Magnier makes mark on Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale as vendor and buyer
Auction house defies predicted significant coronavirus-inflicted downturn
Tom Magnier believes this week’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, conducted under a cloud of uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic and without horses, vendors or a buying bench on site, demonstrates just how robust the local thoroughbred industry is.
The Coolmore Australia principal was a colossal figure at the “virtual” Easter sale, the first major yearling auction from around the world to be held solely online, after underpinning the buying bench while the international stud was also instrumental on the selling front, taking home the leading vendor honour.
Magnier and his Coolmore team decided to attack the Easter sale with gusto, purchasing eight yearlings headed by the two highest-priced lots and three of the seven horses to make $1 million or more at the two-day sale.
Yesterday, Magnier went to a sale-topping $1.8 million for a Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) colt out of champion three-year-old filly First Seal (Fastnet Rock), while he also added a colt by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) for $1.4 million and a filly for $1.1 million by the same sire in the second session.
Coolmore’s acquisitions, as well as a $1.1 million Deep Impact (Sunday Silence) colt who was secured by Ciaron Maher Racing, yesterday took the tally of seven-figure yearlings traded at the Easter sale to seven.
“Our family is passionate about Australian racing,” Magnier said last night.
“We’ve got some wonderful people who invest with us working with the yearlings and the stallions.
“The economy is obviously going through a tough time at the moment but if there’s a place that we believe in, it’s Australia.
“We think the future is in Australia and we’re delighted to be a part of it. There have been some wonderful horses put through the sale this week.
“It’s a credit to all the farms, not just ours, that everyone stuck together. Everyone did a great job getting their horses right, everybody got behind Inglis, everyone believed in it and made it work. When you put those formulas together you get success.”
In total, Magnier spent $6.895 million on eight yearlings to be leading buyer.
New mark for Sledmere
The highest-priced yearling of the Easter sale also set a new benchmark for Sledmere Stud under the management of Royston and Treen Murphy, with the colt eclipsing the $1.1 million paid for another son of Snitzel at last year’s Inglis April auction.
Royston Murphy was visibly emotional after the achievement and also heaped praise on the colt’s breeder, China Horse Club, and the Sledmere staff who have looked after First Seal from the time she was retired from racing three years ago.
“It’s a great result and we’re absolutely delighted. It’s a lot of hard work by a lot of people to get these sales. It’s a great result for our clients. China Horse Club have been big supporters of ours for a good few years,” he said.
“We were so excited when this mare arrived. She’s always been a favourite and she was such a good mare on the track. It’s been so long ago now since she arrived, getting her in foal … and all the pressures to get her in foal. We see every day from the start of this (to now in the sales ring).”
He added: “James Bester and the Coolmore team … wore a track into the place. It could have been seven times they visited. I asked James, ‘I’m not sure what you’re looking for, but we can all agree he’s a belter.’
“All the big buyers have been spending money at a time when we’ve all been a bit worried, but I think it just shows if you have the right product you can get these horses sold.”
The Snitzel colt, who was catalogued as Lot 447, https://inglis.com.au/sales/info/2020+Australian+Easter+Yearling+Sale/catalogue/447 is champion female sprinter First Seal’s maiden foal. While her racetrack performances make her a valuable commodity, First Seal is also a daughter of Group 1 winner Episode (Scenic) and a half-sister to Group 2 winner Book Of Kells (Rock Of Gibraltar) as well as the stakes-placed Best Command (Court Command) and Sacred Sword (Exceed And Excel).
Treen Murphy said: “He’s the most beautiful animal. Most people haven’t had an opportunity to see him in the flesh, but to see him and be around him, he’s got the most amazing demeanour.
“He’s one of those horses who I am pretty sure you could put a saddle on him tomorrow and race him. He’s a proper athlete, he has got great depth and attitude is pretty important with these horses as well.”
Coolmore were underbidder on the Raffles Racing-bred First Seal as a yearling at the 2013 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale when bought by the late Bart Cummings and agent Duncan Ramage for NZ$700,000.
She was subsequently trained by John Thompson to win six races including the Flight Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) as a three-year-old where she defeated Winx (Street Cry).
“We know the family very well. She was a Fastnet Rock mare and the pedigree is very good,” Magnier said.
“To be fair to Sledmere, they had the horse looking fantastic. We went there a couple of times during the week and everyone at Coolmore really loved the colt. We hope he turns into a champion for us.
”When you got to a horse like this, you knew all the top buyers were on him because Inglis had created the platform to allow that to be possible. The horse was no doubt one of the top colts in the sale.”
First Seal has a weanling colt by I Am Invincible and was covered last November by the same stallion.
Vinnie colt makes $1.4 million
It was only minutes into yesterday’s session when Magnier fired in a winning bid of $1.4 million via the phone to land a much-admired I Am Invincible colt, tipped by some as a potential sales-topper from the Kia Ora Stud draft.
The purchase of the I Am Invincible colt, a son of Group 2-winning mare Twilight Royale (Testa Rossa), continued Coolmore’s aggressive approach to the 2020 sales calendar which was ramped up this week.
“Ananda Krisnan has been one of Australia’s best breeders for a very long time and when he produces a colt of this quality, you can buy them with great confidence. Our team saw him numerous times at Kia Ora and we all believed him to be one of the superior colts of the sale,” Magnier said.
“The mother won three stakes races as a two-year-old and she is by a top-class broodmare sire.
“I Am Invincible is a leading sire of two-year-old speed and this colt looks fast and precocious, so hopefully we can have a bit of luck.
“He will go through our breaking-in program at Coolmore and he will tell us when he is ready to go to the races.”
Catalogued as Lot 259, https://inglis.com.au/sales/info/2020+Australian+Easter+Yearling+Sale/catalogue/259 the colt is the third living foal out of the former Bjorn Baker-trained Twilight Royale who won three stakes races as a juvenile including the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m). The dam of two winners from two to race, she is also a half-sister to the Group 3-placed sprinter Superhard (All Too Hard) and stakes-placed two-year-old Mio Roiale (Tale Of The Cat).
Twilight Royale was purchased by agent James Bester for Kia Ora Stud owner Ananda Krishnan at the 2014 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale for $580,000 and since then her three yearlings to go to public auction have collectively made $1.955 million.
The colt was on the market from $700,000 and Coolmore outlasted Hawkes Racing to add the yearling to the stud’s impressive squad of young horses.
Kia Ora Stud manager Andrew Perryman agreed that the colt had been a standout for a long time but trying to assess the competition for the colt given the unusual circumstances proved difficult.
“He was always our nicest colt on the farm, he’s got a great quality to him and a fantastic temperament, so we knew we had a nice colt there to present with clean x-rays and scopes which always helps,” Perryman said.
“This year has definitely been more challenging working out who’s on your horse with limited numbers of repeat inspections.
“It’s very much about reading your x-ray hits and inspections and trying to match up who is who. It’s not easy, but certainly talking to the buyers as they come through to get a feel for what they like and don’t like and what their limits are.”
Kia Ora Stud also sold Lot 275, https://inglis.com.au/sales/info/2020+Australian+Easter+Yearling+Sale/catalogue/275 an I Am Invincible daughter of Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed sprinter Villa Verde (Not A Single Doubt), to Commendable Bloodstock for $575,000.
The filly will be trained by Hawkes Racing alongside her two-year-old half-sister Shivani (Sebring) who ran third at Warwick Farm yesterday on debut.
“She was a really popular filly. She’s not a big filly but is very strong,” Perryman said.
“She’s had 20-odd x-ray and scope checks, which is a huge number for us, so we knew that she was going to be popular.”
Villa Verde’s stakes-placed half-sister Miss Sharapova (Ustinov) is also the dam of Listed winner Pretty Fast (Not A Single Doubt) and Saturday’s Kindergarten Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) winner Doubtland (Not A Single Doubt), who is also trained by the Hawkes’ for Orbis Bloodstock.
While the temptation was there to retain the filly, Perryman said the decision was made to put her on the market.
But Kia Ora is likely to keep dual Group 1-winning filly Loving Gaby’s (I Am Invincible) half-sister by Sebring (More Than Ready) who was passed in on day one.
“We have a few out of the family already and we’ve got the mare. We’ve got the Sebring filly and you can’t keep them all,” he said of the $575,000 I Am Invincible filly.
The top-end of the market, as evidenced by the fact Coolmore was so strong, held up reasonably well but Perryman echoed other vendors about the lack of trainers and syndicators participating at Easter owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Obviously there’s still money at the top-end, but with the number of pass-ins, the middle to lower group are struggling a bit to find buyers,” he said.
“But I think Inglis made the right decision with the virtual auction. I think it would have been a bit difficult with just the online auction and horses being knocked down at the same time with the extensions if they get a bid in the last five minutes.
“Certainly the virtual auction was the right option and well done to Inglis for making that decision.”
Magnier lands seven-figure Vinnie filly
Colts with “stallion pedigrees” may have been the focus for Tom Magnier, but that did not stop the Coolmore supremo also winning the battle for a high-class sister to Group 3 winner Catch Me by I Am Invincible for $1.1 million.
Bidding opened at $500,000 before working its way up to the million-dollar mark before Magnier again exerted his authority to secure the Segenhoe Stud-consigned filly who was catalogued as Lot 368. https://inglis.com.au/sales/info/2020+Australian+Easter+Yearling+Sale/catalogue/368
Magnier and Hermitage Bloodstock combined at the same sale last year to buy the filly’s now two-year-old brother for $1.4 million who is now named Captivare. The unraced colt trialled at Rosehill in December and is back in training with Chris Waller.
“She’s a lovely filly. Segenhoe did a wonderful job. Peter O’Brien said to me many times that he thought she was one of the best fillies that he’s ever bred at his time at Segenhoe,” Magnier said.
“When Peter O’Brien says something like that, we all take it very seriously. Again the team liked her a lot, she’s a lovely physical, she’s got the page and I think she’ll hopefully be a wonderful racehorse and quality broodmare.”
The I Am Invincible filly is the fourth foal out of the unraced mare Captivating Claire (O’Reilly) who is a half-sister to Perth Listed winner Ocean Jewel (Ocean Park) and a sister to Ahna, herself the dam of talented Te Akau Racing filly The Real Beel (Savabeel) who was a Group 2 winner and runner-up in the Karaka Million 3YO Classic (RL, 1600m).
Bred to I Am Invincible four years in a row, Captivating Claire’s offspring have now realised a remarkable $4.725 million. She has a Zoustar (Northern Meteor) weanling colt who was born in early September before returning to I Am Invincible last October.
“I must say this filly was the best she has had, and that is saying something. I’ve gone on record in saying this filly is the best yearling I have ever had anything to do with, colt or filly. She was the best I’ve seen,” Segenhoe Stud’s Peter O’Brien said.
“I have never seen a yearling with a nostril on it like her. I was looking at a video of Vincent O’Brien describing a horse the other night and all I could think of was her with everything he was talking about.
“Coolmore bought her and I’m delighted. Obviously, she is going to get the best home, the best care and the best trainers. I just want to have a bet with someone that she will win a Group 1.”
Coolmore was also the leading vendor by aggregate at the Easter sale, selling 22 out of 31 yearlings for a total of $7.53 million at an average of $342,273.
“In what are incredibly uncertain times we have to commend Inglis for making the sale possible and exceeding everyone’s expectations,” Magnier said.
“All the breeders have shown great resilience by sticking together and supporting the sale and the results have been quite remarkable. It says a lot about how strong the Australian industry is.”
Magnier also said Coolmore’s yearling staff had played a key role in the farm taking home the vendor honour at a time when inspections were confined to on-farm viewings.
“I would just like to make special mention of our yearling staff, led by William O’Connor, who have worked tirelessly for the last couple of months in testing times to prepare these horses and present them to our clients on the farm,” he said.
“They have put in a lot of extra time and effort to make this sale a success and I can not thank them enough.”
Colt by Japanese super sire makes Impact with Maher
Earlier in the day, Segenhoe Stud also sold another seven-figure yearling, a colt by Japan’s late champion sire Deep Impact (Sunday Silence), to Ciaron Maher Racing for $1.1 million.
The coronavirus did not stop Maher and training partner David Eustace, the most active public stable at the Australasian sales this year, from going hard for the blueblood colt on day two.
Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida was believed to have been the underbidder on the Deep Impact colt, a fact that added to Peter O’Brien’s confidence that the horse was “exactly the right type of Deep Impact”.
“I love the horse and very much love the stallion, but for Australians who aren’t used to seeing Japanese yearlings, they are much lighter and longer and not as heavy as Australian horses,” O’Brien said.
“He was a polarising horse physically, but Ciaron Maher has spent a lot of time in Japan and he knows them.
“I showed a video to a friend of mine John McCormick, who does a lot of business in Japan as well as Harry Sweeney and they both said that colt was exactly the right type of Deep Impact. He had a beautiful action.
“It was a complete surprise to see Ciaron buy him, I thought perhaps a Japanese bidder would get him. I did think there would be three or four people on him.”
Bred by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, the colt is the fourth foal out of South African Grade 1 winner Amanee (Pivotal), making her a half-sister to the Australian stakes-placed three-year-old Jadeer (Fastnet Rock) and Sun Is Up (Woodman), the dam of Breeders’ Cup Mile (Gr 1, 1m) winner Karakontie (Bernstein) and fellow stakes winners Bottega (Mineshaft) and Sunday Sunrise (Lemon Drop Kid). He was catalogued as Lot 319. https://inglis.com.au/sales/info/2020+Australian+Easter+Yearling+Sale/catalogue/319
Ciaron Maher Racing’s bloodstock manager Will Bourne was surprised how far he was pushed to secure the colt given he believed the market conditions would have led to a drop in values even at the elite level.
“He was just a very, very good walker and from a great farm in Segenhoe. He is obviously by one of the well-renowned sires in Deep Impact, he was a lovely type and very well put together,” Bourne said.
“But what Ciaron always looks for is a good walk and he had that, a lovely action both in front and behind.
“The sale has been so strong. It really has surprised me how strong it has been, given what is going on in the world at the moment.
“I thought we paid what we would have paid three months ago for the colt, so I thought we would get some sort of discount, but that didn’t happen. With these quality horses they seem to be immune to the economy.”
Capping off a highly successful Easter sale for Segenhoe, the farm sold a Snitzel half-brother to Group 1 winner Manuel (Commands) for $875,000 to Hong Kong-based agent George Moore Bloodstock.
Catalogued as Lot 467, https://inglis.com.au/sales/info/2020+Australian+Easter+Yearling+Sale/catalogue/467 the colt is the sixth foal out of Listed-winning sprinter Girl Hussler (Hussonet) who is also the dam of Group 3 winner Taking Aim (Choisir) and the speedy stakes-placed mare Witherspoon (Exceed And Excel).
Moore also paid $800,000 for Witherspoon’s brother at the 2018 Easter sale who was a juvenile winner in Sydney before heading to Hong Kong. He was a winner in the Asian racing capital in March.
Segenhoe sold 15 yearlings for an aggregate of $6,588,000 at an average of $45,867 to be the second leading vendor and O’Brien commended Inglis and the buying bench for the resilience shown during a health crisis.
“We sold four out of five yesterday and we sold every horse today. If you had said to me two weeks ago that we would go to the sale and sell 15 out of 16 and average what we have, I would have ran naked to Sydney and back,” he said.
“It would have been very easy of Inglis to have just laid down and they didn’t. They fought the battles and it’s all credit to them.”
HKJC steps up to take home nine
Coolmore was not a lone hand on the buying bench, with the China Horse Club-Newgate Bloodstock partnership securing ten yearlings, Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott (8), Commendable Bloodstock (6), Dean Hawthorne Bloodstock (6), Hawkes Racing (6) and Moody Racing (6) and Sun Bloodstock (5) all stepping up.
Another agent, Andrew Williams, was also active, buying nine yearlings either outright or with other parties.
But Hong Kong buyers were also pivotal to the unexpected depth of the market, with owner Bon Ho securing nine yearlings headed by the $1.1 million half-brother to his Group 2-winning sprinter Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt) while the Hong Kong Jockey Club was also extremely active.
Boomer Bloodstock’s Craig Rounsefell has been entrusted with the selection and buying of the HKJC’s yearlings in Australia and New Zealand this year and he was able to add nine lots over two days of selling at Easter for a total spend of $5.145 million.
Rounsefell bought five yearlings yesterday to add to the four he secured on day one.
“The nice types I identified for my other clients in the middle market were extremely difficult to buy, with strong competition across the board for both colts and fillies,” Rounsefell said.
“Not only has this sale demonstrated the resilience of Australian breeders and buyers, but it has also shown the incredible adaptability of the market to adjust quickly to a new sales format.
“Mark (Webster), Sebastian (Hutch) and the Inglis team have set the benchmark for sales success under incredibly tight restrictions.”
Hong Kong Jockey Club purchases on day two
Lot 291
Breeding: I Am Invincible – Written Dash (Written Tycoon) colt
Price: $700.000
Vendor: Tyreel Stud
“He was a well grown, athletic colt with all the quality that I Am Invincible puts into his stock. Out of a fast Group 3-winning mare from one of the top boutique nurseries in Australia, Tyreel Stud, he is an ideal horse for Hong Kong,” Rounsefell said.
Lot 389
Breeding: Medaglia d’Oro – Comical Spell (Comic Strip) colt
Price: $725.000
Vendor: Gooree Park Stud
“This colt was one the most impressive physicals in the sale. He had so much quality and was incredibly athletic with a powerful walk,” Rounsefell said. “He is by Medaglia d’Oro who is the sire of this season’s Hong Kong star Golden Sixty and is from a huge family, being a half-brother to three stakes winners including Smart Missile from the family of Northern Meteor.”
Lot 408
Breeding: Fastnet Rock – Diana’s Star (Northern Meteor) colt
Price: $460,000
Vendor: Segenhoe Stud Australia
“This colt has all the attributes of the successful Fastnet Rock progeny; short-coupled, very well balanced and has an abundance of quality,” Rounsefell said. “He had a real swagger about him when he moved along and looks a very genuine, honest horse. His dam is a half-sister to Australian Horse of the Year Dissident.”
Lot 435
Breeding: Sebring – Fashion (Anabaa) colt
Price: $460,000
Vendor: Edinglassie Stud
“Edinglassie’s Sebring colt was our pick of the sale,” Rounsefell said. “He is an outstanding type with a magnificent shoulder and girth, by a stallion who has a superb track record of success in Hong Kong with horses such as Aethero and Lucky Bubbles. He hails from a rich German family and he is a half-brother to the speed machine Zoustyle. Edinglassie has a proven track record, and pound for pound are up there with the best breeders in Australia.”
Lot 489
Breeding: Snitzel – Houston Benefactor (Encosta De Lago) colt
Price: $600,000
Vendor: Segenhoe Stud Australia
“This colt looks like a robust racehorse, a very strong, sound and tough-looking colt. He is the second purchase we have made off Segenhoe who continually produce outstanding racehorses,” Rounsefell said, “Being a November foal and coming from a later maturing family, he will continue to develop and grow through the breaking in and pre-training process, which is ideal for the Hong Kong sale program.”
‘We have seen the best of the industry over the past few weeks’
Inglis management was placed under immense pressure, both externally from government who put stringent government measures in place to help combat the spread of coronavirus, and from stakeholders, in the lead-up to the company’s banner sale.
Arrowfield Stud made the decision to withdraw its high-profile 60-lot draft, while some interstate vendors also elected not to participate in the online sale, which was changed to a “virtual” auction last week.
The interstate and non-Hunter Valley vendors were placed at a distinct disadvantage with many potential buyers unable to inspect their yearlings, while New Zealand vendors and their horses were stranded in their own country due to a complete lockdown.
“We have seen the best of the industry over the past few weeks. The vendors have helped each other, having other people’s drafts on their farms. Our team here has done an incredible job in pulling this together,” Inglis managing director Mark Webster said.
“We are aware of what is happening around the world and we can’t change that, but here at Inglis we have respected all the rules regarding biosecurity.
“However, we needed to get these horses sold, we need to keep cash flow moving within the industry amongst the breeders and they need to back up in the spring and breed again otherwise we won’t have yearlings to offer.
“The trainers, vendors and agents all still need to make a living, which is really important, not just for the racing industry, but for the economy in general. I do feel we have played our small part in keeping the economy going.”
There were 214 horses sold at an average of $318,040, down 11 per cent year-on-year, while the median was $250,000 and a drop of just $10,000 compared to the 2019 edition. The aggregate was $68,060,500.
Webster could hardly believe the figures last night which were well above the auction house’s expectations.
“We were estimating $220,000 for the average of this sale and there were some people in my team who thought that was being a bit optimistic as we went into the sale,” he said.
“So, to be ahead of that and only 15 per cent or so down from last year is quite incredible.
“Seven lots making a million or more and the top lot of $1.8 million – there is no way I would have thought that could happen.
“If someone would have said that to me a week ago I would have thought they were crazy.”
Inglis is now focused on its online The Chairman’s Sale offering elite breeding stock, with the catalogue’s release imminent.
“I think we have learned a lot from this sale, which will ensure we run a really good Chairman’s Sale in a few weeks’ time,” he said.
He confirmed that the Chairman’s Sale would also be held as a virtual auction.