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Gai Waterhouse paid a cool $1 million for a colt by sire I Am Invincible.
Gai Waterhouse bought back into a family she knows well when she paid a cool $1 million for a colt by Yarraman Park's gun-sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale yesterday.
Catalogued as Lot 80, the colt is out of Amanpour (Northern Meteor), whom Waterhouse saddled to win four races including the Queen Of The Turf Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and the trainer said she had picked him out as the colt of the sale when she visited Rosemont Stud in October.
"He was the gun colt of the sale," said Waterhouse. "He was big and strong. I trained his mother and I knew the background. I saw him down at the farm in October and I said to our owners: "He is just so special."
"Knowing the mare makes a lot of difference, you know the history. I Am Invincible is just extraordinary. He and Snitzel are the two amazing stallions in Australia, they keep just getting top-class horses, Group 1 horses."
Waterhouse, who trains in partnership with Adrian Bott, will have one runner in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) on Saturday when she sends out Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) and will be hoping this colt will be targeting the $2 million race in 2021.
"Magic Millions is a very special place to buy, all the horses are so well developed and so precocious and let's hope we are back here in 12 months for the race," Waterhouse said.
The colt also signalled a record result for Anthony Mithen's Rosemont Stud, becoming the first $1 million yearling sold by the Victorian-based farm.
"I've watched from afar for more than a decade seeing smiles on faces after horses have made a million dollars and I've wondered if we'd ever get the opportunity," said a delighted Mithen. "It's a momentous day for the farm and all the team who are absolutely tickled pink. It's validation for the investment that we have made."
Mithen purchased the colt's dam for $1.5 million at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2015.
"We've bought one, her mother, which was a nerve-racking experience but that just topped it. That was unreal," Mithen said.
"He was a lovely colt who was very popular as evidenced by the price. I am thrilled that Gai has been able to buy the son of the mare that she took to Group 1 glory."
The Rosemont owner also said he was keen to stay involved in the colt in the hope that he would make a stallion in the future.
"There's a bit of talk now about who gets to stay in and who is in and who's not because it sounds like she might have hm oversubscribed but I've said to her that if we can we'd like to stay involved because he might make a stallion.
"It's a bit of a realisation that if you do the planning and you're patient with your program and you keep working away at it and upping your quality each year. It's not a dream to sell one for a million.
"There's been some syndicates trying to buy him and you get a feel that there's real money in behind those syndicates, so there was a quiet air of anticipation, but not expectation, that we might nudge into seven figures.
"She has a got a Redoute's Choice filly that we might now be able to afford to keep as she's got a Snitzel three-year-old filly with Danny O'Brien who is about to go to the races".
Amanpour is a sister to Listed winner Sports Edition and a half-sister to fellow Listed scorer Turf Express (Danehill Dancer).
Meanwhile Amanpour is also a half-sister to Swing Dance (Danehill Dancer), who in turn produced Group 2 winner and Australian Group 1-runner-up Rapper Dragon (Street Boss).
