The second and final session of Book 1 of the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale took place on Tuesday, with a son of All Too Hard (Aus) becoming the sale's overall topper when hammered down to Macdonald Gluyas Racing for A$190,000.
The sale got off to a rather slow start on Monday and while trade livened up on Tuesday, figures remained down on 2016. A total of 250 yearlings were sold over two days at a buyback rate of 17.8% (up from 15.7% last year) while the gross, at A$10,256,500, was down from A$10,279,500 last year with 13 more sold. The average was down 6.2% at A$41,026, while the median dipped 11.8% to A$30,000.
“We've finished with a gross right in line with last year,” Magic Millions Managing Director Vin Cox said. “All in all today was a lot stronger than yesterday, which was pleasing. The standout thing from this sale has been the participation of the trading market–the pin hookers for the 2-year-old sales and also into the Asian market.”
Leon Macdonald of Macdonald Gluyas Racing had outlasted trainer Gary Moore to secure the session co-topping Stratum (Aus) colt for A$170,000 on Monday, and it was a case of deja vu on Tuesday, with Macdonald once again outbidding Moore on lot 145, a colt by All Too Hard from Gerry Harvey's Baramul Stud, for A$190,000.
Macdonald, after ending the sale as leading buyer with three bought for A$400,000, said of the colt, “He's a lovely colt. I bought the two colts I wanted–the Stratum and this bloke. I thought they were as good as any colts on the complex.”
He added, “I've never had one [by first-season sire All Too Hard] but I know Johnny Hawkes [trainer of All Too Hard] has great faith in him and he doesn't do a bad job with a horse.”
The All Too Hard colt is inbred 2×3 to Lady Capel (Aus), the dam of All Too Hard's sire Casino Prince (Aus) (Flying Spur {Aus}).
Gary Moore gained redemption later in the session with the purchase of lot 286, a colt by So You Think (NZ) for A$155,000. The colt is out of the Danehill mare Starspangled (Ire), herself a daughter of User Friendly (Slip Anchor), who counts the G1 Epsom and Irish Oaks and the G1 St Leger among her five Group 1 wins.
“He's coming off a great stud farm,” Moore said of the Bowness Stud-consigned bay. “So You Think is doing the job at stud–I really love So You Think. His second dam is User Friendly, who was racing at the same time as when I was riding in France. It's a beautifully balanced pedigree–he might be my first Derby winner.”
John Foote Bloodstock spent A$140,000 on the session's third-most expensive yearling, a son of Hussonet (lot 194), while Arrowfield sold a son of its leading sire Snitzel (Aus) (lot 217) to New Zealand's Lyndhurst Farm for A$130,000.
Book 2 of the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale takes place on Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m.
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