Equiano (Fr) took over at the top of the freshman leader-board at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale on Monday with a colt that made $420,000.

Swettenham Stud’s Group 1 winning sprinter lit up the Oaklands arena with an outstanding colt from Hidden Energy.  He was purchased by Malaysian based owner Vincent Tan and will be trained at Caulfield by Mick Price.

Tan owns Cardiff City soccer club and the Malaysian franchise for McDonalds.  The Emirates Park / John Hawkes team were the under-bidders.

It was the highest price ever paid for a yearling by a first season sire in Victoria.

Swettenham owner Adam Sangster raced the colt’s dam Hidden Energy to victories in Melbourne and Adelaide and she was also runner-up in the Group 1 Robert Sangster Stakes at Morphettville.  “We would have loved to win the race named after my father but she was beaten a length by Bel Mer,” Sangster recalled.  “Mick Price trained the winner and commiserated with me after the race.

“Now we’ve turned full circle and hopefully this colt will go all the way for Mick and his new owners.”

Equiano was popular at the Melbourne Premier on Sunday with Paul Perry ($170,000) and Pat Carey ($100,000) both taking home colts from Oaklands but those prices were totally eclipsed on Monday.

Sangster and the Swettenham staff knew there were plenty of buyers on the Hidden Energy colt.  Stud manager Brian Gorman has years of experience prepping yearlings for Segenhoe Stud and the Arrowfield – Bellerive partnership and he rated the colt an absolute top-flight youngster.

Assistant manager Tim Jones has been at Swettenham since leaving school and he regarded the colt as the stud’s best-ever foal in his time at the Nagambie nursery.

Hidden Energy delivered another cracking foal – a filly – from the first crop of Swettenham’s Group 1 winner sprinter Master of Design in September.