A brother to Mo’Unga became the first New Zealand yearling to sell for seven figures on Monday’s opening day at this year’s Karaka Yearling Sale.

The Waikato Stud-prepared colt, who is by Savabeel from the O’Reilly mare Chandelier, sold for exactly NZ $1 million when he went through as Lot 161.

He is headed for the same stable as his older brother with Tony Fung and Annabel Neasham, who has prepared Mo’unga to win a Rosehill Guineas (2000m) and Winx Stakes (1400m) at Group 1 level, the winning bidders.

“He was a colt we were very keen on obviously, to pay that sort of money, but having Mo’unga with Annabel and he’s been so successful for us, there was a lot of love for him,” Kacy Fogden, who is representing Fung at the sale, said.

“He was a beautiful colt and Annabel was pretty excited to get him.”

The session-topper became the most expensive yearling sold in New Zealand since the horse who raced as No Limits sold for $1.4 million in 2019.

He headlined a brilliant day for champion Kiwi stallion Savabeel, who had four of the top seven lots of the day.

His colt out of Thee Achiever sold for $575,000 10 lots into the session, while his filly out of Cutting Remark, the dam of Spanish Whisper, sold for $470,000 with a colt out of Bingo, who is from the family of Daffodil and Aegon selling for $440,000.

The other high-priced lots were a colt by Snitzel out of Eleonora who sold for $600,000 four lots from the end of the day and a colt by Tavistock out of Ziffel who sold for $500,000.