Peter Moody's return as a force in Australian racing took another leap Jan. 11 as he claimed top lot on a booming, fillies-dominated opening session described as the strongest day one in Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale history.
Less than two years after his comeback to training, and on the heels of his headlining spring with Incentivise, Moody took the front-running late in the day by paying AU$950,000 (US$682,154) for a daughter of Zoustar—the hottest sire of the session—out of the speedster he formerly trained, Karuta Queen.
With Tuesday's top four lots female, Moody's buy edged ahead of three of AU$900,000 ($646,251): another filly by Zoustar out of Gold and Diamonds bought by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, a daughter of dual group 1 winner Global Glamour by exciting first-season sire Justify bought by the dam's former trainer Gai Waterhouse, and an I Am Invincible -Harlem River filly which fell to Sheamus Mills Bloodstock.
Widden's flagbearer Zoustar was the top sire with eight lots grossing AU$3.7 million ($2,656,811)—a million more than first-season The Autumn Sun in second spot through nine lots—with Zoustar's AU$468,000 ($336,051) average topped only by I Am Invincible's AU$486,000 ($348,976) through five sales.
The session's figures outstripped last year's day one in all key areas, and topped the average and median for the book one of 2021—the strongest Gold Coast sale ever held—in what Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said was more evidence of racing's almost unique boom through the pandemic.
The day one average price was AU$273,000 ($196,030)—up from 2021 figures of AU$248,000 for day one and AU$251,000 across book one, while the median of AU$220,000 ($157,973) topped corresponding marks of AU$170,000 and AU$180,000.
Day one's gross of AU$40,132,500 ($28,817,423) eclipsed 2021's AU$35.24 million, while a clearance rate of 91% outshone last year's 85%.
"Racing is engaging a lot more people," Bowditch said of the sport's privileged position compared with most sectors of society through the COVID-19 crisis. "It's just getting stronger and stronger and hopefully the confidence there in today's sale keeps going for the next six days.
"This would be the strongest Day One we've ever had."
After spirited bidding through 148 sold lots, and after Waterhouse and Justify had laid an early claim to top billing, it was Moody who stole the show with the ninth-last buy of the session.
With words echoing those he used of his purchase of Black Caviar , he said he "just had to have" Lot 172, an imposing filly offered by the Strawberry Hill operation of John Singleton, who raced the dam Karuta Queen with him for her last five starts.
These included a second to Black Caviar in the Hacer Group William Reid Stakes (G1), following an earlier second to Moody's unbeaten champion at group 2 level, plus a group 3 win of her own.
"She's a beautiful filly," Moody told ANZ Bloodstock News. "Like we always say, I paid more than I probably expected for her but she was just a filly that I wanted to take home.
"I didn't have a budget. I haven't got an owner for her either! So we'll play it by ear.
"She's got a great girth, great hip, and just has a real presence about her.
"I trained her mum at the backend of her career and she was just a bloody nice filly. And I've had a bit of luck with the Zoustars since I've returned to training, like Lightsaber, who was good to us last year, and quite a few others.
"We're a much smaller operation these days and try to work on the quality rather than the quantity," said Moody, who came here with 188 horses on his books and now has 189.
"Let's hope she adds a bit of quality to the stable, as I'm sure she will," he added.
Karuta Queen was bred by Moody's associate and friend Stuart Ramsey, and her pairing with Zoustar effects one of the Turangga Farm maven's most coveted blends—the cross of 1960s full-brothers Biscay and Star of Heaven, also borne by Zoustar's most famous daughter, Sunlight, among others.
A winner of six from 20 and AU$1.8 million, Karuta Queen has thrown two winners from three foals to race including listed-winning filly Eawase.
Exciting first-season sire Justify landed with a splash through the first Australian lot of the year—and his first on offer in the Southern Hemisphere—a Coolmore colt who is the first foal of speedy stakes-winner Eckstein. He was bought for AU$450,000 ($323,126) by a syndicate led by the China Horse Club's Teo Ah Khing, in whose colors the U.S. Triple Crown-winning Justify raced.
But that was outstripped 77 lots later when Waterhouse set a new day's high mark to acquire his Global Glamour filly (Lot 78), having paid AU$600,000 ($466,435) for that mare's first foal, by Zoustar, here last year.
"I'm very excited," Waterhouse told ANZ. "She's a magnificent filly, very rangy, and very much a daughter of Justify, who is a lovely, big, loose sort of stallion, and of course the mare we knew very well.
"She's got quite a bit of similarity with Global Glamour. She won the Flight Stakes (G1) at Randwick and I put her on a float (horsebox) and a week later she took out the Thousand Guineas (G1) at Caulfield. You don't get that sort of toughness anywhere but in Australia.
"The filly's a beautiful mover, very fluid. I think Southern Hemisphere mares will put a lot of speed into Justify. American horses can be a bit long hip-to-hock, and Australians are much more short-coupled, so it'll be interesting how they (Justify offspring) will shorten up over the years."
Waterhouse bought six lots for AU$2.7 million ($1,938,754) as the day's second-biggest spender overall, behind Team Maher-Eustace, who nabbed 12 yearlings for AU$4.6 million ($3,303,062) and are well on their way to eclipsing last year's spend, when the training partners bought 38 yearlings for AU$11.35 million.
And four lots after her main purchase, her Victorian rivals joined her on the AU$900,000 mark by snaring their Yulong-bred Zoustar filly out of the unraced Gold and Diamonds (Lot 82), who has a 4x3 male-male cross to Danehill. Gold and Diamonds' only foal to race, Authentic Jewel, has won twice and came fourth in the Keeneland Gimcrack Stakes (G3), while close relatives on the female side include Octagonal and Viscount.
"The filly's very typical of the sire, has a lot of strength, is not too big," Eustace told ANZ. "She paraded very well, is from a progressive farm and supporter of the stable, and for us was a stand-out filly of the sale that we were very keen to get.
"She's very athletic, strong, very racy, and looks like she's going to be a 2-year-old.
"The Zoustars are good-looking horses, athletic, and present themselves extremely well."
Sheamus Mills effected a three-way tie on AU$900,000 in snaring his Newgate filly by I Am Invincible out of 2-year-old listed winner Harlem River (Lot 102), who has had three foals to race including Lady Harlem, who was second in the Inglis Banner. Mills purchased for long-term clients including Anthony Roberts and Heath Newton, who also race group 1 winner Odeum.
"There are certain fillies at this sale who'd stack up at any sale in the country or the world," Mills told ANZ. "An I Am Invincible out of a 2-year-old stakes-winning Fastnet Rock mare who's already produced a stakes-placed horse at her only start, she fits the bill.
"She's a young mare, I'm a big fan of 'Vinnie' and Fastnet Rock. The filly is pretty typical of what 'Vinnie' gets—good size, good stretch, a beautiful head, nice big ears, and a wide jowl, which is a great sign for breathing. She's got a fast pedigree and these are the sorts of fillies we're trying to collect for a good group of clients who want to have an elite broodmare band ahead."
Mills is no stranger to signing for high-priced fillies, having purchased the most expensive female yearling at last year's Inglis Easter Sale, incidentally also by I Am Invincible, for AU$1.95 million ($1,494,573) and at the 2020 Magic Millions a AU$1.5 million ($1,029,934) filly in Queen Of The Green, herself a half sister to the session-topper bought by Moody.
Newgate was leading day one vendor with nine lots grossing AU$3.7 million ($2,656,811) at an average of AU$411,000 ($295,121), ahead of Coolmore's AU$2.6 million ($1,866,948) through five lots at AU$525,000 ($376,980), and Yarraman Park's AU$2.1 million ($1,507,920) from seven lots at AU$306,000 ($219,725).