Neasham jumps for Military Expert, $640,000 at Magic Millions Online

Written by Jessica Owers

Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan

The Magic Millions Online Sale (13-16 May) wrapped up on Thursday afternoon, and it realised the second-best result of the platform ever with $640,000 coming for the 3-year-old Military Expert (Redoute’s Choice). He was bought by his Warwick Farm trainer, Annabel Neasham.

The colt appeared in the 51-horse catalogue unreserved, a repossession according to his listing, and he received spirited bidding across the three days of the Sale.

Military Expert was offered as a Hong Kong-vetted, Group-placed winner. Trained throughout his 10 starts by Neasham, he ran second to Coastwatch (Fastnet Rock) in the G3 Ming Dynasty last year, and he followed it up with a third to Lightsaber (Zoustar) in the G3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude.

In February, he won a Rosehill BM72 Midway H. and was second to Flying Crazy (Flying Artie) in the Listed Canberra Guineas so that his overall record was a tidy two wins and four placings from just 10 starts.

From the perspective of Barry Bowditch, Magic Millions’ managing director, Military Expert was typical of the very good racing stock appearing online.

“There’s been a few of these types of horses go to the online market in recent months,” he said. “The result achieved with Military Expert was very comparable to, if not better than, some of the results that have been achieved recently.”

Fighting off Hong Kong

Military Expert’s $640,000 sits where his peers have sold in the last few months.

In May, the Ming Dynasty winner Coastwatch was sold through Inglis Digital for $500,000, while the standing record for the Magic Millions Online platform is Tiger Heart (Better Than Ready), the G3 Vo Rogue S. winner who sold in February for $650,000 to Bon Ho’s Legend Racing.

“The online platform really suits the racehorses,” Bowditch said. “With horses in work, it (the Sale) doesn’t take them out of their regimes and the sales are there when they need them to be. And the accessibility of all the information, including the vetting, makes it very easy for buyers to find that detail.”

Bowditch wasn’t surprised that Military Expert realised such a good price on Thursday. The precedent was there and the horse was proven.

“We had a huge amount of interest in him, and we had some four or five bidders above $400,000 on him, which was pleasing,” he said. “David (Chester) and his team were working very, very hard in Hong Kong to gather interest and there was great interest from there, but obviously Annabel knew the horse better than anyone else and she saw value in him at $640,000.”

Like Tiger Heart, who went into the stable of trainer Les Bridge after his sale with a new name (Tiger Legend), Military Expert will remain local with Neasham at Warwick Farm. For Bowditch, the price tag was somewhere around what he expected.

“We were hopeful,” he said. “We thought he was in excess of a half-a-million-dollar horse, and we were comparing him with other horses similar to him in recent times that have gone to market.

“He exceeded the expectations that we probably put on him, but, in saying that, when a quality horse comes along that is qualified for Hong Kong and the like, and they vet out really well, there’s not a lot of those sorts of horses about and they’re hard to buy at the moment, so there’s good cravings for them.”

Million-dollar yearling

Military Expert didn’t need much more endorsement this week, but on top of his racing credentials was the fact of his being especially well-bred.

At the 2020 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, he was one of 10 million-dollar yearlings in the catalogue.

The striking colt, who came from the penultimate crop of Redoute’s Choice, was consigned by Bhima Thoroughbreds and sold to the China-based An Zhiqiang, of Golden East Horse, for $1.1 million.

Military Expert was the second foal from the Hussonet (USA) mare Gresset, who is a half-sister to the South African Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Honorine (Redoute’s Choice).

Along the line, this is an important family for the Aga Khan studs.

The third dam on this page is Darazina (Fr) (Labus {Fr}), whose descendants include the brilliant French filly Darjina (Fr) (Zamindar {USA}), Europe’s top-rated 3-year-old filly in 2007 and top-rated older female in 2008.

Relevant to Australia, this is the family of the boom New Zealand shuttler Almanzor (Fr).

Military Expert’s dam, Gresset, was bred by Arrowfield Stud but is owned by GSA Bloodstock these days, and she’s been a tricky breeder, producing just three foals to date. Her latest is a 2021 filly by Written Tycoon, and Military Expert has been far-and-away her best sale result.

“He was a lovely yearling,” Bowditch said. “He cost $1.1 million and he’s raced at a high level in Sydney, so he’s probably on his way to becoming a very good, strong, older horse now that he’s almost through his 3-year-old campaign.”

Table: Record lots from the Magic Millions Online Sale platform