Mainland trainers seek out Apple Isle’s latest stars ahead of Magic Millions
Victorian buyers to bolster local market at the Tasmanian Yearling Sale
Buoyed by the racetrack deeds of Mystic Journey (Needs Further) and The Inevitable (Dundeel), as well as a host of locally-bred horses proving successful in high-class races interstate, vendors are optimistic of a competitive Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale.
But the strength of the mainland buying bench in attendance for the 146-lot auction, which starts at 12pm today in Launceston, will be a key determinant to the overall prosperity of the state’s sole yearling sale.
The influx of interstate trainers, mainly from Victoria, could lead to a heated top-end as those buyers with bigger budgets battle it out for the best-credentialed horses and potentially push the aggregate beyond $3 million for the first time.
Last year’s sale resulted in 107 horses being traded for a total of $2,993,000, a new record, at an average of $27,972. The highest-priced lot was a $115,000 colt by Fiorente (Monsun).
Magic Millions’ Victoria and Tasmania manager Tim Brown said a host of interstate trainers were inspecting yearlings on the sale grounds yesterday.
Among them were Cranbourne’s Ken Keys, who secured Moonee Valley Vase (Gr 2, 2040m) winner Soul Patch (Shamus Award) for $45,000 from the 2018 sale, Caulfield-based Lloyd Kennewell, Phillip Stokes, Dan Bowman, Mitch Freedman and Robbie Griffiths.
Noted breeze-up exponent, Benalla-based Tal Nolen, was also on the grounds in a bid to source horses for his 2020 draft after preparing the Magic Millions Gold Coast 2YOs In Training Sale-topper at $525,000 last year.
But it was the local trainers – Scott Brunton (7) and Adam Trinder (5) were the leading buyers last year – who will prove vital to ensuring there is a healthy clearance rate, which closed at 78 per cent in 2019.
“The TasBreeders’ scheme is very good and there’s plenty of interest amongst owners and trainers,” Brown told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“If people win a race here with the Tas Breeders bonus, they are basically winning as much as a Melbourne midweeker and that is for any Tassie-sired or Tassie-bred horse.”
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch also implored Tasmania’s thoroughbred investors to support today’s sale, which is backed by the auction house, TasBreeders and Tas Racing.
“It is a huge opportunity (for the locals as) all the big races down here in Tasmania at the moment have been won by horses out of this sale,” Bowditch said.
“It is one of those places, like Western Australia, where we all work together to get the job done, so to speak. We have all invested to make it work.”
To further illustrate Bowditch’s point, the exciting Bill Ryan-trained three-year-old Still A Star (Toronado), who cost just $13,000 at the 2018 sale from the Alva Stud draft, made it four Listed wins in succession when taking out yesterday’s Tasmanian Oaks (Listed, 2100m).
Alva Stud will offer eight yearlings today, including the half-sister to Still A Star by the Blue Gum Farm-based sire Manhattan Rain (Encosta De Lago), who is catalogued as Lot 23. https://catalogue.magicmillions.com.au/lot/20TSY/23
Catherine Hills, the proprietor of Alva Stud, said the Manhattan Rain filly had more size and scope than Still A Star, whose diminutive stature counted against her in the sales ring.
“She is a different type. She is a lot bigger, taller and stronger. Still A Star was a very small filly as a yearling, which is why she was so cheap, and she’s still not a big filly but she doesn’t look quite as far out of place now,” Hills told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The Manhattan Rain has got a lot more muscle and there’s been quite a bit of interest in her.”
Hills, whose draft includes colts by Magnus (Flying Spur) and Palentino (Teofilo) and fillies by Rich Enuff (Written Tycoon) and Alpine Eagle (High Chaparral), said there were big numbers of inspections yesterday, far more than in previous years.
“I think it will be a really good sale as today has been very busy and a lot busier than any other Sundays we’ve had that I can remember,” she said.
“There’s a lot of mainland trainers and people coming over. It was flat-chat from about 8.30am until about 2.30pm and then it dropped off a bit after that because we had the races on.
“One trainer I talked to from South Australia said last year he just came on the Sunday but needed more time to look, so he was around looking (on Saturday) as well. It is a positive vibe and the same for everybody.”
Grenville Stud’s late sire Lionhearted (Fastnet Rock), who died after just one season at stud, and Armidale Stud’s Alpine Eagle will be represented by their first crop yearlings, and Brown expects the progeny of both stallions to be well received.
Victorian operation Sun Stud’s first season sire Palentino will also have three yearlings on offer at the Tasmanian sale, the same auction ring the dual Group 1 winner came out of in 2014 when purchased by Darren Weir for $85,000.
Star mare Mystic Journey, an $11,000 bargain buy, has flown the flag for her Armidale Stud-based sire Needs Further (Encosta De Lago), but she is not a lone hand for the stallion with the smart sprinter, $18,000 graduate Bold Star, winning at stakes level at Flemington last month.
Bold Star’s Adelaide-based trainer Gordon Richards, who trained his first Group 1 winner with Gytrash (Lope De Vega) in the Black Caviar Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m) on February 15, was another to make the trip to Tasmania yesterday.
Needs Further, who covered 48 mares in 2017 before his popularity skyrocketed last year when he covered triple figures (103) for the first time, has 13 lots catalogued in today’s sale.
Brown said the sale was “shaping up well” and predicted the upward trend of 2020 to continue but issued caution to vendors to not set unrealistic reserves.
“With a sale like this, with a smaller book…we need to get a decent clearance rate which is important,” he said.
“Yes, we get paid on gross, but we don’t want to see vendors going home with horses. You want to see them cleared if we can achieve it.”