The auction that starts the year gets underway on the Gold Coast
More than 100 $1 million races a year have lit the fuse under Australian horse racing.
For the past week, leading breeders and trainers have been pacing rows of stables behind Surfers Paradise and scouring the bloodlines in search of the next big thing in Australian racing.
From Tuesday, the preparation and homework will come into play as bidders vie for a stake in their chosen thoroughbred.
It is a ritual played out regularly throughout Australia as the country’s huge prize money pool fuels the drive to be part of the surging industry, which oversees the running of a million-dollar race roughly every 3.4 days.
But nowhere is the custom of buying and selling as frenzied or famous as on the Gold Coast in January, when the Magic Millions yearling sale announces the start of the buying season and racing year.
For Vin Cox, general manager of Chinese billionaire Yuesheng Zhang’s Yulong Investments, the primary focus this week is on selling horses after years of building the stud’s catalogue of quality stallions and mares.
Top of the list of 33 for Yulong is Lot 185, the first foal of Magic Millions success story Away Game, which the stud bought for $4m in 2022.
“It’s a full-circle moment,” Cox said. “Away Game was sold here at Magic Millions (for $425,000) and ultimately won the Magic Millions race and became a champion two-year-old filly.”
Also on the hunt is Tom Magnier, the head of global giant Coolmore Stud’s Australian operation, who said the auction heralded the end of the Christmas and New Year break and the start of the business and sporting year.
“I remember people would always say that the Australian Open (tennis tournament) kicks off the year, but really I think Magic Millions kicks off the year in Australia now, particularly for our industry,” he said.
Magnier credits the prominence of the auction to the focus on drawing in new audiences through fun public activities such as the polo, showjumping and beach races, as well as the nation’s growing prize pool.
“The prize money is just so good in Australia,” he said.
“We have a base in Ireland, America and here and the racing industry in Australia is the healthiest by a long way. “You ask anyone on the Gold Coast what the Magic Millions is and they can tell you, but that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. That’s credit to (Magic Millions co-owner) Katie (Page-Harvey).”
Australia hosted 105 races worth $1m or more last year, compared to 69 in the US and 29 in all of Europe.
Coolmore is regularly a top vendor in the January yearling auction, last year selling 40 horses for a combined $12.94m, while Magnier spent $5.8m buying five yearlings on behalf of his co-investors.
“We’re going out there and we’re trying, like everyone else is, to find the next great colt,” he said.
“Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don’t.”
Among Coolmore’s best selling prospects this year is Lot 182, a filly out of New Zealand mare Avantage, which produced last year’s $2.1m sale-topper, and Lot 1007, a filly out of champion mare Sunlight.
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said the quality sale catalogue would help to offset expected dips in sales caused by cost-of-living pressures, particularly for syndicators who sell racehorse shares to mum-and-dad investors.
“We’re not immune to the cost-of-living issues affecting the rest of the country, mainly at the lower end of the market,” he said.
“The syndicators ... understand that they will have limits.”
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