Yulong spending spree continues at Magic Millions as Group 1 producer Zenaida tops trade at A$1.4 million

Toby Liston has sold million-dollar horses before, but Wednesday's session-topping A$1.4 million (£742,000/€854,000) achievement for his family’s Three Bridges Thoroughbreds operation represented a new milestone.

The Victoria-based stud sold Zenaida - the dam of Surround Stakes winner Sunshine In Paris, who made A$3.9m on day one of the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale - for the seven-figure sum to Yulong early on day two.

The tenth million-dollar mare sold - nine were sold on Tuesday, headed by three-time Group 1 winner Forbidden Love at A$4.1m - continued Yuesheng Zhang's spending spree and his unquenching appetite for breeding stock for his Yulong operation.

Two further million-dollar mares were also sold at the Gold Coast as the market levelled out following a bumper opening race fillies and mares catalogue on Tuesday. 

Liston said: “It’s very exciting and it’s a big deal for our family and our farm. We haven’t sold a horse [of our own] for A$1 million before, so it’s great.

“We’ve done it for other people, it’s easy to sell somebody else’s horse, but it’s hard to sell your own.

“We have to trade, we have to sell these horses, so it’s great that a good Victorian [farm] bought her and we can’t wait to see her foal.”

Liston added: “It’s a lot of money, I was hoping for A$1 million. It was just great to get a fantastic result.”

Sunshine In Paris’s dam Zenaida was bought by agent Paul Willetts on behalf of Three Bridges Thoroughbreds for A$240,000 two years ago at the Gold Coast sale when in foal to Aquis Farm’s first-season sire Dubious, and the emergence of the Annabel Neasham-trained filly provided a trading opportunity impossible to ignore.

An unraced half-sister to the Group 2-winning, Sydney Cup runner-up Hear That Bell, Zenaida has also produced Group 3 winner Macroura and the winning Noble Exception.

She is in foal to Arrowfield’s Japanese shuttler Maurice.

Liston credited the relationship with Kiwi agent Willetts, which was established in 2015, as a turning point for the Three Bridges Thoroughbreds business.

Zenaida was sold in foal to Arrowfield’s Japanese shuttler MauriceCredit: Masakazu Takahashi

“We are good at raising horses and we thought we were good at buying them and we reflected on ourselves and said we had to get better,” said Liston.

“Ever since he has helped us out, we bought [South Australian Derby winner] Leicester as a weaner for A$10,000 and he’s been wonderful with our broodmare selections, he’s a great friend and Zenaida is testament to that.

“The first year [we called on Willetts’ advice] we bought a mare for A$140,000 with a foal at foot and we sold it for A$750,000 and that changed our trajectory.” 

Yulong’s chief operating officer Sam Fairgray confirmed Zhang “was there” on Sunshine In Paris, but stopped short of the A$3.9m price eventually paid by agent James Harron, and what underbidder Coolmore were prepared to pay.

However, Fairgray was happy that Yulong now owned the rising four-year-old’s mother, who will visit CF Orr Stakes winner Alabama Express this coming season.

“She’s a mare that, going forward, the pedigree is going to improve and improve,” said Fairgray.

“She’s got the two stakes-winning daughters already and it’s likely we’ll keep the fillies out of her and keep building the family.”

Zenaida’s Dubious colt, whose sire has relocated to Kitchwin Hills in the Hunter Valley for the upcoming breeding season, will be offered as Lot 1423 through the Lime Country Thoroughbreds draft at next week’s National Yearling Sale.

He was purchased as a weanling through last year’s Great Southern Sale by agent James Bester for A$145,000 from Three Bridges Thoroughbreds, the farm also consigning Zenaida through their own draft on the Gold Coast. 

Late in the session, Zhang won an extended bidding duel for Great Vibes, a European-bred-and-raced juvenile winner who was sold in foal to Juddmonte’s champion sire Frankel.

Zenaida’s daughter Macroura, who is in foal to the pensioned Deep Field, will be offered as Lot 991 through the Vinery Stud draft at about 11am on Thursday.

Yulong had to go to A$1.375m to buy five-year-old mare Great Vibes, a daughter of stakes winner and top producer Whazzat. She spent almost eight minutes in the ring as the bidding stopped to a crawl, going up in A$25,000 increments.

The sale of Great Vibes was not only a solid result for vendor Arrowfield Stud, but also the telecommunications companies.

Zhang had left the Magic Millions complex and was bidding online, while his undisclosed ringside adversary was bidding through Barry Bowditch over the phone.

As the bidding progressed, Fairgray left his chair on one side of the Gold Coast ring to station himself next to Bowditch, who was sitting in the stand, in an attempt to ascertain who Zhang was bidding against.

Great Vibes: European-bred-and-raced juvenile winner in foal to Frankel sold for A$1.375 millionCredit: Magic Millions

With his phone to his ear, Fairgray was relaying back to his offsite colleagues about what was occurring as he and Bowditch looked at each other, before the latter hung up and walked off, and the green screen signalled the mare was Yulong’s.

Aside from the rather amusing auction antics, Fairgray said Zhang was consumed by the industry and that he would be delighted Great Vibes would join the Victorian stud’s broodmare band.

“He loves being here and going and looking at the horses and so forth,” Fairgray said of his boss’s massive investment.

“He’s got a good eye for a really nice type, he loves learning about the pedigrees and what’s worked and why people are buying them. He’ll ask why a horse made so much or why did that person buy it.

“His knowledge of the industry is amazing, worldwide that is. He follows it very closely and he knows what’s going on all around the world.”

Great Vibes is a half-sister to European Group 2 winner and now Rathberry Stud-based sire James Garfield, who was also Group 1-placed in France, as well as the stakes-placed The Shrew and Morag McCullagh.

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