Not A Single Doubt colt heads first day of Perth Yearling Sale

A colt by leading Australian sire Not A Single Doubt topped the first day of the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale on Monday when selling to Gangemi Racing for A$325,000 (£200,050/€234,827). The colt will now head into training with Chris Gangemi.

Offered by Amelia Park Racing and Breeding, the colt is the fourth living foal out of the winning More Than Ready mare Sambar and is a half-brother to Group 3 scorer Samovare.

“We narrowed it down to a few lots and he was the main one we wanted. We had to wait and bide our time and we’re really happy to get him," said Michael Gangemi.

“The stallion Not A Single Doubt is on fire, they get up and run and Westspeed is very attractive to us. He’s beautifully balanced and is a great walker. He’s a strong horse and we’re delighted to have acquired him and moving forward hopefully we can get him up and going for the early two-year-old races.

“His attitude is amazing as well. I’m sure he got pulled out a lot of times and there were a lot of good judges on him.”

Also breaking the A$100,000 (£61,572/€72,285) barrier on Monday was a Star Witness colt snapped up by Ric Wylie Bloodstock for A$160,000 (£98,514/€115,666). He is out of the winning Econsul mare Trading Halt and is from the family of Group 3 winner Bank Robber.

The connections of four-time Group 1 hero Black Heart Bart secured Monday’s first six-figure lot when parting with A$100,000 for a colt by Hinchinbrook out of the Octagonal mare Portrait.

Figures for the first session saw 113 lots sold for a total of AS$4,330,000 (£2,666,177/€3,130,430), up 11 per cent on last year’s total of A$3,912,000 (£2,408,747/€2,828,353). The average rose marginally to A$38,319 (£23,590/€27,704) from A$37,981 (£23,382/€27,454) but the median fell 13 per cent to A$26,000 (£16,005/€18,793) from A$30,000 (£18,467/€21,686).

Magic Millions managing director Vin Cox said: “There’s been some very, very good sales obviously with the top price of A$325,000. We are disappointed with the clearance rate - sitting around 72 per cent. By our standards we’d like to be at 75 per cent or even into the 80s.

“The numbers are very much in line with day one last year and there’s some very nice horses on Tuesday so I’m hoping for a good finish to the sale.”