'There’s a great thirst for yearlings in Australia' - Snitzel on top again as the curtain comes down on Book 1 at Magic Millions

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A diverse buying bench and a deep catalogue combined to ensure the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale concluded on Friday evening with a decidedly healthy set of figures.

A smaller offering meant turnover was always liable to dip year-on-year, but after four sessions of lively Book 1 trade aggregate sales were just two per cent behind 12 months ago at A$202,597,500 (£101,342,310/€116,555,355)

The average price, underpinned by 15 seven-figure lots, increased marginally to A$273,180, while the median held firm at A$200,000. The clearance rate was up close to three points at 85.96 per cent as 741 yearlings found a new home.

“I’m delighted,” said Magic Millions’ managing director Barry Bowditch. “A$200 million was a real goal leading in, but to have 40 less horses catalogued, and there were 20-plus more withdrawals, and some significant withdrawals in recent days, it was pleasing to get close to last year’s gross. To increase the clearance rate, which is closing at 86 per cent, and an average that’s up on last year, all the key numbers are reflective of what we believed leading in was a strong catalogue.

“We worked hard to get the best buying bench we possibly could. There were a lot of trainers here, a good diverse bunch from a lot of the regional areas, be it Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, the buyers from New Zealand and throughout Asia were fantastic. It was a diverse buying bench but we really made sure we marketed the sale so people could come over here and have a great selection of horses within all budgets.”

He added: “What pleased me was the spread of buyers. There were 45 different buyers who spent a million or more, which is a big spread. That shows there’s a great thirst for yearlings in Australia and a great thirst for the Magic Millions product. It’s been busy from the moment we turned the lights on at 11am on Tuesday.”

Waller and Mulcaster make hay

Chris Waller and Guy Mulcaster topped the buyers’ chart with 14 new recruits costing a combined A$8.685 million. The two priciest members of the group were picked up during day four, led by the session-topping Snitzel colt who fetched A$1.5m late in the piece.

The Coolmore-consigned youngster is the first foal out of Vangelic, the second-highest earner sired by Vancouver. The dam had plenty of talent on the track, winning the Group 2 Golden Pendant and reaching the podium in the Group 1 Surround Stakes and Flight Stakes.

Vangelic joined the Coolmore broodmare band when purchased by Tom Magnier for A$1.5m at the 2023 edition of the Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale.

Guy Mulcaster: 'He looks like an early runner and moves beautifully'Credit: Magic Millions

“He looked really sharp and he did really well through the prep,” said Mulcaster. “He looks like an early runner and moves beautifully. I think what we paid for him is pretty well on the mark. It’s a helluva lot of money but that’s what they seem to cost. When you get good colts that return to stud then they look cheap, but if they don’t, well, whatever will be will be. He’s a beautiful horse though. The mare ran in a lot of good stakes races and acquitted herself very well.”

Earlier in the day the team bid A$1.25m for a well-bred daughter of I Am Invincible, also from the Coolmore draft. The filly is out of Qafila, a daughter of Not A Single Doubt who landed the Group 1 South Australian Derby during her time in training.

The dam was sold as part of Shadwell’s Australasian dispersal at Magic Millions in 2021, where Dean Hawthorne signed the A$2m docket on behalf of Jonathan Munz of GSA Bloodstock.

Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale results

“The thing that really got our attention was the fact mum was so versatile,” said Mulcaster. “She ran in the first two-year-old race of the season and ended up winning an Oaks, so we’ve got a few different paths we can take with her.

“We always thought this filly was just an athlete, she’s beautiful and comes off a great farm. We actually thought we were going to struggle to buy her but it’s ended up alright for us. I don’t think we’ll bustle her too much [once in training], we’ll just let her do the talking and see what transpires.”

The seven-figure filly was the team’s second notable signing during the opening stages of the session, having also paid A$700,000 for the Anamoe colt out of Listed scorer Pretty Fast just a few lots earlier. “Two starts, two wins for the morning, it’s not too bad!” joked Mulcaster. “It’s a long day ahead though.”

New heights for Anamoe

Anamoe’s first-crop yearlings have been all the rage on the Gold Coast, and Darley’s young gun passed a significant milestone on Friday when supplying his first seven-figure lot.

Widden Stud’s colt is out of Listed scorer Secret Trail, making him a half-brother to the Ciaron Maher-trained Spywire, who was seen claiming last Saturday’s Magic Millions The Syndicate on the Gold Coast.

Maher will also take charge of this youngster after bidding A$1.1m, although the stable’s head of bloodstock Will Bourne explained the purchase was inspired by more than simply family ties.

“On paper it might look obvious, but it was the horse in front of you that really took Ciaron’s eye and made him want to buy him,” said Bourne. “Obviously the Spywire factor is there but the fact that he’s a big, strong, imposing colt is the main reason. We’re not being geniuses by finding him at the sale, he was very obvious. He wasn’t missed by anyone. We first saw him at the farm at Widden in late November or early December and he was just a classy animal with a bit of presence about him.”

The Maher stable went back-to-back on lots by Anamoe having also partnered with Mystery Downs to secure a filly from Bell River Thoroughbreds at A$600,000 just moments before Spywire’s sibling took to the ring. Bourne explained the team had conducted their due diligence on not only the sire’s yearlings, but the stallion himself.

Widden Stud's Anamoe colt became the first yearling by the sire to sell for seven figuresCredit: Magic Millions

“Funnily enough we’ve seen a lot of Anamoes we liked and there are a few traits that Ciaron was querying,” said Bourne. “Myself, Ciaron and [Darley’s] Andy Makiv went and checked out Anamoe in between parades in the Hunter Valley. That was the first time we’d seen him in a while and there are a lot of similarities. He’s a heavy horse, he’s big and strong.

“If you’re being critical about this colt, the one negative is how big and heavy he is. But when he moves his athleticism really makes up for it; he doesn’t move sloppy or heavy, he keeps it upright. Those proper Group 1 weight-for-age horses have that strength and that imposing muscle. So although it’s in the back of your mind as an issue, you need to have that to be a proper horse. I’m hoping he’s just that.”

The colt was the most expensive member of the Widden draft, which generated receipts of A$11.335m from 34 sold lots. The stud’s owner Antony Thompson reacted to the transaction by saying: “It’s a fabulous result. He was an incredibly popular horse; I think he had 280 inspections here, so he was never in his box. He never turned a hair. The team did a fantastic job with him. He was just a star all week.

“I think Anamoe has been a really well received first-crop sire, but this was the one that looked most like his sire. Obviously Ciaron had perfect timing with Spywire winning last Saturday, so that was ideal to have a half-brother win a million-dollar race last week and running in a big race tomorrow. It was great to see Ciaron win that battle with Mick Price, to get the colt. He’s just a lovely horse. I’m really thrilled and proud of what the team has done this week.”

The Maher stable will include four members of Anamoe’s debut crop who were sourced on the Gold Coast, as the team also went to A$950,000 for the colt out of Time Check from Arrowfield.

The six-figure youngster is a half-brother to the Listed-winning and Group 2-placed Willinga Beast, while Time Check is a sibling to the dam of Group 1 scorers Alizee and Astern.

Bourne said: “I thought it was pulling up at A$750,000 but someone else was chasing it. We did want the horse and were happy to go there, but that was probably our last bid. He had a few minor imperfections looking at him straight on but the horse side on, the way he moved, he was just a great colt.”

He added: “If you were nitpicking he wasn’t perfect in front, but we see so often how many horses go to the winners’ stall on Saturdays and there’s no perfect horse front on. That was the only negative, but there were a lot more positives.”

All told Anamoe had 30 lots sell for gross receipts of A$14.43m and an average price of $481,000. He stood his first season at stud at a fee of A$121,000, an Australian record for a new retiree.

Laurie falls in love with Zoustar filly

Matt Laurie and Willannah Park Bloodstock landed the most expensive offspring of Zoustar at this year’s Gold Coast Yearling Sale when parting with A$950,000 for the half-sister to Farnan, another presented by Widden.

“I just fell in love with her,” said Laurie. “She’s a real athlete. A very clean-bodied filly and a very stylish horse. She’s got a strong page behind her and we want to add to that on the racetrack, but she’s always going to have that pedigree. I thought she could go anywhere from A$600,000 to $1 million. We weren’t far off the mark.”

Slade sees value in Vinnie filly

Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott will take charge of the first foal out of the Listed-winning and Group 2-placed Scorched Earth after reverting to Plan B when the I Am Invincible filly was offered by Yarraman Park.

The team brought the hammer down at A$850,000, a figure that Kestrel Thoroughbreds’ Bruce Slade said fell below expectations.

“We had her as one of the top three fillies in the sale,” he said. “We genuinely thought she’d make seven figures but she wasn’t going for that in the ring at $600,000. We’d literally given up on buying her until she was sitting around that mark. We loved her so we said ‘Should we back ourselves to get it done?’ and that’s what we’ve done. We thought she was good value and sometimes you just have to be flexible.”

Bruce Slade (centre): "Physically she was one of those compact, square types, and she had an awesome power to weight ratio"

Bruce Slade (centre): 'We thought she was good value and sometimes you just have to be flexible'Credit: Magic Millions

Asked about why the filly had made it so high on the shortlist, Slade said: “Number one, physically. Massive gaskin, huge hip, massive pelvis on her with so much power, a huge girth and great forearms. She moved like the good Vinnies do. Great head. The mare is very believable, she was an absolute flying machine. It’s a fast family.”

Waterhouse, Bott and Kestrel combined on 17 lots across the four sessions, spending A$7.035m at an average of A$413,825. Despite racking up such big numbers, Slade said the team had endured plenty of reversals of fortune too.

“We’ve been beaten a lot,” he said. “We’re probably five to ten to horses below where we normally are at this stage, but this is what happens in the marketplace. There’s a thousand horses. At this level, if you’re not organised you can’t bid, but thankfully we have the sort of support that means if we see an opportunity we can strike and, between Gai, Adrian, Claudia [Fitzgerald] and the team, we can get it done.”

The Gold Coast Yearling Sale concludes with Book 2, which starts at 12 noon on Sunday.

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