It was a case déjà vu on the Gold Coast on Friday when the sales topper, a colt by Exceed and Excel, changed hands for $320,000, to the call of Julian Blaxland of Blue Sky Bloodstock.

The colt, from Doctrine, was presented by Rothwell Park, who offered an interesting draft over the two days, a half sister to Rain Affair.

Last year on the corresponding day the colts full brother was sold for $350,000.

Both colts were the first two products of the unraced Artie Schiller mare, Doctrine, a half sister to five winners, including the $1.55 million earner, Rain Affair.

“I thought he was a lovely horse, he is by one of the world’s great sires, Exceed and Excel, he had not only done the job here in Australia but also up in the Northern Hemisphere,” he said.

“Rothwell Park sell their stock as weanlings, usually as a rule, he’s a really nice horse, we could bring hlm back in January to re-sell, or just to race,” Blaxland”added.

The demand for quality stock by first season sires continued, with the Brazen Beau colt out of Flute of Bubbly, the colt from Cornerstone Stud Farm selling for $300,000.

A half brother to stakes winning juvenile, Shigeru Sendan, was purchased by Hilldene, in association with Victorian based bloodstock agent Peter Ford.

“We love the stallion, Hilldene’s Nicholas Wakim said, we love the look of them, we bought one yesterday for $270,000,” he said.

“He was a very nice type and we’ll probably send him back here for the Magic Millions Yearling Sales in the New Year,” Wakim added.

Blue Sky Bloodstock rounded out the two day sale as the leading buyer, with 11 purchasers, spending $1.594 million, as well as the top seller, Blaxland for Blue Sky, also purchased the day’s top filly, the So You Think Miss Shamardal youngster for $250,000.

James Bester Bloodstock purchased 12 lots for $1.252 million, the partnership of Hilldene and Peter Ford Thoroughbreds purchased 7 seven lots for $1.18 million, and David Lucas, as agent for Phoenix Investments, bought 3 lots for $1.01 million, were the others to outlay over a million dollars.

While Exceed and Excel had only one lot catalogued it sold for $320,000, while Coolmore Stud’s champion sire, Fastnet Rock, had three lots averaging $303,750.

Former Gold Coast Yearling Sale graduate, Snitzel, averaged $293,333 for three lots sold, while Brazen Beau took the honours of leading first season sire with four lots averaging out at an impressive $201,250.

The second day continued in much the same vein as the first day, Magic Millions Managing Director Vin Cox commented, “the six figure horses, and there were a number of them, were prolific and that was fantastic from that point of view.”

The sale rounded out with a gross of over $19.69 million, which was $2.3 million up on the corresponding sales last year, the average price was over $52,000, and the clearance rate climbing past 81 per cent.

“Overall it’s been quite a good sale, we had a much bigger catalogue than we have had in previous years, when you get the bigger numbers it’s hard to keep the market engaged as long, or as high,” said Vin Cox.

“There was very strong competition of those very good horses, and one of the pleasing aspects was that a lot of the higher end money, and the bigger spenders, were largely domiciled overseas.”

“It’s great to see we are getting overseas investors into the Australian industry, and the fact they are investing in weanlings suggests they have a lot of confidence in the Australian domestic market,” he added.

Sale Statistics (2016 in brackets)
Lots Catalogued 540 (370)
Sale Gross $19,500 ($17,38,250)
Average Price $52,097 ($59,412
Top Price $525,097 ($400,000)
Lots Sold 378 (292)
Lots Passed In 88 (39)
Lots Withdrawn 74 (39)
Sold % 81 (88)