Magic Millions reaches long-term deal to retain presence in Tasmania
Deal comes as auction house releases 140-lot catalogue for Apple Isle’s 2023 yearling sale on February 20
Magic Millions has committed to conducting the Tasmanian Yearling Sale for at least another five years, providing certainty to the Apple Isle’s thoroughbred breeding industry that the state will have a local marketplace in which to trade its horses.
The long-term deal, to run from 2023 to 2027, was announced yesterday at the same time next year’s 140-lot catalogue was released for the one-day February 20 sale at Quercus Park outside Launceston.
After negotiations between Tasracing officials, including key figures Blayne Hudson and Angela Barrett, TasBreeders and Magic Millions, the five-year extension was welcomed by Tim Brown, the auction house’s Victoria and Tasmania manager.
“Magic Millions has been a great supporter of Tasmanian breeding, as has the Tasmanian breeders of Magic Millions, so we’ve continued the relationship and signed a five-year agreement,” Brown said yesterday.
Grenville Stud’s Bart McCulloch, also a Tasbreeders board member, will along with his father, Graeme, consign 25 yearlings at the 2023 sale.
He, too, expressed the significance of the continuance of the Tasracing, Tasbreeders and Magic Millions partnership.
“Magic Millions is doing a great job but the breeders are investing, too, and Grenville has certainly invested significantly over the past two or three years [in improving its broodmare band],” McCulloch said.
“Every year we’re going to the sales feeling that it’s our best draft and it’s probably true every year because we’re investing more and, therefore, our draft is getting better and better.”
Importantly for the local Tasmanian racing and breeding industry is the emergence of Grenville Stud’s first crop sire Stratosphere (Snitzel), who adds to the stallion depth on the island, alongside Armidale Stud’s Needs Further (Encosta De Lago) and Alpine Eagle (High Chaparral).
Stratosphere, runner-up to Performer (Exceed And Excel) in the Canonbury Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) at his only start before injury curtailed his racing career, sired the quinella of the two-year-old race at Elwick in Hobart on Sunday. He has had just four runners to date.
The Grenville draft will offer nine of the 12 yearlings by Stratosphere catalogued for the Magic Millions Tasmania sale, but the McCullochs will also offer yearlings by mainland Australia stallions including Capitalist (Written Tycoon), Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry), Rubick (Encosta De Lago), Gold Standard (Sebring), Zousain (Zoustar) and Headwater (Exceed And Excel).
“I think, without doubt, we’ve retained some yearlings to sell in Tassie that historically we would have sold on the mainland,” the young breeder said.
“I think that is a reflection of our confidence in the sale and the buying bench that Magic Millions is getting there and the results that have been achieved there over the past couple of years, this year in particular.
“We think horses make their money, the nice horses get found and … it’s a no-brainer for buyers to come when there’s [good] horses that keep coming out of the sale.”
The Tasmanian sale graduates referred to by McCulloch include Still A Star (Toronado), Mystic Journey (Needs Further), Turk Warrior (Outreach), Palentino (Teofilo), Soul Patch (Shamus Award), Take The Sit (Tough Speed) and Deroche (Needs Further).
Next year’s catalogue features yearlings by a record 68 individual sires, including 12 different first season sires, such as Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice), I Am Immortal (I Am Invincible), Royal Meeting (Invincible Spirit) and Tassort (Brazen Beau).
Armidale Stud has 27 yearlings catalogued, Brooklyn Park Stud has 14 lots, Victoria’s Fairways Thoroughbreds has eight yearlings set to be offered in Tasmania while Motree Thoroughbreds has 26 lots catalogued.
Proven sire Toronado (High Chaparral), who was responsible for this year’s $150,000 Tasmanian sales topper, is again represented as is Magnus (Flying Spur), Foxwedge (Fastnet Rock), Manhattan Rain (Encosta De Lago), Starspangledbanner (Choisir) and Star Turn (Star Witness).
“We’ve got a few mainlanders coming down, which adds to the depth of the catalogue and it gives buyers a good spread of stallions,” Brown said.
“We’ve also got a few Lean Mean Machines in there and he’s had one winner already.”
McCulloch also suggested one of the biggest benefits of the Tasmanian-bred and raised horses was that they were prepared in a natural environment.
“We don’t do a lot of unnecessary surgery and those sorts of things in Tassie compared to horses [raised] elsewhere,” he said.
“The percentage of horses in the catalogue who would have had surgery or anything like that, I think it would be negligible in Tassie as opposed to other sales. They are raised very naturally over here and there’s a lot of people who have been promoting that their horses are raised naturally for a long time and it holds horses in good stead to do well on the racetrack.
“What we have really done differently this time is we’ve invested in broodmares and stallions and the like, so while we’ve bred sound horses, the catalogue’s probably been a bit light on pedigree and lacked a variety of stallions but I think that’s really improved [in recent years].”
The 2022 sale comprised 146 lots, selling to a top price of $150,000 and achieved an average of $38,447 and a median price of $30,000.
The 2023 sale will start at 11am on February 20, the day after the $85,000 Magic Millions 2YO Classic (1200m) (plus $10,000 Racing Women’s Bonus) and $75,000 TasBreeders Magic Millions 3YO & 4YO Classic (1400m) are to be run on Tasmanian Oaks Day in Launceston.