Buyers hold upper hand after day one of Magic Millions National Yearling Sale

Magic Millions will attempt to cultivate a happy medium between buyers and sellers after a “far from satisfactory” start to the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale as purchasers appeared unwilling to compromise on quality despite apparent unprecedented demand for racing stock.

After months of vendors holding court at the Australian yearling and breeding stock sales, buyers took the upper hand, leading to a depressed clearance rate which hovered around the 50 per cent mark for most of the six hours of trade which saw seven select sale yearlings make A$200,000 or more.

A Snitzel colt was the most expensive yearling at A$500,000 (£273,000) while a son of I Am Invincible sold for A$320,000 (£174,000) and a Dundeel colt and an Extreme Choice filly made $220,000 (£120,000) each on the opening day.

Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch cut to the chase when assessing the session.

“I think it’s an extremely polarising market and the clearance rate is far from satisfactory and over the next 24 hours we’ll be working very hard to increase the clearance rate to a satisfactory level,” Bowditch said.

“Buyers, agents, trainers and owners out there need to be paying attention to this sale. They need to be doing their research overnight leading into [today and tomorrow] because there’s so much opportunity out there.

“On the other side of the coin, I think vendors need to set their reserves low and give the market an opportunity to gain some confidence and obviously give themselves an opportunity to sell these horses.”

111 yearlings sold for a total of A$7,091,500 (£3.87 million) at an average of A$63,887 (£34,899) (up 19 per cent year on year) and a median of A$45,000 (£24,582) (up 25 per cent year on year). The clearance rate had improved to 57 per cent by the close of business with the expectation more sales will be made today.

Bowditch understood the reasons why many buyers, even in the absence of a number of Victorian participants, were not prepared to exceed their budgets to purchase horses.

“I think they’re being selective. They are at an end-of-the-line yearling sale,” he said.

"They don’t need a lot of horses, so they are pinning their ears back on the ones they really like.

“I think quality lots were still sought after today and that was evident whether it be Guy Mulcaster and Chris Waller or Suman Hedge, they’ve got an eye for detail and they’re finding those horses here and making sure they secure them.”

Third time lucky for Milburn’s $500,000 Snitzel colt

The session-topping colt changed hands in the dying moments of the day with Victorian agent Suman Hedge going hard for a son of Snitzel, a colt offered by John Muir’s Milburn Creek after twice having to be withdrawn from earlier yearling sales.

Hedge had to go to A$500,000 to land the colt after strong competition from an online bidder.

“We had a lot of insider knowledge about this horse. Scott [Holcombe from Milburn Creek] has been telling me about this horse for a very long time about how much he loved him,” Hedge said.

“They were devastated that they couldn’t get him through the sales earlier in the year, which was really bad luck that he didn’t come through.

“Had he gone through earlier he would have made significantly more, so armed with all that knowledge and seeing his pedigree, we thought he was clearly the standout horse here comfortably.”

The colt, who had to be withdrawn from both the Magic Millions and Inglis Australian Easter Yearling sales owing to niggling issues, is the fifth foal out of stakes winner Walk With Attitude who is already the dam of the stakes-placed two-year-old winner Spend, himself a A$1.55 million Easter graduate.

Hedge would not disclose the ownership group behind the high-priced purchase while a trainer has not been decided.

“We had him vetted and our vets were really happy with him and we’ve got a pretty strict criteria. With our pinhooking and yearlings, we are very, very conservative by nature and they were all very happy with him,” he said.

“He presented very well. He’s a lovely moving horse, he’s strong, he’s active. He paraded as well today as he did on the first day, so they are all the signs of a good horse.”

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