Magic Millions reached new heights on Saturday night with trainer Graeme
Rogerson setting a record when he
went to A$1.55 million to secure a coveted Red Ransom half-brother to Cox
Plate (Aus-G1) and Spring Champion S. (Aus-G1)
winner Savabeel. The sale company’s ebullient part-owner John Singleton was
celebrating a $1-million Magic
Millions 2YO Classic quinella, but Magic Millions principal Gerry Harvey took
his turn in the spotlight during the
third session of the yearling sale as the vendor of the Red Ransom colt out of dual Group 1 winner Savannah
Success (Success Express).
“I said he was the best horse in the sale and I backed my
judgment,” said Rogerson. “I had to have
him, I’ve just got to hope now that he is worth A$1.55 million. But that is the
market value of him and I will put a
syndicate around him,” he said, adding that Cambridge Stud’s Sir Patrick Hogan
would take a share while Harvey
would take 25 percent.
After purchasing Lot 480, the sales-topping Red Ransom colt, for A$1.55 million,
Graeme Rogerson admitted
that he was willing to go higher for the Baramul Stud consignee.
“I thought he
might have made up to A$2 million,
but I was going to buy him no matter what,” he said. “I wasn’t going to go home
without him. He’s just that sort
of a horse.”
Rogerson sent his partner Debbie Price to inspect the colt as a
weanling at Harvey’s Baramul Stud and decided at that point he would purchase him.
“I came
back and said to Graeme, he is the spitting image of
Savabeel, and it is a family we have had a lot of success with; Savabeel is our
best horse in recent times,” said
Price. Queensland breeding and racing operation Wadham Park and trainer Peter
Moody were among the
underbidders.
Some 17 lots before he purchased the sales topper, Rogerson gave A$440,000 to
secure a Elusive
Quality colt from Group 1-placed *Sir Tristram mare Rose Reward from
Baramul’s draft. The colt, Lot 463, is
a half-brother to Lotteria (Redoute’s Choice), who has eight wins
and earnings of A$1,483,600,
including the Myer Classic (Aus-G1) and Flight S. (Aus-G1).
Also keeping busy was South
African trainer Charles Laird, who
had already spent $2,895,000 on 14 youngsters. He did not hesitate to add a
black colt by Rock of Gibraltar (Ire)
from Ruby Clipper (Aus) (Rubiton) to his purchases, going to A$1,025,000
for the youngster from
Singleton’s Strawberry Hills draft.
“We are very excited,”
Laird said after the purchase. “We have bought what we
consider is the two best colts in the sale (along with Lot 400, a $720,000 Danehill Dancer–Piper Star
colt that sold Friday). And please God, we will have a bit of fun with him. A
lot of fun with him. We have two
colts with obvious stallion pedigrees, and we are very grateful to Markus Jooste
for being such a big supporter of
our yard. All our purchases are for him.”
Toward the end of the evening, Wadham Park trainer Dale Sutton went to A$725,000 to purchase a Royal
Academy filly out of Snippets’ Lass (Snippets) offered by Yarraman Park. The filly is a
half-sister to stakes winner Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), who is being prepared for the Lightning S.
(Aus-G1) next month and who will ultimately
stand at Arrowfield Stud.
“She is a lovely filly with great conformation,” said
Sutton. “We saw Snitzel at the same
stage and we believe she is a better type than Snitzel, and he will obviously
hold up her
pedigree as a broodmare
later on.”
“The top end of the market is a lot stronger than I thought it would
be,” Sutton added.
Several other participants likewise remarked upon the robust market.
“The sale is extremely strong, one of the strongest sales I have ever been
to,” said Trevor Lobb, bloodstock manager for Ingham/Woodlands Stud. “Each year the quality has improved,
and I think the results show that. We’ve only sold one so far, but we are more
than happy with the way he sold.”
“I would say this is by far the dearest Magic Millions sale I have ever been to,”
said Kieran Moore, a bloodstock agent. “Horses with moderate pedigrees
are outselling themselves 2-1. It has its own character, this sale with people
who live here coming here to buy horses because it is a local sale.”
“The standard of horses this year is the highest it has ever been at Magic
Millions,” said bloodstock agent Les Young. “I did expect prices to go
up a little on last year, but this has far exceeded expectations, some of
tonight’s prices are really in to the
stratosphere. It is an exceptional session.”
Magic Millions principal Harvey expressed his delight at the sale’s
proceedings.
“This sale is just mind-blowing, this has got twice as many people at it than
any sale ever in Australia,” Harvey gushed. “There’s
one thousand stables here and there are people everywhere. This is at the top end of
our expectations.”