Another Magic day in Adelaide for Snitzel and son

Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

Snitzel factor lures TFI to $300,000

The love affair Tony Fung has with Snitzel drove Lot 84 to the top lot on Day 1, with the Arrowfield Stud colt from Heart's Cry (Jpn) mare Cross Amulet (Jpn) selling to TFI as part of the Collingrove Stud draft for $300,000.

TFI Racing Manager Sally Williams said that the Fung family has had plenty of success with the progeny of the four-time Australian Champion Sire and there was belief in the camp that Snitzel’s success will continue long into the future.

“Obviously, we are having a love affair with the stallion at the moment and enjoying a good bit of success with them (Best Of Bordeaux), so we’re investing in the hope that the success continues into the future,’’ Williams said.

The colt is the only Snitzel to be offered at this Sale.

“He is a lovely, athletic individual with loads of quality. He’s got a super action and plenty of scope about him. There’s a strong Japanese influence in his pedigree and he’s out of a Heart’s Cry mare, just like Tagaloa, a Group 1-winning 2-year-old.

“I’d suspect he’d be aimed at racing as an autumn 2-year-old and then looking towards his 3-year-old career as well. We will take him home to Hinterland Thoroughbreds and get him broken in and then we’ll allocate a trainer from there.’’

Cross Amulet is a sister to G1 Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti (Jpn) and half-sister to two other Japanese stakes winners. Lot 84 is her first foal and she delivered a Dundeel (NZ) colt last year before visiting The Autumn Sun.

Williams said Magic Millions Adelaide is a good Sale with a very strong record with its graduates. Earlier in the day at Lot 41, they bought a Rebel Raider colt from Desert King (Ire) mare Bella’s Breeze from the draft of Summerset Park Stud for $130,000.

“Rebel Raider is obviously the sire of Barb Raider who won the Kewney S. at the weekend (at Flemington). It was hard to fault him physically and we fell in love with him,’’ Williams said. “He is probably not the standard colt we’d normally buy but physically we just couldn’t go past him.’’

TFI also purchased a Puissance De Lune (Ire) filly, Lot 207, for $120,000.

Collingrove Stud prepared the Snitzel colt for Arrowfield for the Magic Millions Adelaide Sale and owner Daniel Brash said the colt had been an absolute professional through the whole process.

Gallery: Some of the other TFI Magic Millions Adelaide Sale purchases, images courtesy of Magic Millions

“He was a quality colt and he was extremely well-placed here,’’ Brash said. “We’re very grateful to the team at Arrowfield Stud to entrust us with the process of preparing this horse for this Sale.

“He’s been an easy-going colt the whole way through, he’s got a great constitution and he’s going to get a great home. We had a reserve of $200,000 and we would have been happy with that but we’re ecstatic to get $300,000 for him.

“He’s been with us the whole time for the whole prep and he’s been the easiest horse to prepare for a sale,’’ Brash said. “He’s handled everything so well and even down to the sale ring there. He’s been one of our most paraded horses with his pedigree and he’s handled himself like a true professional the whole time.’’

It was Collingrove Stud’s first Adelaide Sale and the first time preparing horses for Arrowfield Stud. It ended up with the second-highest average of Day 1 for $138,667 across three sales.

“We’re a growing business and our client base is growing and we’re absolutely thrilled to have such a prestigious stud as Arrowfield support us,’’ he added.

Kerrie’s dream is a revolution

China Horse Club Regional Manager Michael Smith said the popular former South Australian trainer and The Chase farm manager Kerrie van Tijn, who was killed in a NSW car accident earlier this year, would have been beaming with the success the farm had, selling their draft of five at her hometown Sale.

The Chase was the leading vendor on both aggregate, $780,000, and average, $156,000.

That success included three $160,000 sales of Russian Revolution progeny, a filly at Lot 88 going to Mark Kavanagh and two colts, Lot 163 which sold to Darby Racing and Lot 202 to Trilogy Racing and David Jolly.

Gallery: The Chase's yearlings sold on Day 1 of the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale, images courtesy of Magic Millions

But it was The Chase’s last lot, another Russian Revolution colt at Lot 209 that the buyers chased near the end of Day 1 to make $180,000. From a Rip Van Winkle (Ire) mare, Let Her Rip (NZ), he too went to Kavanagh.

It had been van Tijn’s plan to put together a strong draft of Russian Revolution yearlings - all but one of The Chase's five at Adelaide coming from the current leading first-season sire - to Magic Millions Adelaide for the NSW Southern Highlands farm. Their fifth lot, a Winning Rupert filly, also went to Kavanagh Racing, for $120,000.

“She was going to prep these horses and bring them down here, back to her hometown and sell them under our banner,’’ Smith said. “She was a wonderful woman, great at her job, great with people and it was a tragedy that we lost her.

“I could imagine her being here and just beaming. She would be so proud of these horses and how we’ve started off.’’

Smith said China Horse Club, which owns The Chase, had targeted the Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale with the Russian Revolutions, to spread them around and give everyone a chance to get hold of one.

“China Horse Club are the biggest shareholder in the stallion and we’ve supported him heavily each year,’’ Smith said. “This year, his first year that they’re racing, we really wanted to spread them out and to give everybody an opportunity to get hold of them and to give him as much time to get going.

“He’s just done a fantastic job as a stallion... runner-up in the Magic Millions, runner-up in the Blue Diamond and he’s got three in the Slipper.’’

Kavanagh said he saw value in the Russian Revolution filly from Dancingfordiamonds (Captain Rio {GB}) who hails from the same family as Tiger Tees (Dubawi {Ire}) and Ball Of Muscle (Dubawi {Ire}) and is a blood sister to Group 1 winner Terravista (Captain Rio {GB}).

“If that horse was on the Gold Coast or in the Sydney Classic or something like that, it would have been much, much more expensive,’’ Kavanagh said.

“This is an excellent value Sale, you’ve got to do your work but you can find a nice horse here at the right price. We’re getting better value but a lot of these horses aren’t particularly suited to being sold in March, they would be better off being sold in June, but the vendors have got to sell them when they can sell them.

“There’s a lot of horses here who can improve a lot. We have our own farm and we send them out there and let them grow out a bit and then we get them moving from there.’’

Kavanagh ended up the day's leading buyer, securing nine yearlings for a total of $995,000.

Trilogy finds its Toronado filly

Adelaide trainer Will Clarken teamed with Trilogy Racing to land the Toronado (Ire) filly, the Jason Stenning-led group had been looking for across this year’s sales series.

They paid $160,000 for Lot 164, the filly from Gem Of Gems (Peintre Celebre {GB}) from Willaroon Thoroughbreds. She is a half-sister to G1 Sangster S. winner Precious Gem (Econsul {NZ}).

Clarken believes he’s well-positioned to make the most of the opportunity with the filly.

“We had her on our top three in the Sale, obviously she has a little bit of residual there being a half to a Group 1 winner and Sean Dingwall (Trilogy advisor) and Trilogy had asked to do a filly with us… we thought she was the best here and her pedigree supported that," Clarken said.

“He says he’s been chasing a Toronado filly all season and he thought she was the best he’s seen and we actually had a bit more for her than we had to pay,’’ he said. “We thought we really got around the market quite well.’"

Clarken said South Australia was a good base to race fillies like the Toronado.

“Because we’ve proven that we can take them over to Victoria and win races on a Saturday where there’s obviously better prizemoney, but we can also access black type that might be not as good a standard as it could be in Victoria here in our Adelaide carnival. We’ve had good luck doing that before,’’ he said.

“She looks like a filly that won’t get there as a 2-year-old, I’d say she most likely won’t even have a run at the start as a 2-year-old just to give her plenty of time and let her grow right out into her big frame. I’m rapt to get her."

Trilogy was also busy in a host of partnerships, buying the Russian Revolution colt mentioned earlier, Lot 202 from The Chase for $160,000.

“He’s a quality colt and was probably the one we wanted to get. Obviously, the stallion is doing very good things and we’ve got a stallion by him that’s showing us quite a bit. I’ve got a massive wrap on the stallion," Jolly said.

That colt is out of a Group 2-winning mare, Lasarla (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}).

Trilogy also purchased in partnership with Michael Hickmott and under its own name.

All in all, there were nine horses sell for $150,000 on Day 1 compared to seven last year.

Kambula Stud pair shines early

McEvoy Mitchell Racing and their usual agent Belmont Blooodstock (FBAA) struck early in the session with the $145,000 purchase of a Written By filly from Fastnet Rock mare Blue Ocean, offered by Kambula Stud as Lot 54.

Tony McEvoy said Written By yearlings had caught his eye across the sales, commenting that Written By had been a 'ripper 2-year-old’ and a 'good-running horse’.

“They look like they’ll run to me,’’ McEvoy said. “This filly, she was very pleasant. She had great balance and moved well and she’s got a really nice page, actually,’’ he said.

“You need a bit of support because most of them can’t run and if she couldn’t run, we won’t lose on that filly, but if we can get some black type on her, she’s worth a lot of money. I thought she was really good shopping for that money.’’

McEvoy said Magic Millions Adelaide was a place you needed to find some value as generally there was less depth to pages than you would find at other sales.

“But I bought Victoria Quay out of here a couple of years ago and she won the Wakeful S. and I bought Despatch out of here and he won The Goodwood," said McEvoy. “You can buy a nice horse here and these are more realistic prices from the sales we’ve been to the rest of the year, so it gives everyone a bit more of a chance."

The Aquis-bred filly's dam, Blue Ocean, is out of multiple Group 1 winner Special Harmony (Spinning World {USA}), who is also the grandam of recent G2 Light Fingers S. winner Fangirl (Sebring).

Earlier the Kadina-based stud sold a Trapeze Artist colt to an eager Kavanagh for $150,000.

The colt, Lot 46, is from stakes-placed Blevic mare Berry Delicious.

“We’re just glad that (the Trapeze Artist colt) has gone to a good home with Kav buying him,’’ Kambula Stud’s Rebecca Wilson said. “We have them blackbooked and we watch them very eagerly.’’

She added that Kambula Stud had tried to buy the Written By filly’s dam, Blue Ocean last year at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale but had just missed out when she sold to Makybe Racing for $115,000.

“We loved this filly and we couldn’t be happier with her going to McEvoy Racing,’’ she said.

Kambula ended the day having sold six yearlings for a total of $460,000.

Another strong day for Magic Millions

Magic Millions Managing Director, Barry Bowditch, said it was very pleasing to see the momentum of the Australian yearling season roll on to Adelaide, with the Sale poised to surpass last year's record-breaking numbers.

"I think as expected, trade this year has been really, really strong here in Australia and that was evident here today in Adelaide," he said.

"We were confident in the group of horses that were put together, that the vendors have supported this Sale with and I think the buyers on the good horses in particular have stepped in and supported what the vendors have given us in a very good, strong manner. It’s a very genuine market."

Bowditch said he felt the faith that vendors has shown in the South Australian market was well-vindicated.

"Arrowfield under Collingrove have topped the Sale and The Chase, first-time vendors here, they’re top in the averages and there’s plenty of other farms who don’t normally support Adelaide who have come down here and I’d suspect that they’re pretty pleased that they’ve made the trip and not only are they selling their horses well but they tell me they’re having a good time," he said.

Magic Millions expects strong trade to continue when Day 2 starts at 10am local time (10.30am AEDT) on Wednesday.

"I think it’s a pretty even catalogue all the way through. I probably anticipate it’s a slightly stronger group tomorrow. It’s good, deep buying and plenty of people are missing out," he said.

"The room had a really good vibe during the day. There were a lot of people in here, it felt really good and there were plenty of horses making well above their reserves which was pleasing."

Top lots

Top buyers

Vendors by aggregate

Vendors by average (3 or more sold)

Sires by aggregate

Sires by average (2 or more sold)