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Capitalist colt leads the way on the final day when selling to Aramco Racing for $425,000.

A spectacular and record-breaking Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale came to a close on Wednesday, with a colt by Newgate Farm's star first-season sire Capitalist (Written Tycoon) the headline act of the final session after Singapore-based owner Mr Chua Song Ru of Aramco Racing went to $425,000 online to secure the Cornerstone Stud-consigned youngster. 

Catalogued as Lot 286, the colt is out of dual-winning and stakes placed Flying Spur (Danehill) mare Okaylah, meaning he is bred on the same cross as another of Capitalist's son's in Kalashnikov, who added a third stakes winner to the sire's record when he took out the Black Opal Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) at Canberra on Sunday. 

Okaylah herself is a half-sister to Group 3-placed Kick 'n Chase (Red Ransom), while further back this is the same pedigree as Listed winner Icy Calm (Western Symphony) - the dam of stakes winner and Group 1-placed The Big Chill (O'Reilly). 

Last month, Racing South Australia announced a $2.6 million injection in prize-money across the state and Sam Pritchard-Gordon, bloodstock manager at Cornerstone, told Racing & Sports Bloodstock that the stud's owner Sam Hayes was keen to get behind the sale off the back of the prize-money increases. 

"It was a pre-coordinated plan to offer this horse at this sale. Cornerstone owned half this horse with Rob Chapman, who is on a number of boards in Adelaide," said Pritchard-Gordon. "By selling the horse here in Adelaide we wanted show our appreciation to SA Racing for the re-inventing and putting the investment back into the racing. 

"We can sell a horse well off the back of the momentum generated from the injection of prize-money SA has just undergone and we have been duly rewarded. Whether the horse races in SA or not is probably mute due to the fact the sale was so strong and South Australian trainers - both country and metropolitan - rolled into town and were happy to spend. 

"It was a really rewarding sale and Magics did a super job in getting a great buying bench and a lot of horses sold incredibly well."

Capitalist - who has sired seven winners so far - is sitting at the top of the Australia’s first-season leading sires table by both number of winners and earnings, over $500,000 ahead of his nearest rival Shalaa (Invincible Spirit), while in New Zealand he is also leading the way by earnings and Pritchard-Gordon said as a result there was no better time to sell a colt by the stallion. 

“Being bred on the same cross as Kalashinkov, it was obviously a good time to sell him after his win on Sunday,” he said. “He is a big, strong, obvious colt and has a marvelous temperament. He has a lot of similarities to Capitalist - he was similar colour, similar shaped shoulder. 

“It was the perfect storm with Capitalist doing so well, which probably meant this horse doubled in value in the space of a couple of months.”

The original plan was to sent the colt to the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January, but the decision was made to sell the youngster closer to home and with the success of this week’s sale Pritchard-Gordon expects more vendors to specifically target the sale in the future. 

"We had him pencilled in for January on the Gold Coast and after a discussion we had with Rob Chapman in November, we all came to the conclusion that we should all just focus on this Adelaide sale. I feel like we will find ourselves really zoning in and supporting this sale in the future," he said. 

"I think you will find vendors will be selecting horses specifically for this sale, as is the case with the Capitalist colt, he was just a really nice type and if you bring a really nice type to this sale you will get handsomely rewarded."

Once again, Capitalist enjoyed a lucrative few days in the ring and he finished Book 1 as the leading sire by both aggregate and average (with three or more lots sold), with four of his yearlings selling for a gross of $805,000 at an average of $201,250. So far in 2021, the stallion has had 113 yearlings sell for an aggregate of $17,304,194 at an average of $153,134, which signals a good return off a $55,000 (inc GST) service fee. 

Meanwhile, Cornerstone finished Book 1 as the leading vendors by aggregate, selling 20 yearlings for a total of $1,395,500 at an average of $69,775, but Pritchard-Gordon was particularly buoyed with the way the buying bench responded to the second-crop of their resident shuttle stallion Sir Prancealot (Tamayuz). 

The stallion had 12 lots sell for the third-best aggregate of $574,500 - bettered only by Capitalist and Impending (Lonhro) - while he finished the with an average of $47,875, off a $14,300 (inc GST) covering fee.  

"We were so happy with the way Sir Prancealot was received by the market," said Pritchard-Gordon. "His average is impressive, given that it was off an $14,300 service fee.

"These are heavy results for a stallion that has only had a few runners, which shows there are trainers out there that seem to like what they have got and the stats are beginning to resonate with those people who are maybe looking to find the less obvious horses. He could be a stallion on the rise."