{"id":456096,"date":"2026-06-01T22:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/456096\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T22:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T22:54:16","slug":"600000-lope-de-vega-colt-tops-mm-national-yearling-sale-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/456096\/","title":{"rendered":"$600,000 Lope de Vega Colt Tops MM National Yearling Sale Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A cracking son of classy international sire Lope de Vega topped Day One of the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale on the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"$600,000 Lope de Vega colt was the star of the show - image MM\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/breednet-images-lope-de-vega-x-palme-dor-31126.jpg\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 400px;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Bred by one of Ireland&#8217;s most successful stud farms and the home of his sire, the Lope de Vega colt was consigned by Glenbeigh Farm and attracted intense interest when offered as Lot 913.<\/p>\n<p>When the gavel fell it was KPW Bloodstock, bidding on behalf of leading owners Ron and Judi\u00a0Wanless, who secured the youngster for $600,000.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s the sort of horse &#8211; when he walked out of the box &#8211; you hope he can meet our criteria,&#8221; KPW Bloodstock&#8217;s Kevin &#8220;Millie&#8221; Walls said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Once he did (meet the criteria) he was always on our radar.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ron said buy him &#8211; so we bought him. He&#8217;s a beautiful colt.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The colt, who will race in the famous tartan colours, is the first foal of the unraced Siyouni mare Palme d&#8217;Or, a half sister to Moonee Valley Gold Cup winner Francesco Guardi.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Palme d&#8217;Or \u00a0is from a stakes performed half sister to former champion European mare Treve &#8211; a six time Group One winner and twice winner of the Prix de l&#8217;Arc de Triomphe.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a great result,&#8221; Glenbeigh Farm&#8217;s Denis Griffin said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a beautiful horse and he was very busy all week.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to thank Ballylinch Stud in Ireland, the breeders of the colt, for entrusting me in selling him for them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All in all it&#8217;s a great result,&#8221; Griffin added. &#8220;We&#8217;re very happy!&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"$580,000 Extreme Choice filly from Volks Lightning - image MM\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/breednet-images-ec-x-volks-lightning-31127.jpg\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 400px;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Late in the day an Extreme Choice filly (Lot 1002) from the Newgate Farm draft sold for $580,000 to trainer Michael Freedman in partnership with bloodstock agent Andrew Williams.<\/p>\n<p>The filly is the third foal of the Group Three winning Volksraad mare Volks Lightning and Freedman said he was impressed with her strength despite being a December foal.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These Extreme Choice&#8217;s are going gangbusters,&#8221; Freedman said. &#8220;The stallion couldn&#8217;t be going any better.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;On the back of having another (Group Two) winner with him on Saturday I thought it would be worth coming up and having a look at this filly.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I saw her this morning I thought she was a gorgeous type. When you got her out of the box she didn&#8217;t look like a December foal &#8211; there was plenty of strength.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Three more yearlings by Extreme Choice will be offered tomorrow on Day Two of the National Yearling Sale.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"$500,000 I Am Invincible filly from Loveyamadly - image MM\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/breednet-images-ia-x-loveyamadly-31128.jpg\" style=\"width: 600px; height: 400px;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Earlier\u00a0an I Am Invincible filly from the stakes winner and top producer Loveyamadly sold for $500,000 to Gall Bloodstock and Mitchell Bloodstock to be the third top seller of the day.<\/p>\n<p>Across the day almost $7.4 million was traded on 122 lots sold at an average price of $60,578 (up from $44,961 on last year) and clearance rate of 76 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a really strong market here today,&#8221; Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s great to see such a diverse buying bench with good local and interstate participation which has been complemented by the international market &#8211; Hong Kong, Philippines, China, New Zealand and others.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whether it was a colt or a filly of quality that entered the ring there was good participation and great competition.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Looking at the figures from previous years it&#8217;s hard not to be pleased with the increases across the board in today&#8217;s sale.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Vendors are very willing to meet the market &#8211; those who got their horses on the market received good competition and it was a solid and genuine day in the sales ring.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s plenty to look forward to tomorrow,&#8221; Bowditch added. &#8220;It will bring down the curtain on what&#8217;s been a massive couple of weeks on the Gold Coast.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>To view the results of the sale or to make an offer on a passed in lot <a href=\"https:\/\/us.list-manage.com\/IQ3uksOdzQZ?e=b7885f1c1e&amp;c2id=88374af68e79f260483bf1b271aa8da2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Day Two of the 2026 Gold Coast National Yearling Sale will commence at 11am (QLD time) tomorrow (Tuesday).<\/p>\n<p>SALE STATISTICS<\/p>\n<p>(2025 Day 1 in brackets)<\/p>\n<p>Lots Catalogued: 180 (210)<\/p>\n<p>Lots Sold: 122 (129)<\/p>\n<p>Lots Withdrawn: 19 (24)<\/p>\n<p>Lots Passed In: 39 (55)<\/p>\n<p>Top Price: $600,000 ($850,000)<\/p>\n<p>Average Price: $60,578 ($44,961)<\/p>\n<p>Median Price: $30,000 ($28,000)<\/p>\n<p>Sale Gross: $7,390,500 ($5,800,000)<\/p>\n<p>Sold %: 76 (70)<\/p>\n<p>TOP SELLERS<\/p>\n<p>$600,000 &#8211; Lope de Vega-Palme d&#8217;Or colt\u00a0(Lot 913)<\/p>\n<p>Vendor: Glenbeigh Farm (As Agent) \/ Buyer: KPW Bloodstock (Qld)<\/p>\n<p>$580,000 &#8211; Extreme Choice-Volks Lightning filly (Lot 1002)<\/p>\n<p>Newgate Farm (As Agent) \/ Michael Freedman Racing\/Andrew Williams B&#8217;stock (NSW)<\/p>\n<p>$500,000 &#8211; I Am Invincible-Loveyamadly filly (Lot 872)<\/p>\n<p>Newhaven Park (As Agent) \/ Gall Bloodstock\/Mitchell Bloodstock (NSW)<\/p>\n<p>$380,000 &#8211; Zoustar-Mnemonic colt (Lot 897)<\/p>\n<p>Baramul Stud \/ Macedon Lodge Pty Ltd (Vic)<\/p>\n<p>$180,000 &#8211; Toronado-Only Words colt (Lot 908)<\/p>\n<p>Infinity Thoroughbreds (As Agent) \/ Philip Yu (Hong Kong)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cracking son of classy international sire Lope de Vega topped Day One of the Magic Millions National&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-456096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}