The make-up of three of Australia's big yearling sales has been decided and exciting times are ahead judging by the release of catalogues for the Gold Coast Magic Millions, the Sydney Classic sale and the Karaka Premier sale in January and February.
The strength of the sales centres on the freshman sires and there are several newcomers which became big names during their racing careers.
Spearheading the first-season sires is Arrowfield Stud's Smart Missile, which has 58 yearlings catalogued — 44 at the Magic Millions and 14 at the Inglis Classic. He is the most-represented sire in the Gold Coast catalogue.
Smart Missile, a son of Fastnet Rock, stood for $22,000 at his first year at Arrowfield and had a book of almost 200 mares. He had weanlings sell at the Magic Millions in May, his 13 lots averaging $78,115.
The top-priced lot was a filly from the family of Rain Affair and Walk Alone, which went to a client of Craig Anderson's Amarina Farm. It was decided to pinhook the filly and her sale will be closely monitored.
Foxwedge, another well performed son of Fastnet Rock, was a sensation at the National weanling sale and has 42 yearlings in — 30 at the Magic Millions, seven at Karaka and five at the Classic.
The handsome Foxwedge's first lot in the ring at the National in May brought $360,000, the buyer being Foxwedge's owner, Edward Bateman. At the conclusion of the sales seven Foxwedges had averaged a phenomenal $202,857, which augurs well.
Sepoy is another with progeny being spoken about highly and he has 36 yearlings up for grabs – 34 at the Magic Millions and two at Karaka – and his weanlings have also met with strong demand, six lots averaging $101,666.
So You Think has 33 lots in the sales, while Emirates Park's shuttler Dream Ahead has 31 to bolster the first-season ranks.
New Zealand's champion sire, O'Reilly, will be represented by 58yearlings at Karaka Premier and two at Magic Millions, while Savabeel has 47 at Karaka and two at Magic Millions.
Savabeel was hot at last week's Karaka ready-to-run sale, producing the $NZ460,000 ($423,000) top-priced colt, and 11 of his progeny averaged $NZ215,909.
Speed sires Snitzel and I Am Invincible have babies selling at all three venues, a total of 56 all up. I Am Invincible, last year's leading first-season sire, stands at Yarraman Park, which also has sound representation as Hinchinbrook and Magic Albert have 37 lots selling apiece.
Fastnet Rock has 22 at the Magic Millions and 13 at Karaka but, invariably, his biggest draft is saved for the Inglis Easter sale and this year will be no exception.
Sebring has 53 offerings, Star Witness has 37, the deceased Northern Meteor has 36, Choisir (29), Denman (26) and More The Ready and debut shuttle sire Cape Blanco, which stands in New Zealand, have 27.
The two last offerings of New Zealand's evergreen champion sire Zabeel are at the Karaka Premier in February. The first lot is No.28, a filly from Laurinel Princess, by Desert Prince. The dam won two races in Australia.
The last Zabeel is a colt from unraced US mare Organdy, which produced eight-time winner Time Keeper, which amassed earnings of more than $350,000 during his racing career, including the time-honoured group1 Easter Handicap at Ellerslie, Auckland.
Lope-ing along nicely
The Lope De Vega bandwagon continued its rise to stardom at the Tattersalls yearling sale this week when the three-quarter brother to the Darren Weir-trained Puissance De Lune fetched 325,000 guineas ($610,000), clearly the top-priced lot of the one-day sale. Bound for the stables of Luca Cumani, the Lope De Vega colt was knocked down to agent Charlie Gordon-Watson on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid. Earlier in the sale, Gordon-Watson paid 140,000gns for a Shamardal colt, which is a half-brother to the John Moore-trained Hong Kong top-liner Dan Excel. He was passed in at 95,000gns but the agent later paid the reserve of 140,000gns to secure the colt.
