Record price at Australian sale

Two colts by Redoute's Choice - including one who sold for an Australian record $3 million - gave consignor Arthur Mitchell "the best 24 hours of my life" Wednesday at the Inglis Easter yearling sale in Australia.

Mitchell sold a son of the Slew o' Gold mare Deja Slew to South African trainer Charles Laird for the record sum of $3 million Australian, or about $2,240,849 U.S. That beat the record of $2.5 million Australian set at the Inglis Easter sale in 2005. The colt is a half-brother to two Australian stakes-placed runners, Bull Market and Top Slice.

Later in the session, Mitchell sold a second Redoute's Choice colt, this one out of the Marauding mare Exact, to Tim Stakemire, who was representing Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al-Maktoum. That colt brought $2.3 million Australian, or about $1,717,869 U.S.

The record-breaking session, the second of three at the auction in Newmarket, Sydney, pushed the sale to substantial day-two gains. Wednesday's session sold 73 yearlings for about $18,962,657 U.S., an average of about $259,658. In Australian currency, those were gains of 44 and 56 percent.

"This is the greatest sale we've ever seen," said Inglis's managing director, Reg Inglis.