Buyers Hold Upper Hand on Day 1 of Magic Millions

Magic Millions will attempt to cultivate a happy medium between buyers and sellers after a "far from satisfactory" start to the Magic Millions National Yearling Sale as purchasers appeared unwilling to compromise on quality despite apparent unprecedented demand for racing stock.

After months of vendors holding court at the Australian yearling and breeding stock sales, buyers took the upper hand June 1, leading to a depressed clearance rate which hovered around the 50% mark for most of the six hours of trade, which saw seven select sale yearlings make AU$200,000 or more.

A Snitzel  colt was the most expensive yearling at AU$500,000 (US$386,570) while a son of I Am Invincible  sold for AU$320,000 ($247,405) and a Dundeel  colt and an Extreme Choice filly made AU$220,000 ($170,091) each on the opening day.

Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch cut to the chase last night when assessing the session.

"I think it's an extremely polarizing market and the clearance rate is far from satisfactory and over the next 24 hours we'll be working very hard to increase the clearance rate to a satisfactory level," Bowditch said.

"Buyers, agents, trainers, and owners out there need to be paying attention to this sale. They need to be doing their research overnight leading into (Wednesday and Thursday) because there's so much opportunity out there.

"On the other side of the coin, I think vendors need to set their reserves low and give the market an opportunity to gain some confidence and obviously give themselves an opportunity to sell these horses."

On Tuesday, 111 yearlings had been sold for a total of AU$7,091,500 ($5,482,720) at an average of AU$63,887 ($49,394) (up 19% year on year) and a median of AU$45,000 ($34,791) (up 25% year on year). The clearance rate had improved to 57% by the close of business with the expectation that more sales will be made Wednesday.

Bowditch understood the reasons why many buyers, even in the absence of a number of Victorian participants, were not prepared to exceed their budgets to purchase horses.

"I think they're being selective. They are at an end-of-the-line yearling sale," he said. "They don't need a lot of horses, so they are pinning their ears back on the ones they really like.

"I think quality lots were still sought after today and that was evident whether it be Guy Mulcaster and Chris Waller or Suman Hedge, they've got an eye for detail, and they're finding those horses here and making sure they secure them."

Third Time Lucky for Snitzel Colt

The session-topping colt changed hands in the dying moments of the day with Victorian agent Suman Hedge going hard for a son of Snitzel, a colt offered by John Muir's Milburn Creek, after twice having to be withdrawn from earlier yearling sales.

Hedge had to go to AU$500,000 to land the colt after strong competition from an online bidder.

"We had a lot of insider knowledge about this horse. Scott (Holcombe from Milburn Creek) has been telling me about this horse for a very long time about how much he loved him," Hedge said. "They were devastated that they couldn't get him through the sales earlier in the year, which was really bad luck that he didn't come through.

"Had he gone through earlier he would have made significantly more, so armed with all that knowledge and seeing his pedigree, we thought he was clearly the standout horse here, comfortably."

The colt, who had to be withdrawn from both the Magic Millions Gold Coast and Inglis Australian Easter Yearling sales owing to niggling issues, is the fifth foal out of stakes winner Walk With Attitude, who is already the dam of the stakes-placed 2-year-old winner Spend, himself a AU$1.55 million ($1,203,110) Easter graduate. He was cataloged as Lot 1619.

Hedge would not disclose the ownership group behind the high-priced purchase while a trainer has not been decided.

"We had him vetted and our vets were really happy with him, and we've got a pretty strict criteria. With our pinhooking and yearlings, we are very, very conservative by nature, and they were all very happy with him," he said. 

"He presented very well. He's a lovely moving horse, he's strong, he's active. He paraded as well today as he did on the first day, so they are all the signs of a good horse."

Waller to Train Final Redoute's Choice Through Ring

The final Redoute's Choice  yearling to be offered at public auction was sold Tuesday, bringing an end to a remarkable sales career for the champion Arrowfield Stud stallion.

The first lot through the ring, the colt is the second living foal out of Japanese mare La Fouine Tail and, after being passed on at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale in April, he was bought for AU$210,000 ($162,359) by Mulcaster, with Waller to train the colt.

"He is a big, strong colt, he moves well, he has a big girth on him, and we've had some pretty good ones by the same sire like The Autumn Sun, so hope he does a good job," Mulcaster said. "We have seen these horses at other sales and at that sort of money, I thought he was pretty good value."

With a deep Japanese pedigree, the colt's second dam is champion 3-year-old filly Fabulous La Fouine and his third dam, Mercalle, was Europe's champion older female stayer in 1990.

"We're delighted he's gone to a great home. He's a lovely colt and his second and third dams are both champions over a bit of ground, so he's gone to a great stable for the type of horse that he was," Arrowfield Stud's Jon Freyer said at the Gold Coast. "I look forward to him being a Guineas (G1) and Derby (G1) horse in 18 months' time."

Reflecting on Redoute's Choice, who stood for 19 years at Arrowfield Stud before his death in 2019, Freyer said: "It is the end of an era, really, being the last of the Redoute's Choices. He's been a great servant of the farm and we've been privileged to have stood him for all of these years. 

"What a magnificent horse he was both as a stallion and as a personality. He was a great horse for everyone to be around and he'll be missed," he continued. "Now that there's no more of his progeny coming through, it'll hit home more than ever before."

At last week's Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, Freyer signed for eight mares, including race mares Missybeel (AU$800,000/$620,208) and Scarlet Dream (AU$750,000/$581,445), while Arrowfield acquired Arcadia Queen for AU$3.2 million ($2,480,830).

"The sales have been fantastic and the broodmare sale last week was spectacular, like nothing I think I have ever seen in all my time. The quality was hard to value and even harder to buy. We were thrilled we finished up with Arcadia Queen and, relative to other things, hopefully she's not that expensive.

"It's testament to both sales companies, really, with the good job they've done to get a buying bench here and to conduct the sales as good as both were."

Meanwhile, Mulcaster and Waller again came to the fore later in the day when the agent went to AU$220,000 for a Dundeel colt offered by Cameron and Kellie Bond of Kenmore Lodge.

The colt is the second live foal out of the Mary-Lou Trivett-owned Quizzed, a three-time winner in Britain and Australia who is a half sister to European listed winner Primevere. He was cataloged as Lot 1512.

"He is a nice horse and we thought he was up there with the better horses in the sale and I wasn't surprised he'd make around that figure," Kellie Bond said. 

"He was owned by a client who has been with us for quite some time. He was bred on the farm. We kept him back from January even though he was a January quality horse but, being a boutique farm, we held him back as a standout horse for this sale and he delivered, so it was nice."

Bond described Tuesday's session as a "selective market" and the "better horses find their way easily but underneath that it's pretty tough going."

"I think quality recommends itself and it's what the market cries out for," she said. 

"(The Dundeel colt) was a horse by a high-profile stallion, with a nice pedigree and he was a nice individual and a good judge bought him, so it was a nice result."

Quizzed has a weanling filly by No Nay Never  and is in foal to Spirit Of Boom .