No dip tipped yet as Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale takes centre stage
Strong demand set to continue at South Australia’s annual thoroughbred auction
An influx of eastern states vendors and a concerted effort by South Australia’s breeders to back its local Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale has organisers confident that a diverse buying bench has the quantity and quality of horses to see the immense Australia-wide demand for bloodstock maintained over the next two days.
While last year’s Adelaide sale saw yearlings sell to $525,000, a record for the state, those heights are not expected to be reached over the next two days, but strong demand is still tipped to continue at the 454-lot auction as South Australian owners and trainers embrace their local sale and lock horns with a large interstate contingent of buyers.
Among the interstate agents and trainers to make the trip to Adelaide include Proven Thoroughbreds’ Jamie Walter, who bought this season’s Epsom Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Private Eye (Al Maher) from the South Australia sale, agents Chris Blomeley, Jim Clarke, Will Johnson, Julian Blaxland as well as the likes of Tal Nolen, David “Butch” Bourne and Dean Harvey, all known for buying two-year-olds.
Syndicators such as Peter Morley’s Grand Syndicates and Flying Start’s Cameron Bennett, who bought subsequent Group 1-winning filly Amphitrite (Sebring) from Adelaide in 2017, are also looking for horses at the Morphettville sales complex.
“This year, obviously the market’s been incredibly buoyant. Speaking from a Magic Millions perspective, all of our sales have been up significantly and we’re delighted with the horses we’ve got at Adelaide this year,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said yesterday.
“Not only is the quality up, there’s some new faces here this year who are very established vendors from the east coast, so I think that takes the catalogue to another level and I think it is time the buyers take this sale to another level as well.
“The proof in the boxes is that we’ve got a great lot of horses and the sale deserves to be successful.”
Sam Pritchard-Gordon is overseeing his first Adelaide sale at the helm of Cornerstone Stud after being promoted to the position of general manager by co-owner Sam Hayes and he believes the buying bench will be prepared to up their budgets to keep pace with the market trend.
Importantly, Cornerstone Stud is offering its crop of yearlings in Adelaide, rather than splitting them between auction houses and states, and the Barossa farm has horses by stallions of the calibre of Lonhro (Octagonal), The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice), Russian Revolution (Snitzel) and Nicconi (Bianconi) as well as resident sires Sir Prancealot (Tamayuz) and Valentia (Fastnet Rock).
“We’re really confident that Adrian (Hancock) and the team at Magic Millions can assemble a buying bench which is quite comfortable paying $50,000 to $80,000 for a yearling and I think that was reflected in the results last year,” Pritchard-Gordon said yesterday.
“The inspection numbers are solid and they’re on a par with last year, they’re certainly not better, but I feel the people arriving on the ground this year probably realise that they’re going to have to be strong to buy a horse they like.
“I am hopeful that is reflected in the results for our clients.”
Rathmore Lodge’s Ross Hatton is another South Australian vendor to focus on the Adelaide sale, offering yearlings by Santos (I Am Invincible), Written By (Written Tycoon), Invader (Snitzel) and So You Think (High Chaparral), among others.
“We have got the nicest draft of horses overall this year … but the standard at the complex is probably up overall, the parades have been really steady,” Hatton said.
“We had a busier Saturday than in the previous four or five years. Sunday was really solid and people are coming back for second looks (yesterday).
“I would hope that the market momentum will continue on and I can’t see why it wouldn’t be up like all the other sales.”
The question, though, remains: can the extraordinary demand be maintained? So far this year, across the Magic Millions Gold Coast, Perth and Tasmanian yearling sales and Inglis’ Classic and Melbourne Premier auctions an unprecedented $351,350,500 has been spent in Australia on yearlings, not taking into account last week’s New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale.
Bowditch acknowledges the record spend on yearlings but does not sense a change in the trend is about to take place.
“There’s never been this amount of money spent at this point in time on yearlings here in Australia, so you do wonder how long it can go on for, but in saying that there’s a lot of money in the economy here in Australia,” he said.
“I keep coming back to the fact that the fundamentals in Australian racing are fantastic: the prize-money is sensational, people are enjoying the sport and so it make sense that people are getting involved.”
The parochial South Australian trainers such as Will Clarken, Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas and Ryan Balfour are among those expected to be active, while interstate trainers Lloyd Kennewell, John McArdle, Anthony Freedman and Troy Corstens have been undertaking inspections.
Bowditch said the Adelaide sale had a long list of high-class graduates and he sees no reason why this year’s offering won’t again unearth plenty of good horses.
“You can go back to Mummify, Divine Madonna, obviously Viddora, all the way through to recent times Warning, Amphitrite and Private Eye,” he said.
“It’s a sale that punches well above its weight and it has done an extraordinary job over a long period of time now.
“I think that is evident in that most buyers who come to Adelaide turn up again the next year and I am very happy with the level of interest going into the sale.”
Bowditch hopes those trainers who have been unable to fill orders at previous sales will make the most of the opportunities available over the next two days.
“There’s a lot of people here at this sale who are very, very happy with the yearlings they’ve seen on the grounds, but they’ve also missed out at the other sales so far this year and they haven’t bought as many as they normally would have to this time of year,” he said.
“We’ve got a good level of confidence going in, but one thing I do say is that the vendors still need to be very realistic.
“There have been sticky points in all the sales that have been held so far this year and you need to tread warily and set your reserves to give buyers confidence to bid into the market.”
Day one will start at 10am local time today.