Source :- THE AGE NEWS
By Craig Kerry
Leading Japanese trainer Mitsu Nakauchida has paid $3.2 million for a Home Affairs-Sunlight filly to break the Magic Millions yearling sales record, just a day after English insurance tycoon Phil Cunningham set a new one with a $2.8 million buy.
The Coolmore Stud filly, out of champion three-year-old Sunlight, was the big-ticket item on Friday and exceeded expectations at the Gold Coast sale.
Mitsumasa Nakauchida trained this year’s Cox Plate second-placegetter, Prognosis.Credit: Getty Images
Bidding started at $600,000 and raced past the record Cunningham, via top Australian trainer Ciaron Maher, paid for a Snitzel-Humma Humma colt early on Thursday.
The filly is the third foal out of Sunlight, which was bought by Coolmore’s Tom Magnier for $4.2 million at the 2020 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. Her first two foals sold for $1.4 million.
Home Affairs, a son of champion sire I Am Invincible, is a third season sire with a service fee last year of $82,500. He was a two-time group 1 winner, taking out the Coolmore Stud and Lightning Stakes as a three-year-old.
Cunningham, an English insurance magnate, had paid $2.8 million for a Snitzel colt on Thursday.
James McDonald celebrates after winning the 2022 Lightning Stakes on Home Affairs at Flemington.Credit: Getty Images
The price broke the record set in 2023 for an I Am Invincible-Anaheed colt, which went for $2.7 million to Coolmore’s Tom Magnier.
“I knew a colt of that quality, bred on a good farm, he was a standout for us, and those top-line colts, you always know you’ve got to bid up for them,” Maher told Sky Racing.
“It was probably a little bit more than I expected, but those quality horses, you always know you’ve got to pay up. We’ve got one filly for [Cunningham] that we were hoping to have back here this year [to race] … but this fella, he looks fairly precocious.
“This is his first trip down to Australia, and he only just arrived here to the sales 10 minutes ago, and he’s bought the sales topper, so he’s having a good time. Hopefully, this colt will be back here [at Magic Millions race day] next year.”
Cunningham, the owner of insurance firm Direct Commercial, is already a major player in English racing and has his own training centre at Newmarket.
Phil Cunningham, second from right.Credit: PA Images via Getty Images
Antony Thompson, from Widden Stud, said it was a stunning result.
“We bought Humma Humma through this very [sales] ring with our broodmare investment fund,” Thompson told Magic Millions media.
“Paying a million for Humma Humma at the time was a lot of money, but we loved her and we love her even more now. We were excited by this colt and we had enormous belief in him. We thought he was the perfect Magic Millions horse, and that result’s just stunning.”
The next biggest price paid at the week-long sales has been $2.3 million for an I Am Invincible-Eloping filly on Wednesday. Laguna Partnership and John Sargent Racing won the bidding for the Segenhoe Stud offering.
Maher had earlier picked up a Written Tycoon-Away Game filly for American breeding tycoon John Stewart’s Resolute Racing for $1.8 million.
