THE first session of Book 1 of the Magic Millions Yearling Sale on the Gold Coast got underway on Wednesday with a colt out of the Golden Slipper, 1000 Guineas and VRC Oaks winner Miss Finland topping the day at A$900,000. “He’s an absolute standout. We couldn’t find a fault in him physically,” said Craig Rounsefell of Boomer Bloodstock.

The colt is by the first season sire Dundeel, a son of High Chaparral, who won six Group 1 races and stands at Arrowfield. “We had the clients around who said to buy him so we went after him strong,” said Rounsefell, who indicated Bjorn Baker would train the colt.

By day’s end the average sale price was $192,016 and the median $150,000, on a par with last year’s results.

DAY TWO FIREWORKS

Session two of Book 1 went through seven figures three times, with the day being led by the A$1.3 million spent to buy the full-brother to Golden Slipper-winner and leading stallion Sebring. The More Than Ready colt out of the Flying Spur mare Purespeed was bought by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, the price being 10 times what Waterhouse paid for Sebring when she bought him out of the same sale.

“We liked him from the first time we saw him at the farm (Corumbene Stud), so we’ve had plenty of time to get the right people together to buy him and his breeder George Altomonte will also be keeping a share,” said Bott.

The syndicate of investors also included Irish agent Dermot Farrington, a long time visitor to Australian shores. “It was very thrilling indeed,” said Waterhouse. “Aquis Farm will be in him, John Singleton, the agent Dermot Farrington and his owners are coming into him as well as some owners from Vancouver.

“He’s a magical horse,” she added. “He’s very masculine, he moves so freely and he’s got a sex appeal about him and I should know by now – I bought Sebring, Vancouver and Pierro from this sale.”

The Queensland-based Aquis Stud, owned by the Hong Kong-based Fung family, were also on the other side of the ledger as vendors when the Aquis-bred Medaglia d’Oro colt out of the Lonhro mare Sangfroid sold for A$1 million to the Hong Kong-based buyers Little Kwok Hing Hung/Bahen Bloodstock.

“He’s a lovely colt,” said Bahen. “I saw him last Thursday when he first arrived and he took my eye immediately. Obviously he was very popular. I think there were at least six people bidding on him at some point.”

THIRD MILLION COLT

The third colt to break a million was the Snitzel colt out of Sabanci, an Encosta De Lago half-sister to the Singapore Krisflyer International Sprint winner Green Birdie. “He was the colt we really wanted. We set about working out what we were going to do and we had a good crack at him,” said Guy Mulcaster, who bought the colt in conjunction with Chris Waller.

This was the fifth purchase so far across the first two sessions for Waller whose gross spend on yearlings stood at nearly $2 million. That is somewhat behind the traditional leading buyers at this sale, James Harron Bloodstock, seven yearlings for a gross of just over $2.6 million, and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, 14 yearlings for a gross of $2.5 million.

Dermot Farrington, added three more yearlings to his major interest spending a total of $620,000 for fillies by Sebring, Sepoy and Declaration Of War.

AVERAGE UPSWING

After two days the Magic Millions sale average improved slightly to A$205,723 and the median jumped to A$160,000. With 383 of 435 lots offered to date, the sale has grossed A$78.792 million with the clearance rate at a healthy 88%. Leading sires at present are Exceed And Excel (six sold for an average of A$372,500), Written Tycoon (five at A$352,000) and Snitzel (21 at A$323,810. Other stallions averaging between A$250,000 and A$300,000 are Fastnet Rock, Not a Single Doubt, Medaglia d’Oro, I Am Invincible, Zoustar and Redoute’s Choice. “We had a fantastic start to the sale yesterday, but today it really did take off,” said Magic Millions managing director Vin Cox. “The market consolidated, the clearance rate lifted up, the average is well up now and all the numbers and indicators are telling us it’s a very, very good sale.” For more up-to-date figures visit magicmillions.com.au.