Pinhookers and end users chase blue chip weanlings at Magic Millions
Golden opportunities await after positive feedback about quality National offering
The Magic Millions National Weanling Sale has stood the test of time and the auction house’s managing director Barry Bowditch believes this year’s Gold Coast offering will be no exception.
And the 383-lot sale has drawn an increasing number of end–user buyers as well as the pinhookers searching for their next racetrack star or substantial sale ring flip.
Bowditch said the catalogue might be down on numbers compared to recent years but that the “quality of horses here is deep” and that feedback from buyers had been positive.
“Vendors are motivated to sell, which in this market I believe the majority have been so far this year, so I think we can have a successful weanling sale,” Bowditch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The demand for weanlings here probably outweighs the amount we’ve got. We’d love another 50 or 60 if we could have it again.
“The first season sires are well represented here and then there’s a good quality offering by the proven sires and everything in between. Type wise, I think we’re in great shape, I think pedigree wise the quality of the pages are exceptional.”
The 2024 sale will be held on Sunday and Monday as a lead-in to Tuesday’s Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale race fillies and mares session – the day ten-time Group 1 winner Imperatriz (I Am Invincible) will go under the hammer and potentially set a new southern hemisphere record price for a broodmare.
“This weanling sale has stood the test of time,” Bowditch said.
“Three of Australia’s most prominent stallions were all sold here in Zoustar, Pierro and Stay Inside, so it just shows that you can buy your bluechip horse here as a weanling and there’s plenty of other horses that have done unbelievably well on the racetrack.”
Bowditch suggested that owners and trainers were becoming a more frequent participant in the weanling market.
“They don’t wait for a yearling sale each and every year any more,” he said.
“We’ve got a good line of end users here who will be here to participate at all ends of the market.
“We just hope we’ve got enough regions covered that can facilitate a healthy clearance rate.”
One member of the end-user Magic Millions buying bench is Perth trainer Simon Miller, minus banner mare Amelia’s Jewel (Siyouni), who is back on the east coast scouting for young equine talent on the Gold Coast.
Miller bought three foals at the recent Inglis Australian Weanling Sale – a $110,000 Pierro (Lonhro) colt, and fillies by Capitalist (Written Tycoon) ($65,000) and Nicconi (Bianconi) ($48,000) – to grow out and eventually put into training and he hopes to add to that number at the Gold Coast on Sunday and Monday.
The weanling sales have been a happy hunting ground for Miller, one of Western Australia’s premier trainers who has taken an end-user approach to the foal market for at least a decade.
Whispering Brook (Hinchinbrook) was a $45,000 2014 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale graduate who Miller trained to win all five starts as a two-year-old in Perth before campaigning her in Melbourne to finish third in the Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) at Caulfield in 2016.
More recently, Miller has enjoyed success with 2021 $100,000 Inglis Australian Weanling Sale graduate Live To Tell (Territories) who won a Supremacy Stakes (Listed, 1000m) and a Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) as a two-year-old in Perth last season.
That same year, 2021, Miller and Platinum Horse Transport principal Xavier Franklin paid just $9,000 for Divine Prophet (Choisir) filly Generosity out of the Magic Millions sale, the same auction fellow Perth trainer Luke Fernie landed high-class Group 1-placed sprinter Ripcord (Written By) for $40,000.
The now three-year-old Generosity, who races in the Peters Investments Plate (1200m) at Belmont on Saturday, has won more than $150,000 in prize-money and was stakes-placed in the Champion Fillies (Gr 3, 1600m) and Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Classic (Listed, 1400m) during last year’s Pinnacles Carnival in Perth.
Other Miller weanling purchases include Fuld’s Bet, a first crop daughter of I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) who won the 2014 edition of the WA Gimcrack Stakes, then a Listed race, and Miss Conteki (Eurozone), a four-time stakes-winning mare who was a $55,000 weanling who was resold last year for $700,000.
Miller has got a group of long-term clients who have backed his weanlings-to-race concept and they’ve reaped the benefits.
“When you’re buying them on a regular basis, you’ve always got yearlings becoming two-year-olds, so the system’s there and every year we try to buy half a dozen,” Miller told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“You can buy them cheaper, but the risk is they could grow out the wrong way or something goes wrong. The whole game’s full of risk, isn’t it? For us, being an end user, we can throw a few extra bids in and out-punch the pinhookers.
“The other thing is, pedigrees don’t really worry us, either, because we’re end users. The question you have to ask when you’re pinhooking is, ‘will it get into the [right] sale next year?’”.
Miller credits agent Merrick Staunton, the man who bought Group 1-placed $2.2 million filly Kimochi (Brave Smash) for $21,000 at the Australian Weanling Sale three years ago, for teaching him the art of assessing foals.
“I was lucky as I got taught by Merrick Staunton how to find them, so no doubt fast-tracked the success we’ve had with our weanling purchases,” the trainer said.
“You have got to adjust your sights from yearlings to weanlings and then try and forecast how they’re going to grow out.
“I am half a thrill seeker, so I enjoy it.”
Miller’s record suggests he’s far from a reckless gambler when it comes to splashing out on weanlings.
“Sometimes we’ve rushed in and had a bit of a crack, but historically we’ve bought well at good value,” the Group 1-winning trainer said.
“The other thing I like about foals, you can get onto those stallions early if they continually throw good types.
“We bought I Am Invincible’s first lot of weanlings when they came through and we had his second–ever stakes winner [Fuld’s Bet]. He was throwing types early and she was a beauty.
“It gives you a little heads up about the new sires coming through when you’re looking at foals on a regular basis.
“We’ve had a lot of black type winners, heaps, and then we’ve been able to sell a lot of them back through the ring as well.”
Fernie has also been on the Gold Coast this week inspecting weanlings in the hope of securing his next Ripcord.
The first of two weanling sale sessions will start at 11am on Sunday.