KEEN investors with an eye for "maroon influence" spent $4,675,000 with Queensland vendors on Day 2 of the 2020 Magic Millions yearling auctions on January 9.
Canning Downs, Daandine Stud, Element Hill, Eureka Stud, Gainsborough Lodge, Gleeson Thoroughbreds, Glenlogan Park, Highgrove, Kenmore Thoroughbreds and Raheen were front and centre.
Their collective offering of 22 yearlings averaged $212,500 with a top price of $800,000.
As was the case on Day one, Scott and Grania McAlpine, Eureka Stud, Cambooya, were busy with six youngsters going to new homes for an average of $163,333.
Their premium sale came late in the session when Hawkes Racing, Sydney, stopped the auctioneer at $260,000 for a first crop son of the Golden Rose Stakes winner Exosphere, himself a son of the 10-times Group 1 winner Lohnro.
An early foal, having hit the ground in August, 2018, he is a three-quarter brother in blood to winners Peacock and Paua and from the immediate family of Absolute Champion, a star in Hong Kong where his host of successes included a course record victory in the HK Sprint (Group 1).
Another of Eureka draft, a colt by the flying Rubick, sire of 2019 The Everest winner Yes Yes Yes, sold for $220,000 to a partnership of China Horse Club, Newgate Farm and WinStar, which have Aim running for them in the $2m MM Classic on January 11.
The olther Eureka offerings sold for porices from $90,000-$190,000.
Jan Clark, Daandine Stud Goomburra, also made good money with the Sebring-Flamenco Girl colt selling to Victorian-based MickPrice Racing for $220,000. Daandine also sold a Winning Rupert filly for $90,000.
Edmonds Racing and Kestrel Thoroughbreds teamed to pay $275,000 for a Capitalist filly from the draft of Ron Gilbert's Highgrove Stud, Darling Downs. She counts the stakes winners Noire, Valourina and Timbourina among relatives.
Highgrove sold another two yearlings for $180,000 and $110,000.
A maternal granddaughter of Headway, a winner of the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes and placed in the Golden Slipper Stakes, was offered by Canning Downs, Darling Downs, and was the focus of plenty of buyer attention.
She sold for $280,000 to Mystery Downs and John Foote Bloodstock, the guy who bought an in-foal mare called Tugela and whose daughter we came to know as Makybe Diva.
Gleeson Thoroughbred Connections, Chinchilla, accepted a bid of $250,000 for a yearling colt by the much touted Deep Field from the winning I Am Invincible mare I Got Trix. He is the first foal of the mare whose predecessors on the distaff side were packed with stamina.
Element Hill, Innisplain, sold a colt with close ties to Master Of Reaity, the Frankel stayer relegated from second to fourth in the 2019 Melbourne Cup to Proven Thoroughbreds and Steven O'Dea Racing for $130,000.
Kerrod Hall and Tom Button parted with $110,000 for the three-quarter sister by Caulfield Guineas winner Divine Prophet to Japhil offered by Kenmore Lodge, Wyreema.
But the bigger bids rolled in for Gainsborough Lodge's Vancouver-Marielle colt, which sold for $320,000 to Denise Martin's Star Thoroughbreds and Randwick Bloodstock. He is likely to join the stables of Chris Waller at Rosehill.
As good as that sale was, Glenlogan Park, Innisplain, was in another league selling one colt for $450,000 and a filly for $800,000. Both were purchased by Aquis Farm.
The former, a son of Not A Single Doubt and the unraced Daylami mare Mandawarra, is a half-brother to Sydney winner Khan and from a half-sister to the Australian Cup hero Manighar.
The $800,000 filly is by Written Tycoon, bred by Jan Clark's Daandine Stud and the sire of Magic Millions-Golden Slipper winner Capitalist, from the four-times winner Hijack Hussey, a daughter of the South American stallion star Hussonet and from the family of Group 1 winner Dracula.
Glenlogan Park sold two further yearlings fir $70,000 and $160,000.