Armidale’s impressive Toronado filly sets high bar at $150,000
Mainland demand sees Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale become the latest to hit new benchmark figures
A $150,000 Toronado (High Chaparral) filly, the highest-priced horse sold at yesterday’s Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale, will head to Queensland as mainland trainers and agents dominated the buying bench at the island state’s annual auction.
Continuing the trend of the Australian season so far, the Tasmanian sale was another new record set with four yearlings in total breaking the six-figure barrier, all going to mainland or international buyers, with a son of Stratosphere (Snitzel) making $125,000, an Epaulette (Commands) colt fetching $115,000 and a son of Shamus Award (Snitzel) making $110,000.
A List Stud’s Chris Lee bought six yearlings yesterday, including two of the four top lots, the highest-priced being the $150,000 Toronado filly who will join his private Gold Coast training operation overseen by Allan Chau.
“She was the pick of the sale for my team across the inspections and we are delighted to be able to buy her,” Lee said.
“Her sire Toronado is going really well with his progeny in Australia and overseas. She’s a great mover – got a lovely walk and I look forward to her joining the A List stable.”
Catalogued as Lot 106, the Toronado filly was consigned by Armidale Stud on behalf of breeders Ken and Jen Breese, who own the filly’s dam Il Sogno (Elvstroem), a half-sister to Listed winner Snitz (Snitzel) and a daughter of Group 2 winner Tickle My (Perugino).
She could eventually join A List’s growing broodmare band as Lee has shares in Deep Field (Northern Meteor), Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) and I Am Immortal (I Am Invincible).
“She was one of my favourite fillies ever since she arrived on the farm. (The Breeses) breed great racehorses, Both Snitz and (Group 2 winner) I’ll Have A Bit were raised at Armidale and I had big expectations for this filly,” Armidale Stud’s David Whishaw said.
“I brought her here thinking she could top the sale and I valued her somewhere close to what she had brought. It was very pleasing to get a great result for them.”
A List Stud, acting through Magic Millions bloodstock consultant Nicky Wong, also paid $115,000 for the Epaulette colt out of Myhro (Lonhro), who was also consigned by Armidale Stud, and $90,000 for a Needs Further (Encosta De Lago) filly from Motree Thoroughbreds.
While the Toronado filly could be retained, it is almost certain that the Epaulette colt will form part of A List Stud’s draft for the Magic Millions 2YOs In Training Sale later this year.
“Chris started doing some research and looked at the family page, and under the second dam, he saw a horse he really liked in Snitz,” Wong said.
“There are a few black-type horses there and Epaulette is doing quite well in Hong Kong, too. Hopefully he is a horse that can go back through the two-year-old sales.”
Armidale Stud was the sale’s leading vendor by aggregate and average, selling 32 yearlings for $1,709,500 at an average of $53,422.
“The Tassie breeding industry has been punching above its weight. People are coming down here and finding tough, sound, well-reared horses with plenty of bone, they are now happy to buy the Tasmanian product,” Whishaw said.
“There is no doubt the Tasmanian stallions have got a presence in the mainland market. It’s great to see people happy to buy an Alpine Eagle or A Needs Further and be happy to trade them to Hong Kong or offer them up to owners in Victoria, NSW or South Australia.”
Notwithstanding a bigger catalogue of horses being offered to the market this year, the Tasmanian sale set a new record aggregate of $4,294,500, while the average increased to a new high of $38,689, up seven per cent on 2021, while the median increased by $1,000 to $30,000.
The Book 1 session of last month’s Magic Millions Gold Coast sale saw a year-on-year increase of 16 per cent by aggregate, 16 per cent by average and 28 per cent by median, while Book 1 of the Inglis Classic sale experienced an increase of 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 25 per cent by the same metrics.
Demonstrating the strength of the mainland and international buyers was the fact that more than half the 112 horses sold at Quercus Park were bought by mainland and international buyers. Fifty-one yearlings were bought by Tasmanians.
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch was “thrilled” with the results achieved in Tasmania, suggesting that the figures continued the upward trend of the sales season.
“There’s been a good, strong, healthy market and the vendors of Tasmania work really hard to achieve these results and, on a whole, to get their horses sold with a record average, record median and a record gross, it’s a great result for Tasmania,” Bowditch said.
“Nearly all states of Australia bought a horse which was great. Victoria was fantastic, there was a bit of international participation, so Tasmania’s getting great coverage, and rightly so.
“Having those buyers willing to come down here and be willing to support this sale and expose the breed of horse down here to the mainland, it’s great to see and it’s important for the future (of Tasmanian breeding).”
Stratosphere colt makes $125,000
Grenville Stud’s first–season sire Stratosphere (Snitzel), runner-up to Performer (Exceed And Excel) in the Canonbury Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) in 2018 who stood for an introductory fee of $4,400 (inc GST), found favour with the market, averaging $33,455 from 22 lots sold, headlined by a $125,000 colt who is bound for Singapore.
Sold by Grenville Stud as Lot 107, the colt is a half-brother to Kranji trainer Michael Clements’ stakes-winning mare Celavi (Fighting Sun), and it was on his instruction that agent Bevan Smith ventured to the Tasmanian sale for the first time to consider buying the sprinter’s sibling.
“We know the family, the filly Celavi is very, very quick and this colt looks quick as well. He’s a strong, athletic, well-built colt that I think will get up and run and be a fast horse as well,” Smith said.
The Stratosphere colt, who is also a half-brother to breeder and trainer Graeme McCulloch’s stakes-placed mare Entrapped (Fighting Sun), is the eighth foal out of In Harmony (Exceed And Excel).
The fact the colt was by an under-the-radar, first–season stallion made valuing the horse more difficult.
Smith said: “Knowing the family made it a bit easier to go harder at the horse. We know the half-sister is very good.
“Having talked to Michael Smith at China Horse Club, they were involved in Stratosphere and told us that he was a very good horse. He had all the potential in the world and was going to be a top-liner if he hadn’t had an unfortunate injury.”
Foote takes shine to Shamus Award
Fellow agent John Foote was also active, buying six yearlings for a combined $387,000, led by his purchase of an Alva Stud-bred and sold son of Shamus Award, who made $110,000.
Catalogued as Lot 84, he is the fifth foal out of Ecosse (West Quest), a winning sister to the stakes-placed Aprilia, and a half-brother to Pretty Queen Prawn (Magnus), who has been placed twice in Hong Kong recently.
“(John Foote buying him) is recognition that you’ve got the right type of horse and the stallion is going really well at the moment,” said Alva Stud principal Catherine Hills.
“I have to thank Damon (Gabbedy, agent) for the mating as he suggested that one – and the mating was a good one.”
The Shamus Award colt was the second six-figure yearling sold by Alva Stud in as many years after Hills parted with a son of Deep Field (Northern Meteor) last year for $120,000 at Quercus Park.
Alva Park sold all five yearlings offered for an aggregate of $197,000.
“If you have the right type, there was a market for them but there was really no bottom (end buyers),” Hills said.
“There’s not the people who are in small syndicates or the single owners anymore to snap up the bottom of the market, which we’ve had in the past.
“Each year, it gets less and less and you have to breed for the buyers who come over here. A lot of those are looking for the ready–to–run horses or the sexy stallions that they can syndicate.”
Star Thoroughbreds’ Denise Martin and Brett Howard bought three yearlings in collaboration, while the Randwick Bloodstock agent also bought two yearlings under his own banner.
The most expensive of the five yearlings was Lot 51, a Needs Further (Encosta De Lago) colt who is the fourth foal out of Arenzano (Not A Single Doubt), an eight-time winner and a sister to the stakes-placed Regal Flame, who was knocked down for $97,500 from the Armidale Stud draft.
Howard also bought the brother to Gordon Richards’ stakes-winning sprinter of seven races, Bold Star (Needs Further) (Lot 50) for $27,000, who was also sold by Armidale Stud.
Howard indicated that he and the Sydney-based Martin, a long-time supporter of racing in her home state of Tasmania, had found value in the sale, which led them to buying more yearlings than perhaps they initially intended.
“Obviously we’ve had success with a filly called Deroche who we bought at this sale for $60,000,” Howard said.
“She won the two-year-old Magic Millions, she’s won 13 races, she’s a Group 3 winner and earned over $500,000 in prize-money without even leaving Tassie, really. So, I suppose if you can replicate that or get close to it, everyone will be happy.”
Trainer Mick Price, bidding through agent Jeremy Rogers, also took home a yearling from Tasmania after he went to $82,500 for a third–crop daughter of Alpine Eagle (High Chaparral) from four-time winner Arkiboum (Exceed And Excel). She was catalogued as Lot 53 by Armidale Stud.
Other interstate buyers to make their mark were Matt Cumani, Mitch Freedman, Gordon Richards, Andrew Bobbin and Matthew Brown. John Blacker was the leading Tasmanian buyer, purchasing seven yearlings for a combined $190,000, while Leanne Gaffney bought four.
Sale results
2022 2021
Catalogued 146 123
Offered 138 114
Sold 112 (81%) 94 (82%)
Aggregate $4,314,500 (+28%) $3,372,000
Average $38,522 (+7%) $35,872
Median $30,000 (+3%) $29,000
Top Lot $150,000 $150,000