‘It’s a very good pedigree and he’s a nice individual’
After snapping up the second foal out of In Her Time (Time Thief) for $750,000 at last year’s Magic Millions sale, Tom Magnier bought another son of Written Tycoon (Iglesia) out of the Group 1-winning mare, but this time the Coolmore owner had to go to $1.8 million to secure the youngster.
The colt out of the daughter of Time Thief (Redoute’s Choice) was offered by Yulong, who purchased the mare at the Inglis Chairman’s Sale for $2.2 million in 2021.
Last year’s colt, now named Patonga, is owned by a powerful group of owners including Wynaus and Westerberg in training with Chris Waller. The youngster has yet to be sighted in a trial or on a racecourse.
Magnier said Thursday’s buy had been bought for similar connections and he would join his brother at Waller’s Rosehill stable.
“[We’re] very happy to get this horse. Obviously we got the brother last year for the syndicate as well, again we’re very lucky to have the people we have in this syndicate and everybody was very keen on the horse,” he said.
“Everybody liked him and you could see again from the bidding the good judges were on this horse. I think Chris has an opinion of the brother, which probably gave us the confidence to come back this year.
“It’s a very good page, obviously Mr Zhang and their team have gone out and bought some lovely mares, as we have, and the progeny of that stock is coming through.
“It’s a very good pedigree, he’s a nice individual and Chris really liked the horse, as did all the team, so we’ll know our fate this time next year but just delighted we got him.”
In the last three days of trade, Yulong has sold 13 horses for an aggregate of $6,410,000.
A little later on at the sale, Magnier snapped up a colt by Coolmore first-season shuttle sire St Mark’s Basilica (Siyouni), paying Arrowfield Stud $700,000 for the youngster.
Out of Mantra Of Life (Dubawi), the colt is a half-brother to Group 3-placed winner Know Thyself (The Autumn Sun). Mantra Of Life herself is out of French Group 3 winner Loving Kindness (Seattle Slew), who is also the dam of Listed scorer Peace Camp (Storm Cat).
Magnier said the colt was one of the nicest horses not only at this year’s sale, but up there with the best the stallion has produced.
“He’s as nice a horse as you would see at this complex. We’ve had a lot of luck buying horses off Arrowfield and we know they raise racehorses there,” Magnier said.
“They’ve been huge supporters of St Mark’s Basilica and he [he colt] was one of the nicest types on the ground and one of the nicest I’ve seen.
“He’s a real athletic, fluid mover. The day we saw him at the farm at Arrowfield, he was one of those horses you can look back and remember. All the team really liked that horse. Every judge we spoke to liked him.”
At the sale so far, Magnier has spent $5.35 million on four yearlings this week, while he also teamed up with Charles Shanahan, Megan O’Leary, Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald Racing to purchase an I Am Invincible filly from Yarraman Park for $460,000.