A brother to Melbourne Cup winner Prince Of Penzance and a pure white filly have captured the attention on the first day of New Zealand's Premier yearling sale at Karaka.

Neither was the top selling lot on Monday with that honour going to a colt by Cox Plate winner Savabeel out of unraced O'Reilly mare Bling which fetched $775,000.

New Zealand's biggest buyer, Te Akau's David Ellis secured the yearling at a price which was a record for the vendor, Waikato Stud.

While the high-priced colt will stay in New Zealand, Prince Of Penzance's brother will head to Melbourne.

Caulfield trainer Henry Dwyer, who bought Prince Of Penzance's sister for $120,000 a year ago, paid $200,000 for the colt.

"I was expecting to pay a bit more for this colt actually," Dwyer said.

"Most of him is spoken for but there's still bit left in him.

"Even without his pedigree, he's just a nice horse and that's what I wanted to buy.

"Obviously the pedigree is a factor and it's a help that we have the sister which we like a lot."

Japanese businessman Hideo Takadaru fought off Ellis to buy the white filly for $450,000 after seeing her on the internet.

Takadaru said he wanted to race her in New Zealand and eventually take her to Japan as a broodmare.

"I am very happy to buy this filly as I travelled to New Zealand specifically to do that," he said.

"I saw several videos of her on the internet and became interested in her. I liked what I saw and decided to see if I could buy her.

"I would like to race her in New Zealand and then take her back to Japan to become a broodmare, where she could visit a stallion like Deep Impact."