LET THE MAGIC HAPPEN
Progeny of premier stallions to provide spark on the Gold Coast on day one
Magic Millions’ renowned sales ring “fireworks” is assured over the next eight days, despite some participants offering a more tempered view of this year’s Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
The 210-lot day one session, the first of seven selling days over an eight-day period, starts this morning with some high-end horses catalogued on the first day likely to provide a barometer for the market that will be feeling its way as the gavel falls for the first time in 2024.
Reigning champion stallion I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) could set the tone inside the first hour of the sale for the top-end of the market with at least three high-profile yearlings by the Yarraman Park-based sire to sell inside the first hour.
A filly out of the Tony Gollan-trained sprinter Outback Barbie’s (Spirit Of Boom) goes under the hammer as Lot 16 and, three lots later, a colt out of Palace Talk (Street Cry) (Lot 19), making him a brother to Group 2-winning filly, Shuffle Dancer (I Am Invincible), and a further two stakes-placed fillies will enter the ring.
An I Am Invincible half-brother to Phelan Ready Stakes (Listed, 1000m) winner Palazzo Spirit (Spirit Of Boom) will also be offered as Lot 21, while fellow proven stallions such as Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) and Zoustar (Northern Meteor) have a strong representation on day one.
“It’s a sale where there’ll definitely be plenty of fireworks, but in saying that there’ll be plenty of value to be found in that lower to middle end,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
Asked specifically about the top-end of the market where the colts syndicates and owner-breeders tend to play, Bowditch added: “I think we’ve got a really strong group of well-bred horses who are outstanding physicals and there’s a great thirst within the market to buy very good colts and fillies who have got pedigrees and there’s a great number of those horses here to facilitate that end of the market.”
Data provided by ThoroughWorks, the software provider used by vendors to collate their inspections and to help gauge the level of buyer interest among other metrics, shows that Book 1 vendors’ inspection numbers from last Wednesday until late yesterday is, on average, down 4.4 per cent on the corresponding period year-on-year.
However, some leading vendors have experienced an increase in both overall foot traffic and in the number of different potential buyers looking at the horses, one prominent Hunter Valley stud up by 23.9 per cent.
“When you’re dealing with a product you’ve got to keep momentum up and the momentum is still good. It might come back a bit, but we can survive with that as long as we keep finding homes for horses,” Vinery Stud general manager Peter Orton told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The average is bound to come down a little bit and so the clearance will be vital, but there are other alternatives now with racing [and prize-money] being so good.
“Vendors can take a stake in horses and help … keep the momentum going.”
Twin Hills’ Olly Tait, who will offer 17 horses on the Gold Coast, suggested the quality of the yearlings required to make the catalogue ensured that there would strong interest ahead of the 2024 sale from Australasia’s leading owners, trainers and syndicators who were targeting some of Australasia’s best-credentialed 2022-born horses.
“It’s a professional market – people find the horses and the horses find their level. As a vendor, you obviously give a lot of thought to sales placement and the more we do it, the more we find that no matter what sale you’re at, the [majority of] buyers will value the horses fairly similarly,” Tait said.
“The horse market follows the general economy and when interest rates were low during Covid, then the general economy boomed and as interest rates have gone up, the economy has slowed down slightly.
“It’ll certainly be my expectation that the market for yearlings will follow a similar path.”
Well aware of the sentiment expressed by the likes of Orton and Tait, Bowditch is confident that Magic Millions can maintain its high standard for selling horses in the knowledge that the vendors are willing to meet the market.
“In the last five years or so, we’ve basically cleared 81 per cent or better for this type of sale and that provides buyers with a huge opportunity to buy horses that they want to own,” he said.
“In some cases, the market will be a little bit selective, but I think on a whole the buyers are here to buy and we’ve had good inspections going on and our bookings for accommodation are great.
“So, we’ve done all we can to ensure that we’ve provided for our vendors who have supported our sale bigger and better than they ever have before with a viable buying bench for their horses.”
With Group 1-winning colts Ozzmosis (Zoustar), Militarize (Dundeel) and Little Brose (Per Incanto) graduates of the 2022 sale and James Harron’s colts partnership-owned two-year-olds Bodyguard (I Am Invincible), Highness (Snitzel) and Espionage (Zoustar) all winning early season stakes races after purchasing them on the Gold Coast 12 months ago.
That Book 1 sale generated $230,161,000 in turnover, a significant component of the Australian bloodstock market that achieved an aggregate of more than $920 million, a figure that is second only to the record of 2022.
“The graduate success out of this sale is second to none and no sale can compare to Magic Millions in producing Group 1 winners, stakes winners, two-year-old winners, you name it, this sale is incomparable,” Bowditch said.
“I think our buyers are learning that’s the case and if they leave money on the table they’ll only regret not spending it here in the months to come.”
Today’s first session starts at 11am (AEST), following the barrier draws for Saturday’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) and 3YO Guineas (RL, 1400m).