Arrowfield dominates Magic Millions Sale

Over-used as it is, “dominant” is the best description of Arrowfield Stud’s status at the end of a record-breaking Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale that left little scope for complaint by vendors.

Arrowfield and its powerhouse stallion roster headed every category, except that of top-priced filly, to extend an already imposing Magic Millions record.

The Stud itself sold 48 of 53 lots offered, achieving an aggregate of $11.6 million and leading the Vendor lists for both Books 1 & 2. At the premier level of the Sale, Arrowfield sold 38 lots for $10.9 million to edge out Newgate Farm and secure top spot for the second consecutive year.

The top-priced Arrowfield yearling was the Redoute’s Choice colt out of Ballet Blue (by Stravinsky), purchased by leading buyer James Harron Bloodstock for $1.3 million, a sale-topping figure also achieved by Corumbene Stud’s full brother to Sebring. The Ballet Blue colt, bred on the same cross as Horse of the Year Lankan Rupee, is the 71st million-dollar yearling for Redoute’s Choice who has now posted at least one seven-figure sale every year since 2004.

Harron, who has previously bought Group 1 winners Sweet Idea & Wandjina and Listed winner Detective from Arrowfield, signed for four other yearlings from the Stud’s Magic Millions consignment: a pair of Snitzel colts, the Exceed and Excel-Flavoured colt and, with trainer Michael Freedman, a Redoute’s Choice filly for JHB Syndications.

The Sale’s select group of five $1 million-plus lots also featured Arrowfield’s Snitzel-Sabanci colt, a $1.1 million buy for champion trainer Chris Waller and Mulcaster Bloodstock.

Two days later, last year’s $1.6 million Snitzel-Mirror Mirror colt, now named Chauffeur and trained by Gerald Ryan, came very close to the perfect “top the sale and win the race” result when he was second in the $2 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (R) LR. That emulated the performance of his three-quarter sister No Looking Back (by Redoute’s Choice), the relegated runner-up in the 2012 Classic. Chauffeur has subsequently been rated the country’s best current juvenile with a Timeform figure of 115.

The sales of the Ballet Blue and Sabanci colts mean that Arrowfield has now sold 36 seven-figure yearlings since 2001, among them Group 1 winners Sunday Joy (Magic Millions, 2001), Master of Design (Inglis Easter, 2007) & Wandjina (Inglis Easter, 2013).

Three-time Champion Sire Redoute’s Choice underlined the enduring value of his class with 12 lots sold at an average price of $369,583, which returned him to No. 1 position on the Sires’ table (by average) for the first time since 2013.

Newhaven Park Stud, source of Peeping and Wylie Hall among Redoute’s Choice’s 30 Group 1 winners, sold his most expensive filly, bred on the same cross as Arrowfield’s young sire and current French shuttler Scissor Kick, being out of the Quest For Fame mare Kidman. She was secured for $400,000 by Julian Blaxland’s Blue Sky Bloodstock.

Arrowfield’s spectacular Redoute’s Choice sons Snitzel and Not A Single Doubt made headlines too. Snitzel claimed top spot on the list by aggregate sales with 42 lots sold for a total of $13.9 million (an average price of $331,571) and Not A Single Doubt’s 27 lots averaged $292,593 – almost ten times his 2014 fee.

Together, the father-and-sons supplied seven of the Sale’s 20 top-priced horses, with a wide range of vendors and buyers transacting very rewarding business.

Luskin Park sold Snitzel’s second top-priced colt, the $925,000 son of Ultimate Fever (by Gold Fever) and therefore a full brother to recent Sydney stakeswinner Le Cordon Bleu. He was bought by the China Horse Club with Newgate Farm and Winstar.

Newgate appeared as the vendor of the sought-after Snitzel filly from Your Life Style (by Hussonet out of Redoute’s Choice’s only full sister), knocked down to trainer Rick Worthington for $850,000.

Shadwell Australasia’s winning bid of $725,000 for Attunga Stud’s colt out of Moccasin Bend is the highest price yet paid for a Not A Single Doubt yearling at Magic Millions. The same vendor and buyer completed the $450,000 sale of Not A Single Doubt’s top-priced filly out of Zighy Bay (by Tapit).

Champion racehorse Dundeel could not have done more to begin the yearling sale phase of his stud career than head the Magic Millions First Crop Sires’ list with 12 lots sold for an average price of $272,500.

Arrowfield’s decision to send champion filly and Group 1 producer Miss Finland to Dundeel was rewarded with a head-turning colt and a lively sale-ring contest eventually won with a bid of $900,000 by Craig Rounsefell’s Boomer Bloodstock.

Although that figure was a standout, it was backed up by sales of $500,000 (for Musk Creek’s Cerberus Gal colt, bought by Spendthrift Farm), $250,000, $220,000, $200,000 (twice), $170,000 and $150,000 – all comfortably profitable off Dundeel’s $27,500 fee.

These results reveal a new and welcome willingness to buck the general Magic Millions trend favouring first crop sires with notable juvenile or sprinting form, rather than the six Group 1 victories from 1600m to 2400m that appear on Dundeel’s race record. 

As Marquee Stud’s Mark Alati said, after selling the $140,000 Dundeel-Funzero filly to Dynamic Syndications, “The future is very bright for Dundeel.”