International Investment peaks as global powers chase Australian yearlings

International investment at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale has hit its highest level in nine years, with $26.6 million spent across the premier book at Australia’s first yearling sale of 2025, including six of the top nine lots.

Bloodstock investors came from around the globe to buy at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale with a Snitzel colt selling to UK owner Phil Cunningham for $2.8 million. (Photo: Magic Millions)

A combination of internationally desirable bloodstock plus the friendly Australian exchange rate saw a flood of internationals attend the sale, with investors from Japan, Great Britain and the United States featuring prominently.

Aushorse chief executive Tom Reilly said the level of investment was a vindication of the faith that the international market has in the Australian industry.

“It’s great to see so much investment, particularly from overseas buyers. The Australian market still offers incredible value and it’s great to see new players emerge in the market,” he said.

“People appreciate the quality of product they are buying but also the Australian industry as whole.”

As a measure of the peak in international interest, the Aushorse Investors’ guide, published in December, has already been accessed by more than 55,000 people.

Phil Cunningham and his Rebel Racing seemed to come out of nowhere to play a significant role on the Gold Coast.

Cunningham has 50 horses in work in Newmarket and has been involved in British racing for over 20 years.

He was convinced to attend the sale for the first time by Ciaron Maher, with whom he races a two-year-old filly purchased on the Gold Coast last year.

Cunningham arrived on the Gold Coast on Thursday morning, was informed that a colt by Snitzel out of Humma Humma was Maher’s best of the sale and was soon signing off for a significant part of the $2.8 million pricetag.

“A horse with a similar profile at the top end in the UK would probably be at least sort of double to maybe three or four times in terms of cost. And the most interesting thing for me that I’ve obviously seen from being over here is the prize money is probably four to five times more than it is in the UK,” Cunningham said.

“You’ve got a chance of actually sort of getting a good bit of your money back, even making much more of a chance of making a profit, which isn’t the intention, obviously it’s the hope, but not the intention.

“But I’ve found the whole financial model that surrounds Australian racing compared to the UK a lot more favourable.”

Cunningham intends to return to Australia and continue to invest. He also thinks there will be a string of UK investors seeing the same opportunity he has.

Japanese trainer Mitsu Nakauchida set a record for a yearling price on the Gold Coast when he paid $3.2 million for a filly by first-season Coolmore sire Home Affairs out of champion mare Sunlight in a dramatic conclusion to Book 1 of the sale.

While Japanese investors have been involved in the Australian yearling market for many years, most prominently Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida, it was Nakauchida’s first foray buying in the Australian market.

The trainer of Japanese stars such as Prognosis, Serifos, Grenadier Guards, Danon Fantasy and most significantly Liberty Island, who is out of Australian Group 1 winner Yankee Rose, has been making a mark at sales globally from Deauville to Keeneland over the past 12 months.

Four-time Group 1 winner Liberty Island has certainly whet Mitsu’s appetite for Australian bloodlines, so too has Eri King, the Group 3 winning-son of Kizuna and Queensland Oaks winner Youngstar.

Mitsu came to last year’s Easter Yearling Sale with an ambition to buy the $10 million Pierro x Winx filly but never even got a bid in, while he was underbidder on the $3 million I Am Invincible x Booker filly at the same sale.

On that occasion, it was American John Stewart, of Resolute Racing, who outbid him, while on the Gold Coast, Mitsu got his revenge, landing the $3.2 million Home Affairs filly at Stewart’s expense.

The trainer had flown in from Japan on Friday morning, inspected the filly on complex to confirm his impressions and by 6:30pm was taking her back to Japan.

Japanese investors tend to prefer Australian yearlings with classic pedigrees, but the Home Affairs filly is bred for speed and precocity, being both by and out of winners of Australia’s premier three-year-old sprint, the Coolmore Stud Stakes.

While this filly will have a six-month disadvantage in terms of age compared to locally bred Japanese horses of the same age, a significant part of her appeal was her residual value.

“I’ve been lucky to have had success with Australian mares. I have Liberty Island out of Yankee Rose. I have another very good three-year-old called Eri King out of Youngstar,” the trainer said.

“So, Australian mares do quite well in Japan at the moment. They go well with Japanese stallions.”

It has become harder for international investors to get access to Australia’s best broodmares in recent years as local buyers such as Yulong and Coolmore have dominated, and that too has prompted a switch in focus to premium yearling fillies.

That is also the global strategy of Stewart’s Resolute Racing, which has been dominating yearling sales around the world over the past 18 months.

Stewart may not have made it to the Gold Coast after a last-minute change of plans, but was happy to bid away from afar, spending $8.04 million across 13 separate purchases, 11 fillies and two colts.

There were three million-dollar-plus fillies Stewart was involved with, by champion sires I Am Invincible, Snitzel and Written Tycoon, and all three of those fillies are likely to go to different leading Australian stables.

With a background in finance and investment, Stewart is familiar with the advantages he has at his disposal, with the US dollar at a five-year high compared to the Australian dollar.

“Of course, I’m converting everything to US dollars and we got through the first four or five purchases, and I was like, ‘Chelsey (Stone – his partner), we haven’t even spent a million (US) dollars and we’ve got five horses’, so it’s a pretty good deal,” Stewart said.

“But we also knew that we were going to pay out for some horses later in the sale, and we did on those two fillies. Overall, I spent about US$3.4 million (on the first day) and I got nine horses, so I’m pretty happy with that.”

The favourable exchange rate and Stewart’s appetite for Australian bloodlines augur well in his future involvement in the Australian yearling market.

As well as Japan, the United States and Great Britain, there was also $4,7 million spent by Hong Kong buyers, plus investment from those registered in Singapore and China. New Zealand buyers also spent $9.5 million in Book 1.

The overall international investment of $26.61 million was up $3 million from the 2024 sale and $4.6 million from 2023. That total investment has increased despite overseas buyers buying around the same number of individual horses. It was the most spent by international buyers on the Gold Coast since 2016.

The average price of an internationally purchased horse was $336,835, a major increase from last year’s figure of $296,100 and the 2023 figure of $289,013.

Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale auditorium was bustling with activity throughout the sale. (Photo: Charlie Ferguson)

Article written by The Straight Team.