Two Better Than Readys better than one for Hulbert
$140,000 brother to The Hamo tops day one at the Magic Millions March Yearling Sale
The brother to promising juvenile The Hamo (Better Than Ready) will join his year-older sibling in training in Brisbane after topping the opening day of the Magic Millions March Yearling Sale.
On a difficult day’s trade for vendors, where one in three horses were passed in, Lyndhurst Stud Farm’s standout colt came in for solid competition, eventually selling to trainer Will Hulbert for $140,000, one of two yearlings to reach six figures at the Gold Coast.
An $80,000 graduate from last year’s March sale, The Hamo ran third at his only start so far in the $500,000 The Debut (1000m) on Magic Millions day two months ago. Now gelded, The Hamo is due to return to full training today.
Fellow trainer Tony Gollan bid on the colt on behalf of Hulbert who was in transit on his way home from an overseas holiday.
“I loved the horse from when I first saw him. He was a bit bigger than his brother at the same time and he’s got an engine,” said Hulbert who trains at Eagle Farm in partnership with his father Peter.
“Hopefully that means this guy will have a bigger engine.”
The Hulberts’ sole day one purchase is the second foal out of News Release (Press Statement), herself a half-sister to Listed-winning two-year-old Moonlight Hussler (Hussonet).
Lyndhurst studmaster Jeff Kruger, whose Warwick-based operation sold nine yearlings yesterday for a combined $458,500, said: “If there was ever a Better Than Ready that looked precocious, it was this fellow. It was a great result.
“He’s always been a lovely precocious looking colt and I’m not surprised at all.”
Queensland’s premier trainer, Gollan signed for three yearlings on day one alongside his agent John Foote, two of them by Better Than Ready (More Than Ready) for $85,000 and $80,000 respectively. Better Than Ready is the sire of his 2023 Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m)-winning filly Skirt The Law.
Meanwhile, trainer Paul Shailer’s long-term investment in making sure he is a long-term success on the Gold Coast continued at the March sale when he bought a colt by Newgate’s first-season stallion North Pacific (Brazen Beau) for $110,000.
The former Gold Coast-based assistant trainer to Chris Waller, Shailer has teamed up with agent Julian Blaxland in 2024 to inspect and buy at the yearling sales with yesterday’s sole addition the second highest-priced lot on day one.
“I remember North Pacific selling at the Melbourne sale years ago and he was a magnificent yearling as was this fella,” Blaxland told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I thought he was one of the top two or three colts in the sale. Paul Shailer, who has 40 boxes in the new traintech set-up at the Gold Coast, will train him. Peter Tighe and a bunch of big owners are behind him, so he’s putting a really good team behind him.”
The son of the Up and Coming Stakes (Gr 3, 1300m) and Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) runner-up is a half-brother to six winners from as many foals to race out of Saluting (Ferocity) and he was consigned by Warrandale Stud on behalf of Elegant Thoroughbreds as Lot 95.
Shailer, who left Waller’s in early 2021, trained on the New South Wales mid-north coast at Port Macquarie for two years prior to returning to the Gold Coast late last year.
Prior to his relocation, expatriate New Zealander Shailer held a luncheon on the Gold Coast canvassing owners for support.
Among those to pledge their willingness to send Shailer horses were Peter Tighe, best-known as the co-owner of champion mare Winx (Street Cry), and prominent owner and breeder Max Whitby.
The ramping up of Shailer’s presence at the sales started at the New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale in November where he signed for four two-year-olds, the highest-priced being a NZ$525,000 Super Seth (Dundeel) filly, while he also paid NZ$450,000 for a colt by Capitalist (Written Tycoon).
Whitby and Tighe were both at Karaka on that occasion. Since then, he has acquired another three yearlings from Karaka, four horses from the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January and the North Pacific colt from the opening session of the March sale.
Blaxland, who runs Newington Farm with his wife Kacy Fogden on the Gold Coast hinterland, is also overseeing the breaking-in, pre-training and spelling of many of Shailer’s horses and he is in little doubt that the trainer will make his presence felt in Queensland.
The agent said: “Some of the horses I haven’t purchased for him, we have them at Newington and I think he’ll be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come with his experience and the cattle he’s surrounding himself with.”
Blaxland is hoping to be active again at the March sale today.
“It’s a local sale and it’s been a bit tough in parts there, but nice horses sell well. I’ve found a good list of horses and we’ve probably got more to look at [today],” he said.
“Any Magic Millions sale where there’s 300 to 400 horses, there’s a good group of horses there and we’ll be on a few more [today].”
Queensland trainer Jack Bruce and agent Jim Clarke paid $90,000 for a Eureka Stud-consigned Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) colt while Rockhampton trainer Nick Walsh and owner Brett Green paid $87,000 for a filly by the same sire.
A Cosmic Force (Deep Field) colt, who was bought by New Zealand’s Cheltenham Stables, is likely to be seen back through a two-year-old sale later this year after selling for $80,000 out of the Tullyard draft.
Cheltenham Stables’ John Malcolm wasn’t the only Kiwi to be active, with three other yearlings also bought by New Zealanders. Hong Kong buyers, too, were important players yesterday, signing for eight horses.
The clearance rate was the main sticking point for Magic Millions during yesterday’s trade, at one stage early on sitting below 50 per cent.
However, it picked up to 66 per cent by the end of the session, with 114 horses sold at an average of $34,035 and a median of $28,500. Overall, $3.88 million changed hands.
“It was a tough day out there for vendors today,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch admitted.
“It was a disappointing clearance rate, particularly early, but that built a bit as the day went on.
“Momentum toward the end of the day was pleasing and hopefully that can continue and the clearance rate can keep improving and get well into the 70s tomorrow.”
Bowditch implored Queensland owners and trainers to take advantage of the buyers’ market and the lucrative QTIS scheme.
“You don’t have to be here at this sale with a large amount of money to get yourself a nice horse,” he said.
Day two starts at 11am Queensland time.