A second high priced lot was sold to Dubai in
the Friday afternoon session of the Gold Coast Magic Millions Sale this afternoon when a
Highgrove Stud sold their Octagonal - Simoon colt for $525,000.
Tim Boland, acting on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa
al Maktoum, purchased the colt, after a spirited bidding duel.
Boland placed his winning bid in the presence of the Shiekh's
racing manager Mohammed Khaleel Ahmed.
The Octagonal purchase came only a couple of hours after the
same combination had gone to $625,000 to acquire a colt by Grand Lodge from the former
glamour mare and promising producer Pontal Lass.
The presence of Boland and Mohammed Khaleel Ahmed at the sale
was a direct result of an approach to Boland by Magic Millions Marketing Manager Annie
McDonald.
"I submitted a proposal to the group and had to convince
them that the quality of the yearlings was up to their high standards. The Racing Manager
has come to Australia inspected the horses available and as a result they've now purchased
four of them, including two of the highest priced lots of the sale," McDonald said.
Asked if she thought they would purchase any more McDonald
said that she "wouldn't be surprised if they did."
Bidding for the Octagonal colt began at $200,000 and rose in
$25,000 amounts before the final bid.
 The colt is from the winning Palace Music
mare Simoon, a half sister to Snippets, Quick Score, Asawir, True Blonde and Singles Bar.
According to Highgrove Stud manager, David Thomas, the colt
was always popular with potential buyers. "We would have had him out 200 times"
he said. "Some buyers inspected the horse up to 6 times".
Asked about the horse's brand of 1 over 0, Thomas explained
that it was not because the colt was always the top colt on the stud, but because he was
the first one born in the 2000 stud season. "He was literally born at 1 minute past
midnight on August 1st" said Thomas, which would have made him the oldest yearling at
the Magic Millions sale.
From the female family of inaugural Magic Millions race
winner Snippets, the Octagonal colt's pedigree is chock full of black type. His dam,
Simoon is a winner by Palace Music, who has a late maturing three year old racing in Perth
and an as yet unraced two year old in Sydney. The dam has a yearling by Woodman and is in
foal this season to boom sire Strategic.
Highgrove is a relatively new stud based on Queensland's
Darling Downs. Thomas took up duties as stud manager 4 years ago when the stud commenced
operations, having previously been a senior staff member at Woodlands Stud for several
years. Owned by principal Ron Gilbert, Highgrove has 15 high class mares who are regularly
sent to the Hunter Valley to go to stud. |
