NEWS

With one month to go in the current racing season, Home Affairs has an unassailable lead in the First Season Sires Premiership. His progeny is headlined by the Golden Slipper winning Guest House who accounts for $3.3m of his sire’s progeny’s collective $4.7m in prizemoney to date. Other notable performers who make up the remaining spots in the top 5 include Pinatubo, Wild Ruler and Extreme Choice’s sire sons Stay Inside and Tiger of Malay.

Straight Six Racing made two purchases last year by First Season Sires, namely by Home Affairs and Pinatubo. This decision-making has been vindicated by each sire’s results so far and by the fact that both purchases are showing nice ability for their owners.

But now with the 2026 yearling sales season behind us, the question being asked is “who is likely to be leading the First Season Sires Premiership by this time next year?”. Straight Six Racing’s Michael Ward has inspected a large cross-section of each first season sire’s progeny at this year’s sales and has formed an opinion on which breeds are likely to rise to the top and those that may struggle to make headway. Michael’s opinion is based only on the progeny of high-profile stallions that made it to a public sale and is not reflective of any individual horse but rather the breed as a collective. The opportunity afforded to each stallion has also been taken into account, factoring in the number of live foals produced and the quality of mare that was mated. However, the greatest weight in the assessment was placed on the physical types and athleticism in the yearlings presented to sale.

Michael believes that the stallions that are most likely to be dominating the First Season Sires Premiership by the end of the 2026/27 season include Anamoe, Jacquinot and Artorius. While those he feels may need a little more time to hit their straps include Hitotsu and State of Rest. In The Congo may find himself somewhere in the middle.

Straight Six Racing purchased a yearling colt in 2026 by first season sire Artorius, out of a mare named Noble Creed.

Magic Millions has closed out its National Broodmare Sale with what the company believes is a ‘satisfactory market’, with more than $66 million worth of breeding stock sold on the Gold Coast in two days.

With three million-dollar mares sold during the final session, two of them in foal to Extreme Choice, the National Sale’s in-foal offering proved more stable than Magic Millions’ Barry Bowditch was expecting.

The commercial nature of the industry where breeders tend to see less risk in horses not yet exposed to the market with foals of racing age, the in-foal session held up well, the managing director said.

“I’m extremely satisfied, to be honest. Coming into today I was wondering where we would land with the mares-in-foal. I thought that could have been more volatile than what it was,” Bowditch said.

“I thought it was a genuine market again, clearing 80 per cent overall and averaging $220,000 at a gross of $66 million, with the median of $105,000 was up on last year, it felt that they were really solid numbers.

“It was pleasing that there was thirst all the way through to the end for the mares-in-foal.”

Between the two premium breeding stock sales – Inglis Chairman’s and Magic Millions National – has declined $37,293,000 year-on-year, with the two auction houses’ turnover in 2026 hitting $105,456,500.

The continued adoption of the online market to sell mares, and the reduction in high-end mares offered this year, may have contributed to the decline but Bowditch didn’t think sentiment had changed dramatically this year.

“Obviously the thirst for quality is insatiable. I think when a quality horse walks through the ring there’s plenty of people that have been on most of those horses and that’s the main point and underneath that you’ve got to tread a little bit more warily and pick your mark, but there’s still a market there,” he said.

“When you think about a catalogue of the volume of horses we’ve offered, no catalogue in this part of the world has that.”

This year there were 10 million-dollar mares sold at Magic Millions, well down on the 24 last year and the 15 seven-figure mares in 2024. Sixteen in-foal mares made over $500,000.

Two of the seven-figure in-foal mares sold on Wednesday carried matings elite stallion Extreme Choice will head to Segenhoe Stud after Yulong paid a total of $3.35 million for Miss Hellfire and Amen Corner.

Prominent Sydney businesswoman and breeder Julia Ritchie, who underbid $1.9 million mare Benedetta at the Chairman’s Sale, was again the bridesmaid, finishing second to Yulong entity Sheng Geng in the race to buy Miss Hellfire having already stretched the budget to $2 million.

Yulong paid $2.05 million for Miss Hellfire, a day after purchasing the National Sale’s top lot, five-time Group 1 winner Legarto, for $2.8 million.

Bred and sold as a yearling by Newgate Farm before the Henry Field-led stud bought the Hellbent mare back off the track for $640,000 at last year’s National Sale, Miss Hellfire is just one of 53 mares in foal to Extreme Choice.

“She’s a special mare for us. We bred her – she has the ‘N’ on her shoulder – and we bought her back last year,” Newgate stud manager Jim Carey said.

“She was a hugely talented mare, she was a beautiful yearling, we know the family well and her sister’s in-foal to Extreme. She hasn’t turned a hair, she’s very straight-forward. She was an elite offering.

“The sire’s a freak, so if she throws one that looks like herself, she’s a winner.”

Simple economics was behind Newgate reselling the mare a year after reacquiring her.

“We are a commercial farm, we have to pay the bills, so it was a great result for the lads on the farm,” Carey said.

Straight Six Racing’s Michael Ward, a former owner of Triple Crown Syndications, and his brother purchased Miss Hellfire from Newgate Farm as a yearling for $60,000. She went on to win $652,000 on the racetrack before selling as a breeding proposition for $640,000. “Miss Hellfire is the gift that keeps on giving. She has provided a financial windfall not just for her racing connections but now also those at Newgate after today’s sale,” said Michael.

A great example of getting horse selection right was demonstrated on the weekend when Mazu won the Group 3 Hallmark Stakes for the third successive year. In doing so he became the first horse to achieve this feat. Selected by Straight Six Racing’s Michael Ward and his brother from the Inglis Classic Sale, Mazu has now won 10 races and taken his total career prizemoney to $10.9million. Remarkably, this win has propelled Mazu into the top 20 prizemoney earners in Australian racing history.

Expertly developed by leading trainer Peter Snowden in his formative years and now masterly managed by Joe Pride, Mazu has taken his career earnings above other race track luminaries such as Black Caviar, Chautauqua and So You Think.

This is not the first time that we have seen this story play out. Redzel, the dual Everest winner, similarly won three consecutive editions of the same race, namely the Group 3 Concord Stakes, thereby making that race his own. All up Redzel won $16.4million in prizemoney, also cementing his position in the top 20 prizemoney earners list.

In an industry with a multitude of participants, Straight Six Racing’s Michael Ward and his brother have selected 10% of the top 20 prizemoney earners of all time, ensuring that the team of owners who have supported them have had life-changing experiences.

For two decades now, Antonia Miles has been the media and marketing backbone for Gerry Harvey and Katie Page for not only Harvey Norman, but also the hugely successful Magic Millions Sales. And it’s that connection which led the 52-year-old mother of three to make a snap call to splurge on a horse which is poised to now deliver a muti-million dollar windfall.

“I met Gerry and Katie through John Singleton back when ‘Singo’ was a shareholder in Magic Millions and can honestly say they are just the most beautiful people and the perfect role models,” Miles said.

“I’ve been going to Magic Millions every year since 2006 and it’s become our family’s annual holiday, well not so much for me.

“During that time I’ve picked up bits and pieces of information here and there and met some wonderful people but the idea of owning a horse had never really come into the picture.”

But that changed at the 2025 Magic Millions Sales when a spur of the moment move saw Miles purchase 10 per cent of a Snitzel x Medaglia Valore colt bred by Harvey but passed through the sale ring unwanted.

Miles calls it her “serendipity” moment.

“Looking back it was partially spontaneous or cautiously considered … it depends when you ask me,” she says with a chuckle.

“Over the years I’d heard so much about Snitzel I could probably draw him in my sleep and looking at this colt he just had such a lovely temperament.

“I just happened to be standing around with Gerry and his racing manager Luke McDonald after he wasn’t sold when I asked Gerry if he would sell me 10 per cent.

“I’d been listening to Gerry, Luke and Barry Bowditch talk about horses for decades and something was telling me I should get involved in this horse.

“Gerry had a look in his eye to say he would (let me) but he couldn’t have warned me any more times about the odds of it working out well.

“In fact, he gave me countless opportunities to pull out and was very gentle with the terms of it all and was very protective of me.

“Which meant the world.”

While the Snitzel colt which now races as Campione D’Italia went through the sales ring unsold, a deal was ultimately done with Henry Field’s Newgate Stud for the horse to be purchased for $500,000.

Harvey stayed in with 20 per cent while the deal placed Miles’ 10 per cent share at a cool $50,000.

“In our world, it was a lot of money,” she said.

“An uncomfortable amount of money actually.

“When I decided to do it I called my husband Ed and said that it would be his 50th birthday present.

“The idea was it was something we could do together.

“So we just sort of parked it and didn’t think about it too much, fully aware that it probably wouldn’t work out.”

At Royal Randwick on Saturday, 15 months on from that snap purchase on the Glitter Strip, Campione D’Italia will take his place as favourite in the $1 million Group 1 Champagne Stakes (1600m).