North Bloodstock’s Mick Malone bought two weanlings at the Gold Coast on Sunday and their respective prices sum up the spectrum of the foal market.
The Hunter Valley-based studmaster paid $550,000 for a filly by champion sire Snitzel at this year’s edition of the Magic MIllions National Weanling Sale. Three and a half hours earlier, Malone saw value where many others didn’t and was prepared to pay $10,000 for another filly.
“I bought a Brave Smash for ten grand and a filly there for $550,000, which is a bit odd, but we've had a crack at a few along the way. They've been hard (to buy) as there's plenty of competition on the nice ones when they walk in there,” he said.
“You've just got to be strong where you miss out and that's how it is. Maybe we've been a bit soft on a few but anyway, there's a few more to come.”
Malone’s sale-topping Snitzel filly, a sister to Group 2-winning sprinter and young sire Splintex and a half-sister to the Listed winner Invictus Salute and stakes-placed Acqume, will be retained to race by her new group of owners.
That won’t be the case with the second and third highest-priced foals - a $500,000 son of Zoustar bought by Yulong and a $420,000 colt by Wootton Bassett purchased by Coolmore - who are both expected to return to a yearling sale ring next year.
“She's a great length, great scope, a beautiful mover. I’ve had a little bit to do with buying a few Snitzels and that's the sort of Snitzel for me that runs,” Malone said.
“She had a lot of O'Reilly about her, her mother's a beautiful mare and to me she just looked like mum.
“She was just a little bit offset in those knees, which might have held a few of those guys back that might have wanted to pinhook her, but it wasn't our thoughts to put her back through.
“It may change but at this point, we're racing her.”
The Zoustar colt, who was bred by Victorian Darren Dance and his partners, is a half-brother to Group 2 winner and the Group 1-placed Steinem, a Frankel mare Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng paid $800,000 for at the Chairman’s Sale in 2024.
“We've done it (pinhooking a weanling) previously, and he's a colt that I think, as a yearling, is going to keep on growing and developing into a very, very nice individual,” Yulong’s Sam Fairgray said.
The fifth foal out of Thai Noon, a European-winning daughter of Dansili, the colt has been prepared in the Hunter Valley by Holbrook Thoroughbreds’ Julie Harris who recommended the owners offer the col as a weanling.
“Thai Noon’s a mare we bought in the UK and I think she had three covers to Frankel before we brought her out here. To then get a nice Zoustar like that, a quality colt, he was always going to sell well,” Dance said.
“Julie said he was an outstanding colt and I said to our partners, ‘you know, we might just bring him up here and have a throw at the stumps.
“Magic Millions do a terrific job at this weanling sale and he's one of two colts in the sale (by Zoustar), so he’s got the pedigree behind him, but if we turn up at Easter or Magics in January or even Inglis Premier, we'll be one of 20.
“Sometimes it's better off just to come along when there's not a lot of competition and try and get the money before they run out.”
In all, 26 weanlings sold for $200,000 or more, with 220 weanlings selling for a gross of $17,512,100. The sale averaged $79,600 at a median of $43,250, with clearance at 72 per cent.
The Magic Millions record price of a weanling wasn’t under threat - that was set in 2021 when an I Am Invincible colt sold for $1 million - but there were still new benchmarks reached throughout the sale.
Demand for the progeny of Swettenham Stud’s Toronado - a yearling colt by the former shuttler sold for $1 million at the Inglis Premier sale earlier this year - remains strong, with six lots sold at an average price of $201,667.
On Sunday, a daughter of Toronado bred and sold by Victoria’s Three Bridges Thoroughbreds sold for $210,000 to Trilogy Racing and agent Suman Hedge, a new high for a weanling filly by the sire.
Tim Rowe
Darley’s first season sire Anamoe, who will stand for a fee of $110,000 (inc GST) this year, was the leading stallion by average, with six changing hands at $265,000.
“When you look at the numbers, it’s a slightly increased average on last year, and we didn't have a dispersal this year, and there’s an increase in horses sold at $200,000 and above, and around the same amount sold at $100,000 and above,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said.
“It was a really confident start to an important week for the industry.”
The race fillies and broodmare segment of the Magic Millions National Sale will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday.
