with its usual partner Newgate and a new partner in Trilogy Racing to pay $450,000 for Lot 1, the colt out of Group 2 winner Eckstein (I Am Invincible).

The colt, the first from Eckstein, who cost Tom Magnier $750,000 through the 2019 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, is likely to race in the same colours that Justify did when he won the 2018 G1 Preakness S.

The four yearlings by Justify which sold on the first day averaged $400,000, putting him behind only proven Australian stallions I Am Invincible ($486,000) and Zoustar ($468,125) in that regard.

But he wasn't the only first-season sire to make a splash with Arrowfield's The Autumn Sun averaging $309,444 across nine sales, to be the second highest grossing stallion of the session behind Zoustar.

Sunlight factor sways Bourne and Maher

It was a resemblance to triple Group 1 winner Sunlight (Zoustar) that drew Ciaron Maher and his bloodstock manager Will Bourne to paying $900,000 for Lot 82, the filly by Zoustar out of Gold And Diamonds (NZ) (Fastnet Rock), who was offered by Yulong.

The filly, a descendant of the blue hen Eight Carat (GB) (Pieces Of Eight {Ire}), benefitted from a pedigree update by her half-sister Authentic Jewel (I Am Invincible), who was placed in the recent Listed Gosford Guineas.

The filly has been on the radar of Bourne and Maher ever since they saw her at Yulong last year.

"When she came out when Ciaron and I went to the farm, we actually thought she was a colt," Bourne told Racing.com.

"She was just big, imposing, deep, good hip and quite a lot of presence about her. She was just that real bull like Sunlight, she was a filly but would tower over all the colts in the mounting yard. She was similar to that and she looks like an athlete."

Bourne said they weren't expecting to go quite so high to get the filly, having paid the second-highest price ever for a yearling filly by Zoustar.

"I was hoping to get her a bit cheaper. But you buy the one you want," he said.

It was the best price Yulong has achieved for one of its yearlings through an Australian yearling sale, and a result that understandably pleased Chief Operating Officer Sam Fairgray.

"It was fantastic, she was a lovely filly. She obviously had a nice pedigree and we are pleased with that result. We were looking forward to bringing her up to the Sale, she was well-inspected and everybody loved her. She justified her looks and pedigree," he said.

Yulong paid $800,000 for Gold And Diamonds through the 2018 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, and the unraced daughter of Fastnet Rock has produced Authentic Jewel, who was a $650,000 graduate of this sale in 2020 as well as this filly, while she is in foal to Tagaloa.

It was a history-making day for Yulong all around, who had the first yearling by its foundation stallion Grunt (NZ), Lot 97, sell for $250,000 to Rohan Hughes and Grahame Begg Racing.

"We are really pleased. We had our first Grunt sell for $250,000, the Gypsy Tucker filly. We were very pleased with that. She was a great moving filly and to come up here and get that money, we were thrilled," Fairgray said.

A day one spending spree

Ciaron Maher Racing purchased more yearlings out of this Sale last year than anyone else and began the 2022 Sale in a blaze of glory, spending over $4.6 million across 12 lots, to be the clear leading buyer.

It paid $750,000 for Lot 149, a Capitalist colt from Tyreel Stud from the family of the stable's recent stakes-placed 2-year-old Boldinho (Brazen Beau).

Her dam, Isabella (Poet's Voice {GB}), is a half-sister to stakes winners Keep The Faith (Sunday Silence {USA}) and Pistols (Dehere {USA}), and has proven an astute buy for Glenelg Park, who paid $46,000 for her back in 2017.

He was the top-priced colt from Capitalist on the opening day.

Maher also went to $725,000 for Lot 121, a Not A Single Doubt filly out of stakes-placed Encosta De Lago mare Houston Benefactor, who was put forward by Segenhoe Stud.

Houston Benefactor, a sister to Group 2 winner Sovereign Nation and three-quarter sister to multiple Group 1 winner Princess Coup (Encosta De Lago), produced a $600,000 Snitzel colt in 2020, but went one better with his three-quarter sister on Tuesday.

Gallery: Some of the yearlings Ciaron Maher Bloodstock purchased on Day 1, images courtesy of Magic Millions

Maher and Bourne also struck early in the day to pay $500,000 for Lot 39, the I Am Invincible half-brother to five-time Group 1 winner Santa Ana Lane (Lope De Vega {Ire}) offered by Vinery Stud.

"Ciaron liked that horse. We saw him a few times and he was good value at the money," Bourne said.

"If you tried to buy that mare and breed it to the stallion, you wouldn't have got that at cost. To have a really nice colt in front of you to pay $500,000 is pretty fair value and if he can do it on the track, he might be a stallion prospect."

This colt's dam Fast Fleet (Fastnet Rock) sold to Glenn Burrows Bloodstock and Bromfield Park for $800,000 in 2019. Aside from Santa Ana Lane, she has produced the winner The Black Tide (Kuroshio), while she visited Champion sire Written Tycoon last year.

Vinnie filly lures Mills

Sheamus Mills made a splash at this Sale two years ago, when paying $1.5 million for the Written Tycoon half-sister to the day one top lot (Lot 172), and this time it was an I Am Invincible filly, Lot 102, from the draft of Newgate, which took his eye.

Mills went to $900,000 for the SF Bloodstock-bred filly out of Listed winner Harlem River (Fastnet Rock), who has already produced the stakes-placed Lady Harlem (Sebring) and the recent winner Vancouver River (Vancouver).

While the filly cost close to the $1 million mark, Mills said the price range was about right for an I Am Invincible filly of that pedigree and of her type.

“That’s sort of where they sit now, that’s the market. I’ve been lucky enough to buy a few of these I Am Invincible fillies and when you combine that type of pedigree, that’s about the mark they hit," he said.

“I wouldn’t say she was cheap or expensive, but for a long-term hold, which she will be, I’m confident that when you can buy into that family and that type we will see a result over time.

The filly will race in similar interests to the other fillies Mills had purchased in recent times, involving both Newton Thoroughbreds and Chesapeake Thoroughbreds, a group highlighted by Group 1 winner Odeum (Written Tycoon).

“I’ve put a few people together and have probably got 80 per cent of her done so far and I’ll work away on the other 20."

Bumper day for Newgate

Newgate Director Of Stallions Tony Williams said it was a fitting price for a filly of such quality, who hails from the family of The Everest winner Yes Yes Yes and multiple Group 1 winner In Her Time (Time Thief).

“She is an absolute queen of a filly. We’re delighted with the price. She’s always been a standout filly," he said.

“She is a dual-purpose filly, for racing and breeding. With that family, there is a massive opinion of her.

“There’s no doubting that, yes, it was solid money for her. Sheamus is a great supporter of the farm and on the day, when all the good judges were on this filly, fortunately for him, he has secured her for his clients. We’re all delighted at Newgate."

Harlem River delivered a filly by Brutal (NZ) at Newgate last year before visiting Deep Field.

Speaking of Deep Field, he delivered a second great result for Newgate, which sold his colt out of Group 1-winning mare I Am A Star (NZ) (I Am Invincible) for an equal best-ever yearling price for the stallion of $800,000.

It was Shane Nichols, who trained I Am A Star through her stellar career which including victories in the G1 Myer Classic, who was the winning bidder for the highest priced colt of the session, who is also the first foal from the mare.

Newgate leads all vendors on aggregate after the first day of the Sale, selling nine yearlings for a total of $3.7 million at an impressive average of $410,556.

Trilogy joins partnership

Newgate was also involved as one of the day's leading buyers, buying six horses in partnership with China Horse Club and new partner Trilogy Racing, and another in a partnership with CHC and Starlight Racing.

CHC Chairman Teo Ah Khing was delighted with the day's shopping, especially the first Justify purchase, Lot 1.

“As you know we were the part-owner of Justify. We bought him in the United States and he raced as a Triple Crown winner and now he’s retired to one of the greatest farms we think," he said.

“I have been watching the progeny of Justify in the Southern Hemisphere and I think the Coolmore team have really assembled a great team of mares. The progeny of the Southern Hemisphere Justifys look equally, if not better, than the north specimen."

Teo said he would likely need some advanced driver lessons if the Justify colt out of Eckstein was to win China Horse Club the Ferrari on offer from Coolmore.

“I think it is very clever of Tom (Magnier) and the team to put Justify and the Ferrari together. I thought that was a very neat twist.’’

As well as buying the Justify colt, CHC, Newgate and Trilogy also combined to buy a top lot from another stallion to have raced in those colours, Russian Revolution, paying $525,000 for Lot 41.

It was also a great result for the vendor, Highgrove Stud, with the colt's dam, Fast Return (Fastnet Rock) a half-brother to Group 2 winner Attention (Stratum). It is the highest price ever for a yearling by the Newgate-based son of Snitzel.

Gallery: Some of the yearlings bought by CHC, Newgate and Trilogy Racing on Day 1, images courtesy of Magic Millions

The trio then struck again when Lot 60, the colt by Zoustar out of stakes winner Fox Swift (Foxwedge), setting another new highest price of the Sale when going to $550,000.

The colt was offered by Widden Stud and was the first from Listed winner Fox Swift, who has subsequently produced a Zoustar filly before going back to that stallion again.

“We have always been a good supporter of Zoustar and Widden and I think Zoustar has brought us a lot of great joy and we would like to continue to support some of these proven stallions," Teo said.

The partnership with Jason and Melanie Stenning from Trilogy Racing in the traditional colts partnership may be a new one, but it is one Teo believes can be beneficial for all involved.

“I think Trilogy are very reputable and Jason, the owner and the team, they have a lot of synergies with our colts syndicate and what they want to achieve among their members and their investments," he said.

China Horse Club, Newgate and Starlight combined to pay $680,000 for Lot 130, the Snitzel colt from Corumbene Stud, which is a three-quarter brother to Newgate stallion Menari.

Top lots

Top buyers

Top pinhooks

Vendors by aggregate

Vendors by average (3 or more sold)

Sires by aggregate

Sires by average (3 or more sold)