A Too Darn Hot colt from one of the great families in the Australian studbook put an exclamation mark on a red-letter day for Segenhoe Stud and Winx's breeder John Camilleri when he shot to the top of the highest-priced list of this year's Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
The bay colt out of A Time For Julia, a daughter of legendary producer Procrastinate, stunned the Magic Millions sale ring crowd when knocked down to Ciaron Maher for $1.9 million.
It took sale-leading honours from a $1.75 million colt by Snitzel out of Warranty, who was also sold by Camilleri, who earlier in the day had a son of Zoustar and Villami sell for $1 million.
"We never, ever expected him to make that amount of money, but obviously he deserved it," Segenhoe Stud general manager Peter O'Brien said of the Too Darn Hot colt.
"He (Camilleri) is a pleasure to deal with. He's got some of the best mares in the country, breeds them to the best stallions and he deserves the results.
"He's got three $1 million horses today and it's a big day for him."
Maher wasn't shocked he had to be so aggressive to get the colt, wo had multiple bidders beyond $1 million.
"With the nice colts you always do, (we) probably had to go a little bit more than what we thought, but it was very competitive," he said.
"He's really well-bred, from a good farm and a good breeder.
"He's a great physical, he's got a really good mind on him and obviously ticks all the right boxes."
Coolmore was the buyer of Camilleri's Snitzel colt, who is out of a daughter of All Too Hard, while James Harron snapped up the Zoustar colt, who is related to the Too Darn Hot colt, with his second dam Galapagos Girl a half-sister to A Time For Julia.
He was one of two seven-figure buys in the middle part of Day 2 for Harron, who paid $1.6 million for a colt by Extreme choice out of Wanted Lady the lot before the $1.75m Snitzel colt.
Those four colts were among eight lots to sell for $1m or more on Day 2 with David Ellis buying a $1.3m son of Snitzel, Robbie Griffiths paid $1m for a filly by Ole Kirk, the same amount Yulong paid for a filly by I Am Invincible out of Vezalay.
The first foal from triple Group 1 winner Arcadia Queen also sold for $1 million, with the I Am Invincible colt knocked down to Hawkes Racing.
Those big ticket items played a key role in the sale gross rocketing beyond $100m – to $101,713,000 – with the average jumping to $291,441 with the clearance rate also increasing to 85.33 percent.
“Eight million-dollar lots is great for any sale on any one day and there is an insatiable thirst for quality," Magic Millions Mansging Director Barry Bowditch said.
“We’re thrilled for some of our best supporters achieving great money in the ring today like Blue Gum, Luke Wilkinson, the Camilleris, and more."
