Glamour day for girls at Magic Millions sales

An international all-woman syndicate has walked away richer after Global Glamour sold for $1.55 million.

Gerry Harvey, Katie Paige and Tom Magnier of Coolmore Stables with Group 1 winner and prized broodmare Global Glamour. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

A horse that sold for $65,000 to an all-women’s racing syndicate four years ago has sold for $1.55 million at the Magic ­Millions broodmare auction.

Every head in the Gold Coast crowd turned towards the podium for the day’s feature sale as bay mare Global Glamour paced around the ring, drawing bids from several interested buyers.

Coolmore stud principal Tom Magnier, bloodstock agent James Bester and Harvey Norman executive chairman Gerry Harvey made the winning bid, which was the sixth above the million-dollar mark at this year’s auction.

The Gai Waterhouse-trained mare, in foal to champion sire Zoustar, amassed more than $1.5m in prizemoney during her career and won the Flight Stakes and the Thousand Guineas in the space of eight days in 2016. Mr Magnier said Global Glamour’s record, “good looks” and bloodline made her an exciting prospect as a broodmare. “We’re going to send her down to our stud to Justify, who is a ­Triple Crown winner in the US. I just hope another girls’ syndicate gets together to buy her offspring,” he said.

Five-year-old Global Glamour won five of 19 starts during her ­career, including two Group 2 races, before being retired in 2018.

The pin-up of all-female owner syndicates, Global Glamour was bred by Lauriston Farm and sold to the It’s All About The Girls racing syndicate, which features 40 owners from seven countries, at the 2015 Magic Millions Yearling Sale. Syndicate member Susie Montague said the horse’s sale was a bittersweet moment.

“When we got together, not in our wildest dreams did we think we would be buying a Group 1 ­winner,” she said.

“To get a $60,000 horse to win two Group 1s in a week has been a wonderful advertisement for women to get into racing.”

Magic Millions co-owner Katie Page said the purchase of Global Glamour in 2015 and the mare’s success was the “beacon” that led to almost 1000 all-female syndicates registering for the Magic Millions Racing Women’s bonus: “This was the beacon for me. This was the horse and this was the group of women who put the Magic Millions Women’s Racing bonus on the map.

“To get a horse to the track is hard enough but to get a horse that is so extraordinary is so much more. She has created friendships that will endure long after today.”

Ms Montague has had a successful week at the sales. Another of her horses, Missrock, sold on Tuesday for $2.3m to the Queen’s bloodstock agent, John Warren.

Mr Warren and son Jake, whose daughter is the goddaughter of Prince Harry, visited the sale pens last week where they spotted Missrock, the daughter of prized stallion Fastnet Rock.

After returning to England, Mr Warren phoned his bids through.