Australian sale sets records

The Magic Millions yearling auction in Australia ended Sunday with record-breaking results.

Led by a $526,950 colt by the late Sunday Silence, the Magic Millions four-session select auction rang up a total of $29,359,604 for 545 lots. The average price of $53,870 was up 8 percent from last year, and the 2003 median of $39,521 jumped 12.5 percent from last year's figure. All three figures were records for the 17-year-old Magic Millions sale.

Vinery Australia bought the sale-topping colt, the first foal from the unraced Miner's Mark mare Engraver and one of the last foals to be sired by Japan's great stallion Sunday Silence. Sunday Silence, 1989 Horse of the Year and Kentucky Derby winner, died in August 2002.

Arrowfield Stud, agent, sold the colt to Vinery owner Tom Simon, who was accompanied at the auction by Vinery Australia manager Peter Orton. Simon also operates Vinery Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.