Hard yards to pay off at Magic Millions for buyers with budgets big and small
Scope of Gold Coast catalogue to provide value at all ends of the market
Preparation has been the key to combating what can be a gruelling inspection process and now that day one of this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale is just 24 hours away the consensus from buyers is that there’s no shortage of choice.
With an increased 1,020-lot Book 1 catalogue and another 448 horses in Book 2, agents and trainers have had their work cut out getting through the full offering of horses, but those who have say there’s plenty to like and ongoing reasons to invest even if the wider economy slows.
Chris Waller, whose long-time agent Guy Mulcaster has been an important part of the premier trainer’s yearly yearling recruitment drive, believes the diversity of the stallion pool with a wave of new sires to support champions such as I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and Written Tycoon (Iglesia) provided him and his peers with greater choice.
“I am probably buoyed by the fact there’s no dominant stallion. There’s ten stallions that you love to buy and then there’s up-and-comers that are snapping at their heels,” Waller said.
“So, there’s a good range, plus the quality gets better, because people want to be racing horses out of this sale.
“It gives you a nice mature horse to take home, to get started on a bit earlier, whether they be racing in the two-year-old season in the Magic Millions or the Golden Slipper, owners want their horses racing at two.”
Syndicator Jamie Walter, whose Proven Thoroughbreds has enjoyed a sustained period of elite–level success, culminating in Think About It (So You Think) winning The Everest (1200m) and Private Eye (Al Maher) running third in 2023, says it is a misconception that the Gold Coast sale is just about two-year-olds.
The pool of prize-money available – more than $14 million this year and $20 million to be won in 24 hours in 2025 for Magic Millions graduates – makes the rich race days a significant selling point and not just for juveniles, the syndicator says.
“The turning point of this sale was about ten years ago when they did that deal with Tourism Queensland [ahead of the 2015 race day] and suddenly had million–dollar races for every age and sex,” Walter said.
“We went from perhaps only nominating the really precocious horses for the race series to nominating everything and it was a business masterstroke from Magic Millions because they’ve almost turned it into a self-funded vehicle, the race series.
“It’s brilliant and I, like everyone else, nominate everything now.”
Just as Mulcaster and Waller have been, Walter and his son Tom have been diligently traversing the Magic Millions complex in search of Proven’s next flagbearer.
“I always look at every horse here, such is the quality of the catalogue,” he said.
“That presents opportunities because in smaller sales the really smart horses tend to be identified and are well found.
“Here, I think it’s probably like most big sales – and there are other big sales in the country – in that you have got a better chance of finding value.”
Asked to predict how the market would prevail over the next week, Walter said: “I know we’ve been saying in recent years that it’s ‘got to come off, it’s got to come off’ and it just kept soaring forward.
“I would think the top will take care of itself because it’s a small clump of people who are probably less affected by the economy. The middle section I am pretty sure will be impacted even though we are protected in Australia because we’ve got such great prize-money.”
That top end of the yearling market has been dominated by the colts syndicates and large-scale international investors, such as Coolmore, the Newgate and China Horse Club partnership, James Harron’s colts fund, Tony Fung Investments, Kia Ora and the Rosemont Alliance. That cohort of buyers is expected to be strong once again.
Global sale regulars Godolphin and Yulong could also be prominent players with both groups on the ground over the past week.
Sans Vin Cox, who joined Yulong in December after a six-year stint as Godolphin Australia’s managing director, Sheikh Mohammed’s Australian racing and breeding operation’s decision on what horses to buy will largely rest on the shoulders of trainer James Cummings and racing and bloodstock manager Jason Walsh.
With a permanent replacement for Cox still to be announced, and the organisation having not yet made any public statement as to when it will do so, Godolphin is expected to maintain its quality over quantity mantra in 2024, an approach which has netted it Group 1-winning filly In Secret (I Am Invincible), 2019 Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner Exhilarates (Snitzel), 2020 placegetter Conceited (Brazen Beau) and $600,000 purchase Parkour (Extreme Choice), a leading contender for Saturday’s $3 million race.
The co-breeder of Parkour, agent Neil Jenkinson (pictured below, left), has been doing plenty of legwork in the lead-up to the sale in an effort to unearth a talented horse on behalf of his clients, principally Murwillumbah trainer Matt Dunn.
“With the size of the complex here, if it gets busy, it’s hard to look at horses once you get three or four parades in those barns, so I believe if you don’t do the on-farm inspections you can’t see them all,” Jenkinson said.
“By Friday morning I’d done all my inspections and we are well onto second inspections and tonight, being Sunday night, Doc Lawler’s getting my list of x-rays and scopes to start on.”
And while the obvious big-name yearlings with the blueblood pedigrees will come under headline-grabbing attention, Jenkinson believes the Magic Millions catalogue will provide enough opportunities for buyers in the middle to lower end of the market.
“I’d say this, I think it’s a really good catalogue and I am fortunate that I have seen half of Book 2 horses as well and there’s some really nice horses there, so I think this will be a good sale,” Jenkinson said.
“You can buy a nice horse for $100,000, $150,000 without any problems and those nice horses in those big drafts, some lovely Zoustars and Vinnies or whatever, they will set the ring alight.
“You’d like to be buying them, it makes you feel good, but I am happy if I can buy a couple of good value horses who get people to the races, particularly here at Magic Millions next year. That’d be fun.”