$1.4million for Sunlight First Foal

Tara Madgwick - Thursday January 12

The third session of Magic Millions didn’t take long to hit top gear with five individual yearlings all selling for $1million or more within the period of less than an hour this morning and the first of them was the first foal of Champion 3YO Filly Sunlight, whose full sister smashed the Magic Millions yearling record yesterday when selling for $2.6million.

$1.4million Justify (USA) colt from Sunlight - image Grant Courtney

A big handsome chestnut colt stamped indelibly by his Triple Crown winning sire Justify (USA), he was consigned by Coolmore and purchased by Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott Racing/Kestrel Thoroughbreds for $1.4million.

“He’s a very special colt, he’s beautifully balanced. He’s a lovely, neat sort of horse and I think he’s a real two-year-old type,” said Gai Waterhouse.

“That’s why you come to Magic Millions. We come here to try and buy the horse that will be racing here next year and then hopefully go onto the Golden Slipper and then hopefully become a stallion in Australia.

“He’s a very handsome, very sexy horse.”

Waterhouse has a number of Justify stock in the stable including Just Glamourous, who she purchased at this sale last year for $900,000.

“I like him (Justify) hugely. Just Glamourous would have run and won last Saturday, but couldn’t because she was first emergency and didn’t get a start. I’ve got a lot of time for Justify,” she added.

The star colt is the most expensive yearling in Australia by Justify and is from his second crop of Australian foals. Justify has sired 29 first crop winners in the Northern Hemisphere including six stakes-winners.

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Sunlight was sold as a yearling at this sale back in 2017 for $300,000 and went on to win 11 races and $6.5million with highlight wins in the Group I VRC Coolmore Stud Stakes, Newmarket Handicap and MVRC William Reid Stakes.

Sunlight, a record breaker!

She was offered as a broodmare prospect at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale in 2020 where she was bought by Tom Magnier for $4.2million.

Sunlight produced a colt last spring by Wootton Bassett (GB) and is now in foal to Home Affairs.

“He was on the market from the minute he went into the ring and we were expecting that he would have sold well because he was very popular here from the minute he landed into the sale,” said John Kennedy representing Coolmore.

“He’s always had a great temperament and he handled the whole thing extremely well.

“We’re extremely delighted that he’s gone to a good home so we can get a good start for the mare and we’ll be looking forward to seeing how he gets on.”

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