Cover image courtesy of Racing Photos
Yulong offered American Eagle (Too Darn Hot {GB}) in their 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft and had to keep a share in him to get the sale over the line. Officially he sold to MyRacehorse, Anthony Freedman Racing and Julian Blaxland Bloodstock (FBAA) for $400,000 but it wasn’t in the ring.
The colt, trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman, won on debut at Caulfield as a July 2-year-old, and his G3 McNeil Stakes victory on Saturday was only his second start. He downed R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic victor Unit Five (Supido) by 0.15 lengths with Seraphox (Harry Angel {Ire}) over two lengths behind in third.
Getting the deal done
At $400,000, American Eagle ended up being the fourth highest priced Too Darn Hot (GB) to sell at the 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling sale. Currently unraced colt Ignition Point sold for $650,000, unraced colt Sly cost $550,000 and G3 Gimcrack Stakes winner Shiki cost $420,000.
“He was a lovely colt on first looks and I showed him to Anthony and Sam (Freedman) and he was added to their list. We vetted him for the sale, but he passed in initially,” Julian Blaxland said.
“We wanted to get a Too Darn Hot, but we thought the reserve was a bit high at the time. From memory it was day one of the sale and you want to be a bit careful jumping into things.
“The dust settled for a couple of days and he still sat there, so we went back and did the deal with (Yulong’s) Vin Cox and thankfully, Sam had Ben Willis's MyRacehorse there to take a good chunk of him. I think the horse passed in on the Tuesday and I believe we did the deal on the horse on the Thursday.
“Thankfully, it's all worked out, but it's funny looking back, 18 months later, and so far so good. Two starts, two wins.”
“Thankfully, it's all worked out, but it's funny looking back, 18 months later, and so far so good. Two starts, two wins.” - Julian Blaxland
MyRacehorse had him on their short list too but had valued him just under the reserve figure.
“It was really funny actually. We were on him with another stable,” MyRacehorse’s Ben Willis said.
“At the sales, we partner with five different stables, and we really loved the colt. We’ve got a lot of respect for Yulong and the way they breed their horses.
American Eagle as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“As you can see in the parade ring, he is a well-balanced, big, strong colt, but he's not too heavy. He's just well put together, well proportioned, and we loved him. Damon Gabbedy who does our bloodstock work primarily with myself and Emma Freedman, we all really liked him. We partnered with another stable to go in on him, and we went up to $350,000 and the reserve was 400 so the horse got passed in.
“We couldn't get a deal done for under 400 so we thought the horse was done and that he wasn't coming to us and we'd have to move on to the next one.”
But fate was about to enter the equation and make the deal possible for MyRacehorse.
“That night, I was at Anthony and Sam Freedman's Magic Millions stable evening, their event that they run, and they were talking about this horse that they had just bought in partnership with Yulong, and if anyone wants to take 50%, they get colours and the horse. We were going get a horse with Anthony and Sam anyway, and the horse they were talking about happened to be the Too Darn Hot x Awake The Stars colt.
“I went up to Sam while he was still talking and presenting everything to the crowd and said, I'll take him. I'd love to say, oh, it was a real sexy bidding war and we got the upper hand at the end, but it wasn't the case at all!”
Ben Willis | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
For Yulong, the deal got over the line when they retained a portion of the colt, something breeders have to do regularly to get horses sold. American Eagle has three official racing owners, MyRacehorse, Yulong and Mr P Papaemmanouil.
Familiar ground for MyRacehorse
American Eagle is the is the third foal and third winner out of the six-time winning Redoute’s Choice mare Awake The Stars.
At the time of sale, her first foal Stardealt (Dundeel {NZ}), had won over 1600 metres and was also placed in the Listed Tasmanian Derby. And her then 3-year-old Aligning Stars (Pierata) was placed. He won just after the catalogue went to print and was sold to Hong Kong where he has been renamed Win Beauty Viva and is a last start winner.
“Redoute’s Choice is obviously the broodmare sire and he has an amazing track record, like Anamoe, Artorius, the list goes on. He’s a brilliant broodmare sire,” Willis said.
Redoute’s Choice | Image courtesy of Arrowfield Stud
Redoute’s Choice has multiple Champion Sire and Champion Broodmare Sire titles, and his daughters have produced 191 stakes winners with 32 of those at Group 1 level including Zoustar, Super Seth, Anamoe, Artorius, and Vinrock.
“And we’ve had a lot of success with Too Darn Hot as a stallion. He would be about the fourth Too Darn Hot we’ve bought, and they all keep winning and winning for us, so we knew they were popular with our ownership group.”
“He (American Eagle) would be about the fourth Too Darn Hot we’ve bought, and they all keep winning and winning for us, so we knew they were popular with our ownership group.” - Ben Willis
At the time of sale, Too Darn Hot’s oldest were 3-year-olds and were led by Group 1 winner Broadsiding as well as stakes winners Too Darn Lizzie, Too Darn Discreet, Perspiration and Silmarillion. On Saturday, American Eagle became his 36th stakes winner and he now has eight Group 1 winners globally with Broadsiding and Tropicus both saluting at the elite level in Australia.
Too Darn Hot (GB) | Standing at Darley
“We had a horse called Bold Strike who was already racing, and we also had a horse called Charcoals that we bought from the Easter Yearling Sale,” Willis said.
“But at the time they (Too Darn Hot) weren't heavily exposed.”
Charcoals, also in the Anthony and Sam Freedman stable, has won seven of his 17 starts and over $220,000 and in mid-2025 he won five of six starts with three in succession. Ciaron Maher-trained Bold Strike has won three of his sixteen starts and over $120,000.
The best problem to have
American Eagle has shown enough speed to remain a Coolmore Stud Stakes prospect, while his pedigree gives the stable reason to test him over further. The Caulfield Guineas Prelude should provide the answer.
“It's not every day you get to wake up and decide with a horse if you're going to go to the Coolmore or the Caulfield Guineas. It's a fantastic problem to have,” Willis said.
“It's not every day you get to wake up and decide with a horse if you're going to go to the Coolmore or the Caulfield Guineas. It's a fantastic problem to have.” - Ben Willis
“As a type, there's so much we're still figuring out about him. If you talk to Sam and Anthony who spend day in and day out with him, they're still trying to work out whether he's a six-furlong horse or he's a miler which is going to shape where go through the spring.
American Eagle | Image courtesy of Racing Photos
“If you look at yesterday's race, he wasn't fully wound up, so he has a heap of improvement to come. He's got a really nice turn of foot.
“We'll likely take him to the Caulfield Guineas Prelude next start. That's a 1400-metre event, and that’ll help tell us if we drop him back to the Coolmore at 1200 or do we keep pushing up to the Caulfield Guineas at 1600?
“He's a bit green and new to it all. It's only his second start and he’s still going to improve quite a bit, we hope.”
Blaxland said the colt’s light campaign reflected Anthony Freedman’s usual approach with horses he rates.
Julain Blaxland | Image courtesy of FBAA
“Anthony Freedman is very patient with a horse he likes. He didn't rush the horse, just taking along slowly and the owners are reaping the benefits now,” Blaxland said.
“He's got a lot of quality, this horse. This is a stable that does not talk horses up. I remember seven or eight years ago, we had a horse with the Freedmans who won a Saturday race and I was all excited and Anthony said, yeah, but it's a hack. And this was after a Flemington win. So it takes a bit to fire him up, after all, he’s trained so many good horses and household names over the years.
“When they say they like one, you sit up and take notice.
“They know what they're doing. They know what a real one is. And they've always liked this horse so it’s certainly very exciting to watch what he could do going forward.”
Another result for Yulong’s 2025 draft
When Willis mentioned that Yulong do a great job with their bloodstock, the numbers check out too.
Yulong’s 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft also includes G2 Percy Sykes Stakes winner Cherry Bomshell (Lucky Vega {Ire}), G1 Sires’ Produce Stakes-placed Miss Chanel (Tagaloa), Listed-placed Lady Catalina (Written Tycoon), Listed-placed West Coast (St Mark’s Basilica {Fr}), and Listed-placed Lucky Pat (Lucky Vega {Ire}).
“It’s also great for Mr Zhang and for Yulong,” Blaxland said.
Awake The Star | Image courtesy of Inglis
“MyRacehorse has been a phenomenon since they’ve come in. I was lucky to be involved with buying Apocalyptic with Michael Freedman and Damon Gabbeby and Ben Willis and his team,” Blaxland said.
“They're lucky owners, those colours are very lucky. So it would not surprise me if this horse goes all the way.”
“They're lucky owners, those colours are very lucky. So it would not surprise me if this horse goes all the way.” - Julian Blaxland
MyRacehorse lucky to have plenty of spring options
This spring looks particularly exciting for the MyRacehorse team and their thousands of owners. Michael Freedman-trained Ninja (Farnan) won the G2 Missile Stakes on resuming last weekend.
“We are trying to get Ninja a slot in The Everest. He will trial in the next fortnight and then go back into The Shorts. He's going to be exciting for our owners,” Willis said.
Storm Leopard (Ghaiyyath {Ire}) is trained by the Hayes brothers at Lindsay Park and won the G2 Tulloch Stakes last autumn at three.
“Storm Leopard ran yesterday. He ran really well, finished 5th in the benchmark 100 over 1400 metres. In an ideal world, we could sneak him into the Caulfield Cup as a lightweight. He'll go through the JRA place in a couple of starts time. He obviously ran third in the Sydney Derby and won the Tulloch in his first prep.”
Storm Leopard | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
G1 Flight Stakes winner Apocalyptic (Extreme Choice) resumed last weekend to run third in the G3 Toy Show Handicap for trainer Michael Freedman.
“We'll just see with her. She might be a 1400-metre horse that we might try and get to The Invitation or a race like that up in Sydney, but she's going well.”
Apocalyptic | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
Ciaron Maher-trained Platinum Pearl (Frankel {GB}) ran third on debut and was a $900,000 purchase from Yulong’s 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale draft.
“Platinum Pearl is a Frankel filly that we got from the same draft as American Eagle. She's a grey filly who debuted at Sandown a couple of weeks ago. We would probably make our way towards an Oaks with her, or the 1000 guineas, but she showed a lot of talent on debut.”
Willydoit (NZ) (Tarzino {NZ}) won the 2025 G1 New Zealand Derby and was fourth to Aeliana (NZ) (Castelvecchio) in the G1 Australian Derby. He had five starts at four and failed to trouble the judge.
“Willydoit is kicking off next weekend in the Group 1 Proisir Plate. We bought him over here and it turned out he needed tie back surgery. He's going well, he'll go to the Proisir Plate and then into the Howden Mile, and then the Livamol Classic, that'll be his preparation.”
Willydoit (NZ) | Image courtesy of Kenton Wright (Race Images)
American Eagle will arrive at the Caulfield Guineas Prelude with the least experience in the field and an unbeaten record. His performance over 1400 metres will tell the Freedmans whether to keep stretching him out or rely on the speed that has carried him through his first two starts.
