'He looks like Home Affairs' - Coolmore pay A$2.7m for I Am Invincible colt

Eight million-dollar horses changed hands and a new Magic Millions Yearling Sale record price was set late on day three, a A$2.7 million (£1.54m/€1.73m) encore to a frenetic pace set in the early part of the session - and there is optimism that the best is still yet to come this week on the Gold Coast.

In just eight lots, in a 23-minute period just before midday on Thursday, five seven-figure yearlings were sold, the first four auctioned by Steve Davis before Clint Donovan took over for the selling of Lot 452 in a massive pipe-opening stanza which helped the auction house on the path to the biggest day of trade at a January sale.

Two other colts, including the new record-breaking Magic Millions price of A$2.7m for a son of I Am Invincible - surpassing Wednesday’s benchmark figure of A$2.6m for the sister to Sunlight - and a filly by Zoustar were also sold for more than A$1m on the third day, taking the tally of seven-figure horses to 13 so far.

A late afternoon hush came over the Gold Coast complex when the soon-to-be highest-priced yearling ever sold on the Gold Coast entered the ring.

One bidder placed a hopeful A$1m opener for the Segenhoe Stud-consigned I Am Invincible colt, which immediately put the horse on the market, as others chimed in before Coolmore’s Tom Magnier, standing near the press room at the Magic Millions complex, nodded each time a challenger upped the horse’s price.

Tony Fung Investments, the underbidder, pushed Magnier to the eventual winning bid of A$2.7m.

Chris Waller will train the colt who was consigned by Segenhoe Stud for breeder Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum who also bred and raced the yearling’s dam, four-time Group winner Anaheed.

Magnier confirmed the colt would join Coolmore’s colts syndicate and in the process met a promise made to Segenhoe Stud general manager Peter O’Brien that he would try to buy the colt after missing out on dual Group 1 winner King’s Legacy as a yearling.

“For us, we’re trying to find the next Home Affairs and I Am Invincible, and he looked a lot like Home Affairs walking around the ring there, so it is really exciting to get him and we’ll take him home and work out what we’re doing,” said Magnier.

“Segenhoe are great breeders; they’re great supporters of the farm. I said to Peter that I’m not going to miss this guy.

“He’s a lovely horse, he’s quality, he’s an athlete and he’s up there with the best horses in the sale.”

O’Brien described the colt “as good a horse as we’ve ever had”.

He said: “He was unbelievably popular and all the big buyers were on him. We thought we’d let the market decide, so we put a very low reserve on him, which always helps.

“It’s great for a young mare [to have her first foal] to go to Coolmore because he’ll obviously have the best of care and the best trainers.”

Sheikh Khalifa’s bloodstock manager Tim Stakemire said of Anaheed: “She’s delivered, hasn’t she? In fairness to Peter, from day one – the day that foal was born – he said what an absolute cracker she was. He’s a great judge, Peter.

“I’m just thrilled for the boss. We’ve bought a lot of expensive ones, so it’s nice to sell an expensive one.”

Magnier also signed for another son of I Am Invincible on Wednesday, the A$1.6m colt out of Group 1 winner Spright and Coolmore holds the aces when it offers a colt out of Oakleigh Plate winner Booker by Yarraman Park’s champion stallion as .

Fellow colts investor James Harron also added to his Gold Coast haul on Thursday when he purchased his own colt by I Am Invincible on behalf of his group of partners for A$1.6m from Emirates Park.

The colt made just A$50,000 less than his close relation, an I Am Invincible colt out of his Golden Slipper-winning second dam Mossfun who was bought by Team Hawkes on Tuesday.

He is the first foal out of the unraced Tumooh, who is a half-sister to the Group 3 winner Dajraan.

Emirates Park also bred and sold the A$1.65m colt.

“He was, on type, our number one seed, so it’s a nice relief to get him in the green and gold for the following season,” Harron said.

“He just had an amazing physique. He had a lot of presence about him, he came out of the box and he walked really well.

“He had a great, purposeful action and he just had that air of alpha male, that strength, that imposing attribute which you see in good stallions.

“There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge but I just couldn’t say better things about him as a type and his attitude.”

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