Chayan stuns – Star two-year-old snapped up by Coolmore for $5.6 million

Inglis saved the best until last for its blue-chip Chairman’s Sale, with high-class two-year-old Chayan setting a new company benchmark with Coolmore paying $5.6 million to bring the curtain down at Riverside Stables on Thursday night.

The last of 115 lots, and the highest-priced of nine seven-figure fillies and mares sold over four and a half hours, the supplementary entry stood above with Coolmore’s Tom Magnier outlasting Yulong to ensure Chayan stays in the stable of trainers Annabel and Rob Archibald.

Potentially the best young filly to be sold at auction since Sunshine In Paris, who made $3.9 million at the Magic Millions National Sale in 2023, Chayan helped trade to more than $39 million.

A leading industry figure noted that he could only remember two other occasions where Coolmore and Yulong had gone head-to-head on a high-priced filly or mare – Nimalee ($3.6 million) and that was $6.6 million Group 1 winner Imperatriz.

Te Akau’s daughter of I Am Invincible went to Yulong with her price setting a new Australasian record for a race filly or broodmare sold at auction.

Chayan, this season’s Reisling Stakes-winning two-year-old for Singapore owner Eric Koh, moves to second on the list.

As the two powerhouses slugged it out, auctioneer Angus Robertson conducted the drawn-out bidding duel as if it was an orchestra, with the drama lasting 10 minutes and 36 seconds.

Ciaron Maher’s bloodstock manager Will Bourne also threw his hat in the ring but dropped out in the mid to high $3 million mark.

Coolmore’s Tom Magnier was observed in deep conversation with Yulong general manager Jun Zhang 15 lots prior to the I Am Invincible filly was to go through the ring.

One might deduce that Magnier was trying to get a guide as to Yulong’s intent regarding Chayan, who is almost certainly the most valuable filly or mare to be offered in Australia this year.

But Magnier says not so.

“I was congratulating them on buying the place in Scone (Segenhoe Stud),” Magnier said with a widening grin.

“Yulong have bought very well here tonight. It’s a very strong sale and Chayan’s a lovely filly.

“There were smart people on her. Annabel and Rob have been ringing me about this filly for a while. They like her a lot. She looks very smart.”

Koh, who was seated at the back of the Riverside Stables auditorium watching the drama unfold, had told The Straight prior to Chayan contesting the Golden Slipper (she finished eighth) that he wouldn’t sell the filly.

But Inglis’ Nicky Wong and Newgate’s Henry Field, who sold the filly on Koh’s behalf, proved persuasive.

Koh, a former Singapore Turf Club steward who has become a successful businessman in Asia, revealed that Zhang had also attempted to buy Chayan privately.

“So, I thought that this is the fairest way, without offending anybody. I was not obligated to sell, but just like within the industry, with friends, it got a bit awkward for me to reject and turn down those offers,” said Koh who has more than a dozen horses in training in Australia.

Chayan’s price tag smashed the Chairman’s Sale record, set last year by Bella Nipotina who made $4.2 million, when breeder Michael Christian bought out his partners to return her to his Longwood Thoroughbred Farm in Victoria.

As it happens, the filly who eclipsed the Chairman’s benchmark was also bred, raised and sold by Christian.

Magnier, who also paid $800,000 for Golden Slipper winner Guest House’s dam Flamboyant Lass, will leave it to the Archibalds to determine what races Chayan, a daughter of stakes winner Lubiton, targets in the spring.

“A lot could happen, and as pressurising as that was there, I think the pressure’s on to Rob and Annabel now,” he said.

The Zhang Yuesheng-helmed Yulong, as has become custom, was the dominant player at the top-end of the buying bench at the elite breeding stock sale, purchasing eight mares in total and five of the seven mares to make $1 million or more.

With a presence in the Hunter Valley via the acquisition of Segenhoe Stud, a $30 million-plus deal confirmed last week, Yulong reaffirmed its ambitious plans for the future.

With at least 20 Yulong-owned mares to be retired off the track before the next breeding season, the modus operandi for chief operating officer Sam Fairgray was “about adding quality” to its vast broodmare band.

“And that’s what we’re trying to do, and getting the higher-end mares is the key now,” Fairgray said. 

“We see time and time again it’s the stakes performers that produce stakes performers, so that’s what we’re trying to achieve.”

Benedetta, Hellbent’s Group 1 Goodwood-winning mare, sold for $1.9 million to the Yulong table headed by Jun Zhang and Fairgray.

Trained by Jason Warren to win her Group 1 before joining Maher after her Brisbane Winter Carnival campaign last year, it is almost certain that the rising seven-year-old has run her last race.

“It’s likely that she’ll head up to Segenhoe and we’ll let her down and get her ready for the breeding season,” Fairgray said. 

“We go around and look at them, we obviously look at the physical and the performance and we try and think which stallions would be suitable for them and jot down a couple that they’re likely to go to.

“Obviously, she was a mare with a great turn of foot, with a lot of quality about her and I’m sure she’ll make a really nice broodmare for us.” 

Yulong’s Blue Diamond-winning colt Devil Night, a son of Extreme Choice, looms as her likely maiden mating.

Julia Ritchie, who earlier sold Group 1-placed mare Snow In May to Yulong for $1.05 million, was the under bidder on Benedetta.

Fairgray said the Tom Charlton-trained Snow In May would target a stakes race at the Scone carnival later this month.

When Zhang became enamoured with the Australasian industry more than a decade ago, there were two stallions who were top of the tree, Written Tycoon and Savabeel.

Zhang ended up buying Written Tycoon for about $20 million and he acquired breeding rights in Savabeel. At the Chairman’s sale, Yulong also bought Savabeel’s three-time Group 1-winning daughter Provence for $1.8 million.

Yulong’s Segenhoe first season sire Private Harry, last year’s The Galaxy winner, is front of line for her Provence’s first mating.

Provence was sold by New Zealand’s Tony Rider, the owner of Milan Park.

The Emerald Green Machine also bought Moldova – the dam of New Zealand 1000 Guineas winner Captured By Love – for $1 million. 

Group 3 winner and $1.5 million earner Arabian Summer, a pocket-rocket sized daughter of Too Darn Hot trained by Tony and Calvin McEvoy who carried the colours of Mystery Downs’ Frank and Christine Cook, also sold for $1 million on Thursday.

Arrowfield and Hermitage, who are partners in The Autumn Sun and Group 1-winning mare Autumn Glow, joined forces to buy the four-year-old.

The James Harron broodmare partnership also had a significant “win” at Chairman’s, selling Sepoy’s stakes-winning two-year-old Kiki Express for $1.2 million to Stefan Pardi’s SP Bloodstock.

The big selling point? She was in foal to Extreme Choice.

“Any foal by Extreme Choice (is valuable). He averaged $1.6 million at the Easter sales,” Pardi said. 

“Kiki Express is a great mare producing good foals. I think it’ll prove good buying in the future.” 

The James Harron syndicate, whose members include G1G Racing and Breeding’s Gary Diamond, bought Kiki Express in foal to Anamoe for $360,000 at the Magic Millions National Sale in 2024.

Despite the million-dollar mares, the fact was that year-on-year, all metrics were down.

Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch acknowledged the decline, suggesting that the downturn was in part due to a subdued Easter sale.

“There are plenty of challenges in the market, but they shouldn’t be pertinent factors on a night like this,” Hutch said. 

“We talk about the challenges in the lower quartiles of the market. They’re not a factor here. We’re talking about high-end quality stock. 

“I think, ultimately, it comes down to confidence, and people wanting to have, or people having the confidence to step in and bid the number they need to bid to buy mares. And I think that’s an inevitable consequence of Easter.”

Hutch, however, remains positive about the place Chairman’s holds on the bloodstock sales calendar.

“I think the spectacle that this sale represents engages a very broad cross-section of people,” he said.