$650,000 for Justify Colt

There was only one yearling by Triple Crown hero Justify offered for sale at the Magic Millions on Wednesday and the striking chestnut colt attracted keen competition before being knocked down to Rosemont Stud/Suman Hedge Bloodstock/MG Price Racing & Breeding.

Bred and offered for sale by John and Trish Muir’s Milburn Creek, he is the second foal of three time winning Snitzel mare Tatiara, a half-sister to stakes-winner Rock Hero from multiple Group winning Galileo mare Gallant Tess.

“He’s an extremely athletic horse, very active, and I do a lot of work with Milburn Creek and am really familiar with the horse and he’s always been a star from the day that he was foaled,” revealed Suman Hedge.

“We were very keen to get him. The stallion is flying overseas, he’s got a couple of promising horses over here and it’s a pretty deep pedigree so we thought he ticked a lot of boxes.”

Currently back in Kentucky at Coolmore’s US headquarters of Ashford Stud, Justify is set to cover his best ever book of mares following a phenomenally successful last 12 months in which he sired six individual Group I winners.

In Australia, Justify sired Inglis Millennium and Group II winner Learning to Fly in his first crop and has the favourite for Saturday’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic Storm Boy in his second with his third garnering plenty of attention at the Gold Coast this week.

“Justify is an international horse, he’s got runners in Europe and America, so he’s doing the job everywhere,” said Hedge.

“Horses like that, they can be a bit of a limited edition and they become so valuable you never know whether they’ll come back, so when the opportunity is there to buy a nice one you’ve got to strike.”

There are five more yearlings by Justify to be offered in coming days.