Too Darn Hot colt headlines stellar day for Fairway Thoroughbreds
Camilleri celebrates brilliant afternoon at Magic Millions as Maher snaps up ‘quality’ youngster by Darley shuttler for $1.9 million
High end bloodstock is, in many ways, much like art – they’re collectors’ items and tend to hold their value.
And if what’s transpired at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale over the past two days is anything to go by, that matra holds true.
At any rate it certainly does for Fairway Thoroughbreds’ John Camilleri, who has spent two decades investing in high-end broodmares and breeding them to the world’s best stallions.
In a session which yielded eight million dollar lots, taking the sale’s tally to 12 after two days, during a two hour period yesterday Camilleri sold three million-dollar colts,
Trainer Ciaron Maher paid $1.9 million for a Camilleri-bred son of Darley shuttler Too Darn Hot (Dubawi), the is the current sales topper, while Coolmore’s Tom Magnier went to $1.75 million for a Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) colt, meanwhile James Harron-purchased $1 million Zoustar (Northern Meteor) colt got the seven-figure ball rolling for Fairway Thoroughbreds.
Colts by Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) ($1.6 million), Snitzel ($1.3 million) and fillies by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) ($1 million) and first–season sire Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon) ($1 million) also changed hands on day two, as across-the-board demand from owners and trainers continued on from Tuesday.
Peter O’Brien, general manager at Segenhoe Stud, who offered the Fairways Thoroughbreds-bred yearlings, believes Camilleri’s extraordinary results are a testament to the Sydney businessman’s willingness to invest significantly to acquire elite breeding stock and breed to a diverse range of commercial sires.
“He’s a pleasure to deal with. He’s got some of the best mares in the country, breeds them to the best stallions and he deserves the results,” Segenhoe general manager Peter O’Brien said.
“He’s got three $1 million horses today and it’s a big day for him.”
The Too Darn Hot colt’s dam, dual Group 3 winner A Time For Julia (Redoute’s Choice), was bred and raced by Camilleri, while the Snitzel colt’s mother was a $510,000 yearling purchase who wore the owner’s silks to three wins and two stakes placings. The dam of his seven-figure Zoustar colt, the stakes-winning Villami (Foxwedge), was purchased privately off the racetrack.
Leading into yesterday, O’Brien found it hard to split the Snitzel colt and the son of Too Darn Hot and with yesterday’s result the latter became the most expensive yearling sold in either hemisphere by Too Darn Hot. He is also the most expensive yearling sold in Australia by a European shuttle sire.
“We were going into today and we knew we had the Villami, the Warranty and him,” he said.
“I was saying to John, it’d be touch and go who makes more between A Time For Julia and Warranty.
“John is always about quality – he’s got quality mares and sends them to quality stallions.”
Maher, who signed for the current sale-topper, fended off fellow Victorian trainers Peter Moody and Lindsay Park’s Ben, JD and Will Hayes to buy the yearling, who spent an enthralling five minutes in the ring.
The beautifully bred colt is the fifth foal out of A Time For Julia, a mare whose pedigree is filled with black type winners including Time Thief (Redoute’s Choice), Foreplay (Danehill), Blue Gum Farm’s Group 2-winning first-season sire Sejardan (Sebring) and champion South African mare Laisserfaire (Danehill). The colt is her fifth foal and she has already produced the Camilleri-raced stakes winner As Time Goes By (Deep Impact).
“[Too Darn Hot has] done really well in Europe and we’ve got a few Too Darn Hots in the stable that are starting to hit their straps now, and [this is a] really good damline,” Maher said.
“He’s a great physical type, he’s got a really good mind on him and obviously he ticks all the right boxes.”
Too Darn Hot is already the sire of three individual southern hemisphere-bred first crop juvenile winners including Saturday’s leading Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) contender Arabian Summer.
Maher has bought 12 yearlings across both days, either outright or in partnership.
He said: “The sale has been really buoyant. I thought it might be a little bit soft given the climate we’re in, but they have a way of bucking the trend and there has certainly been very good buying.”
Coolmore is ever present at all the major sales around the world and Tom and MV Magnier made their presence felt again yesterday, buying the Snitzel colt out of Warranty (All Too Hard).
He is the second foal out of the stakes-placed three-time winning mare, herself a three-quarter sister to Wahng Wah (Casino Prince), the dam of Street Gossip (So You Think), winner of last season’s Princess Stakes (Listed, 1615m) in Queensland.
“He was a real quality horse and Peter O’Brien has had this horse on top for a long time,” Tom Magnier said.
“When we saw him at the farm we liked him a lot and he’s been very professional here at the sale. He was the star colt of the week and we’re delighted to get him.”
Meanwhile, Harron’s syndicate races this season’s Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) winner Espionage (Zoustar). The colt was spelled immediately after his Group 3 win, with connections choosing to bypass the Magic Millions carnival to instead focus on a Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) campaign.
Armed with that potential bullet to fire, Harron was prepared to stump up for Camilleri’s colt, the first foal out of Listed winner Villami (Foxwedge), who was herself bought privately from her trainer Gerald Ryan by Harron on behalf of Fairway Thoroughbreds.
“Rosemont were very strong on him, James Harron bought him online – he’s a very clever, tricky customer – and James sourced the mare for us for John Camilleri, so he knows how good she was,” O’Brien said.
“She was a very fast mare, a is beautiful-looking mare and he’s a real elite two-year-old type.
“James was actually underbidder on our Zoustar colt [on Tuesday] so it was great that he got this fella today.”
Of his “ripping” new colt, Harron said: “I loved him from the time I saw him at the farm. I also thought he’d progressed really well from the farm to the sales ground and just knocked it out of the park while he was here.”
Segenhoe also sold a Zoustar colt to Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis for $1.1 million on Tuesday and are setting the standard in terms of average, having sold 11 lots for an average of $769,091. The farm finished yesterday with an aggregate of $8,460,000, which was bettered only by Newgate Farm, whose gross sat at $8,785,000.