Circumspect outlook ahead of Magic Millions March Yearling Sale
Vendors banking on QTIS to incentivise buyers at sale that ‘punches well above its weight’
Queensland studmaster Jeff Kruger admits he is heading into today’s Magic Millions March Yearling Sale on the Gold Coast with a certain degree of apprehension.
As the yearling sales calendar moves past the halfway mark of the season, it is the largely Queensland-focused March QTIS sale’s turn to play host to local, interstate and a smattering of international investors who are in search of the next Buffering (Mossman) or Keshi Boom (Spirit Of Boom).
And as the market continues its contraction, Kruger early yesterday revealed he was “worried” about the lack of inspections taking place just 24 hours before the first of 392 lots go under the hammer today.
Warwick-based Lyndhurst Stud Farm isn’t without March sale firepower either. Armed with 19 yearlings by its resident money-spinning stallion Better Than Ready (More Than Ready) in the Krugers’ 34 QTIS-catalogued draft, which also includes a brother to this season’s The Debut (1000m) placed The Hamo.
Better Than Ready, of course, is the sire of 2023 Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner Skirt The Law and Kingsford-Smith Cup (Gr 1, 1300m) scorer Apache Chase who headline a further eight individual stakes winners.
He has 49 yearlings in the catalogue; his Eureka Stud-based rival Spirit Of Boom (Sequalo), the sire of five stakes winners this season including last month’s Angus Armanasco (Gr 2, 1400m) winner Sassy Boom and unbeaten Western Australian filly Keshi Boom, has 21 lots on offer.
Trained by Grant and Alana Williams, Keshi Boom was a $120,000 purchase from the Eureka Stud draft at the 2022 March sale and after her unbeaten four start career led by her win in the WA Champion Fillies Stakes (Gr 3, 1600m) in November, an east coast preparation on the cards for the stakes-winning rising four-year-old.
“I don’t know where everybody is? It’s not just me. We’ve normally got north and central Queensland buyers stepping over each other and there’s normally not enough room on the lawn,” a frank Kruger told ANZ Bloodstock News early yesterday.
“I don’t know where they all are, unless they’ve gone to church. We’d be below half the number of inspections compared to previous years.”
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch also remains reserved heading into the next two days, but also suggested that interest had picked up later yesterday, citing prominent vendor Eureka Stud which had more than 50 cards on the eve of the March offering.
Leading Hong Kong trainer Pierre Ng and Lok Lor, the son of champion trainer Frankie Lor, are expected to attend while well-known traders Ross Lao and Andy Lau of Upper Bloodstock are also on the Gold Coast, providing much-needed depth to the buying bench to mix with the Queensland trainers and owners.
“It’s no secret that the market at this end of town has got tougher this year and vendors are there ready to set their reserves realistically and we’re slightly concerned with where things are at,” Bowditch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“We’d like more people here, but we think we’ve got quality horses here that will be able to be bought at [value prices].”
However, Bowditch also pointed to the success of the QTIS sale over a long period of time and he believes that the 2024 edition will once again provide an opportunity to source high-class racehorses.
“This is a sale that if you look at it, it does bat well above its weight when you take into account the return on investment with what people pay for these horses and what they go onto win on the racetrack,” he said.
“In 2020, I think the sale grossed under $8 million and I think those horses have won almost $24 million. A lot of that can be attributed to Racing Queensland and the QTIS scheme.
“I think it’s an extraordinary scheme when fillies race for $140,000 every Saturday in town and at a provincial meeting they race for over $50,000 and there’s also a $1.5 million Magic Millions for QTIS horses.”
Agents Paul Moroney and Catheryne Bruggeman were among those interstate visitors at the complex ahead of the March sale, although they are predominantly acting for Toowoomba father-and-daughter trainers Tony and Maddy Sears.
The Sears’ trained a winning double at the Gold Coast on Saturday and they also prepare $1.4 million earner Yellow Brick (The Mission), a $20,000 Moroney and Bruggeman-purchased QTIS pin-up horse out of the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale.
“We looked all day Friday and all day Saturday and we’ve got our third-look list [for Sunday] to get our final list and that’s one thing we’ve noticed, it’s been sparsely populated buyer wise,” Moroney said.
“There’s a few more people here [on Sunday] but I think it’s one of those sales, a lot of people only turn up the day before and look at select lots by stallions that appeal to them.
“They don’t necessarily do what we do and go through the whole lot.”
Moroney believes that the expansion of Magic Millions’ January sale catalogue may have impacted the line-up of horses in the March sale.
“But there’s enough here for people to buy and it’s for a Queensland market, so you’ve got to keep that in mind, too,” he said.
“These are the horses that have been bred by Queensland breeders, they’re eligible for the QTIS scheme and for the next few years of their lives they’ve got to run against each other.”
Moroney added: “We’ll have to pick our way through them and I think some of the better horses here could be expensive because I think a lot of people are going to end up on the same horses.
“There’s probably not a widespread of what we’d consider to be really good types and the good judges that are here, we always seem to clash with them, the John Footes who are also buying for Queensland trainers [such as Tony Gollan].”
The first of two selling sessions will start at 11am Queensland time.