‘Royal’ spell as Elsa Pataky joins Magic Millions family
Hollywood royalty Elsa Pataky joined Katie Page in the UK to announce she will become an ambassador for thoroughbred auction house Magic Millions.
Katie Page likes royalty, and that includes Hollywood royalty Elsa Pataky.
The Byron Bay-based Spanish actor and wife of Chris Hems-worth joined Page in Britain’s picturesque Cotswolds this week to announce she will become an ambassador for thoroughbred auction house Magic Millions.
Page, who is CEO of Harvey Norman and owner of the Gold Coast-based Magic Millions, gathered an influential group of thoroughbred breeders and other Magic Millions ambassadors, including NRL royalty and horse enthusiast Billy Slater, the king of polo Argentinian Nachos Figueras and British royal family member Zara Tindall, at the Gatcombe Park property belonging to Tindall’s mother, Princess Anne.
There, Page also announced Magic Millions would renew its sponsorship of the Festival of British Eventing, the British Open of equestrian cross country riding which is held annually on the 295ha estate.
“Our ambassadors are fantastic,” says Page. “They actually have quite different lives but they come together and they bond over their passion for horses.”
Page also welcomed Pataky and Hemsworth’s daughter India, 10, who like her mother is a keen showjumper and was on the lookout for a well-trained pony to take home. Page can relate to Pataky’s experience as a horse fanatic’s mother because her own daughter, Georgina Harvey, is a professional show jumper based in The Netherlands.
“Watching Elsa with India and her passion, it was like my life with Georgie – it’s taken me back 15 years.”
Page’s 28-year-old daughter with husband Gerry Harvey moved to The Netherlands, where Europe’s vibrant equestrian eventing scene and top quality coaching and competitions are more accessible. Australian champion and four times Olympic show jumper, Edwina Tops-Alexander, is her neighbour on the property managed with her husband Oli Lazarus, who is also a professional showjumper.
“They are growing the business,” explains Page. “They are breeding and we’ve got a couple of their horses back in Australia. Again, it’s that northern and southern hemisphere connection like we have in racing.”
Eventing also provides a path to retrain and rehome many less successful racehorses, many of whom will go on to compete well into their 20th years.
Since buying out their partners and taking full control of Magic Millions in 2011, Page has launched various initiatives such a $2m Magic Millions Classic which carries a $500,000 bonus for all female-raced runners, of which Tindall is patron.
Popular public events during the January week of yearling sales on the Gold Coast include a world-class show jumping meet, polo matches featuring Figueras, Tindall and Slater, and a celebrity-filled horse race along the beach.
The activities have turned the yearling sales – which this year totalled $241.9m – into a festive family affair and a lucrative event for Queensland tourism.
At Magic Millions this coming new year, visitors might expect to see Tindall with husband Mike Tindall, the former British rugby player, and their three children, who are great-grandchildren to the Queen, mixing with Aussie Hollywood royalty Hemsworth and Pataky, India, and her younger twin brothers.
Perhaps the next generation will follow in their parents’ footsteps. Tindall was presented her silver Olympic medal by Princess Anne, who was also the first royal to compete in the Olympics in Montreal in 1976.
A love of horses tends to run in families, and the Magic Millions ambassador family is made up of royalty from all walks of life.
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