SA studs will be well represented at the annual Magic Millions yearling sale at Morphettville on March 14.
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Cornerstone stud, Angaston, will offer the biggest listing, with 49 catalogue entries, followed by Ducatoon Park, Kadina, with 19, and Mill Park, Meningie, with 16.
Regular vendors Little Hills Pastoral, Goldin, Rosden Park, Willow Grove, Riva Ridge, Balcrest and Riverside will also be represented.
Bloodstock consultant Adrian Hancock is enthusiastic about the 2016 catalogue.
“It has gone up a notch in quality this year, and offers excellent opportunities for buyers to select top-grade bloodlines,” he said.
Once again there will be great interest in some of the first-season sires.
Among them – standing at Vinery stud, NSW – is Group 1 winner and champion three-year-old in Australia in 2012-13 All Too Hard – a full-brother to Black Caviar.
All Too Hard has three yearlings entered in the sale, including lot 207 – a bay colt offered by Mill Park out of Madame Flurry, dam of multi-stakes winner Happy Trails.
Among other first-up sires to catch the eye is Barbados, standing at Ducatoon Park, Kadina.
Barbados is by Redoute’s Choice out of Virage De Fortune, going back to Emancipation on the dam’s side.
Two of particular note from Barbados’s crop are lot 19 – a chestnut/grey filly out of Umaline, a stakes winner and already dam of a stakes winner – and lot 206 – a grey filly from Lung Tah, also a dam of a stakes winner.
Cornerstone will offer the first Australian crop by Irish-bred Dalakhani – the former champion three-year-old and 2003 Europe horse of the year, which has come to the Angaston operation via the stables of the Aga Khan.
The stud also presents the first progeny of Ambidexter, another horse which lists Emancipation in its dam’s bloodlines.
Melbourne Cup winner Americain – champion stayer in Europe, Australia and France in 2010 and head of the 2011 world thoroughbred listings – stands at Swettenham stud, Vic, and is represented by two colts and two fillies from various studs.
Former top Australian sprinter and Golden Slipper winner Pierro, standing at Coolmore, NSW, has only one in the sale at lot 154 – a bay filly out of the stakes-winning mare Gliding, offered by Rosden Park, Wellington, as agent.
Other first-season sires with notable performances include Delago Deluxe, by champion two-year-old colt in South Africa in 2010-11 Encosta De Lago, and Excelebration, by 2011 champion three-year-old miler in Germany Exceed And Excel.
The auction begins at 6pm on Monday, March 14, for lots 1-100, and continues on Tuesday, March 15, at 11am for lots 101-314.
The Book 2 sale starts on Wednesday, March 16, and covers lots 315-454.
