Dean Hawthorne didn't intend to buy anything but stayers when he arrived at the Karaka yearling sales last week.However, the Waikato bloodstock agent ended up paying $NZ625,000 ($A504,398.35) for a Redoute's Choice filly with a sprinting pedigree, the highest price for a filly on what was a tough opening day at times for sellers.The Redoute's Choice-Sarah Vee filly bought by Hawthorne will be sent to David Hayes in Melbourne and be raced by established clients of Hawthorne."David said the best R

Dean Hawthorne didn't intend to buy anything but stayers when he arrived at the Karaka yearling sales last week.

However, the Waikato bloodstock agent ended up paying $NZ625,000 ($A504,398.35) for a Redoute's Choice filly with a sprinting pedigree, the highest price for a filly on what was a tough opening day at times for sellers.

The Redoute's Choice-Sarah Vee filly bought by Hawthorne will be sent to David Hayes in Melbourne and be raced by established clients of Hawthorne.

"David said the best Redoute's Choice fillies were big, masculine types and she fits that type," he said.

"I came here to buy stayers - they're what we produce best in New Zealand - but I thought she was the best filly of the sale."

The top price of the day at the premier sale, $NZ800,000 ($A645,629), was knocked down to Lance Noble who had rarely thought about spending $NZ200,000 ($A161,407.47) before today.

But the sight of an Encosta De Lago-Giovana colt just after Christmas made the Matamata trainer think about finding people prepared to take large shares in the horse, and today he secured the colt for $NZ800,000 ($A645,629.89).

But that one view was enough to make him think about putting a high-priced syndicate together, and today he spent $NZ800,000 ($A645,629.89) to buy the highest-selling colt of the Premier Yearling Sale to date.

"When I first saw him everybody went `whoah'," Noble said.

"I thought then that he would be too much but then I went and thought that if we could get some people to take some shares we could do it, and that if he won a group race he would be a stallion prospect."

By the time the horse went through the ring, Noble was prepared to spend $1 million, and was pleasantly surprised he got him for what he did.

The colt was prepared for the sale by Lyndhurst Farm on behalf of Carol Marshall, who trained and owned Giovana, and Bob Morris.

He is the third foal of Giovana, a four-time group one winner who won nearly $1 million on the track.

Noble's former training partner Roger James was also active at the top end of the market, paying $NZ700,000 ($A564,926.16) for a Redoute's Choice colt out of La Sizeranne.

James said the weak economy probably saved him from spending $1 million on the first foal of La Sizeranne, a mare he prepared to win four black-type races a few years ago.

The colt, who had a distinctive white face and white legs, will be syndicated as a stallion prospect.

"I wouldn't have gone to $1 million but I think he would have brought that last year," James said.

"I've seen him since he was a foal and he never had a bad day in his life."

The colt was offered by Trelawney Stud on behalf of his American owners Jack and Mark Maronde, who will be among the shareholders.

Also going for $NZ700,000 ($A564,926.16) was a colt by Redoute's Choice out of the Sunday Silence mare Love Connection, sold by Pencarrow Stud to regular sale-leading buyer David Ellis.

Ellis also paid $NZ510,000 ($A411,589.06) for a Zabeel-Miss Power Bird colt from the Cambridge Stud draft.

The average for the first day was $NZ150,136 ($A121,165.36), down on last year's record average of just under $NZ200,000 ($A161,407.47), while the clearance rate was 73.3 per cent, compared to last year's sale average of 86 per cent.

The drop was expected given the economic downturn and as last year's sale was boosted by smaller Australian sales due to the equine influenza epidemic.

The sale continues tomorrow.