The annual yearling sale season in Australia kicked off at the Gold Coast last week with the Magic Millions sale and it proved, once again, a resounding success for farms that use Barastoc products.
In simple terms, Barastoc fed yearlings grossed over $45 million at an average of $222,741.
Breaking it down further, nearly a quarter of the 783 horses sold were raised on Barastoc with three of the top 10 lots and three Barastoc clients were in the top five vendors for the sale.
Coolmore, Arrowfield and Longwood Thoroughbred Farm all had yearlings sell for $1 million or more with Victoria’s Longwood Thoroughbred Farm averaging $395,000 for all eight yearlings offered.
In a frenetic week of trading where quality triumphed over quantity, Coolmore enjoyed another outstanding sale, selling 36 lots at an average of $353,194 and highlighted by it’s $2.5 million colt by I Am Invincible out of the Group 1 winner Booker which will be trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace.
"He was, I thought, one of the very obvious colts of the sale," Maher said after signing the sales docket. "Out of a really fast mare, a two-year-old winning mare."
"Being by I Am Invincible and he's a smashing type. We saw him on the farm up at Coolmore very early on before he started his prep and I was very keen to get him into the stable."
"It gets a bit daunting," Maher added. "For a yearling, that’s the highest I have ever gone. But they're only expensive if they're slow and hopefully he's not that."
"Ideally he'll win a Slipper and a Coolmore (Stud Stakes) - really looking forward to it. He ticks all the boxes physically and mentally."
Coolmore’s Tom Magnier was understandably pleased with the result.
"We're very happy. He's been a lovely colt all week, he's up there with the Spright (colt by I Am Invincible) as a really, really lovely horse.” Magnier said.
"I think he's a champion, the horse. He's the best horse we've taken to a sale in a long time."
"He's been very popular and all the top people were on him, so I’m delighted for Ciaron Maher.”
Coolmore also sold a $1.55 million Justify colt, the first foal of Group 1 winner Sunlight which will now enter the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable.
“He’s a very special colt,” Gai Waterhouse said. “He’s beautifully balanced, a lovely neat sort of horse and I think he’s a real two-year-old type.
“It’s why you come to the Magic Millions, we come here to try and buy the horse that will be racing here (Gold Coast) next year and then hopefully go onto the Golden Slipper and then hopefully become a stallion in Australia.
“He’s a very handsome, very sexy horse.”
Coolmore Australia stud manager John Kennedy said the farm was expecting the colt to sell well.
“We were expecting that he would have sold well because he was very popular here from the minute he landed into the sale,” Kennedy said. “He’s always had a great temperament and he handled the whole thing extremely well.”
Over at Arrowfield, things were just as busy with 48 yearlings selling at an average of $320,000 and a top priced $1.1 million lot.
For Michael and Siobhan Christian’s Longwood Thoroughbred Farm the sale was an unqualified success, selling their entire draft highlighted by the $1.45 million filly by Zoustar out of the good race mare Fuddle Dee Duddle and it was the filly’s gait that seduced bloodstock agent Sheamus Mills.
“Physically about her it was her walk. I’m a big believer in the walk, I know it is for some and not for others, but I thought she was as good a moving horse as there is on the complex,” Mills said.
“She never lost it, even out the back and even this morning – she’s been parading for 10 days or something – and she still just has that enormous walk that the good horses I’ve bought have got and she doesn’t tire, which is also a really important thing for me.”
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch praised Longwood for its results.
“It was fantastic for Longwood and Michael Christian, his group have stepped up and really invested in mares over the last few years, and to get a result like that… I’m very proud of those guys, and I’m fortunate enough that they’ve supported our sale with their best horses.” Bowditch said post-sale.
"I think the market has an eye for quality, it always has. When you buy the best mares that go to auction each year and you raise your horses right you’re a big chance of being well supported in the sales ring.”
South Australia’s Mill Park Stud is perennially among the leading breeders and vendors at sales and they had 11 lots sell at an average of 369.061 with atop lot of $950,000 Snitzel colt that sold to the Rosemont Alliance.
Rosemont as vendors were represented by 15 lots selling at an average of $240,000
Close behind Longwood by average was Willow Park Stud on $371,250 and Lustre Lodge on $325,000.
The Magic Millions sale is split up into three ’books’ and Barastoc clients also enjoyed success in Book two, notably Alexia Fraser who had six lots sell at an average of $67,917 which is above the Book Three average of $62,276.
And so while we can usually bend statistics to suit any argument, the bottom line is that the 2023 Magic Millions yearling sale on the Gold Coast was a resounding success for horses raised on Barastoc.
*Barastoc partners with Kentucky Equine Research to provide targeted nutrition and customised feed solutions for clients.