'We're very happy with the depth of the catalogue' - anticipation high for cracking Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale

Anticipation is high ahead of the Magic Millions yearling sale which gets under way on the Gold Coast in Queensland on Tuesday, with the auction house's managing director Barry Bowditch confident the catalogue will present buyers with a plethora of opportunity at every level of the market.

A total of 1,021 lots have been catalogued for Book 1, which will reach its crescendo on Friday with 300 lots being offered at the inaugural Howden's Super Session, which Bowditch believes will provide the perfect entree before the A$20 million (£10m/€12m) Magic Millions raceday on Saturday. 

“The way the catalogue falls, I think there's great depth from lot one all the way through to 1,021, but luckily we've got some fireworks late in the sale, which will create a really good vibe here on Friday evening,” he told ANZ Bloodstock News. 

"I'm just really looking forward to seeing the trainers, syndicators and everyone just bring their owners and friends out here, and we'll have bars set up and food trucks and create a really fun kind of pre-raceday vibe.”

The creation of the super session and axing any action in the ring on Saturday were decisions Bowditch said Magic Millions did not take lightly, but that they had been well received by the industry.  

“I think the new formula with the super session is very exciting and the industry has embraced it,” he said. “Going back to when we introduced it, we consulted our stakeholders – the vendors and buyers – leading into it and it wasn’t a decision we took lightly, but on the whole it has been very well supported.”

Bowditch said the sale presents an important barometer for the market early in 2025, and has historically set the tone for the rest of the sales that follow in its wake throughout the year. 

“It's a really important sale for our industry, being the first of the year and it gets the economic confidence in the industry going, especially from a southern hemisphere point of view,” said Bowditch. 

“It sets the scene, not only for what we are doing here but for the rest of the season. 

“We're very happy with the depth of the catalogue we've got this year, and the reports we're hearing back from both vendors and buyers is very positive. There's lots of vetting going on and we're hearing that there's very little tail to the catalogue, which is good.

“When you have a sale of this much depth and quality, what it does is provide a perfect storm for buyers, given the fact there is not as much depth in the market from a buyer's perspective. Any buyer that has done their work, this sale will present a massive opportunity to maybe buy a horse they didn’t expect they would be able to purchase and be buying that for a price they will be very happy with.”

While revered stallions such as Hunter Valley powerhouses I Am Invincible, Zoustar and Snitzel, and Victoria’s leading stallion Written Tycoon, will be well represented by some of the best bred lots over the next four days of trade, some of the attention will also be focused on the new kids on the block as a host of sires with their first crops all aim to convert a wealth of racetrack success into brilliance in the breeding barn.

They include the likes of Coolmore’s dual Group 1 winner Home Affairs, who is the most strongly represented among the new stallions, Newgate’s 2021 Golden Slipper hero Stay Inside and intriguing shuttle stallions, including Coolmore’s St Mark’s Basilica and Darley’s Pinatubo, the latter having made a promising start to his career in the northern hemisphere. 

“We're in a great position down here right now when you look at proven horses – I Am Invincible, Written Tycoon, Snitzel and Zoustar, they are the big ones who have huge numbers this week,” said Bowditch.

“Then you have the new group coming through, such as those major shuttle stallions like Wootton Bassett and Too Darn Hot, who both have 30-odd yearlings catalogued and they are two of the sexiest sires on the planet at the moment.

“Then we have our first-season horses who we're always so lucky to have – Home Affairs and Stay Inside are two of the best-credentialled horses to have been bred and gone to stud in Australia in the last couple of years. The second-season horses have also started very well. 

The I Am Invincible filly out of multiple Group 1 winner Avantage looks a catalogue standout ahead of Magic MillionsCredit: Magic Millions

“The catalogue is a fantastic melting pot of well-credentialled sires, whether they be young or proven, at all ends of the market, and that has to be a good thing for the buyers who are here to take a horse home, and if they are syndicating they will be relatively easy to sell.”

Yarraman Park’s I Am Invincible, Australia’s reigning champion sire, could be behind some fireworks during the opening session in the shape of a filly out of multiple Group 1 winner Avantage (lot 182). Her filly by Wootton Bassett topped last year’s sale when Te Akau Racing’s David Ellis, who raced Avantage, purchased her for A$2.1m. 

She will go through late in the day, just three lots before the first foal out of 2020 Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Away Game (185) – a filly by Written Tycoon – while other head-turning lots on the opening day include a brother to Amelia's Jewel (234) and a Farnan colt who is a half-brother to leading Golden Slipper fancy Bel Merci (200).

Home Affairs’ sale-bound yearlings, who were conceived off a fee of A$110,000, will undoubtedly command plenty of attention when they go through the ring, perhaps most notably his filly by Sunlight (1007), a colt out of Booker (225) and a filly out of Champagne Cuddles (256). 

As usual, colt syndicates will be out in force on the hunt for their next big name in the breeding barn, but Bowditch believes the depth of fillies in this year’s catalogue presents an exciting prospect. 

“As is always the case we're really strong for colts this year, but this year we have some bespoke fillies rare to market that any racehorse owner or broodmare farm would love to have back home,” he said. 

“We're very lucky they're here to meet the market and be sold, and we're excited by the potential of what those horses could make when they enter the ring over the next few days.”

Inspections were under way at the Magic Millions ground ahead of the Gold Coast Yearling SaleCredit: Magic Millions

The graduates of the sale speak volumes for the quality that is offered year after year; they include last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Knight’s Choice, top-class sprinting mare Imperatriz, the great Winx, Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Ozzmosis and Militarize, to name but a handful. 

“We believe we have a catalogue of 1,021 horses who are of Book 1 quality and it's the sort of sale which is going to have an average of somewhere between A$250,000 or A$300,000; that is our expectation,” said Bowditch. 

“There's so much middle in the catalogue, whether you want a colt or a filly, a stayer, a sprinter, a two-year-old or a horse who will train on, you have only to look at our graduate board – whether you want the best sprinter in the world, an Imperatriz, or a Winx who is going to train on, or a Melbourne Cup winner like Knight’s Choice, or a Private Life, they are most likely here on the grounds, You're not going to find as many of them at any other sale.”

Following the Magic Millions Raceday at the Sunshine Coast Turf Club on Saturday, which features the A$3m Magic Millions 2YO Classic and A$3m Magic Millions 3YO Guineas, Book 2 gets under way the following afternoon, with the final lots set to go through the ring on Monday.

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