A Magic time for a Lonhro

This story appears in the latest edition of Inside Racing magazine.

Next year’s yearling sale season—which kicks off at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale in January—will certainly be the prime time to sell a colt or filly by Australia’s leading sire Lonhro.

For one thing, the sellers paid a low fee of only $33,000 for Lonhro in 2009—he rose to $88,000 in 2010 and $77,000 this year—and also, Lonhro’s owners, Darley, has flagged its intention to be in the market to top up on Lonhro yearlings.

Until now, a relatively small number of Lonhro yearlings have been available each year due to the fact a large percentage of the mares he has covered were owned by Woodlands Stud and Darley, who both preferred to race the offspring.

Not so in 2009, when Lonhro covered his biggest book of mares (212) at a time when Darley had already committed not to support the stallion, preferring high-profile imports such as Street Cry, New Approach and Bernardini.

At the time, Darley had good reason, not only did they have barns and paddocks full of unraced yearlings and weanlings by Lonhro, but also it must be remembered that Lonhro’s star wasn’t shining brightly in mid-2009. The former star racehorse started the 2009 spring with a boast of only four Stakes winners, and some reservations from trainers and breeders.

The turnaround in Lonhro’s fortunes has been almost miraculous. By the end of the 2011 Spring Racing Carnival, his Stakes winners tally had leapt to 30. It has been an incredible two years for Lonhro, which has seen him to climb to the top of the 2010-11 Australian leading-sire table, knocking off older stalwarts champions Redoute’s Choice and Encosta De Lago

The rush for Lonhro came after his first star offspring emerged, and very much in his own black image—the brilliant Denman, who won the Group 1 Golden Rose at Rosehill in September 2009. Many others have followed, including the 2011 Group 1 winners Beaded and Benfica, and top-class Group winners Obsequious, Demerit, Parables and Pinwheel.

Importantly for those with a Lonhro yearling to sell this season, Darley intends to make up for the lack of Lonhro yearlings on its books by returning to the sale yards to buy the best. This is a general change in policy as Darley has moved away from the Australian yearling sale market in preference to breeding its own stock.

There are 28 Lonhros catalogued for sale at the Gold Coast and the reports from the yearling inspectors are that there are some beauties. Vendors have good reason to have a spring in their step.

The Magic Millions sale will kick off with a Victorian flavour when the first yearling to step up into the sale ring will be a colt by Victoria’s leading sire Bel Esprit from the Snippets mare, Gavroche. The colt, to be sold by Sam Hayes’ Cornerstone Stud (the old Lindsay Park) as agent, is a brother to Victorian trainer Jason Warren’s exciting young sprinter Bel Sprinter.

It’s a fitting way to start the sale, as Snippets won the Magic Millions race on the Southport in 1987, and in doing so started a sale-race phenomenon that is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

Snippets was the perfect, precocious juvenile for the sale and the race, and he went on to become a wonderful stallion. Similar expectations abound for Sebring (ch h 2005, More Than Ready-Purespeed, by Flying Spur), whose first progeny will go under the hammer on the Gold Coast. Sebring was bought by Gai Waterhouse and Star Thoroughbreds at the 2007 Magic Millions for $130,000. In 2008, the colt brilliantly won the Group 1 Golden Slipper before retiring to Widden Stud in the Hunter Valley.

The Sebring youngsters will be much sought after, as, too, will be the progeny of a stellar list of high-class Australian-bred first-season sires, including Northern Meteor (by Encosta De Lago), Reaan (Hussonet), Real Saga (Tale Of The Cat), Kaphero (Danzero), Murtajill (Rock Of Gibraltar) and Mutawaajid (Redoute’s Choice).

Add this imposing bunch to a similar line-up of top-flight shuttle stallions with their first crop yearlings, including the Group 1 stars Duke Of Marmalade (Danehill), Henrythenavigator (Kingmambo) and Myboycharlie (Danetime), and the Epsom Derby winners New Approach (Galileo) and Authorized (Montjeu). Also on offer will be the first Australian foals of Kheleyf (Green Desert), Europe’s leading first-season sire of 2008 and the promising young sire Teofilo (Galileo).

Two of the highlight lots in January will be an Exceed And Excel colt from the 2006 Magic Millions winner Mirror Mirror (offered by Strawberry Hill) and the Coolmore-bred colt by Encosta De Lago from Piccadilly Circus, who is a half-brother to the latest top sprinter and exciting sire Fastnet Rock.

SALE DETAILS

2012 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale

Sessions 1-5: January 11-15