Magic Millions to build on ‘extraordinary’ results as entries open for yearling sales
Magic Millions’ managing director Barry Bowditch believes the stage has never been better across the spectrum of nationwide sales for vendors to consign their yearlings to go under the hammer next year. The Gold Coast-based auction house opened its entries yesterday for their 2023 sales series.
The trading season will begin with the traditional curtain-raising Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in January, an auction which earlier this year set a vibrant benchmark for a record-breaking spending spree on Australian bloodstock over the next six months.
Previous highs in aggregate turnover and average price were smashed at the Gold Coast Yearling Sale, which was followed by record sales figures for auctions in Tasmania, Adelaide and Perth.
“If you look at the [sale] results this year, they are quite extraordinary, at the highest levels they’ve ever been,” Bowditch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The product that’s being bred here is also of the highest levels it’s ever been. We have some fantastic breeders here that can produce horses to compete anywhere in the world.
“From the statistics of the sales this year, whether it’s the Gold Coast in January with a clearance rate of 94 per cent and an average of almost $300,000, a record-breaking Perth sale, an outstanding Adelaide sale and record-breaking Tasmania sale, I think the depth and diversity our sales give to breeders in Australia, and New Zealand, is incredibly strong. It gives those guys plenty of reasons to support Magic Millions in 2023.”
The Gold Coast yearling sale will begin on Tuesday, January 10 and conclude a week later on January 17. It will again be followed by the Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale on February 20, as it was this year after the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale was delayed for a week due to Covid-19 restrictions at the Western Australian border.
The Perth sale began a day after the Tasmanian Yearling Sale in 2022, and this year the two-day auction will be held on Thursday, February 23 and Friday, 24.
The Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale, which surpassed $20 million in aggregate turnover for the first time this year, will be held on Tuesday, March 14 and Wednesday, 15, while the Gold Coast March Yearling Sale will be held on March 20 and 21.
A total of 19 million-dollar lots sold at this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, eclipsing a previous record of 12, as aggregate figures of $228,807,500 ended $31.5 million up on the 2021 Gold Coast sale – itself a record-breaking auction – for the same number of horses sold.
Recent Gold Coast Yearling Sales have also been the source of exceptional graduate success on the track. Graduates from the 2020 sale account for no less than seven individual Group 1 winners, including $1.9 million colt Profondo (Deep Impact), winner of the Spring Champion Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), and Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Stay Inside (Extreme Choice), himself a $200,000 buy for the Freedman Brothers and Rick Connolly Bloodstock.
The process of selecting the turf’s next champions for public auction is well under way from the Magic Millions team, with Bowditch keen to engage as many breeders as possible over the next months.
“The graduate success is a very strong component to our sales,” he said. “We’ll be going out into the paddocks in the upcoming weeks to see these fantastic yearlings that the vendors have bred and put a lot of time and effort into.
“We want to help them with their decisions on where we see Magic Millions getting the very best results for their progeny and creating the best market for them to sell their horses at.
“The process has begun and the team and myself will be getting out onto the road and looking at stock. We’re a few weeks into it now and that’ll continue through to November to see as many yearlings as we can and speak to all our clients.”
Next year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale will potentially be the first since 2020 to be held in the context of a complete lifting of restrictions for international travel.
The sale in 2020 was conducted as the initial spread of the disease began to engulf the globe, prior to any restrictions on travel being imposed. However, travel was curtailed for many international participants wishing to reach the sale earlier this year, with Australia’s borders not reopening until six weeks later.
“January has been a tricky sale. In 2021 and 22, we’ve not had the depth of the international buyer here, but we’re looking forward to having many of them back on the ground,” Bowditch said.
“There’s been great interest in the sale and we’re working hard to market it to an international audience.
“Prize-money is outstanding and it’s a very engaging sport here. That gives the trainers and syndicators plenty of reasons to come to the sales next year. Being first next year, we’re very excited by that, for buyers to get involved and play their part in the marketplace.”
The sale will again coincide with the richest sales raceday in the world, when $11.75 million is stumped up to offer to owners as part of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Raceday, which will be held on Saturday, January 14.
It will include two new races, the $1 million The Syndicate (1200m) and $500,000 two-year-old race The Debut (900m), in addition to the $2 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) and 3YO Guineas (RL, 1400m) and form part of the lucrative Magic Millions race series.
“It’s the forefront of any sales race series anywhere in the world,” Bowditch said.
“With well over $14 million in prize-money each year over 23 races, conducted across six states of Australia from 900 metres to 2200 metres, including $835,000 in Racing Women’s Bonuses, the value of participating in our series is a selling tool that is priceless.”
Entries for the Magic Millions yearling sale series will close on Friday, August 12.