The record Magic Millions yearling sale price set by Sunlight’s sister stood for less than 24 hours after a colt by I Am Invincible claimed the honour on Thursday.
The first foal from Fastnet Rock mare Anaheed is bound for Chris Waller’s stable after being bought by Coolmore for $2.7 million late on the third day of selling at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
That was $100,000 more than Yulong paid for the sister to Sunlight on Wednesday, with those two lots significantly greater than the previous of best of $2.2 million shared by two colts sold in 2008.
Thursday’s big buy was the second seven-figure I Am Invincible colt bought by Tom Magnier, to go alongside Wednesday’s $1.6 million son of Spright, and the Coolmore principal said it was all about trying to find the next Home Affairs, who is a son of I Am Invincible.
“He looked a lot like Home Affairs walking around the ring there, so it is really exciting to get him and we’ll take him home and work out what we’re doing,” Magnier said.
“When you have a colt like Home Affairs, who has been a great servant at his first season at stud, you’re trying to find the next one.
“We’re just delighted to have this colt racing with a really great group of people and fingers crossed we have a bit of success on the racetrack because you’d love to have him in the stallion barn.”
The $2.7 million colt was prepared for sale by Segenhoe Stud on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, who raced Anaheed, a daughter of Group 1-winning mare Rostova who won three times at Group 2 level.
“You never expect to get that amount, but he’s as good a horse as we’ve ever had. He was unbelievably popular,” Segenhoe Stud’s Peter O’Brien said.
The $2.7 million colt put an exclamation mark on one of the most successful days in Magic Millions history when eight yearlings sold for $1 million or more.
Just 10 minutes before the top lot went through Damon Gabbedy and McEvoy Mitchell Racing paid $1.15m for a filly by Zoustar, while James Harron went to $1.6 million for a colt by I Am Invincible out a daughter of Golden Slipper winner Mossfun.
The fireworks started much earlier when the first foal out of Sunlight, a colt by Justify, kicked started a run of five million-dollar youngsters in 25 minutes when sold to Gai Waterhouse for $1.4m.
A colt by Snitzel out of Super Cash who sold for $1.1m was the next lot through, closely followed by a $1.2m I Am Invincible filly, a $1.1 million Exceed And Excel filly and $1m Extreme Choice colt.
The stunning third day lifted the sale gross to $153,675,000, which is fractionally down on $154,112,500 after three days last year.
The average has risen to $307,350 – almost $10,000 more than the same period last year – while the $230,000 median is on par with last year. The clearance rate is 87 percent, compared with 96 percent in 2022.