Experienced Victorian vendor Nolen ‘pressing ahead’ to Magic Millions 2YOs In Training Sale
Tal Nolen, who educated and sold Saturday’s Singapore Derby (Listed, 1800m) winner Top Knight (Zoustar) and topped last year’s Magic Millions 2YOs In Training Sale with a $525,000 No Nay Never (Scat Daddy) colt, will return to the Gold Coast in November with a select draft of horses for the breeze-up sale.
The Victorian trainer and respected two-year-old consignor, who has forged a reputation of well educated and talented horses at Australia’s juvenile sales, has a draft of nine heading north for the November auction in Queensland.
Magic Millions last night released a 210-lot catalogue for the November 10 sale which features 144 horses who are BOBS eligible, 31 who are nominated for the sales company’s rich race series, while four and three horses are entered for the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) respectively.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the market, and the fact that international buyers will almost certainly be unable to attend the sale in person, Nolen is remaining positive ahead of the two-year-old sale series.
“I’m just pressing ahead as normal. We can’t control the other end, we have just got to try and produce horses that they want, which I think we’ve got this year, so we’re just hopeful like every other year, really,” Nolen told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“We will be able to get the horses up there, but whether we can go with the mandatory 14 days of quarantine currently being in place, that will probably curtail us a bit, but we’ve got some staff teed up if we can’t go.
“David Chester (from Magic Millions) seems pretty bullish about the market and he is generally pretty much on the money.”
Among Nolen’s draft of colts are two sons of champion sire Exceed And Excel (Danehill) and another by Newgate Farm’s Deep Field (Northern Meteor). Under the Nolen Racing banner, he also has colts by Pride Of Dubai (Street Cry), Sebring (More Than Ready) and Foxwedge (Fastnet Rock).
The experienced Nolen expects his offering of horses to show up at the Seymour breeze-up session which is scheduled for October 9 given they are showing him that they have the mental aptitude to deal with the rigours of training and racing.
“Temperament is pretty important, I really do think that they have got to have that attitude to cope,” he said.
“They are all a pretty professional lot this year, so I would expect them all to run down nicely.”
He also has colts by first season shuttle sires Cable Bay (Invincible Spirit) and Shalaa (Invincible Spirit) as well as the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Divine Prophet (Choisir).
“They both tend to go all right, the Shalaa and the Cable Bay that we’ve got. I think they look like they will make it as sires in the southern hemisphere, I’d say, on what we’ve seen of them,” Nolen predicted.
“The Divine Prophet is also a really nice horse and I don’t mind (his stock) as they are great eaters and they are looking like they are going to cop the work, so I’d say they’re a chance as well.”.
Past Magic Millions sale graduates include this year’s Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m) winner Tyzone (Written Tycoon), smart stakes-winning sprinter Victorem (I Am Invincible), the popular The Candy Man (Casino Prince) and talented mare Krone (Eurozone), a last-start winner of the Glasshouse Handicap (Listed, 1400m) on the Sunshine Coast in July.
“This is a two-year-old sale with proven stakes results for buyers,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said.
“The Gold Coast 2YOs in Training Sale produces more winners and has the best strike–rate of the three breeze-up style auctions in Australasia. The reason for this is the professionalism of our vendors who are among the most experienced and successful two-year-old sale vendors in the region.”
Magic Millions, which has “opened the batting” in recent years for the two-year-old sales, pushed back its 2020 sale from October to November in the hope that Covid-19 restrictions may have eased, leaving rival Inglis’ Ready2Race auction to go first, on October 20.
The New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Sale of 2YOs will follow on soon after the Gold Coast, with November 18 and 19 set aside for the auction.
Nolen’s son Shaun also has a draft of three colts heading to the Gold Coast under the JCS Thoroughbreds banner, while the pair will also offer eight two-year-olds at the Inglis Ready 2 Race Sale.
Magic Millions 2YOs In Training Sale key dates
Breeze-ups
Seymour – Friday, October 9, 12pm (all AEDT)
Warwick Farm – Monday 12 October 12, 10am
Gold Coast – Tuesday, October 13, 9.30am
Gold Coast – Friday, November 6, 9.30am
Sale
Inspection days – Sunday and Monday, November 8 and 9, 9am
Sale day – Tuesday, November 10, 12pm
Gold Coast Spring Racehorse Sale to be held after 2YO sale