Coolmore's Magnier swoops for A$3 million brother to Sunlight at remarkable sale

The brother to champion filly Sunlight was sold for a decade-high A$3 million (£1.73m/€2.07m) at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale on Wednesday, completing a remarkable second session that saw 14 million dollar lots change hands and put the 2022 edition on a pedestal of its own.

Of the 20 million-dollar lots sold at Riverside Stables across two days, the six highest-priced yearlings were all sold on Wednesday, as colts syndicates and buyers of high-end fillies, owners and trainers all jostled in an attempt to secure some of the best-credentialed yearlings offered to market in Australasia this year.

After the enormous surge in trade on Wednesday, which hit A$81.925m in single-day spend, the aggregate eclipsed the 2008 Easter sale aggregate of A$150.159m, a mark long-time auction house staff said would never be bettered following an extraordinary buying spree by Darley and the Ingham family who had just sold its Woodlands empire to Sheikh Mohammed.

The 2022 Easter aggregate closed at A$151.325m, a jump of 15 per cent, while the average shot to a remarkable A$406,788, also up ten per cent and the median was at A$300,000, up from A$260,000 at the close of the 2021 Easter sale. They are the highest markers on record in Inglis’ 117-year history.

Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch was almost lost for words when asked to describe what had transpired at the Easter sale this week.

“It is unprecedented, genuinely unprecedented," he said. "We have been in the fortunate position whereby circumstance has meant that we set new records at the Classic yearling sale, the Premier yearling sale, the Ready 2 Race Sale, so inevitably the mind wonders, ‘What is the record at Easter?'

“So, I looked back and it was back in 2008 when there were 630-odd horses in the sale and they turned over A$150 million and a bit, so you think, ‘That’s impossible, you can never beat that’.

Sebastian Hutch: 'It is unprecedented, genuinely unprecedented'Credit: Inglis

“To sit here today and to be in position to have horses good enough to allow us to beat it and to have bidders who were committed enough and brave enough to want to go and buy horses to the extent they have is hard to comprehend.”

The day belonged to Widden Stud, the 155-year-old thoroughbred farm, who sold the Zoustar brother to Sunlight to the colts partnership led by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier, who was the Easter sale’s leading spender.

The Zoustar colt is the equal third highest-priced yearling ever sold at a southern hemisphere yearling sale after the Redoute’s Choice half-brother to Black Caviar, later to be known as 'Jimmy' who made A$5m at the 2013 Easter sale, and a A$4m Fastnet Rock colt sold at the same auction.

Two colts, by Redoute’s Choice and Rock Of Gibraltar, were also sold for A$3m each at the 2006 and 2007 Easter sales respectively.

Standing out the back of the Riverside Stables ring, BK Racing and Breeding’s Ben Vassallo, flanked by Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup, held the call at A$2.8m before Magnier and his Coolmore cohorts, standing on the opposite side of the back parade ring, gave the go-ahead for the price to hit A$3m.

The underbidders were left shaking their heads in disbelief at missing out on the star colt as auctioneer Brett Gilding brought down the gavel.

Widden Stud principal Antony Thompson was stunned after witnessing the sale from the best seat in the house.

“I can’t believe it. Words can’t describe the rollercoaster being behind the auctioneer there and seeing that horse make A$3 million, it is just overwhelming,” said Thompson as tears of joy welled up.

“It is stunning work from the team, the guys, our partners in him. I’m blown away.

“You go into the ring and you’re hoping they sell well, but you never know late in the sale. You’re worried if they (buyers) have done their budgets and all those things.

“We knew we had a very special horse, but wow, that is a very special horse. We are just flabbergasted.”

Widden Stud principal Antony Thompson was blown away by the sale-topping bidCredit: Zuzanna Lupa

With a powerful consortium of backers, which includes Sir Peter Vela and the syndicate’s trainer Chris Waller, Magnier said it was important the group was united in its approach to sourcing potential stallion prospects.

“Obviously, we bought Sunlight and the foal at home by Justify is our best foal at home, so it’s a family that we know well," he said. "When you are trying to make stallions you need to have horses like this. He was probably the best type in the sale."

“When you go and fund colts like this, you have to have everybody agreeing that this is a colt that ticks every box for the whole team.

“We will obviously need a bit of luck, and they can't all be good, but you are doing the right thing if you are trying to buy the good pedigrees and the good types.”

The dam Solar Charged, a sister to Listed winner Causeway Queen, was bought for A$650,000 at the 2014 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in foal to Sebring by Thompson and Qatar Racing to support then high-profile recruit Zoustar, an investment that paid off with the stallion being crowned leading first-season sire through the deeds, among others, of Sunlight.

With Sheikh Fahad’s support, alongside Tweenhills’ David Redvers and Hannah Wall, as well as Telemon Thoroughbreds’ Dan and Rae Fletcher, Widden Stud has sent Solar Charged to Zoustar five times in six years. She had a colt by Sebring, who was born in 2017.

From that, the six yearlings to head to a yearling sale have realised A$5.7m. They also retained a share in Sunlight, the three-time Group 1 winner who put Zoustar on the map via her Magic Millions 2YO Classic victory, before selling her to Coolmore at the 2020 Gold Coast broodmare sale for a Magic Millions record of A$4.2m.

“We have invested heavily in some nice mares and obviously stallions and you come here with the best of the best,” said Thompson.

“You have to stump up, there are some beautiful horses on the complex and the buyers are very professional, they do all their due diligence, and Coolmore have been wonderful supporters of the farm. They bought the top-priced horse off us in Melbourne as well [by I Am Invincible for A$950,000] and they, of course, bought the full-sister to this bloke in Sunlight.

“They like buying off Widden, I think they feel confident in what we do. Hopefully, one day this guy is a stallion for them in the barn at Coolmore and we can send our mares back to him.”

Thompson admitted to a few sleepless nights as anticipation built about the prospects of the remarkable colt, but even he dared not to dream that the horse could make A$3m.

“I always thought he was a million dollars-plus, but you don’t know once you get past that where they are going to go, but we did have every serious colts syndicate and major player around the ground admiring him and commenting on him,” he said.

“A lot of people wanted to tell us he was the best colt in the sale. Talk’s cheap at an auction and everything else is expensive when putting your hand up at an auction. You just try to keep an open mind and remain grounded about it all.

"We put him on the market at A$1 million as I knew he was always going to make more than that and there was no way I was going to sell him for anything less.”

Widden rounded out its Easter sale by parting with a Fastnet Rock filly for A$1m, which pushed the stud’s aggregate to A$10,345,000 from 21 lots sold at an average of A$492,619.

Magnier follows path well trodden

With studs in Ireland, the United States and, of course, the Hunter Valley, Coolmore has succeeded in part, Magnier said, by following proven sire lines and the addition of the A$2.25million Snitzel brother to 2018 Golden Slipper Stakeswinner Estijaab follows that well-worn model.

Tom Magnier of the Coolmore syndicate, which spent the Coolmore syndicate spent A$10.3mCredit: Laura Green

The highest-priced of seven million-dollar yearlings sold by leading Easter vendor Arrowfield, which cracked the A$30m mark after selling 58 yearlings across the two days, the colt is the seventh foal out of Group 1-winning mare Response, who like Solar Charge is also by Charge Forward, making him a sibling to not only Estijaab but also the stakes-placed Remarque, while he is a half-brother to After Call, who is also stakes-placed.

Japan’s Northern Farm was underbidder on the colt, who was catalogued as Lot 374.

“Snitzel is a four-time champion sire and everybody is looking for the next Snitzel, the next Fastnet Rock and hopefully we’ve already got the next I Am Invincible [in Home Affairs] and they’re the boxes you need to tick when you’re looking for these stallions' pedigrees,” said Magnier.

“The Messaras produce great horses and they have done a great job with Snitzel. The Danehills, through the Fastnet Rocks, the Sadler’s Wells through the Galileos, you’ve got to try and follow those lines and who knows where it’s going to come from, but if you’re buying progeny by the top stallions you’re in with some chance.”

Coolmore also bought a Zoustar colt out of Group 3-winning mare Sexy Eyes from Milburn Creek later in the day for A$1.25m to go with A$1.4m colts by Snitzel and Written Tycoon and a A$1m son of I Am Invincible on day one.

In total, the Coolmore syndicate spent A$10.3m.

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