Exceedance half-sister to Croatian Belle sells for $250,000 at Book 2 of Magics

Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

Exceedance filly comes out on top

A half-sister to the unbeaten R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic aspirant Croatian Belle (Brazen Beau) was the star attraction on the opening day of Book 2 of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale as Brett Howard of Randwick Bloodstock (FBAA) went to a day-topping $250,000 for the son of Vinery Stud’s first-season sire Exceedance.

With the Magic Millions raceday forced to be rescheduled due to torrential rain on the Gold Coast on Saturday, the most important update is perhaps yet to come when Croatian Belle takes her chance in the $2 million race on Thursday.

Howard was signing the docket on behalf of trainer Todd Howlett and owner Sean Dyson and he said the pair were on the hunt for some nice yearlings to take to the races next year and this youngster fit the bill perfectly.

“She was bought for a guy called Sean Dyson. He’s a guy from Singleton in NSW. He’s a young guy who has raced horses for a little while and he’s trying to get some nice horses around him. His cousin is Todd Howlett who will train all the horses and Todd’s based just out of Singleton. He is a well-respected NSW country trainer,” said Howard.

“Sean is in the process of developing a property just outside of Singleton, which Todd will eventually move to and operate his training business from. Obviously, it’ll be great to have a few extra nice yearlings for Todd to train.”

The Lindsay Park-trained Croatian Belle will take her chance on Thursday off the back of a pair of impressive victories at Moonee Valley and Howard said a victory would be a lovely update for her half-sister, but that she was a nice filly to add to the stable, regardless of how her half-sister performs later this week.

“It’s great if she runs a good race and if she wins it, that’s a bonus. It’ll appear on the page and it helps the filly’s residual value but outside of that she is just a really nice filly,” said Howard.

“Lindsay Park, who obviously has Croatian Belle, said they were underbidders and James Bester said he was on her as well. I always feel if you hear from those sorts of people, it gives you a bit of confidence that hopefully, you’re on the right track.”

Catalogued as Lot 1066, from the draft of Baramul Stud, is out of the placed mare Croatian (High Chaparral {Ire}) and she is herself a daughter of the dual-winning More Than Ready (USA) mare Pregrada, who also produced Group 3 runner-up A Man To Match (High Chaparral {Ire}).

The filly’s third dam is the Listed winner Dansino (Danehill {USA}) and she is herself a half-sister to G1 Australasian Oaks winner Leica Smile (At Talaq {USA}).

Good day for Churchill

A new client for Magic Millions came to the table on Sunday, as Nicky Wong, working on behalf of the new player, Chi En Andy Fei secured a colt by Coolmore shuttler Churchill (Ire) for $170,000.

Offered by Fergal Connolly’s Valiant Stud, on behalf of Stuart McPhee and Nigel Kelly, the colt is out of the unraced Street Cry (Ire) mare Bella Epoch, who was purchased by McPhee for a bargain price of $5500 via the Inglis Digital August Sale in 2020, handing the European buyers a healthy return on their investment.

“The colt was bred by lovely international clients of ours Stuart Mcphee and Nigel Kelly, so we are delighted with that result and I am sure they are too,” said Connolly.

“They purchased the mare in Australia and we have had her throughout and they have been happy with the result from Churchill and they are looking forward to her next progeny.”

In Australia, Churchill has been represented by 13 winners from 41 races and Connolly said people are beginning to see the capabilities of the stallion, who is enjoying enormous success in Europe, with his talents as a stallion advertised by his dual Group 1-winning son Vadeni (Fr).

“Australia is now seeing the merits of Churchill on the track. It has been taking time to understand what the breed is capable of, but I think once people have worked that out I think we will see more of the Churchill breed doing well here,” said Connolly.

Wong said while the colt was good-looking and well-formed, he still had a lot of developing to do.

“His size is not quite there yet but we know he’s going to keep growing and we see a bit of upside in him and hopefully he will do well in Hong Kong,” said Wong. “He’s a nice horse. They really like Churchill, so I tried to pick the best one and hopefully he is the best one.

“He is for a new owner from Hong Kong and it is his first time buying at the yearling sales. He’s trying to buy three or four horses and send them back to Hong Kong, so we were lucky to secure two in Book 1 and there’s this one and hopefully another one later on.

“They’ve started buying at the yearling sales because nowadays the trial winners and raced horses cost at least $500,000, so if they can buy three or four horses for $500,000, then they can choose the best one to go to Hong Kong.”

Churchill finished the first day of Book 2 as the leading sire by aggregate having sold five yearlings for total receipts of $510,000 and an average $102,000.

Zousain proves popular

A pair of colts by Widden Stud’s first-season sire Zousain proved popular on the first day of Book 2 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale when they were purchased for an aggregate of $310,000.

The first colt went the way of Warwick Farm-based trainer Matthew Smith Racing, who paid Riversdale $150,000 for the youngster. A few lots later Brett Thompson Racing made his presence felt when he took home another son of the sire for $160,000 from the Riverdene Stud draft.

Catalogued as Lot 998, the $160,000 colt is out of Snitzel mare Wodan and this is the extended family of Group 3 winner Extreme Warrior (Extreme Choice) and Listed winner Thrillster (Starspangledbanner).

Thompson said the colt looked early and was looking forward to getting him to the stable, with a view to targeting a big race.

“He is by Zousain and he looks like a jump-and-run horse who might make the big race next year, but we’ll see what happens,” said Thompson.

“They always have nice horses up here. You can buy a nice horse out of Book 1 that aren’t that dear and then they have these days (Book 2) on that suit our type of buyers.”

Despite being second from the top on the buyers' sheet, Thompson was confident the $160,000 signalled good buying.

“That horse we just bought, I thought he was good buying at $160,000, he’s a quality horse. He is a very nice type, he’s a proper horse and as soon as they walked him out of his box, we looked at one another and said, ‘He’s a proper horse’, you could just see the quality horse.

“He’s well put-together, he had a great walk and a nice attitude. He came up and handled the parade very well.”

Zousain was one of the best performing first-season sires sold during Book 1, with 25 of his first-crop selling for a gross of $5,720,000, while he closed out the five days of trade with an average of $228,800, 11.5 times over his introductory covering fee.

Smith joins the Zousain fanfare

The first buyer to get on the board with a Zousain during Book 2, after he went to $150,000 to secure Lot 982, the third lot through the ring on Sunday.

The colt is out of an unplaced daughter of unplaced mare Tennessee Diamond (All American) and she is herself out of Brightcut (Octagonal {NZ}), a half-sister to R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Mirror Mirror (Dehere {USA}).

Smith said that he had been impressed with all the Zousains on the complex and believed this colt was as good as any offered during Book 1.

“We thought he should have definitely been in Book 1 and that is why we were keen to wait for him because I thought he was one of the nicest Zousains at the sale,” said Smith. “He was very athletic, attractive and a good mover. We thought he was great value at $150,000, I thought he should have made a lot more than that.

“I saw the stallion at the Widden parade and I was really taken with him. He is definitely throwing a lot of quality into his progeny. They have good bone, good moving horses and they have great heads. They seem very smart horses. When you watch them parade, they come out and go about their business and seem like they have their mind on the jobs.”

Competitive day of trade pleases Bowditch

At the close of trade on Sunday afternoon, the first day of Book 2 of the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale had grossed $4,810,500, which is a shade more at the same point last year when Day 1 finished with an aggregate of $4,529,500.

Increased slightly to $60,000 compared to $55,000 last year, whilst the clearance rate was nearly a par, sitting at 79.5 per cent against 80 per cent.

The average for the day finished on $68,721, which bettered the $64,704 realised on the first day of Book 2 12 months ago.

Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch was pleased with the day’s trade and was buoyed by how much competition there was on a large proportion of the horses offered on Sunday.

“Walking around from midday onwards it felt really good leading into the sale and there were plenty of people on the grounds,” said Bowditch.

“As the first lot entered the ring at 2pm the tables were full and there was a good buzz around and it kicked off with good momentum. The results from today are very much in line with last year, with a slight increase of median, average and gross, which gives good confidence to the lower and middle end of the market.

“There were plenty of horses making well above their reserve, which means there is plenty of money left in the buyers' pockets, so I suspect they will be hanging around for tomorrow (Monday). I was pleased all the way to the finish. It was a very solid trade.”

The final day of Book 2 gets underway at 10am (AEDT) on Monday.