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Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale - First Season Sire
Highland Reel (2012)
Galileo - Hveger - Danehill
Standing at: Swettenham Stud, VIC
2018 Fee: $16,500 (inc GST)
2019 Fee: $16,500 (inc GST)
2020 Fee: $16,500 (inc GST)
Highest Timeform rating: 129
Number of lots catalogued: Three
Former Aidan O’Brien-trained, multiple Group 1-winning globe-trotter Highland Reel (Galileo) stood his first season at Swettenham Stud for a fee of $16,500 (inc GST) in 2018.
Highland Reel enjoyed remarkable success on the track over a four-year period, with his first career landmark coming as a two-year-old when he was successful in the Vintage Stakes (Gr 2, 7f) at Goodwood.
He was the winner of seven Group / Grade 1 races in total in three different countries, while he also performed to a high standard in Australia when running third to Winx (Street Cry) in the 2015 Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m).
As a three-year-old he won the Secretariat Stakes (Gr 1, 10f) at Arlington Park before rounding out his campaign with success in the Hong Kong Vase (Gr 1, 2400m), while he secured his first victory as a four-year-old in the prestigious King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1, 1m4f) at Ascot.
Further high profile victories followed in the Breeders’ Cup Turf (Gr 1, 12f), Coronation Cup (Gr 1, 1m4f), Prince Of Wales’s Stakes (Gr 1, 1m2f) before a winning swansong in the Hong Kong Vase in December. He amassed $13,951,220 in total career prize-money.
Highland Reel also hails from a strong Australian family, being out of the Group 1-placed, Australian-bred mare Hveger (Danehill), whose other runners include Highland Reel’s brother, Idaho, a dual Group 2 winner and placed in both the English and Irish Derbies (Gr 1, 1m4f), while his other brother Cape Of Good Hope won the Caulfield Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) in 2019. He also counts Group 3 winner Nobel Prize as his other sibling.
His half-sister Valdemoro (Encosta De Lago) finished runner-up in both the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) and Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), while this is also the family of Australian Group 1 winners Circles Of Gold (Marscay), Elvstroem (Danehill) and Haradasun (Fusaichi Pegasus).
