China Horse Club’s Zoustar filly with an American pedigree has a future in the Philippines

Prominent Filipino owner and breeder Jun Almeda will take a long-term view with his $200,000 Zoustar filly, the highest-priced yearling on the opening day of the Magic Millions Adelaide sale.

The long-time industry participant was a notable attendee at the Morphettville two-day sale and he made the most of his trip with the purchase of the high-class filly in what was a polarised South Australian market.

While the China Horse Club-bred filly is by Australia’s reigning champion sire, Widden Stud’s Zoustar, being out of US-bred Canadian winner Tapitlikeitshot was what appealed to Almeda.

“We liked the US line of (dam sire) Tapit. We have a lot of Tapit lines in the Philippines and we know he is a good American stallion. Good on the dirt tracks and the Philippine Jockey Club race on the dirt track,” Almeda said from Morphettville.

“She will go back to Manila, but we will put her in training here first, and race her as a two-year-old, then take her back to Manila as a broodmare.”

Almeda also races this season’s Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Justify filly Caloocan Beauty, who ran fourth at Randwick on debut in January, and he is among a growing number of Filipino owners who have upped their investment in Australian bloodstock.

Almeda and his brother Miguel also signed for another three yearlings on Thursday, spending $323,500 in total during the opening season.

While the Almedas have an increasing presence in Australia, the majority of their peers’ purchases are to import to their home country to race and diversify their heavily American-focused bloodlines.

In a boost for the local industry, the Philippine Jockey Club has developed a new racecourse and training centre on a 50-hectare parcel of land at Padre Garcia in the Batangas region, about an hour’s drive from the capital Manila.

The track has started hosting race meetings with an official opening expected to be held this year.

A shipment of 80 Australian-bred horses landed in Manila in July last year, the largest single plane load of thoroughbreds to land in the country’s history.

As was evident at last week’s Magic Millions March Yearling Sale, the yearlings deemed to fall below the average on various criteria, including pedigree and physique, found it hard to meet the market in Adelaide.

For this reason, the clearance rate stayed below 70 per cent with it getting to 66 per cent at the close of selling while the average is $45,572 and the median is $35,000.

All three metrics were down on the corresponding session last year.

There were 13 yearlings who made $100,000 or more on Thursday, down from the 16 who were sold during the opening session last year and the 37 to reach that mark across the two days in 2025.

The second highest-priced yearling sold on day one, a colt by The Autumn Sun, was bought by agent Shane McGrath and trainer Clinton McDonald for $180,000.

The pair, who are linked to leading Golden Slipper fancy and Blue Diamond winner Streisand, also bought an All Too Hard filly for $115,000 earlier in the session.

Agent Paul Beamish signed for three yearlings as did trainer Will Clarken in conjunction with South Australian owner Rob Chapman and agent Suman Hedge. 

Fellow South Australian trainer Sue Murphy also bought three yearlings.

Leading South Australian nursery Mill Park was the leading vendor on day one, selling nine yearlings while Yulong, Willow Park Stud and Glenn Lee Thoroughbreds all sold seven.

Day two starts at 10am local time on Friday.