Sunlight stars as elite mares come to the fore in extraordinary session at Magic Millions
Three-time Group 1 winner sets new benchmark at $4.2 million while three others also reach seven figures
By Tim Rowe on the Gold Coast
Sunlight, a star on the track who was instrumental in launching her sire Zoustar (Northern Meteor) and been a life-changer for many of her all-female syndicate, yesterday set a new Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare record with a stunning $4.2 million figure.
Sunlight, who took the record previously held by $3.4 million mare Listen Here (Elusive Quality), made the eye-watering figure after Coolmore demonstrated its sales ring strength to land the mare and then followed up with the purchase of high-class sprinter Champagne Cuddles (Not A Single Doubt). She was knocked down to the global operation for an even $2 million.
Coolmore also paid $1.3 million for Invincibella (I Am Invincible) earlier in the session while Yulong bought the fourth seven-figure mare on day one, the Group 1 winner Unforgotten (Fastnet Rock), for an incredible $2.75 million,
The July sale, held in unique circumstances amid the coronavirus pandemic, again demonstrated the almost insatiable demand for the absolute elite mares presented to the marketplace and the day one sale figures back that up.
Not surprisingly, bidding on the unreserved Sunlight opened at $1 million with leading domestic and international players all making a move for the mare before Coolmore stepped in once the price had surpassed $3 million.
The unnamed under bidder, who also ran second on last year’s top-priced $2.3 million mare Missrock (Fastnet Rock), was acting on the phone via Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch.
Coolmore’s trio of Sunlight, Champagne Cuddles and Invincibella will be covered to southern hemisphere time by second season sire Justify (Scat Daddy) this year.
“We really wanted to have her. Sunlight is so good-looking and we are trying to build a really serious broodmare band at Coolmore and if you are serious about that, you have to have mares like her in it,” the operation’s Tom Magnier said.
“We are delighted to have got her and hopefully we will have a bit of luck along the way.”
Sunlight, who was raced by an all-female syndicate and won the women’s bonus in her spectacular 2018 Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) victory, had been a $300,000 buy a year earlier at the Gold Coast sale.
Widden Stud principal Antony Thompson, who consigned the mare, admitted it was a bittersweet moment to sell the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) and William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner despite the enormity of the price tag.
“What do you say? A real life-changing mare for everyone involved,” said Thompson.
“She has been so special for everyone associated with her and it’s great to see her go to Coolmore, which is such a magnificent farm and a great home and I’m sure they will do very, very well with a mare like that for a long time.
“We would have loved to have taken her home and I am sure everyone that has been associated with her would love to buy the foals out of her and we will follow her second career closely.
“But it is a credit to Coolmore they have made a point of buying the best mares, not just in Australia, but around the world recently, and she is a great addition to any farm. Coolmore’s commitment to Justify is well known and it’s been very evident in the quality of mares they have bought for him and have continued to buy for him.
“She put Zoustar on the map and kicked off his career and she is just a great advertisement for an amazing young stallion and we will always be grateful to her for that.”
Connections, some who had joined forces in an attempt to buy her including Thompson and his wife Katie, were emotional after the life-changing auction result.
“We were certainly interested to try and buy her and we would have loved to have taken her back to Widden, unfortunately we didn’t have the group at that level,” the Widden Stud principal said.
“Not only is she an incredible race filly, but certainly as a physical, she was just a stunning, stunning type. She really just blew everyone away here on the ground with what an amazing physical she is. Everyone who looked at her could tell why she was so good and she was much admired by everyone who saw her.
“She’s the sort of mare that can be mated to so many stallions. Justify this season, but she could go to Galileo or any of their other top stallions in the future. They have got a lovely blank canvas to work with and I am sure they will breed some very nice horses out of her.”
Out of the Group 3-winning mare Solar Charged (Charge Forward), Sunlight’s younger sibling Sisstar (Zoustar) is also a stakes winner for the McEvoy stable while another half-sister is the stakes-placed Sheikha (Sebring).
Sunlight’s brother was bought for $1.1 million at this year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale by Hawkes Racing for a syndicate headed by Orbis Bloodstock and his breeders Widden Stud and Telemon Thoroughbreds’ Dan and Rae Fletcher.
Solar Charged is due to foal to Zoustar next month, while Solar Girl (Lonhro), a half-sister to Sunlight, will be offered by Arrowfield Stud today as Lot 434. She is in foal to the first season sire The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice).
On Coolmore’s unwavering and astronomical financial investment in US Triple Crown winner Justify, Magnier said: “We are committed to Justify – he is the horse of a generation as well. He won the Triple Crown in America and retired unbeaten.
“We have spent the last year, year and half trying to find the best mares to go to Justify and we will support him in the breeding barn, in the sales ring and on the racetrack.
“His foals in America have been outstanding and hopefully next week we will have the first Justify foals on the ground in Australia. If we can follow through with more exciting progeny next year, it will be very exciting for Justify.”
Justify to add “leg” to $2 million mare Champagne Cuddles
Sold in absentia, unbeaten two-year-old Champagne Cuddles became an immediate target for Coolmore and the realisation her make-up suited Justify cemented the decision to buy her.
“She is a real sprinting two-year-old type of mare by Not A Single Doubt. She is from a great family and she needs a stallion with a bit of leg on him and we identified her as a perfect mare to send to Justify,” agent James Bester said.
“What this mare has is strength in abundance, a really powerful forearm and hindquarter. She is a very good mover. She was a very fast mare and as game as a pebble. She danced in all the dances and was Group 1-placed in some of the best races in Australia.
“Whilst she didn’t win a Group 1, she beat a lot of Group 1 winners. There was strong online competition for her and competition on the complex, but when you want these horses you have to be prepared to pay that sort of money.”
The rising six-year-old mare, who was trained by Bjorn Baker, split Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) and Menari (Snitzel) in the Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and she was placed a further three times at the highest level.
Consigned by breeder Stuart Ramsey’s Turangga Farm as Lot 131, Champagne Cuddles is a daughter of the former Peter Moody-trained Sky Cuddle (Snippets) who won the Emirates Stakes (registered as Cantala Stakes) (Gr 1, 1600m) in 2004.
Champagne Cuddles is a half-sister to Shantha’s Girl (Redoute’s Choice), herself the dam of Group 3 winner Violate (Sebring), while Sky Cuddle is a half-sister to Group 2 winner Highly Recommended (Fastnet Rock), and fellow stakes winners Sky Love (Octagonal), Hint (Reset) and Undeniably (Fastnet Rock).
A teary Ramsey, justifiably, could not hide the emotion after parting with his prized mare.
“It’s very satisfying and it’s good to see the Magnier family buy her because we’ve had a good association for a long time,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of kids and grandkids and she’s worth so much to us and more to other people. The girls and my wife aren’t very happy, but you’ve got to make these decisions and they’re not easy. It’s very emotional to lose her.”
Ramsay was not going to “give” Champagne Cuddles away and placed a $1.5 million reserve on her.
“The big players were on her and the thing was, although she hadn’t won a Group 1, she ran Sunlight into third by an inch; She went past Merchant Navy, who’s gone to stud, in the Golden Rose as though he was stuck to the wall. She’s had a little bit of bad luck in big races, but she’s honest. She’s been good.”
Invincibella proves a money-making machine for Star and Martin
The first million dollar mare through the ring was the Star Thoroughbreds-raced Tattersall’s Tiara (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Invincibella (I Am Invincible) whose connections are the beneficiary of Coolmore’s long-term commitment to its young stallion Justify (Scat Daddy).
Team Coolmore, with principal Tom Magnier and trusted advisers Colm Santry and James Bester by his side, won the early session bidding battle at $1.3 million,.
Agent Neil Jenkinson, acting for a new entrant to the industry in IT entrepreneur Simon Delzoppo, was underbidder after veteran auctioneer David Chester accepted a $500,000 opener.
“She won $3 million on the track, so her race record speaks for itself as a Group 1 winner, but beyond that she is such a great individual. She has a great head, so typical of the I Am Invincibles with a great hindquarter on her, a wonderful shoulder and girth and she is truly a queen,” Bester told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“With that awesome outlook, she always stops and looks out into the distance and she had that real look about her. More importantly, she’s also out of a Galileo mare and a good Galileo mare at that who produced a Listed winner by Sizzling.
“As far as we’re concerned she’s the perfect mix of pedigree, physique and race performance. What more could you want?”
Given the understandable uncertainty surrounding the market, Bester believes Invincibella could have fetched a higher price had she gone through the ring 12 months earlier.
He said: “Last year, I sold a mare to Coolmore for Justify in Global Glamour who made $1.5 million and, in a stronger market with more international participation, we figured she might have made up to (that).
“We thought $1 million was the bottom line, so we suspected she’d fall somewhere in that bracket.”
Invincibella, meanwhile, was a winner of 12 of her 45 starts and $3,075,103 in prize-money, and provided connections with a significant return on their $185,000 investment at the 2015 Magic Millions Yearling Sale even before yesterday’s million dollar result.
Consigned by Glenesk Thoroughbreds, Invincibella is one of two stakes winners – the other being Secret Blaze (Sizzling) – for the unraced Abscond (Galileo), herself a half-sister to the Group 1-placed Light Up Manhattan (Manhattan Rain). She was catalogued as Lot 12.
Star Thoroughbreds’ Denise Martin was delighted that Invincibella had made her way to one of the world’s iconic stud farms.
“When I bought her as a yearling she was bred off an $11,000 service fee and, at the time, I Am Invincible hadn’t reached the stellar heights he has now, but throughout the years she just got better and stronger as she got older and, remarkably, her best racing year was when she was six,” Martin said after watching the sales ring action unfold from the Magic Millions auditorium.
“She was wonderfully handled by Chris Waller and his team and she won the Magic Millions here six months ago, she won Tattersall’s Tiara just over 12 months ago and a second Dane Ripper just over 12 months ago.”
Unforgotten far from missed by the market
With a glowing endorsement from Luke Wilkinson and the experienced Marcus Corban, it was left to Yulong’s founder Yuesheng Zhang to do the bidding from the comfort of his home in China and he was determined to take Group 1 winner Unforgotten (Fastnet Rock) home at $2.75 million.
Coolmore bowed out at $2.5 million as two online combatants went head-to-head in a virtual duel before Mr Zhang proved successful and added her to his expansive broodmare band based in Victoria.
Yulong bloodstock manager Luke Wilkinson revealed a slot to I Am Invincible was quickly reserved for Unforgotten after a tense few minutes of action but a final mating plan will be confirmed in the coming days after a meeting between the hierarchy.
“Marcus Corban and I looked at all the race fillies and mares and she was right up there for us with Sunlight, perhaps just a touch below, and we loved them both,” he said.
“Mr Zhang was bidding online, so we weren’t aware which leg he was on, and we didn’t know until the phone rang afterwards from his son-in-law, that we knew that we’d secured her.”
When Sunlight made the record-breaking price, a mare Mr Zhang also made a play on “up to a level”, Wilkinson knew that the initial value placed on Unforgotten by the Yulong team may not have been enough to buy her.
“She’s a great mover, with great joints and you can see why she was such a good racehorse. Chris Waller has done a great job managing her and she looked good enough to put back into work,” he said.
“I added another $500,000 in my head after Sunlight (went through) but I still think with that pedigree that she was fantastic buying and well done Mr Zhang.”
Unforgotten was an NZ$360,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Premier Yearling Sale purchase for Chris Waller Racing in 2016 and went on to win six times, including three in succession, from 23 starts and earning $1,563,895 in prize-money.
Catalogued as Lot 92 and consigned by Blue Sky Premium Consignment, the Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner is a sister to the Listed-placed and New Zealand Group 1-performed Special Memories while her dam Memories Of You (Galileo) hails from a dominant European family.
The unplaced Memories Of You, who is expected to foal to Fastnet Rock (Danehill) early next month, is a half-sister to dual Group/Grade 1 winner Matiara (Bering), Group 2 winners Pyrus (Mr Prospector) and Marathon (Diesis) and the Listed successful Precious Ring (Bering).
Memories Of You’s half-brother by Air Force Blue (War Front) was purchased by agent Guy Mulcaster for $250,000 at this year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
Julian Blaxland has attempted to establish a reputation as being a consignor of high-class mares and yesterday’s results went a long way to confirming that.
“It was a wonderful result for Chris Waller and his owners, Peter Tighe and all the other owners,” Blaxland said.
“We’ve had her at Newington Farm for the past ten weeks and they really have something about them, these star-quality mares, and she is the best horse I have had hands on experience with for some time.”
As for the strong competition on Unforgotten, another mare who went through the ring unreserved, Blaxland said: “I was pleasantly surprised with the price-tag, but I have been going to broodmare sales all over the world for 20 years and she had a truly international pedigree and she had form around Winx – the best mare in the world – so in one way I was surprised and in another way I think she was well worth the money.”
Yulong also added the Waller-trained, Blue Sky Premium Consignment-offered Another Dollar (Ocean Park) for $700,000 later in the session.
A last-start winner of the BRC Premier’s Cup (Gr 3, 2200m), the rising six-year-old could race on next season rather than being sent to stud. Aquis Farm was under bidder.
“Another Dollar is a beautiful racemare and she was almost our most popular horse after Unforgotten on parades,” Blaxland said.
“She has recent racing form and I think she is finding her best form now. It is wonderful that she has gone into the Yulong system.”
Yulong also purchased Evening Slippers (Snitzel), a juvenile-winning sister to the Group 1-winning Sweet Idea and Group 2-successful Arrowfield Stud stallion Showtime, for $550,000. She will be sent to Yulong’s foundation second season sire Grunt (O’Reilly) this year.
Market holds up in face of adversity
Blaxland believes vendors who possessed stakes-performed mares with looks to match were well rewarded in the sales ring despite the wider economic environment heading towards a recession.
“I think in the light of recent events and the global economy this is a fabulous result for Magic Millions and is a great example of the thirst for Australian racing and breeding stock,” he said.
“If you were in any other country in the world and you received results in a sale ring that you saw here today, you would be very envious of Australian breeding and racing industry. Despite what is going on in the world, it was very strong.”
The strong high-end mares underpinned the robust day one market, with 117 mares changing hands at an average of $206,714, up 30 per cent year-on-year, while the median of $75,000 was also up $5,000 on last year.
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch was glad that buyers and vendors embraced yesterday’s live auction.
“Just to begin (selling today) was a success in itself but to again prove that this is the epicentre of selling breeding stock in the southern hemisphere was pleasing,” Bowditch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“To have as many people as we did here participating in the sale and to have the online reach that the sale had was quite remarkable.
“Both markets, remote and live, played a huge importance in today’s sale. Our mandate is to engage with as many people as possible and I think today proved that was the case.”
The importance of Coolmore to the Australian industry, with a spend of $7.5 million on day one, cannot be understated, according to Bowditch who believes the stud’s bluechip buy Sunlight is the best broodmare prospect he’s seen head to public auction.
“She’s the best we’ve ever offered and I think she’s the best mare to go to market here in Australia for as long as I’ve been in the industry, so I think she justified her result.” he said. “She’s worth every penny in my mind. I’m delighted we had so much participation on her and the international market played and respected her.“
Today’s session of mares in foal starts at 10am.
“Today was the day when we were probably going to hold a very strong average and a strong clearance rate,” Bowditch said.
“We’re hopeful that this will reflect into the next two days. I think vendors are very realistic about what they expect for their horses over the next two days, so buyers here on the ground and online will be critical.
“There will be a lot of value and opportunity for anyone who is willing to play in the marketplace.”
Sale results
2020 2019
Catalogued 168 246
Offered 139 208
Sold 117 (84%) 168 (81%)
Aggregate $24,185,500 $28,332,500
Average $206,714 $158,646
Median $75,000 $70,000
Top Lot $4.2 million $2.3 million