Lot 640: Colt by Exceed And Exced x Platelet
The irrepressible demand for yearlings by Exceed And Excel continued at a hectic pace on Day Three of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale with a pair of his colts making seven figures, the top-priced of the two becoming the most expensive yearling the champion Australian Darley stallion has ever produced.
Friday’s star was Lot 640, a colt from the dual, G1-winning mare Platelet, who sold for $1.8 million to the training team of John, Wayne and Michael Hawkes.
And the action continued until the third-last sale of the session with Lot 784, a colt from the Smoke Glacken mare Smokin’ Alice making $1 million.
LOT 874: Colt by Exceed And Excel x Smokin' Alice
Friday’s top pair came after the colt by Exceed And Excel from Dream In Colour fetched $1.1 million at Wednesday’s opening session.
In a spirited bidding duel, the Hawkes team held off Tom Magnier to secure the top-priced colt.
Consigned by Cressfield, he is the second foal from Platelet whose 10 wins included the G1 double of the Robert Sangster Stakes and the Goodwood Handicap.
Co-trainer Wayne Hawkes welcomed the colt to a team which also includes another illustrious son of Exceed And Excel, Exceedance, the winner of last spring’s G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes.
“He was the colt of the sale,” Hawkes said.
“It was big money, but he looks a ready-made two-year-old and we would expect to see him as a Magic Millions and Golden Slipper horse next year."
“This was actually the easy part, the hard part starts in a few months when he arrives at Rosehill.”
The $1 million dollar colt from Smokin’ Alice went to the partnership of prominent Sydney trainer Gerald Ryan and bloodstock agent David Raphael.
Smokin’ Alice is the winner of six races and is a member of a strong American family that also includes the Australian G1 winners Criterion and Comin’ Through.
“After all that has happened today we were very pleased to get the colt for that price,” Raphael said.
“There is so much to like about Exceed And Excel as a stallion and this colt looks to have plenty of what his sire is capable of passing on.”
Exceed And Excel's son Bivouac wins the G1 Golden Rose in 2019
Exceed And Excel won seven of his 12 starts, including the G1 Newmarket Handicap, and has regularly figured among Australia’s top bracket of stallions, claiming the Champion Sire title in 2012.
Among his best performers are the G1-winning fillies Earthquake and Guelph in Australia, the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes Excelebration and G1 Nunthorpe Stakes winner Margot Did in Britain and multiple Hong Kong G1 winner Mr Stunning.
After the third of the sale’s four Book One sessions, Exceed And Excel‘s 20 yearlings to sell had averaged $430,000 and left him as one of only two stallions to have produced three $1 million-plus sales.
Friday’s session also continued the demand for Darley’s first-season stallion Astern whose filly from Runway Runaway provided his best result of the session, selling to Victorian trainer Matt Laurie for $360,000.
Astern finished the day among the top 20 sires for the first three days of the sale, his 17 yearlings to sell averaging $182,000 with a top price of $725,000.
