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Leading trainer pays $1 million for colt by I Am Invincible.

Co-trainer Ciaron Maher Bloodstock is a name that is usually found regularly on the buyers sheet at every major yearling sale in Australia, but on Thursday Australia's leading trainer etched his name on to the buyers list at the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale, as he went to $1 million for a colt by Yarraman Park-based sire I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit). 

Catalogued as Lot 109 and offered as part of the Gilgai Farm draft, the colt is the first foal out of Listed-winning Ocean Park (Thorn Park) mare Ocean Jewel. 

Ocean Jewel herself is out of winning Danehill (Danzig) mare Markisa and she is also the grandam of Group 2 winner The Real Beel (Savabeel) and dual Group 3 scorer Catch Me (I Am Invincible). 

Further back this is also the same family as Group 1 winner Marquise (Gold And Ivory) - the dam of fellow Group 1 winner Shower Of Roses (Zabeel), while top-flight winner Hiyaam (High Chaparral) and Group 3-scoring duo Dark Princess (Cape Blanco) and Exquisite Jewel (Lucky Unicorn) also feature on the page.  

Maher has enjoyed great success with graduates of Gilgai, most notably having purchased his multiple Group 1-winning mare Jameka (Myboycharlie) off the farm for $130,000 at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in 2014 and Maher said he had taken a shine to the colt during the farm inspections. 

"We hoped we didn't have to go quite that dear but with the yearling prices going up and up this year, it was a good opportunity," said Maher.

"That's obviously yearling price but he's a colt that was a standout, by a good mare out of the right stallion in I Am Invincible.

"He'll go back to Gilgai and they'll look after him there and probably give him a little preparation as well.

"We'll get him into our system, he'll be broken in relatively early and hopefully he's a good two-year-old."

Meanwhile, Gilgai's Kelly Skillecorn told Racing & Sports Bloodstock the youngster had been a standout since birth and was very happy to see him realise that price-tag.

"He was gorgeous from the day he was born," said Skillecorn. "He was born up at Cressfield Stud in the Hunter Valley and those guys thought a lot of him from the very beginning and they kept sending back these glowing reports. 

"We got him back about Christmas time and he just went on from there. He was a standout. Everyone had him as the top foal on the place." 

The team at Gilgai's confidence was boosted during the inspections, with agents happy to report the colt was one of the very best weanlings ever offered at the sale. 

"Good agents told me that he was the best foal they had seen at that sale for years," said Skillecorn. 

"I think we have in the past sold Ciaron five horses and four have been black-type winners. He does an amazing job and if we had to pick a trainer it would have been Ciaron Maher - he's a great trainer."

Later on in the afternoon, Gilgai celebrated another good result when Newgate Farm teamed up with China Horse Club to purchase a colt by their resident Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) producing first-season sire Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) for $650,000. 

Catalogued as Lot 181, the colt is the sixth foal out of the stakes-placed Snippetson (Snippets) mare Snipzu, whose four foals to race have all been winners, headed by Group 1-placed The Drinks Cart (Unencumbered). 

Further back the colt is from the same family as Group 1 winner Arkady (Myocard), Group 3-winning duo Olonana (More Than Ready) and Paris Petard (Mujahid) as well as Listed winner Super Savings (Secret Savings). 

Snipzu's four winners have been by Unencumbered (Testa Rossa) and Bel Esprit (Royal Academy) and Skillkorn said he expected this foal to turn out to be a top-class horse.   

"He was different from a lot of Extreme Choices," he said. "He had a good leg and was very, very athletic and all the good judges were on him. 

"The mare generally does have big foals and she has done a good job so far, with less commercial stallions, with all her runners being winners. 

"I was speaking to Bruce Slade, who does a bit of work for Toby Edmonds and he had The Drinks Cart and they had such a high opinion of that horse and they thought he was a good horse. 

"It was great to see the Newgate / China Horse Club buying him, they are so good at sourcing these top class colts. If there is one crowd you can guarantee will have runners in all those big two-year-old races it's that crowd."

Gilgai finished the day as the leading vendors by average (with three or more lots sold) selling three weanlings for an aggregate of $1,900,000 at an average of $633,333.