Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale
Strong buying bench and star graduates fuel confidence ahead of Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale
Tayla Dyke
ANZ News
Western Australia’s premier yearling auction returns to the Swan Valley this week, with 358 lots catalogued for the 2026 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale, which gets underway on Thursday.
The two-day auction brings together a broad cross-section of yearlings by proven Western Australian stallions with a wave of emerging sires. All told, a total of 79 stallions are represented, headed by champion local sire Playing God (Blackfriars) with 52 yearlings.
Youngsters by Group 1 winners Artorius (Flying Artie), Paulele (Dawn Approach), State Of Rest (Starspangledbanner) and Stronger (Not A Single Doubt) feature among the offerings, alongside local newcomers Aysar (Deep Field), Lightsaber (Zoustar) and Marine One (Capitalist).
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Inspections have drawn a strong local and interstate buying bench, with trainers Grant and Alana Williams, Neville Parnham, Simon Miller, Luke Fernie and Dan Morton among those on the ground, while visitors from the eastern seaboard include Sheamus Mills, Calvin McEvoy and Damon Gabbedy, Annabel Archibald, Johnny McKeever, Andy Makiv and First Light Racing.
Interest in the sale has no doubt been bolstered by its leading graduates, a roll of honour which has been added to his season and includes Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Watch Me Rock (Awesome Rock), King Of Light (Earthlight), winner of the WA Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m); Lee Steere Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) scorer Super Smink (Super One), Buckets Ridge (Pride Of Dubai), who landed the Towton Cup (Listed, 2200m) in December and Listed-winning trio Luana Miss (Bivouac), Rope Them In (Playing God) and Toropa (Toronado).
Among vendors who were generating significant attention during inspections was Mogumber Park, whose graduate Maria Lucia (Rommel) landed Saturday’s Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) at Pinjarra. The Bullsbrook-based operation will offer a draft of 22 yearlings, including 14 by their resident first-season sire Marine One.
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Located just north of Perth, the farm operated by Colin Brown and Fiona Lacey has produced the winners of the past two runnings of the WA Magic Millions 2YO Classic - both from the mare Mindarie (Safeguard).
“We won the two-year-old Classic last year with that mare’s first foal, Do I Feel Lucky, and Maria Lucia is her second foal,” Brown told ANZ News amid a busy inspection period on Wednesday.
Unfortunately, the farm was forced to withdraw the pair’s A Lot (Tapit) half-brother from this week’s sale.
“Her third foal was all set and we had to withdraw him, but hopefully he will go to winter here. He'll still qualify for the two year old race next year, but you can't bring a horse that's not 100 per cent to the sales.”
Of Maria Lucia, Brown said the win was especially meaningful and believes the filly has a bright future ahead.
“The Casey’s who train her, they’re a hardworking family, really talented trainers. The sons train, as well as the dad. We’re both family businesses, so it's extra special to see them win.
“I think she could be a bit special that filly. She's different from Do I Feel Lucky in personality. He was quick early. She looks like she will have longevity and she could really develop into a good horse. They're happy not to push her along, but she's saying ‘c’mon let’s have a go.’”
Adding further significance to the weekend’s success, Twisted Steel, the winner of the Magic Millions 3YO Classic (RL, 1200m) was conceived at Mogumber Park when they stood Rommel (Commands) before he relocated to Ridgeport.
“We had Rommel at our place when Twisted Steel was conceived. He was lovely, we loved him. He then went to the major owner of Rommel who built a property and he always wanted to stand him, so he moved there.”
Mogumber Park will present the first progeny of their Rubiton Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m) winner Marine One, and Brown said the son of Capitalist’s (Written Tycoon) progeny had been well received throughout inspections.
“From an industry perspective, it's really nice to have three first season sires and it's really nice for each of them to have a good number - they're all in and around 20,” Brown said.
“For Marine One, the words we're getting consistently are ‘gee he stamps them.’ They look strong, but not heavy. They look really athletic. You're not going to die wondering, you're not going to have to wait till they're four. They'll be up and about early, which is why we did the bonus, the credit that we will give if you win a two-year-old race.”
“One of the major things apart from how they look - in terms of strong shoulders, deep girth, nice hind-quarter, they walk nicely - but they've got Marine One's personality. All of them are easy to work with. They're smart horses and they want to learn. The ones that came down here, you can see they've all settled in nicely.
“When you launch a stallion, you've got to get a horse that you want to have. I just say we're constantly ticking the boxes, and every box he's had to tick so far, he has ticked it. There's strong interest in him.
“We're very biased. We'll talk him up, but it's other people talking him up which is really nice. People are coming here and they're not leaving disappointed. He has been received really well. I know people will buy them.”
Confident Marine One’s first crop can deliver early racetrack results, Mogumber Park has launched a ‘Buy and Win Bonus’, where purchasers of a Marine One yearling from the draft will receive a $20,000 credit towards a 2027 Mogumber Park yearling if that horse wins a two-year-old race before Magic Millions 2027.
“We did it with Safeguard when we launched him a few years ago,” Brown said. “It's saying to people, ‘we appreciate the fact that you're coming and buying a first-season sire’ and I guess at another level, it's a marketing tool. We can advertise around it and people will look at it. But we really do have faith in him. It's a risk that we'll take and people hopefully come back and look at our draft next year.”
Brown said early racetrack success is key when launching a young stallion.
“We had four horses that we sold last year in the Magic Millions two-year-old race this year. Of the 26 nominations, eight of them were from our draft. We've got half relations to each of those. So there's a fair chance they'll get a boot along in terms of racing early.
“If you're starting off a stallion you need to think about how you get the runs on the board as early as you can. And that doesn't mean pre-Christmas, that doesn't mean pushing them along, but a lot of our families have two year old form through them.”
Despite the depth of Marine One’s first crop, Brown admitted Lot 145 carries the strongest emotional attachment for the farm.
He is the final foal from Clarecastle, the granddam of stakes winners Do I Feel Lucky and Maria Lucia. The Group 3-placed mare produced ten foals to race for nine winners, including Listed winner Castle Road (Safeguard) and the stakes-placed trio Specialism (Safeguard), Royal Strata (Stratum) and More Special (Safeguard).
“He is probably the one we have the most emotional attachment to because we call him Omega. He's the last of the Clarecastles. She's got a two-year-old that's starting on Saturday, and that's the only one that she's bred that's gone to the races that hasn't won a race yet, but she's only having her third race start.
“They all win and many are stakes-placed. We lost her [Clarecastle] last year, so emotionally, she might have left the best to last. He is a super horse and a lovely family. We'll be sad to see him go. He's the one that there'll be a lot of tears for when the hammer goes down.”
The draft also features Lot 68, a filly by the late Coolmore Stud stallion So You Think (High Chaparral) from Group 3 placegetter Rocket Fuel (Smart Missile), who was picked up by Mogumber for $130,000 carrying the filly at the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale.
“There's been good interest in her,” Brown said. “It doesn't matter whether people pay $100 or $1 million for a horse, they'll talk about its walk. This filly would be the nicest, naturally walking horse on the complex - she’s a standout, a lovely filly.”
Based on the atmosphere around the complex, Brown said he remained optimistic heading into the sale.
“We always move into a sale optimistically. If you go in ‘glass half empty’, you're in the wrong business. But I believe there's been more foot traffic this year than last year. I haven't looked at my cards from last year, but the complex has been constantly busy. There haven't been any low spots or dead spots.
“There’s people that come every year and people we haven't seen before. Steve Vardy, who was here earlier, this was his first visit to Perth. That's Magic Millions’ job to do that, and so far, they're getting feet on the ground.”
Magic Millions Western Australia manager David Houston echoed that optimism, confident the sale would continue to deliver strong results.
“Three of the last four years, we've had the biggest clearance in Australasia,” Houston told ANZ News. “It dropped away a little bit last year. We've been one of the very few, maybe the only, sale that's had an upward spiral through those three or four years. We've come a long way for a small sale in a small jurisdiction to get to where we have.
“We've been getting very good support both locally and interstate and the horses coming out of here have been performing. That's the beauty of this sale - we get the best of the horses from here in WA and I think that our clientele, whether it's local or interstate, appreciate that, and they come back and support it.
“There are some new faces here. We love seeing the old faces back again, but super to have some very new faces here and people who have never been here before, obviously, and finding stock that they feel have got real potential, so that's good. The locals, they do really support their own and we're looking forward to that to continue.
“The result I would be happy with is to maintain. We'd love to be growing, and we may well do, too. So hopefully the bottom line is going to be as strong or stronger than it has been in the last year or so. The quality of horses across the board is very strong and that's been reiterated to me by a number of people going around the grounds and seeing the horses.”
The sale gets under way at 11am (Perth time).
