A well-bred filly by Blue Point (Ire) sold for $350,000 to highlight a record-breaking opening session of the Perth Magic Millions Yearling Sale on Thursday.
Records tumbled across the Book 1 leaderboard in the Swan Valley with new benchmarks for turnover and average while the clearance rate soared courtesy of an incredible afternoon of selling.
Early in the day, locally based trainers Grant and Alana Williams teamed up with bloodstock agent Suman Hedge to secure the Blue Point – Single Spice filly (Lot 12) offered by Yarradale Stud
She’s a three-quarter sister to Ima Single Man (Gingerbread Man), a G2 Karrakatta Plate winner who struck for the fourth time in Hong Kong last month.
Photo / Western Racepix
“She looks like you could nearly put a saddle on her now,” Grant Williams noted. “But obviously with us, she will be given every opportunity and she would have to be really forward for us to push her as an early two year-old next season.
“What we’re all about is buying a nice filly who has good residual value and, if we do our job, then the owners will get something at the end of it as well. She is a strong, athletic filly and is nice and wide through the hips.”
Williams didn’t expect to have to part with as much as he did to secure the prized filly, but he was glad he did. “We had $300,000 for her, but we had another bid otherwise we were going to lose her. Her residual value will make up for that for that extra bid.”
That filly was one of 10 lots to sell for $200,000 or more across Book 1. The top-selling colt was another success story for Yarradale and resident sire Gingerbread Man. The full-brother to Red Can Man and half-brother to Quilista (Scandal Keeper) sold for $280,000 to Noel Carter (Commercial Bloodstock Services) acting on behalf of trainer Steve Wolfe.
Red Can Man has earned over $1.14 million including Westspeed Bonuses of $277,000 for Wolfe, Carter and a syndicate that paid $50,000 for him at the 2018 Magic Millions. His new stablemate was offered by Willow Dale Farm (as agent) for leading south-west breeder Ellie Giles.
Yarradale was leading vendor selling 16 yearlings for $1,494,500. It had last topped the turnover table in 2018 with 15 sold for $1,056,000. The Gidgegannup team led by Lyn Sayers regrouped with a quality crop of yearlings following the death of her husband and guiding light Ron Sayers last May.
A colt by leading WA sire Playing God also sold for $280,000 to jockey-turned-trainer Ryan Hill. Catalogued as Lot 60 for Mogumber Park, the Poverty Point (Testa Rossa) colt is from a half sister to Peters Investments Stakes winners Elite Belle (G1 Railway Stakes) and Mississippi Delta (G2 Perth Cup).
Across the day $13.38 million was traded on 143 lots sold at a record average price of $93,566 and a lofty clearance rate of 89 per cent.
Williams Racing and Suman Hedge Bloodstock were the day’s leading buyers ahead of leading local trainer Neville Parnham. They both spent marginally more than $1 million.
“Today was something sensational,” Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch said. “It’s a credit to RWWA for a great incentive scheme and TBWA members who have upgraded their product year on year.
“The Western Australian thoroughbred industry is in a good place and vendors who have been investing in the future continue to be rewarded. They are working together, they’re building up their quality stallions in the state and some of those stallions are having a lot of luck.”
Day 2 will commence at 10am (WA time) on Friday.
