Second Group 1 for Magic Time in All Aged Stakes
Seasoned breeder John Muir’s sentimental side – and his good eye for a horse – paid more handsome dividends when his outstanding mare Magic Time (Hellbent) won her second top-flight win in Saturday’s All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Randwick.
Last November, the Grahame Begg-trained mare raised Yarraman sire Hellbent’s (I Am Invincible) first top-tier success by taking Caulfield’s Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
On Saturday, the four-year-old splashed to a fighting long-neck win in the $1.5 million All Aged, ploughing past the dogged Amenable (Lonhro), who at $51 had looked for long parts of the straight like raising the classic bolter’s big race win in the wet.
While that would have been a triumph to tug at the heart strings, a day after Darley announced Lonhro’s (Octagonal) death aged 25, there’s been great sentiment mixed with the magical time the All Aged winner has given Milburn Creek’s Muir through 11 starts for six wins.
Muir took the first foal of his Group 3-winning mare Time Awaits (Nicconi) to the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale in 2021, but when she was passed-in at just $110,000, he walked back to her box to await post-auction suitors.
But before any arrived, horse and breeder shared a moment.
“She stalled well short of her $150,000 reserve and I was adamant she was worth every cent of that,” Muir told John Tapp Racing a year ago this month, after Magic Time had won her first three starts.
“A little later I walked around to her box wondering if private offers would be forthcoming.
“She lifted her head out of the feedbin, walked to the stable door and looked me straight in the eye.
“Everything changed when she gave me that look. Being the sentimentalist I am, the decision was made to take her home and race her under the Milburn Creek Stud banner.”
Muir, a savvy businessman who became Sydney’s biggest Holden car dealer, has been rewarded for his sentiment with $2.1 million in prize-money. Moreover, Magic Time’s broodmare value as a dual Group 1 winner has now skyrocketed.
On Saturday coming off a first-up sixth in Flemington’s Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) and a deceptive seventh on a tough inside line in the TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) – on merely a Heavy 8 – Muir’s cherished mare was exceptional.
Starting an easy fourth-favourite at $6.50, she was smartly away from gate seven of 13 for Michael Dee. She was the widest runner around the turn but just behind the leading half dozen, and she galloped through the mud the best to emerge triumphant, with her second win in four heavy outings.
And the win involved some wonderfully magical timing, given the remaining two events on Randwick’s meeting were abandoned after the race.
“She jumped well. We were able to get cover, albeit being wide, and then I was happy because we could just work into it,” Dee said.
“I was pretty confident a long way out but with the ground how it is now, I wasn’t sure about the 100-metre mark. But she dug deep. It was a super effort.
“She’s a dream to ride. She does everything you ask of her. She’s certainly a race day horse. In trackwork she’s pretty unassuming and she doesn’t usually work that well in trackwork. But come race day, she really switches on.”
Begg, celebrating his 15th top-tier success, said Magic Time’s competitive nature had earned the win.
“She’s been a beauty. Each run has just brought her on. This was our main goal, getting to the All Aged Stakes,” he said.
“Her Newmarket run was good. Then in the TJ Smith, she just drew down on the inside but it brought her on and she was spot-on today. Her 1400-metre record is outstanding.
“I just said to Mick before the race: ‘Just keep her comfortable, get her in a good rhythm and help her as much as possible’. It was going to be very trying conditions but she’s got a great will to win. It’s very exciting.”
Asked if Magic Time could be a contender for next spring’s The Everest (1200m), Begg said “you never know”.
“We were thinking about going to Brisbane but we’ll just have to re-assess everything,” he said. “She’s a great mare. She’s got an unbelievable record for such a lightly raced horse and she never fails to deliver.”
Magic Time raised Hellbent’s second black-type win in successive Saturdays, following Benedetta’s SAJC Irwin Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) victory in Adelaide. That continued a break-out season for Yarraman’s second-stringer, with Fully Lit taking the $2 million Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m) and Hell Hath No Fury the ATC Guy Walter Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m).
Hellbent, who covered 124 mares in his sixth year at stud in 2023 at a fee of $38,500 (inc GST), after serving 165 at $22,000 (inc GST) in 2022 – began Saturday ranked 14th on the Australian general sires’ table, a more than commendable spot for a sire with just three crops racing.
This Australian season, he has 70 winners and four stakes victors from 168 starters. Overall, the 11-year-old has 106 winners and five stakes-winners from 200 runners worldwide.
Time Awaits’ colt by Maurice (Screen Hero) was withdrawn by Milburn Creek from Inglis Easter this month. The nine-year-old mare missed to Wild Ruler (Snitzel) in 2022, and was covered by Yarraman flagbearer – and Hellbent’s father – I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) last spring.
From the All Aged Stakes’s literal wash-up, Private Eye (Al Maher, $12) held on well to take third after racing on the pace, while Sunshine In Paris (Invader), the $5 favourite, made little ground to finish fourth, six lengths behind the winner. Other market fancies Chain Of Lightning (Fighting Sun, $6), Espiona (Extreme Choice, $5.50) and Southport Tycoon (Written Tycoon, $6.50) paddled in the conditions, finishing sixth, seventh and ninth respectively.