Most major players on the Australian Turf regard this week's 2016 Jeep Magic Millions Sale in Queensland as a pivotal point in the calendar. It marks the start of a hectic round of sales in Australasia that sets the tone for the entire racing year.
Most major players on the Australian Turf regard this week's 2016 Jeep Magic Millions Sale in Queensland as a pivotal point in the calendar. It marks the start of a hectic round of sales in Australasia that sets the tone for the entire racing year.
If the market is buoyant -- which it certainly is at present -- there is then a strong chance that the wheels of a gigantic industry, in a country in which the sport is respected and nurtured, will keep turning smoothly for the financial gain of its constituents, for the foreseeable future, at least.
Gold Coast, Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney (twice), and Adelaide all stage major yearling sales at which breeders in this part of the world present their bloodstock to buyers. Launceston and Perth, on a slightly lower plane, also have sales. For most, it is the annual opportunity to stock up.
In the case of the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast, there is also the bonus of being able to see what you bought in the sales ring 12 months earlier competing for quite staggering prizemoney on Surfers Paradise racecourse, which is adjacent the sales complex.
The opportunity to have a crack at the A$10 million total -- it is Australia's richest single raceday -- obviously only presents itself if your purchase makes the grade. Plenty did, as capacity fields in the nine races on Saturday indicated. Condition of entry is that all runners must have gone under the hammer at a Magic Millions sale.
Promotion is everything, and Magic Millions is second to none on that score. To add a Royal connection to the occasion, Zara Phillips flew in for the week as a Magic Millions ambassador, accompanied by husband Mike Tindall, while Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win the G1 Melbourne Cup, did her part to grab headlines when winning the final race, aboard Husson Eagle, trained by her brother Patrick.
The feature race on the card, the Jeep Magic Millions two-year-old Classic, went to Capitalist, an odds-on favourite, who absolutely blitzed his opposition. The son of Written Tycoon sets a high standard in the two-year-old division, though he will meet a number of serious contenders in the build-up to the G1 Golden Slipper at Rosehill in coming weeks.
Every one of the nine winners on the card brought home huge prizemoney for their connections, and a considerable amount of it was reinvested at the sales.
With Books 1 and 2 of the Magic Millions Sale having gone through the ring by Sunday night, the statistics were revealing. A total of 798 lots sold, at an average of A$161,346, grossing A$128.75 million.
A total of six lots sold for A$1 million, with four stallions dominating at the top end of the market. Snitzel, the G1-winning son of Redoute's Choice, sired the top lot, a bay colt out of Mirror Mirror, who went for A$1.6 million, and he also had two others in the list of the 10 highest-priced yearlings sold.
Fastnet Rock also had three on that list, while newcomer Pierro boasted two, and ever-reliable Exceed and Excel, the outstanding Darley stallion, was also responsible for two.
Every horse sale worldwide has its own individual flavour. This is immediately noticeable wherever you travel. In my experience, the Gold Coast Magic Millions is unique for its blend of serious players with big budgets looking for quality bloodstock, and an easy-going informality that owes much to the weather.
For overseas buyers, as well as those from the Southern states of Australia, sunny skies and high temperatures seem to bring out the best in them. For the internationals, the relative weakness of the Australian dollar is also an added attraction.
The Gold Coast experience will live long in the memory of most who have been here for the racing and the sales this week. The exploits of their purchases on the racecourse will have a bearing on how swiftly they return.
