A filly by I Am Invincible out of Pinocchio sold for $2 million on Day 2 at Inglis Easter.
The emotion displayed by Linda Monds after the new highest-priced filly at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sale underlines the range of feelings vendors experience at a sale.
The Tyreel Stud owner was understandably choking back tears after selling a daughter of I Am Invincible to Mitchell Bloodstock for $2 million, but they weren't all happy tears.
The blueblood filly was the first daughter of Encosta De Lago mare Pinocchio, which makes her a half-sister to Classique Legend and Aethero, and Monds didn't really want to see her go.
She even had a race name picked out for her; Violet Parr, in honour of the one of the characters in The Incredibles.
"I always said that the first filly out of that mare I would keep and all the way through I was going to keep her and I thought I'd enter her in the sales just in case," Monds said.
"I even had a race name in my head for her. We brought her here and right up until the time that I walked into the ring I thought, 'I don't think I'll be achieving the value that she's worth, I think I'll be taking her home'.
"It's totally blown me away that she's actually sold. I'm happy and shocked and also devastated at the same time because I'm letting her go.
"I'm parting with something that I've spent a lifetime dreaming of breeding.
"But I know she'll go on and do us proud and I've got mum at home, so we'll try and breed another one."
Pinocchio is out of the Kenny's Best Pal mare Surrealist, who is also the dam of multiple Group 1 winner Racing To Win and Purrealist.
Her first foal was Puppet Master, a son of Foxwedge who won four of 23, and she then had Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt), winner of The Everest in 2020, followed by star Hong Kong sprinter Aethero (Sebring).
Pinocchio's fourth foal is an unraced So You Think three-year-old gelding called Fairy Legend who is in the care of Classique Legend's trainer Les Bridge.
Mitchell Bloodstock purchased her on behalf of Phillip Visalli, who will give the filly to Chris Waller to train, and Bill Mitchell was not shocked he had to go so hard to obtain the filly.
"She's a beautiful filly, a lovely big, strong, good-natured filly," Mitchell said.
"It was plain for everyone to see. She was an outstanding filly and it was just a matter of whether you can buy her or not."
Mitchell's buy was the first seven-figure filly of the sale and Monds said the dominance of colts on the top lots leaderboard at the end of Day 1 played a role in her scepticism regarding whether the filly would reach the aggressive reserve.
"I had in my head that I didn't think she'd achieve the reserve in this market being filly – this is predominantly renowned for being a colts sale – but I just felt she was such a special filly that I'd like her to have a good run at outdoing those boys in the sale ring," Monds said.
"She deserved every bit of that sale figure that she achieved.
"I've never a had a horse that's been so heavily vetted and inspected and what makes me more impressed is how well she handled it. She's just going to be a superstar."
The Pinocchio filly briefly held the honour as the highest-priced lot of the sale, surpassed just over an hour later when Coolmore paid $2.25 million for a colt by Snitzel out of Response, which makes him a brother to Golden Slipper winner Estijaab.
