Gold Coast Magic Millions: Sales gallop past $130M on day three of Yearling Sales
Sales of Magic Millions yearlings have galloped past $130M on day three of bidding on the Gold Coast.
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BIDDERS at the Magic Millions Yearling Sale thundered past $130 million in sales on day three, with sales including another $1.8 million lot on Thursday.
The buyer, Lancaster Bloodstock, was among the buyers to crack the million-dollar mark on Thursday, picking up an Emirates Park colt of Not a Single Doubt and One More Honey.
Other big buys came from Ciaron Maher Bloodstock/Nxt Level Syndicate, which snapped up a Kia Ora Stud filly of I Am Invincible and Maastricht for $1.2 million.
The Tony Fung/Phoenix Investments partnership splashed $1 million on a Baramul Stud colt of Not a Single Doubt and Medaglia Valore, following up a $500,000 colt buy from the same stable and sire earlier in the day and $1.1 million colt purchase on Wednesday.
SALES NEAR $85M AS DAY THREE BIDDING OPENS
SALES at the Gold Coast Magic Millions Yearling Sale were set to tick over the $85 million mark as bidding opened for the third day on Thursday.
After spirited Wednesday bidding, 331 lots had been sold for a gross of $84,825,000 at an average price of $259,404, median of $180,000 and a top price of $1.9 million.
Of the 1286 lots under the hammer, 46 had been passed in and 103 withdrawn from sale - a clearance rate of 87.8 per cent.
A further 261 horses were to take the stage on Thursday.
COOLMORE BOSS TOPS $4M SPEND
Tom Magnier doubled down on his Magic Millions yearling sale spend, following up his $1.9 million colt purchase on day one with a $1.8 million buy on Wednesday.
The Coolmore Australia principal bought a Segenhoe Stud colt of Kingman and Florentia, chasing his acquisition of a brown colt sired by Snitzel and sold by Widden Stud out of NSW.
The buys, together with a cheeky $320,000 purchase of a Kia Ora Stud colt and a $360,000 Strawberry Hill Stud buy, took his spend at the sales to $4.38 million in two days.
Other buyers at the sale have also continued to pony up for new prospects on day two, with one horse selling for $1.1 million and another for $1 million.
The partnership of Tony Fung Investments and Dubai-based Phoenix Thoroughbreds splashed $1.1 million for a Torryburn Stud colt sired by Not A Single Doubt, with Denmagic as dam.
It was one of three colts bought by the partnership by lunch on Wednesday, with about 131 lots from book one still set for the hammer for the day.
Other top end sales for the day included the $1 million sale of a Widden Stud colt to Victorian Alliance/Suman Hedge BloodStock/David Redvers Bloodstock outfit; Godolphin Australia’s $900,000 purchase of a Segenhoe Stud filly and Ciaron Maher Bloodstock’s buy of a Strawberry Hill Stud filly for $800,000.
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SOLID FIRST DAY LOGS A $1.9M SALE
COVID barely registered for bloostock buyers as they bolted out of the gates on the opening day of the Magic Millions yearling sale on Tuesday with one horse fetching a staggering $1.9 million.
Punters willingly splashed the cash on the young horses with 142 lots sold for an average price of $246,853 and combined total of $35.3 million.
The first-day total was down on last year’s $48 million but that came from a much larger number of horses up for sale. This year, the average sale climbed by more than $7000 and the clearance rate was 2 per cent higher.
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said it was a “fantastic start”, given the COVID restrictions and expansion of the sale to run over seven consecutive days for the first time.
“Given the circumstances where you can’t have the international players here — Sydneysiders are unable to make it given the restrictions in place — if you had asked me for these numbers at the start of the day we would have taken them and been delighted with them,” he said.
Mr Bowditch said there was an exciting atmosphere in the auction room despite the challenges faced by the industry.
“We’re a very resilient industry,” he said.
“Prize money in Australia is at unprecedented levels. Horses you buy here at the Magic Millions this week are running for a $12 million race series.
“Whether you are buying a cheap horse for 10, 20, 30 grand right through to the big numbers, you’re giving yourself a chance to run in a huge lottery.”
Boom Racing owner Andrew Duneman said the sector didn’t “bat an eyelid” during COVID with more Australians than ever coming out to invest “surplus cash”.
“You talk to most people and they have sold more shares during COVID than ever,” he said.
“Obviously, racing kept going … and people watching racing wanted to become involved.
“You are seeing that surplus cash people have from not going out or going overseas being invested in horse racing.”
Mr Dunneman, who is part of the team selling the offspring of Spirit Of Boom for Tony Gollan, said pedigree was all important.
“The good horses are well foaled. If you have not got a horse with a bit of pedigree they are struggling.”
The low and high ends of horse buying were in evidence with bidding ranging from the tens of thousands to the millions.
At one extreme, Coolmore Australia principal Tom Magnier spent $1.9 million on a brown colt sired by Snitzel and sold by Widden Stud out of NSW.
“He’s a very nice colt and all the top people liked him,” he said.
“We’re very excited.”
Mr Magnier said he attended the barrier draw in the morning and enjoyed the spectacle.
“We came to the Magic Millions in the sale gone by (in July) and we bought (top race mare) Sunlight for $4.2m,” he said.
“We love the Gold Coast. The rest of the world is in a pretty dark place at the moment and we are all here.
“Magic Millions put on an unbelievable show here. Even with COVID we saw the horses galloping along the beach.”
At the other end of the market Joe Cleary bought a horse for $75,000 on behalf of a syndicate from Noosa.
“This was in their price range and they wanted a colt,” he said.
“It ticked all the right boxes. He’s a big, strong boy.”
The horse will be raced out of Canberra.
CROWDS FLOCK TO BEACH GALLOP
HUNDREDS of people flocked to the annual Magic Millions beach gallop along the Surfers Paradise foreshore on Tuesday.
Fans were also treated to a display by skydivers before the main beach race got underway.
Ambassador for the event, Queenslander rugby league legend Billy Slater, told the crowd ahead of the two-year-old classic race draw, he was in the front handful in the race.
Magic Millions owner Gerry Harvey said “every year just gets a little better”.
But he conceded the loss of international buyers at the event could have an impact.
Speaking just before the main beach gallop, Katie Page said: “First of all we had to not go ahead with a lot of events this year but the event that was sacrosanct to us was doing the Barrier Draw and having the race on the beach.
“... all these years later (from the first beach race) you have a look at this event. It goes not only nationally but it goes around the world.
“It showcases the Gold Coast and Queensland and Australia at its best so we did everything possible to make sure this event goes forward.”
‘LIFE’S A COMPETITION’: GERRY HARVEY ON FATE OF BIG SALE
SELLING horses, selling fridges – it’s all the same approach for Harvey Norman mogul and Magic Millions yearling auction owner Gerry Harvey.
With the megabucks annual sale kicking off this morning at the Bundall yards across from the Gold Coast Turf Club, Mr Harvey – a self-proclaimed horse-trading “tragic” – is as excited as anyone.
Mr Harvey and partner Katie Page – the Harvey Norman CEO – have turned the Magic Millions into a behemoth sale and among the country’s richest race days plus a social calendar highlight.
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“In business over the years I’ve always had to think how do I get to them? How do I get the crowd to buy a fridge for example,” he said.
“If you can get to them and the other guy can’t, like with an ad that sells 10 fridges instead of three, then you’ve succeeded. It’s the same here with horses - if someone can get more people at their sale over another person’s sale.
“It’s a competition. Life is a competition. You’ll never always get it right but the trick is to get it right more often than not,” Mr Harvey said.
Having part-owned hundreds of horses in Australia and New Zealand, the businessman said being back at the sale feels right.
“If you’re a tragic like me and other people here, the fact that we haven’t had a sale for months makes you excited to go to one again,” he said.
“It’s part of what we do. It’s all right doing it online but it’s not with your mates and you don’t get to see people you haven’t for a while and talk horses and life.
“It’s our happy time.”
With international travel restrictions limiting the typically large overseas presence at the Gold Coast event including annual ambassadors Royal Zara Phillips and partner Mike Tindall, the event’s co-owner said the early part of the sale could feel the effects.
“I’m heading into the sale thinking we’re in a better position than I thought we would be,” he said.
“It’s not great but we’re here. We don’t have New Zealand or other internationals here but we have the rest of Australia, which wasn’t looking like the case a few weeks ago. 30 to 40 per cent of our sales are overseas, so when you knock that out this is a very difficult sale.
“We know they have to buy. They might not buy as many but they have their representatives here, they’ve all got videos of the horses. So hopefully we still get that business from overseas.
“The weakest part of a sale is in the first fifty lots. My opinion is there’ll be a lot of passes in the first 50. I might be wrong and that’s what makes it exciting.”
NRL GREAT WINDS UP FOR MAGIC MILLIONS SALE
NRL great turned horse breeder Billy Slater may have spent a few days self-isolating watching the cricket but he hasn’t let that dampen his enthusiasm for the Magic Millions sale.
Mr Slater, who rode trackwork for Gai Waterhouse as a teenager, will be selling for just the second time with a brown colt sired by champion thoroughbred Redoute’s Choice in Wednesday’s sale line-up.
In 2019 he sold his first racehorse Wandjina for $180,000 and as an event ambassador is heavily involved.
On Tuesday the accomplished rider will thunder down the Surfers Paradise beachfront on horseback in the annual spectacle race preceding The Star Gold Coast Magic Millions Barrier Draw.
“I’ll be down at the beach racing. It’s always a lot of fun and what a great spectacle it is,” he said.
“I hope it’s a fast one this year because I’ve got a lot of sand in the face the last couple of years.”
Slater’s new colt is one of a record number of 1200-plus yearlings up for sale this year.
“This year is a little bit different to others with some events like the polo unable to get up and running but … for Magic Millions to still provide its core business and a platform for breeders to sell their stock is fantastic,” he said.
“The racing industry in general has done a fantastic job to continue running and there has been over $700 million in prize money last year that continued to fund the industry.”
Mr Slater flew to the Gold Coast on Sunday and quarantined as a precaution, taking a covid test, which came back negative on Monday.
He said despite international buyers being unable to fly into Australia to inspect horses personally, he had been heartened by the interest shown in his colt.
“We have had really good numbers pre-sale that have gone and inspected our colt at Arrowfield Stud (Upper Hunter Valley) and I’m sure a lot of people have done that as a contingency plan if it (online sales) did not go ahead,” he said.
Mr Slater’s colt has an impressive lineage.
The dam is Inishowen,sired by Encosta de Lago - a three-time winner at 1318m and 2000m.
“A lot goes in to selecting your stallions and we were very lucky to have the opportunity to have … a champion sire like Redoute’s Choice,” he said.
“He is probably going to get out over a little bit of ground but hopefully he is forward enough to be a player in the juvenile races as well.”
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