The two-day Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale ended on Tuesday with figures up on last year's strong sale. Book 1 saw 252 yearlings change hands for A$11,117,000, compared to two fewer sold for A$10,279,500 last year. The clearance rate also improved to 84% from 82%, while the average climbed 7.5% to A$44,115 and the median rose 16.7% to A$35,000. A small Book 2 session at the end of day two yielded A$1,463,000 for 123 sold at a 90% clearance rate.
“We had our best-ever buying bench here–the international buyers as well as the return of good friends of past years ensured for a really gratifying result,” Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch said. “The market probably strengthened today and we have a clearance rate of 84%, which is fantastic. Vendors are extremely pleased and the results showed that buyers had great confidence in the sale. The new two-day format worked extremely well with strong prices continuing through to the Book 2 sale late in the afternoon.”
While a colt by buzz first-crop sire Spirit of Boom (Aus) topped Tuesday's opening session, on Wednesday it was the turn of Spirit of Boom's rival Zoustar (Aus), who provided the session topping colt at A$190,000. Lot 269, from the family of Hong Kong star Vengeance of Rain (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}), G1 Australian Oaks winner Dizelle (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}) and her G1 VRC Oaks-winning daughter Pinot (Aus) (Pierro {Aus}), was bought by Perth-based agent John Chalmers. Chalmers a short time later bought a Spirit of Boom (Aus) filly (lot 275) for A$100,000, and said of the sire, “He has certainly come from nowhere, but the thing is he's throwing really good types and that's helped them to run. They're athletic horses and one thing I have noticed about them is that they have wonderful temperaments.”
Zoustar leads the first-season sires' table by earnings, much of that attributable to his Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner and G1 Golden Slipper favourite Sunlight (Aus), while Spirit of Boom is the leader by winners with 10 to Zoustar's four (joint second with Sizzling).
Zebedee, a useful sire of sprinters in Europe, has his first Southern Hemisphere-bred yearlings this year and one of those (a colt, lot 274) found favour yesterday when selling to Ryan Balfour for A$130,000. Both the Spirit of Boom filly and the Zebedee colt were sold by Willow Grove Stud. Bel Esprit (Aus), best known as the sire of the great unbeaten Black Caviar (Aus), a short time later put up the second-highest price of the day when a colt from Maluka Thoroughbreds was sold to New Zealand Bloodstock as agent for A$140,000 (lot 280).
Galileo's Irish-bred, G1 Cox Plate-winning son, the appropriately named Adelaide (Aus), is represented by his first yearlings this year from his base at Coolmore Stud, and he provided a six-figure sale on Wednesday in the form of lot 324, a A$115,000 colt also from Maluka purchased by Greg McFarlane Racing and Feale Park Training. That one is a half-brother to the dual Group 3 winner Moment In Time (Aus) (Archway {Aus}).
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