‘Quality’ Snitzel colt sets new A$2.8 million benchmark at Magic Millions

A colt by Snitzel delivered early drama at Wednesday’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale when he sold to Ciaron Maher for an eye-watering A$2.8 million (£1.41m/€1.68m), making him the priciest yearling ever sold at the auction. 

Offered by Antony Thompson’s Widden Stud, the good-looking son of the Group 3 winner Humma Humma garnered plenty of attention, leading to Maher having to fight off stiff competition from powerful industry players. But as the rivals began to drop off one by one, Maher threw in his final bid, which brought up a new sales benchmark in front of a packed auditorium. 

The colt will race in the grey, white and black colours of UK-based insurance mogul Phil Cunningham, who was on his first visit to Australia, and whose private training operation Rebel Racing is situated in Newmarket.

Maher and Cunningham’s big purchase claimed the record price from a colt by I Am Invincible out of Anaheed, who sold for A$2.7m at the 2023 sale.

The Snitzel colt also claimed the honours as the highest-priced lot of the 2025 sale from the sister to In Secret, who was bought by Randwick-based trainer John Sargent and owner Ian Moses for A$2.3m under the Laguna Partnership banner on Wednesday.

Maher himself is no stranger to playing at the top of the market and said that, while he expected the colt to be popular, the figure was slightly higher than he and his team had anticipated. 

He said: “The quality, you’ve always got to pay for. The top ones always get stronger. We thought he was one of the colts of the sale. It was probably a bit more than expected but the competition is always strong on those big ones.

“He looks really early and sharp. A great pedigree from a quality family with a sharp pedigree.”

The record lot is the second foal out of Humma Humma, who Widden Stud purchased for A$1m at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2021. 

The mare’s first foal Price Tag, a daughter of Zoustar, was bought from Widden by Dean Hawthorne for Jonathan Munz for A$600,000 at the 2024 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale. 

Trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman, the filly finished third in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial Stakes on her debut and was most recently seen running fourth in the Group 3 Maribyrnong Plate at Flemington on Melbourne Cup day. 

With Thursday’s sale, Widden continued its outstanding record as a top-end operator at Magic Millions.

The Hunter Valley-based farm also holds the record for the highest-priced yearling filly sold at the Gold Coast, having sold the sister to Sunlight, the Listed-winning Clean Energy, for A$2.6m in 2023, and previously held the record for the highest-priced broodmare sold in the ring when Sunlight herself sold for A$4.2m in 2020, a figure that was bettered only last year by Imperatriz, who fetched A$6.6m.

Thompson said: “It's a really proud moment for us. It has been an amazing sale for Widden. We sold Sunlight here as a record-priced mare. Having sold Clean Energy, I think she was a record-priced filly, and now to have the highest-priced yearling, it is a big honour. 

“We're so thankful for the guys investing in mares with us. We actually bought Humma Humma through this very ring and to see this colt come back and do us so proud here is so humbling and such a special moment.”

Thompson said the colt was always destined for the Magic Millions sale, despite Inglis making a strong case to Widden to sell him at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale later on in the year. 

He said: “He had Magic Millions written all over him. He was very strong and forward. A bombproof action, very forward. When you think about Magic Millions and what it is, the race, for me he is just the ideal horse. You can take him to any sale. You could take him to the moon and still sell him.

“I know Inglis were disappointed he didn’t go to the Easter sale, but I just thought he was the right horse for this sale.

“With nine or ten serious players on him and a couple knuckling down over A$1.5 million, I was always confident he’d sell well, but it is hard to know how well.

“It's a fabulous result – stunning.”

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