Better Than Ready colt tops first day of Gold Coast March Yearling Sale

Father-and-son training partners Peter and Will Hulbert have revisited the scene and pedigree of a promising 2023 purchase to secure the top-priced Lot on the opening day of the Magic Millions Gold Coast March Yearling Sale.

Under their Hulbert Racing banner, the Eagle Farm-based trainers paid $140,000 for a Better Than Ready colt out of the Press Statement mare News Release.

The colt is a brother to The Hamo, a minor placegetter in the $500,000 Debut for two-year-old colts and geldings for the Hulberts on Magic Millions day in January.

Like Monday’s purchase, The Hamo was offered by leading Queensland nursery Lyndhurst Stud Farm when selling for $80,000.

“I loved the horse from when I first saw him,” Will Hulbert said. “He was a bit bigger than his brother at the same time and he’s got an engine.”

“Hopefully that means this guy will have a bigger engine!”

Hulbert said the colt was a natural fit for the stable and would soon meet his full brother who is about to return to full work.

A colt from the first crop of North Pacific was the only other lot to reach six figures, selling for $110,000 to NSW-based trainer Paul Shailer and bloodstock agent Julian Blaxland.

On a trying day for vendors, 58 yearlings were passed in, leaving the clearance rate at 66.3 per cent.

At the end of the session, 114 lots sold for an average of $34,035 and a median of $28,500 with the gross of $3,880,000.

That compares to a day one last year where the average was $35,370, the median $27,500, the clearance rate 73.4 per cent and an aggregate spend just short of $4.5 million.