A date with Wootton Bassett awaits Zougotcha after the triple group 1-winning mare trained by Chris Waller was acquired by Coolmore Stud for a cool AU$5.25 million (about US$3,382,000, AU$1 = US$0.64) May 27 in an opening session of titanic trading at the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale.
Familiar foes Coolmore and Yulong traded early bids on opposing sides of the sales ring, with Twin Hills Stud's Olly Tait forcefully entering the fray before Tom Magnier eventually prevailed with a bid which made Zougotcha the second most expensive broodmare sold in Australia behind Imperatriz, who was purchased for $6.6 million at this very sale last year.
On that occasion, Magnier was the underbidder as Mr. Zhang's seemingly limitless reserves saw Yulong emerge victorious for the ten-time group 1 heroine. But 12 months on, Coolmore was not to be denied having identified Zougotcha as the perfect match for Wootton Bassett, who returns to Jerry's Plains this breeding season for a record service fee of AU$385,000 (US$248,013).
Having paid AU$4.2 million for Sunlight in 2020, Magnier was understandably delighted to acquire another special daughter of Zoustar.
"She was a beautiful mare and everybody was on her this week," said Magnier, who having earlier paid $1.35 million for Moesha from Rosemont Stud subsequently took Coolmore's spending past the AU$8 million mark on the opening day courtesy of a successful AU$2.1 million bid for Climbing Star.
"We're very, very fortunate to get her. There were some great judges on her and they obviously thought she was worth that sort of money.
Shortly afterwards, the Waller team were celebrating again when Atishu fetched AU$2.7 million, with Yulong set to take her home to their Nagambie farm.
Earlier in the day, Triple Crown Syndications celebrated a remarkable result for the owners of Revolutionary Miss after she was knocked down for AU$1.6 million (online) to Northern Farm proprietor Katsumi Yoshida, who also acquired group 1-winning mare Socks Nation for AU$1 million and Alsephina for AU$1.1 million.
Chris Ward, who founded Triple Crown in partnership with his brother Michael, hailed a "massive result" for the syndication company and the mare's owners, many of whom were there to witness the sale.
"It's a fairytale result and just such a wonderful experience for all the owners here," he said.
"They came to experience a different side to the whole industry today, which is great. I think there's probably around 20 owners of all different share sizes. Even if you only own 2.5%, it's still a massive result and a lot of lifelong friends have been made amongst this group, which is just as important."
Fellow syndicators OTI Racing also celebrated a pair of seven-figure sales from the Supplementary Book late in the day when their South Australian Derby (G1) heroine Femminile—who will now race in Yulong's bottle green colours in the May 31 Queensland Derby (G1)—and stakes winner Lady Laguna fetched a combined AU$4 million.
Magic Millions' managing director, Barry Bowditch, was a predictably pleased man after the opening day of the sale achieved some impressive metrics.
"I thought it was an unbelievable day. There was great confidence and electricity in the ring from the start of the day. There were horses that were buyable at all ends of the market. It was great to see a huge cross-section of buyers and not a single buyer dominating the market.
"From the time we knew she was going to go to the market, we thought Zougotcha would be the number one seed, and so it proved. Tom Magnier is always hard to beat on the best mares, it's fantastic to see him continuing to contribute, and I'm delighted for Chirs Waller and his whole team, because they bought some fabulous fillies and mares here.
"There were eight different buyers purchasing the 14 million dollar lots that were sold, so it was great to see such a big spread of buyers and a fantastic thirst for quality. I'm delighted for my team, and I would like to thank the vendors who supported the market. It's an unbelievably pleasing result for everyone.
"The gross at this point in time is $47.5 million, I think we catalogued 40 more lots last year and we're only $4 million down, which is a great result. The average price of $363,000 is well ahead of last year's, the clearance rate of 81% is in line with last year's rate of 83%, and the median price of $160,000 is considerably up on last year's figure of $120,000, so we're very happy overall and have had some good solid increases where it matters."
The second and final session of the broodmare sale is set for May 28.
