Magic Millions release catalogues for next month’s bumper National Sale
Rare Shadwell breeding stock and weanling opportunity to be showcased on the Gold Coast
The Magic Millions National Sale has been compared to a high-end art auction as bloodstock investors from around the world are expected to compete for the rare and unique opportunities this year’s catalogue promises to present.
Having already confirmed the recruitment of champion New Zealand mare Melody Belle (Commands), a 14-time Group 1 winner, and that it would be responsible for the dispersal of Shadwell Australasia’s breeding stock, Magic Millions has released an 854-lot race fillies and broodmare catalogue for its three-day breeding stock sale from May 25 to 27.
The company yesterday also released a 455-lot National Weanling Sale catalogue, with two days set aside for May 20 and 21, as the lead-in for two weeks of trade on the Gold Coast.
There will be limited time to test the top-end of the market with Melody Belle – whose value has been estimated as between $2 and $4 million – set to go through the sales ring inside the first half an hour of the opening session.
“It’s a fantastic catalogue and it starts … with an exceptionally strong group of race fillies we have as a whole,” Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said yesterday.
“There’s some real highlights in amongst them with the likes of Melody Belle, Tofane, Bella Vella, Mizzy, Miss Sentimental. It’s a fantastic group and obviously day one culminates with some fireworks with the Shadwell dispersal, so it’s going to be an outstanding day’s selling.”
The unreserved 39-lot Shadwell Australasia draft of race fillies and broodmares had been foreshadowed for a number of months and the racetrack feats of its founder Sheikh Hamdan came under notice following his death in Dubai last month.
Not since the 2014 Teeley Assets dispersal at the Gold Coast, which grossed more than $23 million, has the southern hemisphere market had an opportunity to access bloodlines such as the one developed by Hamdan.
“These dispersal sales are really like collecting art with families that you don’t always have the opportunity to get into,” Bowditch said.
“They’ve obviously been very well managed all the way through, so I would suspect buyers from all over the place that don’t normally pay as much attention (to Australian sales) will show up and participate on them.”
The mouth-watering Shadwell draft includes:
- Three-year-old Minhaaj (Exceed And Excel), a winner two starts ago and a close-up sixth in Saturday’s Redelva Stakes (Listed, 1100m) in Adelaide;
- The 2019 South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Qafila (Not A Single Doubt), who is in foal to Dundeel (High Chaparral);
- Stakes-winning two-year-old Madeenaty (Exceed And Excel), who is in foal to Too Darn Hot (Dubawi);
- Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) placed mare Reemah (Redoute’s Choice);
- Champion South African Grade 1-winning two-year-old Entisaar (More Than Ready) who is in foal to Too Darn Hot; and,
- Mares in foal to I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), Exceed And Excel (Danehill), Written Tycoon (Iglesia) and Deep Field (Northern Meteor).
The Shadwell breeding stock dispersal will be conducted at the end of the May 25 race fillies and mares session in a format agreed to by Magic Millions and Sheikh Hamdan’s trusted adviser Angus Gold.
“We were both keen, Magic Millions and Angus, to run it as a group and we thought the best time to have it would be after the race fillies and obviously before the mares in foal (which starts on the Wednesday),” Bowditch said.
“The way the numbers fell, day one looked the best possible time to sell them. There will be plenty of people around that day and it’s a good time later in the day to sell them given the exposure and to get those involved (internationally).
“These are fillies which are a result of a significant investment by Sheikh Hamdan which have been decades in the making and this is the culmination of that.
“There’s some sensational young mares under the age of ten which are stakes-performed and very well mated and on top of that the older mares, ten and above, are already stakes producers.”
The headline acts will naturally capture much of the attention, but Bowditch says the extensive catalogue offers buyers at all levels the opportunity to trade.
“It’s got depth and diversity and the catalogue is very young on the whole,” he said.
“Most of the mares in foal are first, second and third covers, so they have got very few convictions behind them and they’ve got big futures in front of them and we’re delighted with the quality of the catalogue from start to finish.”
Day one of the broodmare sale will also see breeding rights in stallions Written Tycoon, Alabama Express (Redoute’s Choice), Extreme Choice (Not A Single Doubt) and Grunt (O’Reilly) being offered.
End users to take notice of weanling catalogue
The preceding two-day Magic Millions National Weanling Sale was also one not to be missed, according to Bowditch, who believes the market is ripe for owners and trainers to target horses capable of reaching the top on the racetrack.
Vendors such as Bhima Thoroughbreds, Bell River Thoroughbreds, Coolmore, Kitchwin Hills, Gilgai Farm, Segenhoe and Rothwell Park will be among the consignors supporting the Gold Coast auction with stock.
The catalogue is also backed up by the Shadwell draft of weanlings which includes colts by Dundeel, Lonhro (Octagonal), Exceed And Excel, Shalaa (Invincible Spirit) and Zoustar (Northern Meteor).
There are also fillies by I Am Invincible and Deep Field and a daughter of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) bred to southern hemisphere time out of South African champion Entisaar.
“The weanling sale – and taking Shadwell out of it – is a sale that (end-use) buyers need to pay attention to,” he said.
“You have got stallions Zoustar and Pierro in the last decade, and they are some of the biggest blue chip investments in the country, who have come out of this sale.
“There’s been the opportunity to buy them there and the sale itself has a lot of a quality in it this year and obviously Shadwell is at the top of that line-up.”
Woodside Park Stud’s Mark Rowsthorn has also taken the decision to offer 18 weanlings by Written Tycoon, the majority of which would make select yearling sales including a daughter out of Group 1-winning juvenile Pasadena Girl (Savabeel) and the second foal, a colt, out of stakes winner Hell Or Highwater (Not A Single Doubt).
“Given the strength of the market and the profits made (in 2021), and those pinhookers who did play last year got a win, so you’d suspect they’d all be back in play and, on top of that, with the graduate success out of this weanling sale, it has to be respected,” Bowditch said.
“So, I think you’ll see more end-users wanting to play this year than they have in the past and that’s something we’re looking forward to ensuring happens.”
Foals by 20 individual first crop stallions will also go under the hammer at the Gold Coast, including Justify (Scat Daddy), Ace High (High Chaparral), Brave Smash (Tosen Phantom), Encryption (Lonhro), Grunt, Harry Angel (Dark Angel), The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice) and Written By (Written Tycoon).
Inspections for the weanling sale will start on Monday, May 17.
Supplementary entries for the National Broodmare and Weanling Sales close at 10am on Monday, May 10, and the catalogue for the National Yearling Sale, to be held from June 1 to 3, will be released soon.
Magic Millions Gold Coast National Sale schedule
National Weanling Sale
Thursday, May 20 – 10am – Book 1
Friday, May 21 – 10am – Book 1 and 2
National Broodmare Sale
Tuesday, May 25 – 10am – Race fillies and maiden mares (inc. Shadwell Stud Australasia Unreserved Dispersal race fillies & broodmares), stallion shares & lifetime breeding rights
Wednesday, May 26 – 10am – Book 1 broodmares
Thursday, May 27 – 10am – Book 1 and 2 broodmares
National Yearling Sale
Tuesday, June 1 – 10am – Book 1
Wednesday, June 2 – 10am – Book 1
Thursday, June 3 – 10am – Book 2
National Racehorse Sale
Thursday, June 3 – follows yearlings
Related links
Magic Millions National Weanling Sale catalogue
https://www.magicmillions.com.au/calendar/2021-gold-coast-national-weanling-sale/
Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale catalogue
https://www.magicmillions.com.au/calendar/2021-gold-coast-national-broodmare-sale/