It didn’t even take half-an-hour for the Magic Millions Gold Coast sale ring to fall silent at this year’s National Broodmare Sale, with Legarto living up to her billing as one of the headline acts of the sale.
Less than 15 minutes into the race fillies and mares section of the world-famous sale, the five-time Group 1 winner sold for $2.8 million.
As they have done many times at sales in Australia in the past few seasons, Yulong and Coolmore settled down to duke it out with the eerie sale-ring hush descending as bids quickly escalated to $2m before rising in $200,000 increments to $2.8m.
It was Yulong who proved strongest and Legarto will be a headline resident of that organisation’s recent Hunter Valley acquisition, Segenhoe Stud, where a meeting with one of its new stallions awaits.
“She’s the mare of the whole sale and we love her; we fell in love with her when we first saw her,” Yulong’s Jun Zhang said.
“We’re going to put her to Segenhoe. We purchased Segenhoe and we need some very elite mares to support our stallions, Devil Night or Private Harry.”
Legarto has been one of New Zealand’s best-performed gallopers in recent seasons, winning Group 1s on either side of the Tasman for trainers Ken and Bev Kelso, including the Australian Guineas (1600m) in 2023.
She bowed out a Group 1 winner in the Bonecrusher Stakes (2000m) on March 7, having won the Group 1 Herbie Dyke Stakes (2000m) at her previous start. She also won the Herbie Dyke in 2025 with her other Group 1 coming in the New Zealand 1000 Guineas (1600m) in 2022.
Legarto was one of two big-money purchases for Yulong bound for one of their young stallions with Snitzanova, who sold for $1.8 million, set to follow suit.
Among the other seven-figure lots on Day 1 of the sale that continues with a broodmare section on Wednesday was Stretan Angel, who sold to Arrowfield Stud for $1.6m, while Japan’s Katsumi Yoshida paid $1.5m each for Group 3 winner Lilac and Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner O’ Ole.