Records Smashed Galore as Boom Fever Hits Gold Coast

The insatiable appetite for the latest crop of youngsters by Australian first season sire sensation Spirit of Boom continued today with the Magic Millions Gold Coast March Yearling Sale smashing records across the board.
With prices never before seen at the sale, the stock of Spirit of Boom picked up from Day One and went to another level with six of his youngsters selling for $300,000 or more on the day.
Late in the afternoon a new benchmark for the auction was set when Craig Rounsefell of Boomer Bloodstock teamed up with leading trainer Tony Gollan to buy his filly from Hidden Flair for $430,000.

The filly, the fifth last lot to be offered at the sale, was presented by the Kruger family’s Lyndhurst Stud Farm and is a half sister to stakes winner Flamenco. She smashed the record for the highest price achieved at the sale and for the vendor.

Rounsefell said he was thrilled to secure his top pick of the sale.

“Tony Gollan and I were obviously targeting the Spirit of Booms,” Rounsefell said. “She’s a filly from a young mare who’s already produced a stakes winner.”

“It’s obviously a lot of money but my clients were pretty determined to get her and we gave it our best shot,” he added.

Lyndhurst’s Jeff Kruger said the filly came from a family in which three generations had been bred on the farm.

“It’s a great winning family and we should also remember the Spirit of Boom story started at Lyndhurst – he’s by Sequalo and the McAlpines’ sent his dam to the farm to be covered. It’s a great story.”

Earlier in the afternoon Duncan Grimley, bidding for John Singleton’s Strawberry Hill Stud, purchased two Spirit of Boom fillies for $400,000 and $360,000 respectively.

The higher priced of the duo was Lot 305, the Country Class filly from KBL Thoroughbreds – a half sister to two stakes performers including group winner Thiamandi.

“I thought she was the best bred Spirit of Boom filly in the sale,” Grimley said. “I thought she was a beautiful type, so it made sense to buy her.”

“I knew she was going to be expensive but you don’t see a stallion like this come along too often,” Grimley added.

The other Strawberry Hill Stud purchase was Lot 199, the filly from Thank You Darling who was offered by Tullyard on behalf of her breeder.

The result was exciting and emotional for breeder Helen Hough, who fought back tears telling of the input of her late husband Mark who planned the mating of today’s strong seller. Mark, who passed away a couple of years ago, also bred former champion mare Emancipation.

“Mark chose the nick and he also purchased the dam from Furlong (Stud),” an emotional breeder Helen Hough said.

“You need to be a little bit crazy to stay in this game, but it’s worth every bit of it. The highs and lows, it’s just amazing,” she added.

Another top priced Spirit of Boom filly on the day was the youngster from Goodlookin Gambler (Lot 367) who sold to trainer Rex Lipp for $320,000.

“I’ve got a couple of two-year-olds (by Spirit of Boom) in work at the moment and there’s a lot of them on the track and they’re doing very, very well.”

“He is the boom sire of the year in Australia, so you have to go with the flow,” Lipp added.

Eureka Stud’s Scott McAlpine said he was overwhelmed with how the market reacted to the progeny by his resident sire – a sale in which his stock averaged an unprecedented $167,500.

“This QTIS sale in Queensland has been quite remarkable, unbelievable,” McAlpine said. “It was quite unexpected to be honest.”

“It’s been fantastic to see so many of our long time friends and clients across Queensland celebrating record results at this sale – it is a great reward for supporting Spirit of Boom.”

“The amount of runners and winners and stakes horses for this horse – he’s doing something that’s quite unbelievable.”

“The (Golden) Slipper is on Saturday and Ef Troop has drawn two and if he can be lucky enough to finish in the first three we would be over the moon.”

With over $13.7 million traded on 301 lots sold over the past two days, this year’s sale has been declared an outstanding success. The gross (up 61%) and average price (up 59%) both soared while the clearance rate also climbed from last year and rounded out at 84 per cent for the auction.

“It’s hard to describe today’s sale,” Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch said. “Just amazing results.”

“Obviously Spirit of Boom – he’s the kingmaker. We were all overwhelmed with how he went – his are just incredible results.”

“Spirit of Boom has helped take this sale to a new level and it’s great to see so many Queensland breeders enjoying this success.”

“It’s been life changing here today. Some smaller breeders have been supporting this sale for a long time and to see them get the results they did was phenomenal.”

“The gross is up over $5 million on last year – over 60 per cent and the average price is up 59 per cent on last year.”

“It’s great to be able to continue the trend of the Magic Millions Yearling Sales this year which have all had significant increases,” Bowditch summed up.