During the 2023 Australian sales season, 47 yearlings were sold for more than $1 million, but have their racing careers so far matched their headline-grabbing purchase price?
The good news is that all of the yearlings who made more than $1 million at an Australian auction in 2023 have a name.
Depending on the perspective, the not-so-good news is that more than half of them have yet to race.
As the JJ Atkins closed Australia’s Group 1 window for two-year-olds in 2023/24 with not a million-dollar baby in sight, The Straight has examined the return so far on investment on the most expensive yearlings sold last year.
For buyers who might have expected the inside running to Golden Slipper or Blue Diamond Stakes glory simply because they won a bidding war, the results will be a disappointment.
The Golden Slipper winner Lady Of Camelot is a homebred for renowned owner Sir Owen Glenn and the Blue Diamond went the way of a $47,500 weanling purchase as Hayasugi towelled up her more fashionable rivals.
Homebreds stole more of the Group 1 spotlight when His Excellency Nasser Lootah’s Emirates Park-reared Manaal pinched the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes.
Broadsiding built on the breed-and-race theme when he extended to a mile with stunning wins in the Champagne Stakes and Atkins for Godolphin.
But all is not lost for those prepared to wait, just like Randwick co-trainers Peter and Paul Snowden have done with the class of 2023’s most recent winning graduate.
The Snowdens took the wraps off the $1.3 million yearling I Found You last week and the I Am Invincible filly gave her China Horse Club syndicate genuine optimism for the future in winning by almost four lengths.
“She has been like a Christmas present under the tree, I’ve been waiting for three weeks to open her,” Peter Snowden said.
“She has got talent and she’s from a great family. She is a half to Deep Field and Shooting To Win by I Am Invincible.
“She has always shown us a bit, she has been a bit small and light and she is just starting to furnish and get a bit of hindquarter and shoulder on her.”
The Snowdens secured 10 seven-figure yearlings from last year’s sales and they have already found stakes success with $1.6 million colt Bodyguard (Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes and Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude) and $1.05 million stablemate High Octane (Listed Blue Diamond Preview).
But Snowden is in no rush for I Found You to be tested at a higher level, preferring to give the filly time in a paddock rather than a run at any spring riches.
“She is still a bit immature. I’m sure the autumn is when you’ll see the best of her,” he said.
“We will probably give her another run or two now and give her a good education and grounding.”
Next year’s autumn offerings are likely to be a crossroads point of the season - and possibly the careers - for many of 2023’s highest-priced yearlings.
Twenty-five horses have yet to race, including an I Am Invincible colt called Superluminal who was the dearest of them all at $2.7 million.
Trained by Chris Waller for a Coolmore syndicate that includes Debbie Kepitis’ Woppitt Bloodstock, the first foal out of the three-time Group 2-winning mare Anaheed hasn’t been seen in public.
Waller, famous for bringing his young horses on slowly, has another seven million-dollar yearlings in his stable waiting to make their race debut.
They include The Autumn Sun filly Autumn Glow, a $1.8 million half-sister to Group 1 winner In The Congo who has won a Sydney barrier trial.
The best-performed Waller-trained two-year-old in 2023/24 has been the $1.5 million yearling Switzerland, a three-time winner from four attempts.
A Snitzel colt, Switzerland ranks among the best of 11 individual winners who have collected 17 victories between them so far out of the millionaires’ class of 2023.
As the winner of the Group 2 Todman Stakes, Switzerland is one of six stakes winners from this select batch and one of only four juveniles who made it to a Group 1 race when midfield in the Golden Slipper.
The others are I Am Invincible’s Bodyguard, Deep Field’s High Octane ($1.05 million) and Exceed And Excel filly Eneeza ($1.1 million).
Of that quartet, Eneeza stands out on race performance for co-trainers Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman and return on investment for Kia Ora and TFI, the vehicle for Tony Fung’s racing and breeder enterprise.
There was no horse to emerge from the 2023 bluechip collection with a busier racing program than Eneeza.
She raced seven times between November and May, campaigning in three states, running in the Blue Diamond and the Golden Slipper and collecting three stakes wins as a reward for her durability.
Eneeza’s most important win came in the Group 2 Percy Sykes Stakes, a victory that accounted for a significant portion of her $1,074,250 earnings.
While Eneeza has done her job on the racetrack, two unbeaten youngsters from her alumni are likely to have ambitious spring targets in a bid to at least match her record.
Last year’s highest-priced filly Clean Energy is unconquered in two starts for Yulong and trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
Sunlight’s sister cost $2.6 million and has already achieved black-type success with her Bill Carter Stakes victory at Listed level during the Brisbane winter carnival.
The other also has a Yulong ownership connection with the Waller-trained Extreme Choice colt Emirate looking as if he is worth every cent of his $1 million price tag after two Sydney wins.
Clean Energy and Emirate are well respected in futures markets for the Golden Rose, the premier three-year-old race of the Sydney spring where a million-dollar horse could yet become a priceless star of Australian racing.
As Snowden says - and as Waller has often proven - sometimes you just have to wait a bit longer to find a gift that can be wrapped in many different ways.
Warwick Barr
