In an extraordinary show of faith in Coolmore’s dual Group 1-winning sprinter Home Affairs, the first-season stallion is now the sire of Australasia’s two highest-priced yearlings in 2025.
A Home Affairs colt out of Shout The Bar was one of 10 million-dollar yearlings to be sold during an almost six hours of selling on day one of the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale and will head to Tulloch Lodge after Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott paid $3 million for the sought-after colt.
The session-topping colt’s dam, Coolmore’s $2.7 million mare Shout The Bar, was trained by Waterhouse and Bott to win two Group 1s.
“He's got plenty of scope and class to keep carrying on throughout his career. Obviously, he was always a well-credentialed lot and was always going to be well-sought-after, so he was on my radar for a long time,” Bott said.
Among the string of stable supporters to back Waterhouse and Bott to bid so strongly was John Singleton who gave his tick of approval during inspections at Riverside.
“We are piecing together the ownership group and hopefully that comes together relatively quickly after this sale,” said Bott.
“But we feel we did enough to give ourselves the confidence to go in and have the backing to buy the horse.”
It was another marquee result for Coolmore, who also bred and sold the $3.2 million Home Affairs-Sunlight filly at Magic Millions in January.
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Waterhouse was spotted doing cartwheels in the corporate suite from where she and Bott successfully bid for the first foal out of Shout The Bar, the mare the pair trained to win the Group 1 Empire Rose and Vinery Stud Stakes, soon after the hammer came down.
The jubilation shown by Waterhouse in many ways could be warranted given the stunning day’s trade, and particularly the 10 minutes in which the Home Affairs colt and two other yearlings sold for seven-figure amounts in the space of four lots.
With a smaller Sunday afternoon session of 163 lots, 129 were sold for $63,055,000 at an average of $488,798, up $115,000 on the same session last year while the median was up $75,000 to $375,000 compared to 2024.
“I suppose it would be a mistake not to look at today in the context of the year. Starting in January (at Magic Millions), you go through New Zealand, Classic, Premier, all those other sales, so in isolation, you can interpret this sale one way, but in the context of the year, this was a fantastic day,” Inglis Bloodstock CEO Sebastian Hutch said.
“I mean, clearance is going to get to 80 per cent for the day, and that's before we really get our teeth into selling passed-in lots.
“And the growth and the metrics, in a year where growing any sort of metric has been near on impossible, with the exception of Premier, the growth in the metrics has been really mind-blowing.
“I think it's a reflection of the tremendous support we've had from our vendors, and the effort that our team has put into making sure that no stone is left unturned to achieve a good result for our vendors.”
Earlier in the afternoon session, the Arrowfield-bred brother to Coolmore’s Group 1-winning three-year-old Snitzel colt Switzerland was bought by the same connections for $2.7 million.
Magnier, meanwhile, revealed discussions will be held with Switzerland’s trainer Chris Waller after the Easter sale as to his racing future after he ran seventh in Saturday’s TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick.
“Chris is having a think about (what to do with him). There is maybe an idea of going to (Royal) Ascot, but have we said we just need to get this week out of the way and have a think about it,” Magnier said.
Other highlights on day one saw B2B Thoroughbreds sell a Snitzel-La Mexicana colt for $1.7 million through the Segenhoe Stud draft to the James Harron and TFI colts partnership in conjunction with Waterhouse and Bott.
Later, B2B Thoroughbreds’ Ricky Surace reinvested by paying the same amount for a grey Extreme Choice colt out of Shadow who will join the Waller stable.
"Obviously, we came to Easter with a great colt and he was well admired and he ended up making more than we thought,” Ricky Surace Jnr said.
“Even this beautiful Extreme Choice colt, we loved him on the farm and we were adamant to get him. We thought we got him for a pretty fair price and we were willing to go a fair bit more.
“He’s a big athletic colt with a great attitude who was really well balanced, so we’re stoked.”
Day two of the Easter sale starts at 10am on Monday.
Day 1 Easter Yearling Sale stats
(last year in brackets)
Sold: 129 (183)
Passed In: 34 (39)
Clearance:: 79% (82%)
Gross Amount: $63,055,000 ($68.335,000)
Average: $488,798 ($373,415)
Median: $375,000 ($300,000)
