'We're delighted to have her' - Coolmore's Tom Magnier goes to A$3 million to secure Piping Hot at Magic Millions

Piping Hot: Highclere's mare and dam of King's Stand favourite Coolangatta was knocked down to Tom Magnier for A$3 millionCredit: Magic Millions

In 2020, Tom Magnier paid A$1.8 million (£961,000/€1.1m) for Samaready carrying a Snitzel colt and the Coolmore Australia principal went to a substantial A$3 million (£1.6m/€1.84m) figure to buy another in-foal More Than Ready mare, Piping Hot at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. 

The dam of the Ciaron Maher and David Eustace-trained dual Group 1-winning sprinter Coolangatta, Piping Hot was one of three million-dollar mares Coolmore signed for, the Irish-owned operation adding Paris Dior soon after for A$1.6 million.

Magnier also bought Vangelic for A$1.5 million to start the day one session.

Piping Hot was sold in foal to I Am Invincible and Samaready - the dam of Godolphin’s Group 3-winning, Magic Millions 2YO Classic victrix Exhilarates - was bought by Coolmore with this season’s Golden Slipper winner Shinzo in utero. 

Magnier will be hoping lightning strikes twice with the purchase of Piping Hot who was underbid by Newgate Farm’s Henry Field.

“Obviously we were very fortunate with Samaready, so I suppose that gives you confidence to buy these kinds of mares,” Magnier said.

“You need a lot of luck but we couldn’t be more excited about the way the stallions are going, next year we’ve got Shinzo coming through [to stud].”

Three-year-old Coolangatta is a winner of Black Caviar Lightning Stakes and A J Moir Stakes, who also scored in a Gimcrack Stakes and a Magic Millions 2YO Classic early in her career, and she will be out to add to her Group 1 haul in the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot next month.

Consigned by Milburn Creek on behalf of John Warren’s Highclere Australia, Piping Hot has an unraced two-year-old filly called Paradise Point with Melbourne trainer Lloyd Kennewell, and a weanling sister to Coolangatta.

Coolangatta: favourite for the King's Stand next month

Piping Hot is a daughter of Group 2 winner Ribe and a half-sister to Blue Diamond Stakes winner Reaan.

Warren and his son Jake paid A$320,000 for Piping Hot at the 2015 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, before the pair sent her to Gai Waterhouse to be trained to win twice from only four starts, which included a Sydney metropolitan victory at two.

Rising ten-year-old Piping Hot’s price tag may have fallen short of what some pundits were suggesting pre-sale, but it didn’t feel that way to Magnier.

 “They were all talking that she’d top the sale, but A$3 million is still a lot of money, and we’re delighted to have her,” he said. 

“Fingers crossed she has a nice foal.”

The session was topped by three-time Group 1 winner Forbidden Love, who became the equal third most expensive mare ever sold in Australia, selling for A$4.1 million during a A$50 million session.

Newgate Farm’s Henry Field, whose Hunter Valley operation consigned Forbidden Love, said: "We knew she was going to sell well, she’s a triple Group 1 winner and beautiful, so she had all the hallmarks of a mare that is going to be a ‘top end of town mare’ and it was an international bidding war between three of the biggest players on the planet. 

“Mr [Yuesheng] Zhang from Yulong was the victor and he has bought himself a very rare entity. She’s a special mare and he is going to have a lot of fun with her for many years to come."

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