Sunlight’s sister sets record as Yulong goes to A$2.6 million to beat off rivals

The sister to champion mare Sunlight will be the jewel in the crown of Yulong’s soon-to-be ramped up Australian racing team, after she wrote her name into her family’s stunning sales and racetrack record book by selling for A$2.6 million (£1.48m/€1.67m) on the Gold Coast on Wednesday.

The highest-priced yearling ever sold at a Magic Millions Yearling Sale, her purchase by Yuesheng Zhang also signalled a slight pivot back to racing by the Yulong founder, who has invested heavily in the global broodmare market in recent years, acquiring many of the world’s best, publicly available breeding prospects for tens of millions of dollars.

She was one of a pair of million dollar lots to change hands on Wednesday, taking the tally to five after two days. The day’s other big purchase came late on when Coolmore paid A$1.6m for an I Am Invincible colt out of Group 1-winning mare Spright.

Clint Donovan was behind the rostrum, conducting the auctioning of the prized Zoustar filly as if it was an orchestra, amid ringside silence - just as he was when Sunlight was sold as a broodmare in 2020 for a Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale record price of A$4.2m and when their dam Solar Charged was knocked down for A$650,000 in 2014 to Widden Stud and David Redvers to support their then first-season stallion Zoustar.

An opening bid of A$1m was taken before a further 15 bids were made from various corners of the Gold Coast complex; her price going up A$100,000 at a time, before Yulong’s A$2.6m was enough to see underbidders Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott wave the white flag.

Tony and Calvin McEvoy, who trained Sunlight to her three Group 1 victories, also made a high-stakes play in an attempt to buy the blueblooded filly, going to A$2m, but it was to no avail.

The A$2.6m figure smashes Magic Millions’ previous yearling sale record of A$2.2m, achieved twice in 2008 during Nathan Tinkler’s spending spree under the Patinack Farm banner, and also matches the figure paid for Belle Couture, who was sold at the 2012 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

Yulong’s chief operating officer Sam Fairgray said the filly’s quality and temperament had won Zhang and the team over during inspections at the Gold Coast in the past week.

“With her residual value she was going to be worth a lot of money and with the prize-money in Australia and the way she walked and her physique, hopefully we are here this time next year [for the Magic Millions 2YO Classic] and, obviously, races like the Golden Slipper,” said Fairgray.

“When you’re buying quality, you’re always going to have to pay and . . . we’ve been able to access a filly with great residual like this. She’ll have great value whatever she does.”

While the session-topping filly will take pride of place, Fairgray has also signed for another five yearlings so far this week.

Fairgray said: “We have built in the last couple of years the broodmare band and we’ve got decent numbers there now [about 450], so we’ll start to get the racing team going and it’s exciting times ahead.”

Sam Fairgray: 'exciting times ahead'Credit: Laura Green

The ninth filly out of Solar Charged, whose seven foals bred and sold by the Widden partnership have grossed them A$8.6m at the yearling sales - including last year’s A$3m Inglis Easter-sold Zoustar colt - is not only the sister to Sunlight but also to the Group 3 winner Sisstar and the stakes-placed Dio, as well as the stakes-placed Sheikha. She was sold in the last hour of Wednesday’s session as Lot 399.

Widden Stud’s Antony Thompson was relieved the way the selling of the filly had transpired after “an enormous build-up and a lot of media coverage”, but he was adamant she was deserving of such a price and the ensuing accolades.

“We thought from where we were that she’s probably one of the best fillies we’ve ever bred and I said, possibly, I don’t think we’ve ever seen a better filly go through an auction ring in Australia this year or maybe even for a long time,” he said.

“We loved to have very high expectations and we would have been disappointed if she didn’t sell well, but with that expectation, it exceeded our expectations!”

Coolmore colts group add son of I Am Invincible to team

For Coolmore and its group of colts partnership backers, the equation was simple: drill for oil where it's been found it before.

And that’s exactly what Tom Magnier, surrounded by trainer Chris Waller and agent Guy Mulcaster, did late yesterday by going to A$1.6m for the Cressfield and Robrick Lodge-bred and sold colt by I Am Invincible, the same sire as Coolmore’s dual Group 1-winning sprinter and first-season sire Home Affairs.

Tom Magnier: struck oil in the same placeCredit: Laura Green

The latest acquisition by the Coolmore-led partnership is the second foal out of Spright, a mare Bruce Neill purchased at the end of her racing career, whose first foal, a two-year-old colt, is by Zoustar.

“[Cressfield] are great supporters of the farm as well as for us, we’re looking for the next Home Affairs,” said Magnier.

“I Am Invincible is an unbelievable stallion. It’s a real stallion’s pedigree and the whole team thought he was a standout on the grounds and we’re delighted to secure this colt for our syndicate.

“You saw the quality he had when he walked in, and he was a very good-looking horse and he’s got a pedigree.”

Magnier’s conviction was also backed up by Home Affairs’ deeds in the breeding shed last spring, with many of Australasia’s premier breeders supporting the stallion in his first season at stud.

He said: “Home Affairs had a huge season. He was a huge hit at stud. He had a very good season and has many mares in foal - over 160 mares in foal.

“We’re obviously very happy with how the season went. Fingers crossed we’ll find another one with this fellow.”

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