The latest chapter in the career of Exceed And Excel had a few more lines added during Saturday night’s final session of Book One of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale with the champion Darley stallion again commanding close attention.
Having provided the sale’s second highest-priced yearling at $1.8 million on Friday, and with three seven-figure lots overall, Exceed And Excel’s offering at the final session was topped by Lot 859, a colt from the Testa Rossa mare Testa Secret who was knocked down to trainer Tony Gollan, John Foote Bloodstock and Aquis Farm for $425,000.
Offered by Newhaven Park, the colt’s dam was a Stakes winner in New Zealand and is related to the G1 winner Escado and the G2 winner Se Saveur.
The final session’s activity left Exceed And Excel with 24 yearlings sold at an average of $398,000 and with an already exceptional reputation greatly enhanced.
In other Day Four trade, Brazen Beau maintained his sale-ring momentum with his only lot of the session, a colt from the Trade Fair mare Tarquinn Shadow, making $330,000 to the bid of Hong Kong trainer Ricky Yiu.
The penultimate Australian crop of former shuttler Medaglia d’Oro also had its admirers, his top lot, a colt from the G1-winning mare Streama being purchased by Godolphin for $350,000.
The sale also went down as a success for the Darley stallions first-season stallion Astern (Medaglia d’Oro) whose top-priced lot made $725,000 on Day One.
Equally pleasing was Astern’s clearance rate of 95 per cent with 18 of his 19 yearlings to enter the ring finding a new owner.
The first yearlings to be offered in Australia by Frosted also made a positive impression with Lot 301, the half-sister to star sprinter Santa Ana Lane making $650,000.
The sale improved on the previous year in all areas, grossing $177 million at an average of $250,000 and achieved a clearance rate of 87.4 per cent.
