Magic Millions Tasmanian Topper Lot 93 Pinatubo Filly Fetches $170,000 for Redgum

Lot 93, a bay filly by European sire Pinatubo out of Dream Food (Snitzel), became the Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale topper when Redgum Racing’s John McArdle paid A$170,000 at Quercus Park outside Launceston. The Armidale Stud-consigned filly’s price established a new sale record and highlighted a rebound in the 2026 Tasmanian sale after a subdued 2025.

McArdle, who already trains the filly’s half-sister Yum, described the purchase in measured terms. “We are very happy to acquire her. She is very much like her sister. She probably looks a bit sharper by a speed horse like Pinatubo.” He added more color on the buying strategy: “We still had a little bit left. I actually bought the first-ever horse that made $100,000 down here. So I was happy to break that record and we did today,” and “She’s very similar to her sister, probably looks a little sharper than what she was as a yearling. Yum’s a beautiful mover and this filly was very much in the same mould as her.” Racing.com described the purchase as “A well-informed buy from a trainer who clearly liked what he saw.”

The sale produced solid headline numbers. Gross receipts jumped to A$2,841,000 from A$1,974,500 in 2025, the average rose to A$36,090 from A$23,488, and the median climbed to A$21,000 from A$18,000, with 78 lots sold. Organizers reported “over $2.8 million” traded, and Magicmillions put the clearance rate at 72 per cent while another report recorded 69 per cent, underscoring minor differences in early tallies.

Five lots reached six-figure prices at Quercus Park. Besides the Pinatubo filly (Lot 93, A$170,000), Lot 50 - a Capitalist x Speedonova filly - sold for A$120,000 to a MyRacehorse, Damon Gabbedy Belmont Bloodstock and trainer Stuart Gandy partnership. A first-crop Paulele filly from Ventura fetched A$115,000 to Joe O’Neill’s Prime Thoroughbreds. A State of Rest colt out of Falika sold for A$110,000 to Tony and Calvin McEvoy and Belmont Bloodstock. Lot 26, a Needs Further x Oh So Gold filly described as a full sister to a multiple stakes winner and a three quarter sister to Mystic Journey, made A$100,000 to Denise Martin’s Star Thoroughbreds and Brett Howard’s Randwick Bloodstock Agency.

Armidale Stud dominated the leaderboard, supplying the top five sellers and eight of the top 10, with reported vendor grosses of A$1.433 million and an average of A$68,238. Magicmillions flagged Armidale as the leading vendor on all metrics, underscoring the commercial impact of a single consignor across the Tasmanian catalogue.

The sale also marked an external market push into Tasmania. MyRacehorse’s purchase was billed as the microshare platform’s entry to the local bloodstock market; the platform reportedly already has more than 2000 microshare owners in Tasmania and was encouraged to pick a horse through the sale. With McArdle set to campaign Yum in a “big autumn campaign in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane,” the A$170,000 investment anchors a week in which Tasmanian bloodstock regained momentum and buyers signaled renewed appetite for well-related yearlings at Quercus Park.