Bowditch predicting big things ahead of Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale
A series of bullish results in thoroughbred sales at home and abroad this year have industry participants bracing for more records to fall at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale which starts on Tuesday at the Gold Coast.
With a more condensed catalogue – 486 mares will be offered over two days, compared with 596 over three days last year – and with younger mares plentiful, the level of quality at the sale is widely regarded as higher than ever before.
And while the 2024 edition left watchers stunned as Yulong paid a southern hemisphere record $6.6 million for Imperatriz (I Am Invincible), some are tipping that mark may be eclipsed this time around.
If the record falls, it will most likely to be achieved by Zougotcha (Zoustar), the triple Group 1 winning five-year-old by the stallion who’s this season confirming himself as the nation’s new pre-eminent sire, Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
But not too far behind will be another triple top tier heroine offered by trainer Chris Waller in Atishu (Savabeel), whose nine-time New Zealand champion sire is now proving himself just as adept as a broodmare sire, ranking second on that table in New Zealand at present, after finishing third last term.
While 2025 started with many stakeholders fearing a downturn in the thoroughbred market, as a correction from the heady post-pandemic years, recent sales have shown a dramatic upswing.
The Inglis Easter Yearling Sale turned in a record average of $448,000, with the median up $60,000 year on year to $360,000, and 25 million-dollar lots sold compared to 18 in 2024.
Inglis’s Chairman’s Sale also yielded phenomenal results, with an average of $707,000 – a southern hemisphere broodmare sale record – and with Bella Nipotina (Pride Of Dubai) and Amelia’s Jewel (Siyouni) breaking the sale’s old record price of $3.6 million, selling for $4.2 million and $3.8 million respectively.
Other sales around the world also have vendors primed for a bull market over the next two days, such as the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale in France earlier this month. For the first time, four lots there made €1 million, with the average of €203,000 a European record for such an auction.
With 12 Group 1 winners to be offered at the Gold Coast – including eight straight off the track – and more than 150 stakes-performed mares and fillies catalogued, many key figures are bracing for fireworks over the next two days.
“The premium sales so far this year have been very strong. Magic Millions and Easter were particularly buoyant,” said Newgate Farm’s managing director Henry Field.
“And using the Chairman’s sale as an example for this one, there was a phenomenal volume of people there who bid $500,000-plus on mares.
“There’s a massive spread of people in the industry able and willing to participate at a level of $500,000 or more, which suggests the market is very healthy, buoyant and strong, and I think the Magic Millions mares’ sale will be no different.
“Plus, there were a lot of people who didn’t fire their bullets at Chairman’s. If you combine that with the fact there’s such a broad group of people trying to buy quality mares, and that there’s good quality mares on offer here – based on all these things, this sale should be very positive.”
Newgate has 59 mares in its consignment – the second most in the catalogue after Gerry Harvey’s Baramul Stud, which is offloading 73 in its reduction sale.
“We’ve never been busier from a parading point of view. It’s been incredibly busy and I’ve a feeling it will be a really buoyant and positive sale,” Field said.
“All this also reflects the healthy state our industry’s in. We’re at a really positive place with where the bloodstock market is at, and where the quality of the bloodstock market is at.”
Yarraman Park’s Harry Mitchell, whose farm has 28 mares at the sale, said foot traffic on Monday pointed to another robust auction.
“I think the top end will be very strong, with people wanting to buy the very best,” Mitchell said. “The nice quality stock will sell very well, and there’s a lot of people here who want that sort of thing.
“Broodmare markets don’t seem to be going down. They seem to be going up quicker than the yearling market to me. The Chairman’s sale was pretty strong and I don’t see why this will be any different.
“There’s enough mares here. There’s probably more good race mares than pregnant ones, but there’s plenty of people here who want to buy them.
“At the very top end, there’s about four people who get involved there, but they’re all here, so it’s going to be good.”
With Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng and Coolmore’s Tom Magnier among those heavy hitters, Mitchell is expecting Imperatriz’s record to at least come under pressure when Zougotcha enters the ring as Lot 503, around mid-afternoon on Tuesday.
“She looks like the sale topper. Whether she makes as much as Imperatriz, I don’t know. I would’ve thought not quite but pretty close,” he said. “But it depends on how keen they are to buy her. There’ll definitely be some big players on her.”
Also among off-the-track Group 1 winners to be offered are Campionessa (Contributer), Climbing Star (Zoustar), Belclare (Per Incanto), Lady Laguna (Overshare) and Socks Nation (Sioux Nation).
There’s also recent South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) victor Femminile (Dundeel), who’s on the fourth line of betting for Saturday’s Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m).
The broodmare session on day two features three elite winners covered by star stallions, including Vinery Stud’s VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) victor Aristia (Lonhro), who’s been served by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), and Aintree Park’s Media Award (Shamus Award), the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) winner who’s been covered by Maurice (Screen Hero).
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch is confident the auction will “again be Australia’s biggest and most commercial sale of its kind”.
“We’ve got 12 Group 1 winners, eight Group 1 winners off the track, and the benchmark mare for the year in Zougotcha, so I’m very confident this a very, very good catalogue,” Bowditch said.
“The amount of mares in foal to those really sexy stallions – Zoustar, Extreme Choice, Too Darn Hot et cetera – is in line with recent years.
“There’s great confidence for the commercial mares, and there’s plenty of people looking to play at the top end, and in the middle.
“We’ve got confidence in the market as a whole, You’ve only got to look at what’s happened in Europe and America at breeze-up sales. And the international buyers should be competing here over the next two days, given their currencies and the advantage they have over the weak Australian dollar.
“There’s great youth to the catalogue, with 190-odd race fillies on Tuesday before withdrawals, and a lot of mares on their first, second or third covers. The market craves that and we’ve got it in spades.
“All in all, without being over confident, I’ve got hopes we can have a very solid two day auction.”
The sale kicks off on Tuesday with a share to be offered in each of three stallions – Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), Capitalist (Written Tycoon) and Bivouac (Exceed And Excel).
And after that session’s off-the-track book, day one finishes with a new innovation in the international section, in which 13 mares will be offered in absentia. The move follows the success last year of the sale of Imperatriz, who also wasn’t present at the Gold Coast.
Twelve of the 13 hail from New Zealand, including Te Akau Stud’s Campionessa and the Group 2-winning Wolverine (High Chaparral). The other is in Kentucky in the form of Canadian mare Glowsity (Bodemeister), who was Listed placed and is a half-sister to the dam of star Australian filly Treasurethe Moment (Alabama Express).
“It’s a new concept, with Imperatriz being the catalyst for it. You don’t know until you get underway, but we’ve got some lovely mares in that section,” said Bowditch, happy with the condensed nature of the catalogue, though always hungry for more mares.
“We’d like to have had a few more in the catalogue, because you’d always like to have a bit more volume. But in saying that, with the quality we’ve got and the diversity in values and budgets, this sale serves an outstanding purpose.”
Newgate’s draft is headed by Femminile and by five-year-old Lady Laguna, the quadruple stakes winner including of the Canterbury Stakes (Gr 1, 1300m), who’s being sold on Tuesday afternoon as a racing and breeding prospect.
Yarraman’s selection features five-year-old breeding proposition Revolutionary Miss (Russian Revolution), who won three Group 2s and three Group 3s and ran two Group 1 seconds, and the stakes placed Stellar Pauline (Not A Single Doubt), who’s in foal to the farm’s flagbearer I Am Invincible.
Selling starts on Tuesday at midday, and on Wednesday at 10am.