Big jump for Millions prize event

It was already the host of Queensland’s richest race day and now the Magic Millions festival on the Gold Coast will feature the most lucrative showjumping event in Australian history.

Katie Page-Harvey, Elsa Pataky and Zara Tindall with Amelia on the eve of Magic Millions day at the Gold Coast. Picture: Luke Marsden

Already the host of Queensland’s richest race day, the Magic Millions festival on the Gold Coast will now also feature the most lucrative showjumping event in Australian history.

First featured as an addition to last year’s polo tournament, the showjumping returns on Sunday with a massive increase in prize money from $100,000 to $1.45m.

“I can’t recall prize money like that in one day of showjumping anywhere in the world,” said Magic Millions co-owner Katie Page-Harvey, whose Netherlands-based daughter, Georgina Harvey, is a professional showjumper. “In somewhere like Europe you’ll have big prize money … over a few days but this is on one day and anyone can win it.”

About 5000 people are expected to attend the Magic Millions polo and showjumping, the curtain raiser to a fortnight of thoroughbred sales and an $11.75m race day.

Watching the bumper crowd walk in will tick off a longtime goal for Ms Page-Harvey, who added polo to the festival in 2017.

“This Sunday we will nudge 5000 people, which is quite extraordinary given where we’ve come from,” Ms Page-Harvey said.

“Adding showjumping has been a real key to that because it gives the public even more to look at and enjoy around horses.”

The event has become a drawcard for local and international celebrities. Among the big-name ambassadors this year are Spanish-born actor Elsa Pataky, Queensland State of Origin rugby league coach Billy Slater, Argentinian polo player Nacho Figueras and his model wife Delfina Blaquier, and royal Zara Tindall and her retired English rugby star husband Mike Tindall.

Pataky, who lives in Byron Bay with her husband, Thor star Chris Hemsworth, is a talented showjumper in her own right.

She joined Tindall and Ms Page-Harvey at Doug Jennings Park on the Southport Spit on Friday for an inspection of the polo field and showjumping arena.

Tindall, daughter of Princess Anne and Mark Phillips, and a niece of King Charles, has been a Magic Millions ambassador for a decade, watching it grow from a niche yearling sale and race day to one of the biggest summer racing carnivals in the country.

Following a tumultuous year for the royal family, Tindall said returning to the Gold Coast, after a hiatus during the pandemic, was like a homecoming.

“For me now it’s like family, it’s like coming home,” she said. “I’ll tell people back home I’m going to Australia and they’ll say, ‘oh you’re going to Magic Millions?’.”

Describing the polo, showjumping, beach race, race day, and of course the yearling sales, as a “festival of the horse”, Tindall, who won silver with the English eventing team at the 2012 Olympics, said the layout of the polo field and showjumping course gave spectators an intimate view.

Tindall will saddle up on Sunday alongside Slater and professional polo player Ruki Baillieu in a celebrity match.

About 35 per cent of horses in the polo and showjumping are retrained racehorses.

The Queensland government on Friday committed to a new five-year funding deal. “This event is about more than racing … a jam-packed schedule of events … sees renowned owners, horse racing identities and spectators enjoying our great Gold Coast lifestyle,” Acting Sport and Tourism Minister Scott Stewart said.