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Magnier goes to $1.4 million for well-bred youngster.

Kia Ora Stud were celebrating early in the day on Wednesday as the second lot offered on day two of the virtual Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale - a colt by Yarraman Park's stallion I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) - sold to Tom Magnier for a whopping $1.4 million.

Catalogued as Lot 259, the colt is out 2013 VRC Sires' Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) winner Twilight Royale (Testa Rossa) whose first two foals are both winners. 

Trained by Bjorn Baker, Twilight Royale herself is a half-sister stakes-placed duo Superhard (All Too Hard) and Mio Roiale (Tale Of The Cat). 

The colt looks to have all the ingredients to become a success on the racecourse, being by leading sire I Am Invincible and out of a Testa Rossa (Perugino) mare. Testa Rossa is proving himself a handy broodmare sire, with his daughters producing 19 stakes winners headed by five Group 1 winners; Global Glamour (Star Witness), Marky Mark (Makfi), Cool Aza Beel (Savabeel), Prince Fawaz (Fastnet Rock) and this season's Melbourne Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner Vow And Declare (Declaration Of War). 

The farm's bloodstock and breeding manager Andrew Perryman said he expected him to sell well, rating him the best colt on the farm. 

"It's exciting to get them done like that," said Perryman. "He was always our nicest colt on the farm, he's got a great quality to him and a fantastic temperament, so we knew we had a nice colt there to present with clean x-rays and scopes which always helps." 

Perryman said the online format made it difficult to know who is bidding on the horses. 

"This year has definitely been more challenging working out who's on your horse with limited numbers of repeat inspections," said Perryman. 

"It's very much about reading your x-ray hits and inspections and trying to match up who is who. It's not easy, but certainly talking to the buyers as they come through to get a feel for what they like and don't like and what their limits are.

"I think Team Hawkes might have been underbidders on him but there were a few on him [throughout bidding].

Twilight Royale was bought by James Bester for $580,000 at the 2014 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. She was covered by Snitzel (Redoute's Choice) last October having produced a filly by I Am Invincible.  

A few lots later, Kia Ora were celebrating again as a filly by I Am Invincible was purchased by Commendable Bloodstock for $575,000.

The filly, who was catalogued as Lot 275, is out of Group 2 winner Villa Verde (Not A Single Doubt) and the family was subject to a valuable pedigree update as Villa Verde's three-quarters-brother Doubtland landed the Kindergarten Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) last weekend. 

Villa Verde is also a half-sister Group 3-placed mare Miss Sharapova (Ustinov) - the dam of Pretty Fast (Not A Single Doubt). Further back this is the family of Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Rory's Jester (Crown Jester). 

The filly will join Doubtland in the Hawkes Stable and she will also be trained alongside her Serbing (More Than Ready) half-sister Shivani, who finished third on debut at Warwick Farm on Wednesday. 

Perryman said the filly had been very popular during the on-farm inspections and Doubtland’s impressive victory certainly heightened interest in the daughter of I Am Invincible.  

“She was a really popular filly,” said Perryman. “She is not that big, but she is very strong and has a lot of quality about her. She had a massive number of x-rays hits, more than I have ever seen before. Great to see her go to a good stable. 

“I think every bit helps and an update like that so close to the sale we probably added maybe another 10-15 x-rays hits so it was very exciting.” 

On Tuesday, Kia Ora offered a Sebring (More Than Ready) half-sister to multiple Group 1 winner Loving Gaby (I Am Invincible) and Perryman said the nursery will likely keep the filly to race after she failed to make her $600,000 reserve. 

Of the market, Perryman commented: “I think, obviously there’s still money at the top-end, but with the number of pass ins, the middle to lower group are struggling a bit to find buyers. I think they made the right decision with the virtual auction. I think it would have been a bit difficult with just the online auction and horses being knocked down at the same time with the extensions if they get a bid in the last five minutes.

“We still have a good spread of buyers and there’s obviously good support from Hong Kong and the local trainers as well. We support them with racehorses if they support us buying our yearlings, so it goes both ways.”

Magnier said he is always confident when buying off Kia Ora Stud, rating them up there with the best breeders in the land. 

Ananda Krisnan [owner] has been one of Australia’s best breeders for a very long time and when he produces a colt of this quality, you can buy them with great confidence,” said Magnier. 

“Our team saw him numerous times at Kia Ora and we all believed him to be one of the superior colts of the sale.

“The mother won three Stakes races as a two-year-old and she is by a top-class broodmare sire. I Am Invincible is a leading sire of two-year-old speed and this colt looks fast and precocious, so hopefully we can have a bit of luck. 

“He will go through our breaking-in program at Coolmore and he will tell us when he is ready to go to the races.”

Despite the difficult circumstances, Magnier said the sale had exceeded all expectations. 

“In what are incredibly uncertain times we have to commend Inglis for making the sale possible and exceeding everyone’s expectations,” said Magnier. 

“All the breeders have shown great resilience by sticking together and supporting the sale and the results have been quite remarkable. It says a lot about how strong the Australian industry is.”