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Morrisey Racing secure River Junction-consigned yearling on Day One of Gold Coast March Sale.
A colt by Eureka Stud's Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo) topped the opening session of the Magic Millions Gold Coast March Sale on Monday when bought by Morrisey Racing for $370,000, while the figures showed large gains on the 2020 sale.
The session-topping colt, who was sold by River Junction and catalogued as Lot 69, is the second foal out of the unraced Lonhro (Octagonal) mare Chroma. His second dam is Hestia (Machiavellian) and she has produced four winners headed by Group 2 winner Knight’s Tour (Reset). Further back this is the family of Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winning sire Pierro (Lonrho).
Joe Heather, of River Junction who bred and sold the colt, was delighted with the sale.
"He's a really good colt," Heather said. "It's a great result for a small Queensland farm to top Day 1 of the sale.
"The colt's going to a fantastic home and he will have every chance to achieve great things on the track.
"There's a great depth to the buying bench at the sale and that certainly helped with the result today," Heather added.
John Morrisey told Racing & Sports Bloodstock that the session topper is a lovely colt who he believes will prove to be an early two-year-old.
"He's a lovely, well balanced colt and there is a good chance that he'll go early. He's a good type of horse.
"We had to pay that sort of money because [Tony] Gollan is on the good Spirit Of Booms and the market was so strong. This is just the QTIS sale for Queensland horses, but the market is very strong and lots of people are here buying."
The colt was one of two lots bought by Morrisey Racing on Monday, the other lot being a filly by Spirit Of Boom who was purchased for $170,000. Offered by Kenmore Lodge just two lots before the session topping colt as Lot 67, the filly is out of the winning Anabaa (Danzig) mare Chit Chat who is herself a daughter of Auckland Cup (Gr 1, 3200m) winner Upsetthym (Rhythm).
Spirit Of Boom finished the day as the leading sire by both aggregate and average (3 or more lots sold) with ten yearlings having sold for $1,306,000 at an average of $130,600. Morrisey said that the demand for the progeny of the Eureka Stud-based sire was strong because fellow Queensland trainer Tony Gollan, who trained Spirit Of Boom to win the William Reid Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1350m), had been trying to secure the nice ones.
"For the Spirit Of Booms, the market is so strong because Tony Gollan has been buying so many of them and he's on all the nice ones," he said.
"She's a nice filly," he said of Lot 67. "Out of a standard pedigree and she's probably more of a later two-year-old."
Morrisey Racing finished the day as the leading buyer having spent $540,000 on the two Spirit Of Boom yearlings.