'You have to spend it' - A$1.8 million Exceed And Excel colt tops Magic Millions

Empire Of Japan was expected to be in the headlines on Saturday but the exciting colt was denied the chance to display his wares on the racetrack following the abandonment of Magic Millions raceday, leaving the spotlight squarely on his younger half-brother, the session-topping lot of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

The Corumbene Stud-bred-and-sold Exceed And Excel colt was hammered down to Kia Ora Stud and Tony Fung Investments for A$1.8 million (£1.03m/€1.16m) after a fierce bidding duel, primarily with the Rosemont Alliance, the eventual underbidder.

He was the star of the night session but he had a big support act in a A$1m Zoustar colt from the family of 2010 Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Military Rose, who was bought by agent James Harron.

The pair of high-priced colts played their part in helping the auction house achieve A$228,411,000 in turnover for its January Book 1 sale, while they also took the tally of seven-figure yearlings sold over the past five days to 20, surpassing the 19 achieved last year.

The question of whether Empire Of Japan would have lived up to the hype and won this year’s 2YO Classic is now hypothetical - he will instead get the chance to win the A$2m race at the rescheduled Gold Coast meeting on Thursday - but the ‘what if?’ wasn’t a major factor in Shane Wright’s decision to buy his half-brother on behalf of Kia Ora Stud and TFI for A$1.8m.

Wright said: “It’s very much speculation. You’re always ‘innocent until proven guilty’ and Empire Of Japan is still a hype horse and it looks like he has a big year and career ahead of him.

“We definitely had that in calculations, but you always just look at a horse on what you value them and we were a little bit over what we were hoping to be, but with the good ones you have to spend it.”

Kia Ora bought seven yearlings at Book 1 with various partners and Wright was pleased that the colt, who is the fifth living foal out of Group 2 winner Ichihara, was a member of the group.

“It was a lot of money but he’s a beautiful colt," he said. "There were two or three colts at this sale that really stood out to us and he was definitely one and we were super happy to be bringing him home.

“Coming from Corumbene, we know that they can breed a very good horse and this horse has the profile to be just that. Hopefully going forward, he is.”

Harron also topped off his Magic Millions campaign by adding a fifth colt and the second by Zoustar to his partnership’s group.

Bred by Baramul Stud’s Gerry Harvey, the A$1m colt is the second foal out of In Times Of War, whose second dam is Military Rose, the Millions winner who was trained by Gillian Heinrich. He was catalogued as Lot 967.

“He’s a beautiful horse with a lovely pedigree and we’re very happy to get him,” said Harron.

“We got involved in the bidding a bit later on but it was spirited bidding. We’ve got a very short list [at this sale] and he was one of them. We think he’s outstanding, so it’s a good result.”

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