‘I love the Zousains’ – Campton squeezes budget to buy Magic Millions March sales-topping colt

Gold Coast trainer Adam Campton was playing at home, scouring the Magic Millions March Yearling Sale, and it was his extensive Hong Kong contacts that allowed him to come away with the highest-priced Lot sold this week.

Continuing the tough trading conditions into Friday, with the clearance holding at around 66 per cent as the turnover broke $10 million late in the second session, it was Campton who came away with a colt by Zousain for $250,000.

Out of the unraced So Cait, a half-sister to Lindsay Park’s good two-year-old of last season Shining Eagle, the colt was popular with trainers and traders.

“I knew we had to be pretty strong but thankfully a great client over in Hong Kong was lucky to support us and we got the job done,” said Campton, who signed in partnership with his client Stable 23. 

“I don’t know how much was left in the juice (container), we had to squeeze a bit out, but he’s a beautiful colt.”

Widden Stud’s Zousain is the sire of 108 individual winners, three stakes winners and four winners in Hong Kong.

“I love the Zousains. I’ve got a number of them, a heap of them have gone to Hong Kong already, and he’s a well-bred colt. His half (Peter Profit) is a good horse too that my mate (Jay Bellamy) trains and he just knows he’s a good horse,” said Campton of the Scott Seamer-bred colt who was sold via the draft of Robyn Wise.

“She produces a horse time and time after again and she’s got another beautiful colt there, so hopefully he shows us how good he is.

“I remember when I first started training (Wise) was really good to me and she gives you the time of the day and she’s honest, too.

“She tells you a lot about her horses. She knows her horses from top to bottom and she’s a very good horsewoman.” 

Campton, who is 17th in the Queensland premiership this season, was optimistic about his climb up the state’s training ranks.

“I’ve been training a few years and got some nice stock coming through, but it’s up to me and the team now to get them to winning races or winning trials wherever they’re going to go,” he said. 

“The future’s pretty bright.”

The trainer they all have to chase down, including Campton, is Tony Gollan, who bought day one’s highest-priced yearling by Better Than Ready.

On Friday, he added to his collection with the acquisition of the brother to the stable’s Hidden Wealth for $200,000.

“The first horse we saw when we walked in (on Sunday for inspections), we didn’t know what horse it was, but we both said, ‘that looks likes Hidden Wealth’,” said Gollan’s offsider Andrew Dunemann, who bought the colt in partnership with Hidden Wealth’s part-owner Archer Park. 

“We followed him and it was his full brother.”

The two-day sale turned over $10.775 million with 290 yearlings finding new homes at an average of $37,157 at a median of $28,000 in a selective market, one that could be used as a possible sign of what’s to come at next week’s Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale.

The Adelaide sale will be held at Morphettville next Thursday and Friday.