Magic Millions 2024: Amazing true story of Gold Coast race’s earliest years

The Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic has been run for another year. Now find out the amazing true story of its earliest years.

The Gold Coast Magic Millions is the race that stops the city and has produced champions for more than 35 years.

The famed 2YO Classic will run this afternoon at the Gold Coast Turf Club, with horses sold at last year’s yearling sales battling it out for a $2m purse.

It comes nearly 40 years after the inaugural race in January 1987 when the event, then known as the Magic Million, was won by Snippets, who was trained by local Sally Rogers (now Keay).

Despite months of preparation she almost missed seeing the win.

Snippets winning the 1987 Magic Millions

Ms Keay was rushed to the Gold Coast Hospital less than 24 hours before the race began with post-operative problems following a collapsed lung.

“(The lung was infected and) the doctor said to my parents it was 50-50 (whether I would survive),” she said last year, looking back to her moment of glory in early 1987.

“I was pretty sick back then and I had a fair fever and with everything happening I didn’t realise how serious it was. I said to the doctors ‘Look I really want to go to this race on Saturday so can’t we postpone (the surgery) until after the race on Monday’ or something like that.

“They said, ‘no’, so I said, ‘I am just going to discharge myself in the morning’ and they said, ‘OK’.”

Ms Keay’s family managed the stables and she was out of hospital in time to be reunited with Snippets just before the race.

Despite having a drainage tube sticking out of her chest, she was able to spend a brief period of time with Snippets before the race began and wished her well.

Snippets had its date with destiny and won the race.

The Augustine family, who were the original owners of Snippets, went on to allow the original Magic Millions silverware to be used as a perpetual trophy for the race.

A year after Snippets’ win, the second Magic Millions was surrounded by controversy when the first horse past the post lost on protest.

Former champion trainer Sally Rogers. Picture Glenn Hampson

Prince Regent (20-1) crossed the line first just in front of Molokai Prince (101) after a bumping battle in the final 150m of the race.

But the real fireworks came after the race when Molokai Prince’s jockey, Ron Quinton, lodged a protest over interference caused by Prince Regent, who was ridden by John Marshall.

“When I accelerated clear in the straight the only horse to come after me was the eventual winner,’’ Quinton told stewards.

“When Prince Regent came from behind we bumped a couple of times and we brushed when level.

“Molokai Prince is a big horse and it cost me momentum.

“He was off balance and it took him a few strides to recover.’’

Molokai Prince ridden by jockey Ron Quinton is bumped by Prince Regent

Stewards looked at multiple replays of the event, including several head-on videos. Marshall argued he had not been at fault and that any interference was minor.

“We brushed but straight away I pulled him off and put the whip away. It was only a slight brush,’’ he said.

After an exhaustive inquiry, the stewards upheld the protest and Molokai Price and Ron Quinton were declared the winners.

Following the announcement, Molokai Prince’s trainer Neville Begg spoke to Prince Regent’s trainer Kelso Wood.

“I hate protests at any time, but I have a responsibility to the owners in such a major race as this,’’ Begg said.

After the race, the people most pleased by the result were the bookmakers, because neither Molokai Prince nor Prince Regent had been favoured by punters.

Molokai Prince lived a long life before dying in 1997.