A Chinese coal baron with a global vision and a racing industry rookie with his roots firmly in South East Queensland can be rightfully optimistic they both now own the next racecourse superstars by Coolmore’s champion shuttler Justify.
A half-brother to stakes-placed filly Lady Young by Coolmore sire Justify has topped the Magic Millions Horses in Training Sale. (Photo: Magic Millions)
The two successful businessmen with contrasting backgrounds, Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng and stock and station agent Roy Bartholomew, paid $700,000 and $425,000 respectively for the pair of Justifys at the Magic Millions Horses In Training Sale on Tuesday.
Zhang bought the sale-topping half-brother to the stakes-placed filly Lady Young for the $700,000 figure, a week after paying a record $1 million for a Written Tycoon filly at the Inglis Ready2Race Sale.
Flanked by his Chinese racehorse-owning friends ringside at the Gold Coast, Zhang proved too strong for underbidder Lok Lor, the son of champion Hong Kong trainer Frankie Lor, to keep the colt in Australia.
Representatives of Lindsay Park’s Ben, Will and JD Hayes and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott were quick to put up their hands to train the colt, but no decision has been made on which stable he will go to.
“They were all over him from the minute he got here. You know, his breeze-up was exceptional. He had a great stride length,” said Kenmore Lodge’s Kellie Bond who prepared the colt.
“He was by a horse that gets an absolute superstar. So, it's pretty easy to see a good result coming and it was just nice that Yulong were able to secure him.”
Kenmore Lodge prepared the horse on behalf of KO Racing’s Kobie O’Brien who purchased the colt for $300,000 at the Magic Millions yearling sale in January.
Accomplished NSW North Coast jockey Matthew McGuren breezed up the draft of two-year-olds on the Gold Coast for Kenmore including the star son of Justify who breezed up in 10.15 seconds.
Tim Rowe
“It was quite interesting because our jockey, we didn't tell him any of our thoughts beforehand,” Bond said.
“And he said, from the minute I trotted off on him, he felt like a really quality horse underneath you.
“He actually came back and he said, ‘I didn't even think he breezed up fast. He just felt like he had a beautiful action and he was good enough to go 10.1 under no pressure’.”
O’Brien also sold a Street Boss colt for $240,000 on Tuesday, having paid $350,000 for him in January.
Bond, meanwhile, also played a key role in the sale of the $425,000 filly by Coolmore’s champion Justify who was auctioned about 30 minutes later.
Kenmore Lodge client Bartholomew, a Beaudesert-based businessman who made his first investment in a racehorse earlier this year at the age of 75, upped his involvement in racing in both numbers and spend by going to $425,000 for the half-sister to prolific Listed winner Religify.
Warwick Barr
On the eve of the breeding season, Bartholomew had intended to buy a mare to support Aquis Farm’s Group 1-winning stallion Stronger, but he quickly advised was better-placed focusing on his racehorse portfolio, informed by Bond that he was “too f***ing old” to enter the breeding game.
Quickly dissuaded from breeding, Bartholomew instead bought another racehorse, again on the advice of Bond and her husband Cameron.
“They liked her and we liked her when we first saw her. She's a lovely, big-framed filly by Justify, and you can't get any more of them. He's not coming back from America,” Bartholomew said.
“It's all in the lap of the gods from here.”
Lot 88 was purchased by Roy Bartholomew (far right). (Photo: Magic Millions)
Bartholomew bought three yearlings, by Spirit Of Boom and Pierata, at the Magic Millions QTIS and National sales in March and June. They are in training with Tony Gollan in Brisbane.
North East Victoria-based educator Nolen paid $60,000 for the filly at the Magic Millions National Sale in early June.
“He was by a horse that gets an absolute superstar. So, it's pretty easy to see a good result coming and it was just nice that Yulong were able to secure him” - Kenmore Lodge's Kellie Bond on the $700,000 Justify colt
Bartholomew will take advice from Gollan about who will be best to train the filly. It’s a safe bet that Gollan will suggest she joins Bartholomew’s other horses at Eagle Farm rather than heading interstate to be trained.
Justify has a crop of 58 southern hemisphere-bred two-year-olds. He did not shuttle from Ashford Stud to Coolmore’s Jerry’s Plains stud in 2022, but he served 188 mares last year, his biggest book in four years in Australia.
Five horses were bought to race in Hong Kong - well below the number sourced from the Inglis sale last week - but another 54 were purchased by buyers from China, Malaysia, Thailand and Korea.
“I think you (The Straight) hit on the head before the sale started. It was going to be a polarising market and that's exactly what it was,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said.
“I thought when the quality horses with good conformation and by the right sire walked in the ring, there was very buoyant bidding on them.
“I thought the top 20 horses sold particularly well on a whole. In all, I think we've had a significant increase in gross and we've got an average in line with last year.
It's just where we land on our clearance rate and the coming 24 hours, it's probably important (to increase that).”
In another sign of subdued demand for horses domestically, the main racing states of New South Wales (six) and Victoria (10) were minor players in the market.
"There was a smattering of horses bought by interstate clients, whether that be Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, they all participated and we had people here from all those states, but probably not as many as what you'd have in the past," Bowditch said.
"But there was engagement from some of the leading stables. I think it's having the right product here for those guys as much as anything. And they've had a huge year at the yearling sales and they're not that far from doing it all again. So, they're probably head down and focused on that as well."
Sale statistics (2023 in brackets)
Lots Catalogued: 212 (151)
Lots Sold: 104 (83)
Lots Withdrawn: 51 (41)
Lots Passed In: 57 (27)
Top Price: $700,000 ($400,000)
Average Price: $70,346 ($60,380)
Median Prince: $40,000 ($42,000)
Sale Gross: $7,316,000 ($5,011,500)
Sold %: 65 (75)
