Sunlight smashes Magic Millions record
Sunlight (Zoustar) was loved on the track, but she was loved even more in the sales ring, as she became the highest-ever priced filly or mare off the track in Australia when Coolmore’s Tom Magnier went to $4.2 million to secure her at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale.
It was a remarkable effort for Magic Millions to get a live sale underway despite significant border restrictions across the country, but they did and thankfully so as we saw a star mare light up the ring in the afternoon on Monday, July 28.
Sunlight was purchased as a yearling for $300,000 when offered by Widden Stud at the 2017 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
She went on to earn $6,575,950 on the track and her $4.2 million sale as a broodmare prospect brought her total earning to upwards of $10 million.
It was also a touching moment her sale when her strapper Sarah Rutten, who had been with her throughout her entire career with Tony McEvoy and travelled to the Gold Coast to lead her through the ring, was captured saying an emotional goodbye to the champion mare, further confirming how much love the participants of the industry have for the horses.
Behemoth wins Group 1
Big boy Behemoth (All Too Hard) created smiles all around the country when the gelding raced away to win his first Group 1 in the Memsie S. at Caulfield back in August.
Originally purchased for $120,000 by Heritage Bloodstock at the Inglis Great Southern Weanling Sale Platinum Session in 2016 from the draft of Tyreel Stud, the son of All Too Hard could only earn $6000 when returning to the ring at the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale.
Sam Lyons and Grand Syndicates saw something in him that many buyers did not and three years later, Behemoth brought home a Group 1 victory as he raced away to win the Memsie by 1.5l.
He went on to win the G1 Sir Rupert Clarke S. before earning a start in The Everest and has amassed a total of $2,076,810 in prizemoney, almost 350 times the amount he was purchased for.
Humidor returns to the winner’s stall
After three unplaced runs in Perth over the winter for new trainer Lindsey Smith, Humidor (NZ) (Teofilo {Ire}) had all but been retired.
But his owners had faith that the multiple Group 1 winner would find his form again and that he did when joining champion trainer Chris Waller.
In his first start for Waller, Humidor went into the G2 Feehan S. without winning a race for two years.
He started as an outsider in a race against horses he would have certainly beaten in his prime at a track where he challenged Winx (Street Cry {Ire}) in the 2017 G1 Cox Plate and still, people doubted him.
Though, in a fairytale result Humidor, with former regular rider Damian Lane on his back, burst through the pack in the final stages of the race to nab his first victory since the G1 Memsie S. in September, 2018, and earned himself a guaranteed spot in another Cox Plate.
He then went through the rest of spring finishing second in the G1 Underwood S., third in the G1 Caulfield S. and then 12th in the Cox Plate where things didn’t work out in his favour.
