Industry figures have lauded the appeal of the Australian broodmare population after buyers around the world spent up on breeding stock at this week’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale on the Gold Coast.
Frankel’s daughter Call Di, carrying a foal by Extreme Choice, closed out the two-day sale as one of a near record 24 million-dollar mares to be sold on the Gold Coast this week after making $2.5 million late on Wednesday.
Offered for sale during the in-foal session on the Gold Coast by Newgate, Call Di’s $2.1 million price tag helped push the Magic Millions’ trade beyond $88 million.
Yulong, once again the sale’s leading buyer, added to its collection of mares from the Samantha Miss family by purchasing the Newgate Farm-owned mare on Wednesday for the day’s highest price.
B2B Thoroughbreds’ Ricky Surace and his son Ricky Jnr walked away despondent after going to $2 million to try and buy Call Di. Irish agent Johnny McKeever, who has been acting for Too Darn Hot’s co-owner Lord Lloyd Webber at this week’s sale, was also a strong bidder on the rising six-year-old mare.
Newgate Farm’s Henry Field, whose stud consigned eight million dollar mares to be sold at the National sale, believes the best of Australia’s bloodstock resonates internationally.
And Field says the feats of Extreme Choice, the sire of five Group 1 winners from 121 runners, means the select group of mares in foal to him each season commands overseas interest.
“She carries her pregnancy to one of the hottest stallions, not just here, but in the world,” Field says of Call Di.
“There were four different people bidding on that mare from four different countries - and that's incredible, the global appeal of Extreme Choice.
“It doesn't matter if it's North America, Europe, Japan, China or Australia, the appetite for that stallion is phenomenal.
“No stallion in the history of this country has ever done what he's done with the number of runners he's got. We're just so lucky to have him on the farm.”
Japan’s Katsumi Yoshida bought three race mares on Tuesday, all for $1 million or more, headed by Revolutionary Miss ($1.6 million).
North America’s Mt Brilliant Farm also featured on the buyers’ sheet, as did breeders and agents from the UK, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Thailand have participated in the National Sale.
In contrast to much of the sentiment prevailing within the racing industry, such as principal racing authority job cuts and a pessimistic outlook from Australian Turf Club chairman Peter McGauran in the lead up and since the failed proposal to sell Rosehill, Field says the Magic Millions sale demonstrated that breeders were optimistic about the longer term future of the industry.
The trend follows on from Inglis’ Chairman’s Sale where $54 million was traded on high-end mares earlier in May.
“What's interesting is the amount of different people bidding on mares above $700,000 or $600,000,” said Field, whose Newgate Consignment contributed $25 million to the Magic Millions sale aggregate.
“There's a great spread of people playing, the appetite for quality bloodstock I've never seen the likes of, and from such a broad group of people.
“It's great for the health of the industry and we're just lucky to be playing at the top end of it.”
Call Di, runner-up in the Group 2 Hot Danish and a sister to Group 2 winner Miss Fabulass, was bought privately by Field and partners from her breeder John Singleton.
Call Di is out of champion mare Samantha Miss, who along with Miss Fabulass is already a broodmare owned by Yulong.
Zhang Yuesheng’s Yulong bought eight of the 24 seven-figure mares including Atishu ($2.7 million) on Tuesday and Call Di and Aristia ($1.45 million) on Wednesday.
“It’s good to be able to breed up a family and she’s by a champion sire, out of a champion, her granddam’s a champion sire and she’s in-foal to champion sire,” Yulong chief operating officer Sam Fairgray said.
“She’s a lovely mare and I’m sure she’ll leave a very, very nice Extreme Choice.”
After Zougotcha sold for $5.25 million on Tuesday, the second highest-priced mare ever sold in Australasia, Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch was delighted with how the second session panned out.
“Obviously the mares in-foal market across the board has been a little bit discretionary so far this year, in my opinion, and I thought it was a very, very confident day’s trade,” he said.
“At most levels it was solid bidding but at the top level I thought it was incredible.
“Ten mares in-foal, that’s a big, big number for this sale – it’s the second most million-dollar mares we’ve sold at this auction in many a year.
“It was 25 the Shadwell year (2021) and this year, without a dispersal, to sell 24 million-dollar lots, and 10 of them to be today, was a super effort.”
That market strength saw the average surge to $246,099 and the median to $90,000 at a clearance rate of 77 per cent, with Bowditch putting the decline in gross of $9.3 million year-on-year to the “volume” of mares offered.
“At the high level, they've got a thirst for quality, haven't they? So, when a mare walks in that's got a good race record, a good produce record, a good cover with a deep pedigree, there are so many people in the market to buy those mares,” he said.
“As the day went on, I think the market got more desperate for the quality and it continued to increase and it stayed solid right to the very end.”
Magic Millions will round its National Sale with a two-day yearling sale next Monday and Tuesday.
