Seven-figure moves – Waller and Maher split early session’s top Magic Millions Lots

Australia’s biggest trainers work the sales much like their multi-site stables, with precision and a team of personnel to cover every angle, and that was the case at the Gold Coast on Friday.

As the Magic Millions Yearling sale reached its Book 1 crescendo, premier Sydney trainer Chris Waller and multi-state rival Ciaron Maher deployed their respective teams as they went on to buy two of the session’s high-priced lots.

They were a $1.25 million I Am Invincible daughter of Group 1 winner Qafila, who went to Waller, and the Maher-purchased $1.1 million Anamoe colt, a half-brother to the stable’s sprinter Spywire.

Stationed near the media room at the Bundall sales complex, It was Waller, effectively acting as manager, agent Guy Mulcaster deployed as the captain and racing manager Charlie Duckworth working in client liaison as bidding for the Coolmore-offered I Am Invincible took place.

 “We’ve actually had her tucked away for about a month and I just didn’t want to get too excited, then Charlie rang the man who was interested in her,” Mulcaster said after winning the seven-figure bidding duel.

“It’s a lot of money … but I’m sure he’s going to be rapt when he sees her.”

“Her mother was so good, she was so versatile. To win the first two-year-old race (of the season) and win an Oaks (not many can do that).”

The I Am Invincible filly was bred in partnership by Jonathan Munz’s GSA Bloodstock, Coolmore and Westerberg, the racing operation of Swiss billionaire Georg von Opel with her pedigree potentially capable of receiving an update during the autumn.

Her three-year-old half-sister by Wootton Bassett, the Lindsay Park-trained Angel Eyes, won her only start in October and she is back in training at the Hayes brothers’ Flemington stable.

Later in the session, Anamoe’s star colt lived up to his lofty pre-sale expectations.

And neither his price tag of $1.1 million nor his destination, that of Spywire’s trainer Ciaron Maher, should surprise.

 “On paper it was obvious, but just on face value, it was just the horse in front of you that really took Ciaron’s eye and made Ciaron want to buy him,” Maher’s bloodstock manager Will Bourne said from the auditorium table where laptops, phones and iPads were a necessity.

“Obviously, that Spywire factor is there, but he was just a big, imposing, strong colt in front of you that was the main reason.

“He wasn’t missed by anyone.”

Bourne said the strength of the colt could have been deemed as a negative by some, but Maher could see beyond that.

“He is a heavy horse. I know he’s big and strong and, this horse, if you’re being critical, his one negative is how big and heavy he is and if that’s going to be a problem down the line,” Bourne said.

“But when he moves his athleticism really makes up for it. He doesn’t move sloppily, he doesn’t move heavy, he keeps it upright and those proper weight-for-age Group 1 horses, they have that strength, they have that imposing muscle.”

The million-dollar Anamoe colt was bred by Robert Anderson in partnership with Widden’s Antony Thompson, who credited Maher with having Spywire on song at the right time.

“The comments this week – and the horse was inspected, I think, 280 times – was the most Anamoe-looking Anamoe in the sale, the one that looks most like his dad,” Thompson said. 

“He is a beautiful horse, he never turned a hair, the team did a magnificent job, he just couldn’t have presented any better and it’s a fantastic result.

“For a first season sire, to crack that million-dollar mark is a very hard thing to do and so we’re really thrilled to do that.”

Maher’s belief in Anamoe as a stallion prospect began well before this week’s sale, with the trainer breeding to the Darley-based sire from the get-go.

Bourne has high hopes for the young cohort of stallions.

“You’re cheering for Anamoe, Home Affairs and Stay Inside to be good stallions because we need the next wave,” he said. 

“They were very good racehorses and it justifies their (yearlings’) price tags and hopefully furthers our industry.”

Waller acquired more than a dozen yearlings during the sale, while counterpart Maher’s numbers have been steadily increasing, with at least 24 Lots with his name beside them.