| Another Group One winner straight off the track has been confirmed for May’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale at the Gold Coast. |
| Oaks heroine Vibrant Sun will be one of the headlines acts in what is shaping as a quality packed draft for Baystone Farm. A winner of the Group One Australasian Oaks at Morphettville and the Group Three Alexandra Stakes at Moonee Valley, Vibrant Sun earned over $700,000 across her short 10 start career. A daughter of leading Arrowfield Stud based sire The Autumn Sun, Vibrant Sun is from the Group Three winning Written Tycoon mare Vibrant Rouge. The top class galloper was a Gold Coast Yearling Sale buy for Sheamus Mills Bloodstock from the draft of Canning Downs Stud. She gave her connections plenty of thrills from her racetrack performances under the tutelage of Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr. “She got through her maiden grade very quickly and as we stretched her out in distance it was pretty evident that she was getting better and better,” Mills said. “During her first prep she won a Maiden by 8 lengths at her third start and ran well in the Thousand Guineas at start four. Then she came back and chased down Grinzinger Belle at Moonee Valley in the Group Three Alexandra over a mile – that’s when I knew I had a good horse.” “She wasn’t fully wound up – that was the day when I knew she had Group One ability. You could see the tenacity she had and that to me is the mark of a good horse – when they put their ears back and show that great will to win. That last 50 metres she really savaged the line like good horses do.” “After that mile win she was due to run in the 1800 (metre) Auraria Stakes. She missed the run with a fetlock and had a trial at Cranbourne over 1200 – so she effectively went straight from the mile to 2000 in the Oaks.” “It’s tough to go a month between runs. Mark (Zahra) was given an open book in the Oaks and he elected to go to the front with her. He dropped the rein and it’s probably not a replay he shows the kids too often but she stayed on really well regardless.” “She stamped herself in terms of class. To win a Group One you need everything to go your way – a perfect prep. She overcame a pretty significant hurdle (to win the Oaks). The time between runs, the treatment of the fetlock – she drifted in the betting from being the early favourite and had to make all the running the whole way down the straight.” “Unfortunately for us injury curtailed her career. We did rehab her and bring her back and she was going better than ever and ran first up at Scone with the grandstand. Unfortunately she chipped her fetlock and we wanted to do the right thing by the horse and she was straight to the paddock.” “She’d done such a tremendous job as a clean winded, lovely horse that we decided to retire her. I believe she was a genuine Group One horse – we held her in that esteem.” Mills said the filly has always been a quality individual from the day he purchased her as a yearling. “She’s a beautifully balanced, mid sized mare. She had a heap of quality. She has good length – she isn’t over-sized. She got to 2000 metres, but she is built like a miler.” “Mum was a very good seven furlong horse and she is built more in that mould. She (Vibrant Sun) is a quality looking mare and people will be very impressed with what they see.” “Talent wise she has that. Looks wise she has that. She’s a beautifully tempered horse. She had that disposition – she had more than one string to her bow, she led (in the Group One) at Morphettville and she chased a smart one down at the Valley.” Vibrant Sun will be offered on behalf of connections through the draft of Baystone Farm. A long time supporter of the Magic Millions National Sale, Dean Harvey’s consignment will again present buyers with a classy draft. “It’s not every day you get to offer a Group One winner of Vibrant Sun’s quality and for Baystone to present the filly for Sheamus and his partners, who we have such a close association with, is pretty special,” Harvey said. “The draft is coming together really well, with an array of stakes-performed and well-related fillies off the track to suit a diverse range of buyers, and that’s why the National Sale works so well for us. We like to target one sale and National consistently presents the deepest and broadest buying bench in the market from top to bottom.” “We’re predominantly offering first day race fillies off the track and they’re all very good physical types with pedigrees to appeal to a wide variety of breeders. One of those is Wangi Wangi, who is a young three-quarter sister to Calliope, the dam of Group One Surround Stakes winner Tempted, as well as the stakes-performed two-year-old Express Yo’self.” “We’ve always supported the Magic Millions National Sale and we’re looking forward to presenting another quality draft this year.” Entries for the 2026 Magic Millions National Sale are now open and other previously announced highlight lots for the racefillies and mares section include last start Group One winning star Legarto and multiple Magic Millions Classic winner O’ Ole. |
