Toronado Filly Tops Magic Millions Tasmanian Sale

An AU$150,000 (US$107,627) Toronado  filly, the highest-priced horse sold Feb. 21 at the Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale, will head to Queensland as mainland trainers and agents dominated the buying bench at the island state's annual auction. 

Continuing the trend of the Australian season so far, the Tasmanian Sale was another new record set with four yearlings in total breaking the six-figure barrier, all going to the mainland or international buyers, with a son of Stratosphere making AU$125,000 ($89,689), an Epaulette   colt fetching AU$115,000 ($82,514), and a son of Shamus Award making AU$110,000 ($78,926).

A List Stud's Chris Lee bought six yearlings Monday, including two of the four top lots, the highest-priced being the AU$150,000 Toronado filly who will join his private Gold Coast training operation overseen by Allan Chau. 

"She was the pick of the sale for my team across the inspections and we are delighted to be able to buy her," Lee said. 

"Her sire Toronado is going really well with his progeny in Australia and overseas. She's a great mover—got a lovely walk and I look forward to her joining the A List stable."

Cataloged as Lot 106, the Toronado filly was consigned by Armidale Stud on behalf of breeders Ken and Jen Breese, who own the filly's dam Il Sogno, by Elvstroem , a half sister to listed winner Snitz and a daughter of group 2 winner Tickle My.

She could eventually join A List's growing broodmare band as Lee has shares in Deep Field, Ole Kirk, and I Am Immortal.

"She was one of my favorite fillies ever since she arrived on the farm. (The Breeses) breed great racehorses, both Snitz and (group 2 winner) I'll Have A Bit were raised at Armidale and I had big expectations for this filly," Armidale Stud's David Whishaw said. 

"I brought her here thinking she could top the sale and I valued her somewhere close to what she had brought. It was very pleasing to get a great result for them."

A List Stud, acting through Magic Millions bloodstock consultant Nicky Wong, also paid AU$115,000 for the Epaulette colt out of Myhro, by Lonhro, who was also consigned by Armidale Stud as Lot 134, and AU$90,000 ($64,576) for a Needs Further filly (Lot 121) from Motree Thoroughbreds.

While the Toronado filly could be retained, it is almost certain that the Epaulette colt will form part of A List Stud's draft for the Magic Millions 2-Year-Olds In Training Sale later this year.

"Chris started doing some research and looked at the family page, and under the second dam, he saw a horse he really liked in Snitz," Wong said. 

"There are a few black-type horses there and Epaulette is doing quite well in Hong Kong, too. Hopefully, he is a horse that can go back through the 2-year-old sales."

Armidale Stud was the sale's leading vendor by aggregate and average, selling 32 yearlings for AU$1,709,500 ($1,226,588) at an average of AU$53,422 ($38,331).

"The Tassie breeding industry has been punching above its weight. People are coming down here and finding tough, sound, well-reared horses with plenty of bone, they are now happy to buy the Tasmanian product," Whishaw said. 

"There is no doubt the Tasmanian stallions have got a presence in the mainland market. It's great to see people happy to buy an Alpine Eagle or a Needs Further and be happy to trade them to Hong Kong or offer them up to owners in Victoria, (New South Wales), or South Australia." 

Notwithstanding a bigger catalog of horses being offered to the market this year, the Tasmanian sale set a new record aggregate of AU$4,294,500 ($3,081,360), while the average increased to a new high of AU$38,689 ($27,759), up 7% on 2021, while the median increased by AU$1,000 to AU$30,000 ($21,525).

The Book 1 session of last month's Magic Millions Gold Coast sale saw a year-on-year increase of 16% by aggregate, 16% by average, and 28% by median, while Book 1 of the Inglis Classic sale experienced an increase of 30%, 20%, and 25% by the same metrics.

Demonstrating the strength of the mainland and international buyers was the fact that more than half the 112 horses sold at Quercus Park were bought by mainland and international buyers. Fifty-one yearlings were bought by Tasmanians.

Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch was "thrilled" with the results achieved in Tasmania, suggesting that the figures continued the upward trend of the sales season.

"There's been a good, strong, healthy market and the vendors of Tasmania work really hard to achieve these results and, on a whole, to get their horses sold with a record average, record median, and a record gross, it's a great result for Tasmania," Bowditch said.

"Nearly all states of Australia bought a horse which was great. Victoria was fantastic, there was a bit of international participation, so Tasmania's getting great coverage, and rightly so. 

"Having those buyers willing to come down here and be willing to support this sale and expose the breed of horse down here to the mainland, it's great to see and it's important for the future (of Tasmanian breeding)."

Stratosphere Colt Shines 

Grenville Stud's first-season sire Stratosphere, runner-up to Performer in the Toyota Material Handling Canonbury Stakes (G3) in 2018 who stood for an introductory fee of AU$4,400 (including goods and service tax), found favor with the market, averaging AU$33,455 ($24,004) from 22 lots sold, headlined by an AU$125,000 colt who is bound for Singapore.

Sold by Grenville Stud as Lot 107, the colt is a half brother to Kranji trainer Michael Clements' stakes-winning mare Celavi and it was on his instruction that agent Bevan Smith ventured to the Tasmanian sale for the first time to consider buying the sprinter's sibling.

"We know the family, the filly Celavi is very, very quick and this colt looks quick as well. He's a strong, athletic, well-built colt that I think will get up and run and be a fast horse as well," Smith said.

The Stratosphere colt, who is also a half brother to breeder and trainer Graeme McCulloch's stakes-placed mare Entrapped, is the eighth foal out of In Harmony, by Exceed And Excel .

The fact the colt was by an under-the-radar, first-season stallion made valuing the horse more difficult.

Smith said: "Knowing the family made it a bit easier to go harder at the horse. We know the half sister is very good.

"Having talked to Michael Smith at China Horse Club, they were involved in Stratosphere and told us that he was a very good horse. He had all the potential in the world and was going to be a top-liner if he hadn't had an unfortunate injury."

Shamus Award Son Leads Foote's Buys

Fellow agent John Foote was also active, buying six yearlings for a combined AU$387,000 ($277,678), led by his purchase of an Alva Stud-bred and sold son of Shamus Award, who made AU$110,000.

Cataloged as Lot 84, he is the fifth foal out of Ecosse, by West Quest, a winning sister to the stakes-placed Aprilia, and a half brother to Pretty Queen Prawn, who has been placed twice in Hong Kong recently.

"John Foote buying him is recognition that you've got the right type of horse and the stallion is going really well at the moment," said Alva Stud principal Catherine Hills. 

"I have to thank Damon (Gabbedy, agent) for the mating as he suggested that one—and the mating was a good one." 

The Shamus Award colt was the second six-figure yearling sold by Alva Stud in as many years after Hills parted with a son of Deep Field last year for AU$120,000 at Quercus Park.

Alva Park sold all five yearlings offered for an aggregate of AU$197,000 ($141,350).

"If you have the right type, there was a market for them but there was really no bottom (end buyers)," Hills said. 

"There's not the people who are in small syndicates or the single owners anymore to snap up the bottom of the market, which we've had in the past. 

"Each year, it gets less and less and you have to breed for the buyers who come over here. A lot of those are looking for the ready-to-run horses or the sexy stallions that they can syndicate."