A brother to Group One winner Sunlight is one of three yearlings to fetch $1 million or more at the revamped Easter Yearling sale.
The annual sale is being conducted online because of social distancing protocols during the coronavirus crisis.
There would usually be hundreds of people at the Inglis sales complex at Riverside adjacent to Warwick Farm racecourse.
The sale is a litmus test for other auctioneers around the world who are looking at options to hold their own digital sales as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
While down on last year, the first session was still buoyant with 105 lots sold for $32.4 million at an average of $309,310.
There were 257 yearlings catalogued for the first day but several vendors, including powerhouse Arrowfield Stud, elected to sell privately.
The first million dollar-plus yearling was a So You Think half-brother to Classique Legend out of Pinocchio.
The $1.1 million colt from Tyreel Stud was bought by Legend Racing’s Bon Ho who races horses in Hong Kong and Australia.
The colt is the first progeny of So You Think to reach seven figures at auction and his sale comes days after another son, Quick Thinker, won the Australian Derby.
Ho also bought a sister to multiple Group One winner More Joyous for $500,000.
The brother to Sunlight by Zoustar out of Solar Charged was sold by Widden Stud to Hawkes Racing, for $1.1 million.
Widden’s Antony Thompson said interest in the stud’s draft was high but obviously affected.
“We had around 50 or 60 parades at the stud compared to 150 or 160 we would have at Riverside,” Thompson told Inglis TV.
Kitchwin Hills sold the highest-priced filly on the first day of the sale with a filly by I Am Invincible out of Srikandi knocked down to Andrew Williams Bloodstock for $1 million.
