‘It’s been far from easy but it’s been enormously worthwhile’

Magic Millions hierarchy is already making plans for bigger and better Gold Coast Yearling Sales in the future after the gavel came down for the final time on the 2022 edition, another record-setting auction in which trade was up by more than A$30 million (£15.9m/€19m).

Seven days of selling concluded on Monday when Lot 1235 was knocked down mid-afternoon by auctioneer Grant Burns for A$17,500, a far cry from the 19 million-dollar lots sold in Book 1, but nevertheless an important full stop on Australasia’s first yearling sale of the new year.

While the figures signify the success of the Magic Millions sale - 1,004 yearlings sold for A$240.91m at an average of A$241,393 across Books 1 and 2 - behind the scenes it has not been easy to manage, with the threat of Covid hovering, a fact acknowledged by managing director Barry Bowditch.

“I think it starts with the industry as a whole to come together and perform something pretty extraordinary over the last two weeks,” Bowditch said soon after the last horse left the ring.

“This has been a pretty difficult sale and event to get through and we’re all one big team, whether it be the vendors, the buyers, the truck drivers, the catering staff and, most importantly, the Magic Millions team who have all worked as one and made a lot of sacrifices along the way.

“It’s been far from easy but it’s been enormously worthwhile.”

Bowditch underlined the importance of the January Magic Millions sale in shaping the overall Australasian bloodstock market each year, and he cannot wait to welcome a far bigger international audience in 2023.

“We’ve set the market for the year and that’s a really important thing. We look forward to continuing the momentum through our next few sales,” he said.

“We can’t underestimate what the Magic Millions brand can achieve these days. It’s an honour to be at the helm of it and I believe when the world goes back to some normal - hopefully that’s very soon - it’s only going to get bigger and better.

“We’re only scratching the surface right now.”

Twomey scores A$270,000 Deep Field colt

Rather than leaving the Gold Coast dejected after being regularly outbid during the record Book 1 sale, Wattle Bloodstock’s Peter Twomey stayed the course and, in the final hours of the marathon seven-day auction, his persistence paid off, signing for a A$270,000 son of Deep Field.

The highest-priced yearling of the Book 2 sale, a half-brother to the stakes-placed Nieta and Tumbler, was purchased by the NSW agent after scouring the complex for the previous ten days.

The Grandview-bred and sold colt was one of 32 yearlings to sell for A$100,000 at the Book 2 session, which collated a solid set of results but certainly did not match the trend of the Book 1 year-on-year increases of 16 per cent for the aggregate and average and a 28 per cent median increase to A$230,000.

Twomey believes the Lot 1085-consigned Deep Field colt was the “obvious” top Lot in Book 2 and, in keeping with the competitive nature of the buying bench, was forced to exhaust his budget to get him.

“He’s a nice-moving horse who vetted out very well. We certainly found in Book 1 that those quality colts were making more than our budget and there were a number in there that we got beaten on,” Twomey told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“I looked at him the other day, he had a really good attitude, which is what I look for, and he is a pretty straightforward horse by a sire who is doing a good job here and in Asia. He’s a pretty obvious horse in the end.”

The fact that the colt - the tenth foal out of four-time winner Brookton Flash, a half-sister to dual Group 1 winner Sincero - was selected for Book 2 by the Magic Millions bloodstock team did not deter Twomey, a former employee of rival auction house Inglis.

“The catalogues were put together in September, October last year and horses can go through different growth patterns and, whether it’s up here at the Gold Coast or other sales around Australia, I have had a fair bit of success buying from Book 2,” Twomey said.

“The best horse I’ve ever bought was from the [Inglis] Melbourne Book 2 sale and he won five stakes races in Singapore and was one of their best-ever sprinters, so, for me, it doesn’t really matter.

“When this catalogue was put together a Deep Field colt still would have been popular in October or November, but then he’s come out and had a Hong Kong Group 1 winner and Big Parade won the Sydney Stakes, so maybe in hindsight now he would have been in Book 1.

“Of the horses I’ve seen here the past seven days, he certainly looks a Book 1-quality colt.”

Grandview’s Michael Grieve echoed Twomey’s belief that the horse had handled the yearling sales preparation with aplomb.

“He is a colt who just kept improving. We knew he’d get there one day, but he was a horse who just went through different stages,” Grieve told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“He just kept blossoming heading into the sale and that’s the way you want them and they [buyers] found him, which is great.

“We had a number of people come out of the farm and say they liked him when they saw him there, and then he’s improved again leading up into the sale. He was a popular colt and it’s a great result for the client.”

In the Book 1 session a close relation to the Deep Field colt, a Capitalist second foal filly out of Nieta, sold for A$240,000 to Trilogy Racing and CB Bloodstock from the Kitchwin Hills draft, and Grieve harbours no ill feeling towards Magic Millions for placing Grandview’s colt in the second book of the catalogue.

“It’s not the first time we’ve done really well in Book 2. We had a Not A Single Doubt filly top Book 2 several years ago and we understand that when Magic Millions comes out, horses are at different stages and different places, and we’re a relatively small farm, so sometimes you just don’t get them right where you want them,” he said.

“But we’ve learnt over the years that if you have the right product they’ll find you and you’ll get the results.”

On Sunday, Twomey also bought an All Too Hard colt for A$15,000 and his efforts assessing the Book 1 catalogue were not in vain, either. On Saturday night, in the twilight of the Book 1 sale, he was able to land a Capitalist colt for A$100,000.

Meanwhile, Gold Coast trainer John Morrisey was also active on Monday, outlasting Michael Costa to buy the Performer half-brother to Saturday’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic fourth placegetter Perfect Mission, for A$210,000 from Hopetoun Farm.

He also paid A$170,000 for a Headwater half-brother to the Group 1-performed, now Hong Kong-based, gelding I’ve Bean There, who was sold through the Kenmore Lodge draft.

Book 2 had 219 horses sell for A$12.631m at an average of A$57,676, a figure down from A$60,353 in 2021, and a median of A$50,000, the same as last year.

Barry Bowditch: 'I think it starts with the industry as a whole to come together and perform something pretty extraordinary over the last two weeks.'Credit: Darren Tindale

Bowditch said the Book 2 sale lived up to his expectations.

“I think we had a solid catalogue this year but it was no stronger than last year’s catalogue,” he said.

“To clear close to 85 per cent of them and average almost A$60,000 and a gross in line with last year, I think it is an outstanding result. There was a craving for horses all the way to the end today.”

In 2021, Magic Millions chose to expand the size of its Book 1 catalogue, a move which has undoubtedly been a success, but it means that Book 2 yearlings do not arrive at the complex until the main sale has started.

Major buyers, Bowditch said, were still paying close attention to the Book 2 auction.

“I know Gai [Waterhouse] was bidding on one today; Ciaron’s [Maher] obviously bought some, who were our top two buyers [in Book 1], and plenty of our good Book 1 buyers supported Book 2,” he said.

“I think it’s a sale, if we can continue to increase the quality, then the market’s here to ensure the vendors get the results they deserve.”

Normally the yearling sales caravan would roll onto New Zealand and Karaka but the Kiwis have pushed the National sale back to March this year, leaving the Inglis Classic sale the next on the calendar.

The three-day Classic sale starts in Sydney on February 6, while Magic Millions’ immediate focus is the Perth Yearling Sale, starting on February 14.

Sale statistics - Book 2

2022 2021

Catalogued 297 311

Offered 257 275

Sold 219 (85%) 228 (83%)

Aggregate A$12,631,000 (-8%) A$13,760,500

Average A$57,676 (-4.3%) A$60,353

Median A$50,000 A$50,000

Top lot A$270,000 A$310,000

Sale statistics - overall

2022 2021

Catalogued 1,235 1,286

Offered 1,099 1,169

Sold 1,004 (91%) 1,016 (87%)

Aggregate A$242,180,000 (+14%) A$211,721,000

Average A$241,215 (+16%) A$208,387

Median A$180,000 (+20%) A$150,000

Top lot A$1.9 million A$1.9 million

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