The super sextet

By Trevor Marshallsea

Rarely will one single sale have such an impact on the racetrack and on a new wave of thoroughbreds …

Farnan. King’s Legacy. Tagaloa. Peltzer. Prague. Anders. Each one of them is a graduate of the vintage 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and each have their first progeny on offer in the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

They all graced the ring at the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast auction, selling across a wide range from $260,000 to $1.6 million. They crossed paths on the most esteemed fields of battle in all becoming stakes-winners, three at Group 1 level, and four earning more than a million dollars. Now, five years on, this super sextet is back, as it were, among the most keenly sought of Australia’s first season sires.

Prague and King’s Legacy were two of only nine million-dollar colts at the 2019 sale, between them earning $1,582,250 in prizemoney and winning five stakes races, including King’s Legacy’s pair of two-year-old Group 1s. These achievements have since been dwarfed in monetary terms by their stud careers - more than justifying investment in colts at the top end of town, and securing individual legacies which help make up the wider story of the sale of 2019. These six would confront each other often on the track, in power-packed careers which pulled in 14 stakes races combined, including some of the most illustrious on the calendar.

Out of Australia’s five two-year-old G1s in 2020, four were claimed by this sextet. Tagaloa triumphed in the 2020 Blue Diamond, Farnan dominated in the time-honoured Golden Slipper, before King’s Legacy claimed the ATC Sires’ Produce-Champagne Stakes double. It’s not often that one single sale has produced such a dominant line of colts on the racetrack.

And the pair who missed the Slipper came back for spring three-year-old success. Anders completed four straight wins by bolting home in Rosehill’s The Rosebud and San Domenico Stakes. Peltzer was second in the latter, but then won the G2 Stan Fox Stakes and the $1m Bondi Stakes back-to-back.

All six became sires, with a patronage that continued their histories of booming returns on investment.

Farnan, the nation’s Champion 2YO, winner of four stakes races and close to five times his purchase price, went to Kia Ora Stud in a monster deal made after his Slipper win, covering 192 mares and producing 122 live foals off an initial service fee of $55,000.

He’ll have 39 yearlings from his first crop at this year’s sale, 19 colts and 20 fillies, and if his weanling sale results are any guide - with 18 sold at an average of $112,000 last year - expect heads to be turned.

King’s Legacy won just over $1m, but recouped his purchase price many times over in a deal to stand at Coolmore, where he sired 132 first crop live foals at $33,000. He has 43 sale bound for January, and had 24 weanlings sold last year at a $65,000 average..

Tagaloa, having won at G1 and G3 level, earning five times his yearling price, was retired to Yulong Stud - who bought in after his Blue Diamond triumph - and sired 110 live foals at $33,000 in his first crop. He’s represented on the Gold Coast by 15, after 10 of his weanlings averaged $44,500 in 2023.

The flying Anders went to Widden Stud and was in keen demand, covering 184 mares for 120 live foals in season one at $16,500. He has 26 catalogued, and had 18 weanlings fetched a mean price of $36,000. Peltzer, who turned that $260,000 purchase price into $1.05 million in prizemoney, made just about the same in his first year at stud, siring 65 live foals from his initial fee at Twin Hills of $16,500. His flag will be flown at the Gold Coast by six colts and one filly, after 14 of his weanlings sold for an average of $27,750.

Kia Ora also swooped to stand Prague, whose 64 first crop foals off a $16,500 fee have ended with six colts and eight fillies going to the Gold Coast. The 13 of his weanlings sold last year averaged $29,400.

All in all, the Class of 2019 provided a sparkling array of colts who’ve not only flown the Magic Millions banner high on the track, but have made impressive early strides at stud as well.

“All up, 36% of the first season sired yearlings in 2024 are sired by 2019 graduates,” said Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch. “That’s a shining indictment on the extraordinary influence the Gold Coast Yearling Sale is having on the industry and the Australian Thoroughbred in general.”

In total, 23 first season sires are represented at this year’s Magic Millions showpiece. They include two graduates from other editions of the sale in another San Domenico Stakes winner in Kitchwin Hills’ Graff, and Kingstar Farm’s Time To Reign. Also sure to attract attention will be the first progeny of Darley’s triple G1 winner Bivouac, Vinery’s Golden Rose-Caulfield Guineas double victor Ole Kirk, Widden Victoria’s Russian Camelot - the only northern hemisphere-bred winner of a Derby in Australasia - and Wootton Bassett, who began shuttling to Coolmore in 2021 after making great strides through his first six years of runners in Europe.

“All up, 36% of the first season sired yearlings in 2024 are sired by 2019 graduates,” said Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch. “That’s a shining indictment on the extraordinary influence the Gold Coast Yearling Sale is having on the industry and the Australian Thoroughbred in general.”