Catalogue for 2022 Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale released

By Tim Rowe

In the same month as the Apple Isle’s star mares Mystic Journey (Needs Further) and Still A Star (Toronado) were retired from the racetrack, Magic Millions released the catalogue for the 2022 Tasmanian Yearling Sale.

The 145-lot catalogue features progeny of 52 different stallions, including Australian champion Written Tycoon (Iglesia), Shamus Award (Snitzel), Toronado (High Chaparral), Street Boss (Street Cry), while local sires Needs Further (Encosta De Lago) and Alpine Eagle (High Chaparral) also have yearlings set to go under the hammer.

Next year’s Tasmanian Yearling Sale, which has a graduate honour roll of Group 1-winning sire Palentino (Teofilo), the Adam Trinder-trained Group 1 winner Mystic Journey and Bill Ryan’s Still A Star and the state’s current unbeaten excitement machine Turk Warrior (Outreach), will be held at Carrick near Launceston on February 21. Selling starting at 11am at Quercus Park in

The one-day auction will be preceded by the running of the Magic Millions Tasmania 2YO Classic (1200m), the Magic Millions Tasmania 3YO & 4YO Classic (1400m) at Launceston racecourse on February 20.

“We’ve got to be grateful for what (those mares have) done for the industry over there but we’ve got to move on now to find the next ones,” Magic Millions Victoria and Tasmania manager Tim Brown told ANZ Bloodstock News.

“There’s a good number of Vobis-eligible horses in the catalogue and the TasBreeders scheme is proving very good at the moment as well.

“I think that has added quite a lot to the sale. TasBreeders should be congratulated for getting this bonus scheme up and running with the help of Tasracing.”

Brown was forced to hand over responsibility for on-farm inspections to colleagues Barry Bowditch and Dane Robinson earlier this year, but he will travel to the state next week to get a first-hand look at the yearlings ahead of the 2022 sale.

“We had 80 more horses entered this year than last year. I was snuffling around Victoria trying to find horses that could go (to this year’s sale) – it was hard as the numbers weren’t there. I was flat out getting 122 in a catalogue and this year I could have taken 160 if I wanted to,” Brown said.

“We had 1200 entries for Adelaide this year and we had about 900 last year. We’ve either become very popular people or there’s more horses around. I haven’t decided which.”

The most represented sire in the Tasmanian Yearling Sale is Grenville Stud’s first season stallion Stratosphere (Snitzel), who was runner-up to Performer (Exceed And Excel) in the Canonbury Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) at his only race start, with 28 yearlings while Armidale Stud’s Needs Further has 27 and barnmate Alpine Eagle has 22.

Young sires Written By (Written Tycoon), Spieth (Thorn Park) and The Mission (Choisir) also have progeny catalogued.

Interstate buyers, and in particular Victorians, will once again be pivotal to the strength of the sale and Brown expects another strong contingent to be in attendance, the fourth yearling sale on the calendar for the season behind the Gold Coast, the Inglis Classic and Perth auctions.

“The regulars go over there, your John McArdles, your Shane Nichols’, Simon Zahras and John Foote’s been going over there and had good luck,” he said.

“Robbie Griffiths is a great buyer there, too. He’s got the (Alpine Eagle) filly (Throntari) who runs on Friday night at Moonee Valley.

“We’ll be hoping we’ll be getting a few more people down and interested.”

Sales News

Catalogue for 2022 Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale released