Sunlight’s daughter shatters Magic Millions record at A$3.2 million
Coolmore Stud-consigned daughter of Home Affairs tops trade as the curtain comes down on Book 1
Sunlight created a slice of history when she made A$4.2 million at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2020 and on Friday evening her third foal delivered the mare, her first-season sire Home Affairs and breeder Coolmore a dream result when she sold to Japanese-based trainer Mitsu Nakauchida for an auction record of A$3.2m (£1.6m/€1.92m) during the inaugural ‘Super Session’ of the final day of Book 1 at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Nakauchida traded blows with a number of players and, as the bidding entered the business end, he had to fend off the advances from Resolute Racing’s John Stewart. But the Japanese trainer was able to stand steady to land the final blow and secure the prized filly.
It was the second time the sale record has tumbled this week, with the A$2.8m for a Snitzel colt achieved on Thursday standing for just over 24 hours.
Nakauchida, who attended the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale last year but left empty handed, came in search of antipodean bloodlines having enjoyed enormous success training horses out of Australian mares.
His stable includes three-time Grade 1 winner Liberty Island, a daughter of dual Australian elite-level scorer Yankee Rose, and unbeaten three-year-old Eri King, a daughter of Group 1 Queensland Oaks winner Youngstar.
Nakauchida said: “I came here for this filly and I just arrived yesterday. I was just lucky to secure the filly.
“Physically she is good and you cannot fault the pedigree. I’m very happy."
Nakauchida had showed his firepower last year when he was the underbidder on the sale-topping Frankel filly out of Aljazzi at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, beaten to the punch that day by Amo Racing’s Kia Joorabchian.
“I expected to pay a high price and it is a little bit more than the budget, but I hope the filly it worth it," he said. "She will go back to Japan and be trained by me. Hopefully she will make a nice racehorse.
“I’ve been lucky to have had success with Australian mares. I have Liberty Island out of Yankee Rose. I have another very good three-year-old called Eri King out of Youngstar. So Australian mares do quite well in Japan at the moment. They go well with Japanese stallions.”
Being born in the southern hemisphere, the filly will be younger than all her peers when she makes a racecourse, but Nakauchida didn’t seem phased and said the filly would be given all the time to mature.
“We will give her all the time she wants and hopefully she has the chance to mature herself in time,” he said.
Three-time Group 1 winner Sunlight has already proved herself a competent broodmare, with her first foal, Dawn Service, a A$1.4m buy for Gai Waterhouse, Adrian Bott and Kestral Thoroughbreds, already a stakes winner, while her second foal, a colt by Wootton Bassett, also made A$1.4m when he was bought by Paul Moroney and Catherine Bruggeman at last year’s Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
With her Friday’s record sale, Sunlight’s progeny has now brought in A$6m and Coolmore’s Tom Magnier said the results more than justified the figure they paid for her, the A$4.4m at the time being a record and bettered only last year by Imperatriz, who fetched A$6.6m.
The result also top off a brilliant week for Coolmore’s dual Group 1-winning first-season sire Home Affairs, handing him his second seven-figure lot following on from the filly out of Group 2-winning Champagne Cuddles, who realised A$1.05m on Tuesday.
During Book 1, Home Affairs had 45 yearlings sell for an aggregate of A$17,835,000, bringing an average of A$396,333, numbers that more justify his debut fee of A$110,000. Friday’s price also means the filly becomes the most expensive yearling sold from the first crop of a stallion in the southern hemisphere.
In terms of stallions with their first crop, Frankel’s best result was a filly out of Alexander Goldrun who was bought by the China Horse Club for €1.7 million at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale in 2015, the equivalent of around A$2.8m.
Japanese buyers are not shy when it comes to putting their faith in a stallion’s debut batch, exemplified when a foal from the first crop of Contrail made ¥520,000,000 (approx. $5,323,240) at the JRHA Sale last year.
Magnier said the filly had been a standout from day one and that he was over the moon with the result.
“That is what you dream of,” he said. “Home Affairs, it is great for him, but we can’t do this without our partners. We’re so excited.
“When you have a mare like that and a filly like that, she has been the talking point of the sales all week, really you can’t pinpoint the exact figure you’d get, but Mitsu is one of the great trainers around the world.
“He’s a great judge and I really wish him all the best with her. She’s fantastic.”
He added: “I think that is the best foal that the mare has had. It has been a cracker since day one. She is a lovely mare and we are delighted. It is a great thrill for all the team at the farm.”
After coming out second best for the top seller, Stewart got compensation a few lots later, when he teamed up with Waterhouse, Bott and Kestrel Thoroughbreds to buy a filly by Snitzel for A$1.6m.
Offered by Silverdale, the filly is out of Group 2 winner Sweet Sherry, making her a half-sister to A$1.1m Magic Millions graduate Eneeza, whose three wins are headed by her victory in last season’s Group 2 Percy Sykes Stakes.
Staying future for Frankel filly
Belmont Bloodstock’s Damon Gabbedy is hoping the Frankel filly he purchased in partnership with Ciaron Maher for A$900,000 early on the fourth and final day of Book 1 of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale can develop into an Oaks filly.
Bred by Yulong, the grey filly is out of winning Dark Angel mare Of Good Cheer, who topped the Inglis Digital June (Early) Sale in 2023 when she was bought by Chatsworth Farm for A$560,000, carrying the Frankel filly in utero.
The youngster hails from the successful Juddmonte family of dual US Grade 1 winner Heat Haze, who is the dam of Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap winner Mirage Dancer and South Australian Listed winner Ironclad.
Will Bourne, Maher’s head of bloodstock, told ANZ Bloodstock that Yulong will be retaining a share in the filly.
“She’s got a great pedigree and is very loose moving,” he said. "Not in the Magic Millions-mould, being more of an Oaks-type filly and she will need a bit more time. She will get over distance, but she had that class edge to her.
“We have some owners who are happy to wait, and 20 per cent to sell. The stallion is a freak and she's a lovely filly.”
A familiar figure at sales overseas, Gabbedy said that if the filly had been offered in Europe he would have expected her to make significantly more than she did on Friday.
He said: “I had a client who loved the filly. If that filly was in Europe, we’d be paying a million guineas being by Frankel out of that depth of pedigree. I had a client who wanted a real Oaks filly and that was what we identified in the catalogue.
“How can you go past Frankel? He’s a superstar. His record speaks for itself so we decided to have a red-hot crack. They want Ciaron to train it, so, good.
“It goes back to one of the best pedigrees in the world. Great depth, which was very important.”
Gabbedy said that while the filly was not the archetypal Magic Millions yearling, he was happy to buy her regardless of the sale.
He said: “It's not the normal thing but you’ve got to find the filly when they come up at the sale and Frankel is statistically one of the best stallions in the world, if not the best, and it doesn’t matter where they come from. Subzero came from this sale."
Later on in the afternoon, Yulong sold another filly by Frankel to Michael Hickmott for A$700,000. Catalogued as Lot 954, the filly was also bought in utero, with Yulong paying A$700,000 for her winning dam, Small Print, at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
Curtain comes down
The Book 1 section of the 2025 Gold Coast Yearling Sale rounded out with a gross of over A$205.43m, an eight per cent drop on the $223,475,500 aggregate recorded 12 months ago. The average finished at A$272,507, a 2.4 per cent decrease on last year’s figure. The clearance rate was 81 per cent.
Newgate Farm was crowned the leading vendor by aggregate, selling 52 yearlings for a total receipts of A$18.475m, while Segenhoe Stud sold 32 lots for leading average of A$459,063.
Arrowfield resident Snitzel secured leading sire honours by average, with his 27 yearlings making a total of A$20,670,000 at an average of A$765,556.
Selling will return to the Magic Millions complex on Sunday, when the Book 2 section of the Gold Coast Yearling Sale begins. It continue on Monday.
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