When big-spending, U.S.-based owner John Stewart announced a family emergency would curtail his intended trip to the Magic Millions Yearling Sale, there was much conjecture surrounding whether the Resolute Racing magnate would splash any cash in absentia on the Gold Coast.
But after spending a massive AU$3,520,000 (approximately US$2,198,138) on nine yearlings during the opening session on Jan. 7—headed by the two biggest-priced lots—all speculation of whether Stewart would come to the table was well and truly dashed.
Stewart and his Resolute Racing team famously were the AU$9 million underbidders on Winx's filly, who is now named Quinceanera, at last year's Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale. But despite not being able to beat out Debbie Kepitis for the prized filly, Stewart did not leave that sale empty-handed, spending AU$5.4 million on six yearlings, who are all now in training in Australia.
After promising to return to the action during the 2025 sales series, Stewart was proven to be a man of his word, chipping away at all corners of the market throughout the opening hours of day one, with his purchases reaching a high of AU$1.8 million, while he also bought towards the lower end, paying $80,000 for a daughter of Blue Point.
However, things began to heat up when Stewart delivered the first seven-figure lot of the day going to AU$1.6 million for a filly by I Am Invincible, the second foal out of multiple group 1-winner Avantage. He had beat off fierce competition from Te Akau's David Ellis, who raced the daughter of Fastnet Rock and purchased her first foal, a filly by Wootton Bassett, for $2.1 million in the same ring 12 months ago.
Bidding online from Geneva, Stewart kept the temperature at boiling point, going even further to $1.8 million a few lots later to secure a filly by Written Tycoon. She will fittingly head into training with Ciaron Maher, the mastermind behind the career of the youngster's dam, Away Game, whose five wins included a triumph in the 2020 Magic Millions 2-Year-Old Classic.
Bred by Yulong, which paid $4 million for Away Game at the National Sale in 2022, Lot 185 is the first foal out of the mare. Stewart told ANZ Bloodstock News that the Resolute team had made a conscious decision to focus on blue-chip fillies with the view to developing them into high-class broodmares.
"My friends at Coolmore, they were the underbidders on Away Game last year when the mare went through the ring, so that tells you the quality of the horse," he said. "I am new to the industry, I have only been in it for 18 months now, but we've had a lot of success and the way that we are doing that is that we are buying at the top of the market and agnostic of price we are evaluating the horses we want to buy.
"One of the reasons I am really attracted to Australia as a breeder is the other Danzig bloodline is probably more prominent in Australia than it is anywhere else, with Danehill being more popular there and you get double Danzig in these bloodlines.
"A lot of our best horses in the stable have Danzig in their pedigrees, especially on the bottom, and it is almost impossible to get a double Danzig horse in America, so being able to find those types of horses that line up really well with our families that we're trying to develop. We're already thinking five or 10 years out of what we want our broodmare band and families to look like, so we're actively looking at every sale and auction for those types of horses. Then when we find those horses, we go for it."
With this method, Stewart said he was able to buy many of the yearlings on Tuesday for far less than he had anticipated and was even willing to stretch further for some of them.
"Even though I paid $1.8 million for the Away Game, when you average up the nine horses that I bought I feel like I got a lot of value for my money, given the quality of the level of horses I was able to buy today."
On the decision to send the filly to Maher, Stewart said: "We've got a good relationship. We met at the (Kentucky) Derby last year. I really like him a lot."
With the filly being purchased by an American and sent into training with Maher, it was somewhat of a full-circle moment, with Away Game having been trained by Maher and raced by fellow U.S. native Hannah Jennings. She also was on the Gold Coast on Tuesday to witness the mare's first progeny go through the ring, which would have undoubtedly evoked memories of when she purchased the daughter of Snitzel in conjunction with Kerri Radcliffe in the same auditorium for $425,000 from Mill Park in 2019.
Stewart's nine purchases—eight fillies and one colt—also included a daughter of Coolmore's first-season sire Home Affairs, for whom they paid Silverdale Farm $625,000. The youngster is out of the group 3-placed multiple winner Witherspoon.
