Young stallions’ first crops find favour
Buyers also responded to stock by colonial first season sires Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) and Stay Inside (Extreme Choice) as well as Darley’s first crop shuttler Pinatubo (Shamardal).
And it was current and former employees of Newgate Farm’s Henry Field who were responsible for the second most expensive weanling sold so far this year by Home Affairs, who was offered by Newgate.
Newgate’s assistant stud manager Jackson Beirs, in conjunction with his family, bred the impressive colt, who is the first foal out of American Grade 2 winner Inthemidstofbiz (Fed Biz), and it was former nominations team member and now Riverstone Lodge principal Nick Taylor who bought the son of the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) winner for $350,000.
Taylor bought the pinhook prospect with agent Suman Hedge and B2B Thoroughbreds to add to Riverstone Lodge’s crop of foals to go through the 2025 yearling sales, which will be the Blandford-based stud’s second sales season.
“Nick’s doing a great job and he’s bought a lovely horse, so I am delighted for Nick and I am delighted for Jackson Beirs and his family who bred him,” Field said.
“He paid good money for the mare and it’s good that the Beirs family have recouped a lot of their investment.
“They’ve got a beautiful Glenbawn Farm up in Gundy [in the Hunter Valley] and it’s great to see everyone do well.”
Beirs’ Glenbawn Bloodstock bought Inthemidstofbiz for $525,000 at last year’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale carrying the Home Affairs colt.
Hedge admitted to being concerned as to whether the Riverstone Lodge-led investors had enough money to be able to afford the colt given the horse’s appeal to a wide variety of high-end pinhookers.
“There’s no doubt that the market was affected this year and it was a lot more picky as to what they liked and what they didn’t like, but the better types by those first season stallions still sold particularly well,” Hedge said.
“There’s still a huge desire and a huge appetite for those types of horses. I just can’t see horses by this stallion not being super popular next year.
“I think Home Affairs and Stay Inside, in particular, are going to be very interesting horses and we can see their progeny selling really well.”
Earlier, a filly by Home Affairs sold for $380,000 to Lindsay Maxsted, the chairman of Coolmore Australia where the sprinter now resides.
Maxsted bought the Home Affairs third foal out of the stakes-placed Art Collection (Fastnet Rock), who he will retain to race rather than put her back through the yearling sales. She is the most expensive weanling sold by the stallion across Magic Millions and the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale so far this year.
Meanwhile, a group of well-known industry identities partnered up to purchase a Three Bridges Thoroughbreds-bred and sold colt by Pinatubo for $200,000.
The 11th winning foal out of El Daana (Redoute’s Choice), a Group 2 winner who has produced South Africa Grade 1 winner Al Muthana (Deep Field) and Melbourne three-time stakes winner Wawail (Lonhro).
Agent James Bester, Michael Kirwan, Andrew Dunemann and Lime Country’s Greg and Jo Griffin will most likely try to pinhook the colt through next year’s yearling sales.
“He’s a big, strong colt who is a lovely dark colour with a very good head and a very good action,” Bester said.
“Physically, we rated him probably the number one colt in the sale. We love the stallion and the dam we know well. She won an Edward Manifold and produced a King’s Plate winner, the best mile race in South Africa, so he was a proper Group 1 winner, and she has also produced a Group 2 winner of the Kewney Stakes in Melbourne, so it’s a strong family.
“He’ll probably be reoffered for sale, but he’s a dual-purpose horse that if you didn’t get what you wanted, he’d make a fabulous racehorse and even a potential sire prospect.”
Three Bridges’ Peter Liston said selling weanlings of the quality of the Pinatubo colt was an important part of the stud’s business model.
“If you run a horse stud, you know that you need money all year round, not just in January, so we always sell a good lot of weanlings every year,” Liston said.
“We bring them up here and what we keep at home basically comes up to the Magic Millions Yearling Sale next year.”
Bester is an unabashed fan of Pinatubo, the 2019 champion two-year-old of Europe, who will stand for $55,000 (inc GST) in 2024 and he has already sired a winner with his first crop in the northern hemisphere.
“I’m in love with him. He’s as good a two-year-old as I ever saw and he was a very good three-year-old miler as well, so I have full faith in him,” the expatriate South African agent said.
“He’s been very popular at the overseas sales, people like his types and we’re just hoping he takes off here.”
Victoria’s Rhys Smith of Kulani Park bided his time until late in the day to make his mark, going to $180,000 for a Morningside-consigned colt by the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Stay Inside.
The Kulani Park-acquired colt is third living foal out of Metis (I Am Invincible), a metropolitan winner in Queensland.
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said day one’s market indicated that buyers once again stepped up their spending in the lower risk segments of the market, well proven stallions and the best-credentialled first season sires.
“Whether it was Home Affairs, Pinatubo or Stay Inside – he had a solid day as well and I believe he’ll have a better day [on Monday] – I think we’ve got a good lot by the first season horses here and they’ve been well sought after.
“Whether it’s a really proven horse or a first season horse, that’s where the really strong appetite is.”
Bowditch described Sunday’s market as healthy in the current economic conditions.
“There’s obviously a thirst for quality and that’s been evident through the yearling sale market this year and that flows through to what happens at a weanling sale generally,” he said.
“The pinhookers were out in force looking to trade into next year’s yearling sales and there were plenty of end users participating as well.
“All in all, it was a healthy trading sale from a weanling sale perspective, having ten lots make $200,000 or more and 32 make $100,000 or more.
“It’s a really good start and I’ve got reason to believe that a lot of buyers may have longer lists [for Monday].”
Day two of the National Weanling Sale starts at 11am.