Fastnet Rock Colt Sets Magic Millions Adelaide Record

A 15-year record was smashed three times during the opening Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale session March 9, with a high-profile Fastnet Rock (AUS) colt making AU$525,000 (US$402,797) and setting the tone for a stellar day's trade.

Buyers' willingness to break budgets in order to secure the best-credentialed yearlings—a trend experienced throughout the 2021 sales series so far—also saw a Palentino filly sell for AU$370,000 ($283,876) and a daughter of Merchant Navy make AU$360,000 ($276,204) on Day 1.

The trio of high-priced lots broke the company's long-standing Adelaide benchmark of AU$340,000 ($251,226) when subsequent stakes winner Victory Chant was sold in 2006.

The auction got off to a slow start in typical yearling sale fashion, but the action soon heated up with Day 1's star attraction coming in the first hour of the session when bloodstock manager Brian McGuire acted for Sydney trainer Annabel Neasham and Hong Kong owner Tony Fung to buy the brother to this season's Inglis Banner and Golden Gift winner Sneaky Five. 

"He's in and around with the best colts that we've got all year," McGuire said of the Fastnet Rock acquisition.

"He's by a proven stallion, Fastnet has had three group 1 winners already this season, the mare was a great producer and a good racehorse herself, and, physically, he's a horse. He's a really, really top colt."

Adelaide trainer Will Clarken was the under bidder.

Cataloged as Lot 22,  the colt is the fifth living foal out of Schweppes Australasian Oaks (G1) winner Small Minds who has already produced Crown Perth-Jungle Mist Classic Stakes winner Beautiful Mind as well as the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained Sneaky Five, who is raced by Rosemont Stud.

Goldin Farms manager Jeff Gordon said the decision was made to sell the colt in Adelaide rather than sending him to higher profile auctions interstate.

"It is not as if we've got 15 Fastnet Rocks and 20 Redoutes' and five Snitzels, we've only got the one good colt by a highly commercial sire, so we have got to take the risk factor out of it by keeping him at home," Gordon said. "In Sydney (Easter) he could have been swallowed up in a big market up there. Sometimes they can get overlooked in a place like that. 

"At this sale they came from all around to look at him, so it does make a bit of sense. The sister did a great job, winning nearly a million dollars in two starts, and I think it is a fantastic result, really."

Boomer Flies in to Buy Star Merchant Navy Filly

Goldin Farms also sold the Merchant Navy filly after Queensland-based agent, Boomer Bloodstock's Craig Rounsefell, made a flying visit to Adelaide to give the tick of approval to his Victorian client Peter Murray.

By Coolmore's dual hemisphere group 1-winning sprinter, the filly carries significant residual value being out of listed winner Bacchanal Woman, whose three foals to race are all winners, including group 3 winner Sweet Scandal and the stakes-placed Sir Bacchus. She was offered as Lot 110.

"My client Peter Murray picked this filly out quite a while ago in the catalog. He just loved her pedigree. I wasn't planning on coming down, but she vetted out and I got on the plane (on Monday) night and I saw her this morning," Rounsefell said Tuesday,

"She's a filly Pete can race and then add to his broodmare band. He is building up a really impressive line of mares and this one has the pedigree behind her.

"The reports from the vet were good and when I saw her she is the best Merchant Navy I have seen this year and, as a type, she has all the things we are looking for, so it's really exciting."

The last-minute trip to Adelaide for Rounsefell came after he was forced to drive from his Gold Coast home to the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale due to COVID-19 border closures.

"This time of year I am normally back in America, but with COVID that has restricted me," he said. 

"There were a few different things with the Melbourne sale. I had to drive down because the Queensland border was shut. I have a three-month-old baby, so I had to get home, but Peter Murray is a very good client of mine and I am happy to travel anywhere for the clients who support me."

Earlier, Goldin Farms also sold the Akeed Mofeed full brother to the stakes-placed sprinter Sunset Watch for AU$120,000 ($92,068) to Victorian trainer Patrick Payne.

Offered as Lot 3, he is the fifth foal out of the stakes-placed Saramenha, herself a half sister to the Singapore stakes winner In Bloom.

"He wasn't a typical Akeed Mofeed. If you have a look at a Biscay horse back in the 60s and 70s, you would swear he was one of those. He was a really good colt," Gordon said.

Balfour in Love With High-Priced Palentino Filly

Ryan Balfour has such unwavering confidence his 3-year-old Outlaws Revenge will be a major player in Adelaide's sprint races in the coming months that he was not going home without his Palentino half sister, despite commanding a big price tag.

The AU$370,000 gives the filly the honor as the most expensive filly sold at a Magic Millions sale in Adelaide, while she is also the highest-priced yearling by Widden Stud Victoria-based sire Palentino.

Balfour had to ward off rival Adelaide trainers Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas to buy the filly.

"It was a huge part of it and I've got full confidence in the half brother Outlaws Revenge. He's going to the Redelva and then the Euclase and he will be making his presence felt, so this filly should have a black-type brother," Balfour said.

"One thing about her, when I saw her I thought, 'wow, she's identical to him' and I think that's a really important part when a mare stamps them like that and you know that is going through them.

"Palentino is doing a good job for what he has had to the races, but he still has to get out there and prove it. This filly's been stamped and wait until you see her brother in the autumn."

Offered by Willow Grove Stud as Lot 79, she is the sixth foal out of Wings of Alice, making her a half sister to the Malaysian stakes winner Violet and three other winners including Outlaws Revenge. Further back in her pedigree is the exciting 3-year-old filly Written Beauty and fellow stakes winners Hi World, Loveyamadly, and Ducimus.

Wings of Alice does not have a foal at foot but she is in foal to Swettenham Stud's first season sire I Am Immortal.

The milestone was a significant achievement for breeder Ralph Satchell who has been selling in Adelaide for more than four decades. Willow Grove's previous highest-priced yearling was Tequila Time who made AU$170,000 ($128,231) through the same sales ring in 2017.

"We made the policy of selling our entire draft in Adelaide and I have always said if we had AU$300,000 yearlings or AU$30,000 ones we would sell them in Adelaide," he said. 

"If we bring the product here, we can bring the buyers here and to get a result like this. 

"The Palentino filly franks that thought and that's what we will continue to do. The A-team comes to Adelaide."

Satchell says the "stars aligned" as South Australian owners and trainers embraced their local sale, leading to the intense competition for his filly.

Despite the financial windfall, there won't be any lavish celebrations, with the long-time breeder preferring a "Coca Cola and some KFC" to ensure he is ready for Wednesday's session.

"There were times when we came to these sales where if we could get five grand for a horse, we would then be able to pay the feed bill," he said. 

"So, it's great to be selling these horses and that our breeding program and strategies are gelling into nice horses that the market wants."

Market Surges as Diverse Buying Bench Takes Up Adelaide Opportunity

Tuesday's buoyant trade ended with 21 lots making $100,000 or more, already surpassing the 14 sold at that mark at last year's sale.

Once buyers and vendors found an equilibrium, the clearance rate picked up markedly and was at 84% Tuesday night with 164 horses finding new homes at an average of AU$55,790 ($42,804), which was up 41% year-on-year.

The median was up AU$10,000 to AU$40,000 ($30,689) while the aggregate of AU$9,149,500 ($7,019,790) was also up 28%.

"Today was a fantastic day for South Australia on the back of what the team at Racing SA is doing with Racing Rewards and turning racing around in the state," Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch declared Tuesday night. 

"It's a huge confidence booster and we've seen the local trainers get right behind the sale by pushing hard on these very good horses and I think that gives the breeders in South Australia a lot of confidence to reinvest and to continue on and support this sale more heavily in the years to come."

Goldin Farms is the leading vendor after day one, selling seven yearlings for AU$1,199,000 ($919,912) at an average of AU$171,286 ($131,416), while Baramul Stud sold 12 yearlings for AU$806,000 ($618,389). 

Willow Grove Stud also sold seven yearlings for a total of AU$707,500 ($542,817).

"The three big lots for the day were from Goldin Farms and Willow Grove and all their yearlings are at this sale. They've sold their best here and I'm thrilled for Pan Sutong and Jeff Gordon who made the call to sell an outstanding Fastnet Rock colt in Adelaide and they got rewarded and justifiably so," Bowditch said. 

"Ralph Satchell, too, is a fantastic supporter of Magic Millions Adelaide and the industry in South Australia in general, so for him to get a result like that was pretty surreal for him at the time I think.

"These are two hard-working groups who are investing and bringing their horses here, so for them to get a result is exactly what we've been striving for in Adelaide a while now."

Melbourne trainer Mark Kavanagh continued his support of the Australian sales this year by purchasing nine lots Tuesday for a total of AU$466,000 ($357,530). Adelaide trainer Will Clarken bought seven lots with various partners, while Murray Bridge trainer Michael Hickmott bought five yearlings.

"There was a great cross-section of buyers and a cross-section of breeds making good money, so there was no one dominating the market," Bowditch continued.  

"If you've got the right product, and it's the same at any sale and it was evident here today, you can get very good money for horses."

The second session, which starts at 10 a.m. Wednesday, is expected to maintain a strong demand with the conclusion of Book 1 as well as the Book 2 sale.