A three quarter sister to Golden Rose winner In the Congo topped Day One of the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale on the Gold Coast today.
Silverdale Farm and Shrone Bloodstock teamed up to secure the prized filly from the draft of Newhaven Park for $600,000.
The filly is a daughter of young Arrowfield Stud based sire The Autumn Sun and is the fourth foal of the three time South African Group One winner Via Africa (Var).
"She was the quality filly of the sale for us," Silverdale's Rob Petith said. "We did a lot of groundwork here over the last few days."
"She was just a stand out physical - obviously out of a very good mare and a three quarter to In the Congo - combine all of that, while it was probably more than what we wanted to pay we had to be strong to the end."
"I was a little nervous (during the bidding), spending that amount of money - but you can be confident when you're buying the right product. She was beautifully presented."
"She'll do very well on the hills at Silverdale and we look forward to re-presenting her next year. We always aim to bring them back to sale - she will be re offered again. Hopefully we can put some polish on her, bring her back here and she'll be in even bigger demand," he added.
Justin Bahen was one of the busiest buyers on the day and he signed for the day's second top seller, a So You Think colt from Telemon Thoroughbreds, for a Victorian client.
"The stallion is doing a super job and he’s the first foal out of a Redoute’s Choice mare so there was a fair bit to like about him," Bahen said.
"I think the client wants to put him back through (as a yearling) but we’ll see how we go, if there’s a profit there then he’s happy to turn him over but if not, he’ll race him."
Across the day almost $10 million was traded on 120 lots sold at an average price of over $83,000.
"The day obviously picked up momentum as we went along," Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch said.
"At times the market’s quite selective and they know what they’re looking for but anyone with a quality weanling that was here on the grounds has been extremely well rewarded so far."
"It’s an incredibly strong average. Outside of last year, it’s well above any average we’ve had for a weanling sale before. Our clearance rate ending at 78 per cent I think is sound and it gives us a great day one to build on into the second half of the sale tomorrow."
“There's a very similar number of horses to sell (tomorrow). It’s a very even spread and I’d expect we’ll see a lot more of the same tomorrow," Bowditch added.
"Hopefully the momentum that picked up during the day continues on to tomorrow because there’s a lot of quality horses."
Day Two of the 2022 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale, including supplementaries, will commence at 10am (Qld time) tomorrow.
SALE STATISTICS
(2021 in brackets)
Lots Catalogued: 195 (230)
Lots Sold: 120 (160)
Lots Withdrawn: 41 (41)
Lots Passed In: 33 (29)
Sale Gross: $9,970,000 ($17,948,500)
Average Price: $83,083 ($112,178)
Median Price: $52,000 ($51,000)
Sold %: 78 (85)
DAY ONE TOP SELLERS
$600,000 - The Autumn Sun-Via Africa filly (Lot 107)
Vendor: Newhaven Park (As Agent) / Buyer: Silverdale Farm/Shrone B'stock (NSW)
$525,000 - So You Think-Salina colt (Lot 27)
Telemon T'breds (As Agent) / Bahen B'stock (Vic)
$350,000 - So You Think-Tuesday Special filly (Lot 102)
Yarraman Park Stud (As Agent) / Tasman B'stock (NSW)
Elswick Park / Trilogy Racing (NSW)
$300,000 - Toronado-Asheerah colt (Lot 147)
Caithness Breeding (As Agent) / Sledmere Stud/Cangon Stud (NSW)