Quality on Show in Magic Millions National Sale Catalog

Domestic and international buyers will be afforded the opportunity to get their hands on some of the best-credentialed bloodstock Australasia has to offer at next month's Magic Millions National Sale, after the Gold Coast-based auction house released catalogs for the broodmare and weanling sale extravaganza. 

The sale, which gets underway May 18 with the two-day weanling sale, comprises 644 Lots in the Broodmare Sale section, while there are 450 weanlings set to be offered during a marathon two weeks of trade in Queensland. 

The National Weanling Sale will be followed by a three-day mare sale which will begin May 23. The fortnight of trade will be capped off by the National Yearling Sale, which starts May 30, and finishes the following day, with the catalog for that section of the sale to be released in the coming weeks. 

Over the past few months, Magic Millions has teased a number of high-class mares who are set to go under the hammer in the iconic sale ring. The race fillies session on the opening day is expected to be headlined by group 1 winners Levante, Forbidden Love, Coventina Bay, and Snapdancer. 

However, there are numerous other well-credentialed mares who will no doubt also garner a significant amount of attention, including group 2 winners Vangelic, Nerve Not Verve, Zennzella, Wolverine, and Shades Of Rose. 

Also on the market is Ocean Dream, the dam of Thousand Guineas (G1) winner Amphitrite, and Zenaida, who is the dam of this season's Surround Stakes (G1) winner Sunshine In Paris, as well as group 3-winning filly Macroura. Ocean Dream will be offered in foal to Pierro , while Zenaida is carrying a foal by Arrowfield Stud shuttler Maurice . 

A collection of mares set to go through the ring are carrying foals from the first crop of some of Australia's newest stallions, including Acrobat, Captivant, Portland Sky, Profiteer, Stay Inside, Tiger Of Malay, and Wild Ruler. 

To add a splash of international flavor to the sale, there are also mares offered in foal to some exciting shuttle stallions, including Aclaim , Pinatubo , Palace Pier , St Mark's Basilica , and Victor Ludorum . 

Mares carrying progeny of the best-proven stallions in Australia also feature among the offering, including mares in foal to I Am Invincible , Exceed And Excel , Russian Revolution, Snitzel , and So You Think , while buyers will be given the chance to secure mares in foal to top-class stallions from the northern hemisphere, including Frankel  and Kingman . 

More than half of all lots in the broodmare sale are either maiden mares or at first cover, and Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch told ANZ Bloodstock News he was very proud of the catalog of mares the team at Magic Millions has collated for the sale. 

"It is full of quality and I think it is the youngest catalog we have ever put together with over half the mares either on their first cover or just off the track and, when you go back through the results, that is the part of the market that most appeals," he said.  

"We are delighted with the amount of well-related and stakes-performed mares we have been able to attract this year. There are plenty of highlight mares in there, but obviously, the diversity of it and the youth are the main things that really excite us about what we have to offer next month. 

"On the first day we are starting at midday instead of 10 a.m. and it will be five to six hours of selling. It starts with Fangelic, Forbidden Love, and goes through to Isotope, Snapdancer, and Tycoon Harmony at the end, before we've even got to the supplementary. We are really excited by what we have to offer on the first day and then the mares in foal are a good solid lineup with a few highlight lots among them."

Top-Class Youngsters 

Bowditch described the group of weanlings compiled for the National Weanling sale as the "strongest" collection in recent years. 

"I am absolutely delighted with the weanlings on offer and I believe it is as strong a weanling catalog we have had in a few years outside a dispersal," said Bowditch. "It is a really strong lineup of weanlings and breeders have really supported this sale. 

"To be able to have attracted 450 was within our expectations, if not above them, and we think, looking at the sire quality and the first season sire horses, the proven horses also having good numbers in there and the quality of farms supporting the sale, it is an outstanding group of weanlings."

Over recent years, the weanling sale has been the source of several high-class horses, with group 2-winning 2-year-old Veight and winning dual group 1-placegetter Don Corleone having been purchased for AU$100,000 and AU$650,000 respectively at the 2021 edition of the sale. 

In 2019, Newgate Farm pinhooked Golden Slipper Stakes (G1) winner Stay Inside for AU$60,000. Newgate would go on to sell to the Freedman Brothers and Rick Connolly Bloodstock for AU$200,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale the following year. 

Silverdale Farm enjoyed a profitable pinhook when purchasing, in conjunction with Shrone Bloodstock, a colt by The Autumn Sun out of Via Africa for AU$600,000 at last year's weanling sale. The colt went on to sell for a sale-topping AU$1.8 million at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale earlier this month. At this year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, a Zoustar  filly out of Members Joy sold for AU$1.1 million, having been purchased at the Magic Millions weanling sale last year for AU$750,000 by John Kelly's Cloverfield Bloodstock. 

"If you look at the success this sale has had on the track with the likes of Don Corleone and, indeed, the results in the sales ring with a sale-topping horse last month with The Autumn Sun out of Via Africa and the Zoustar out of Members Joy, both being found at the Gold Coast weanling sale," said Bowditch. 

"Weanling sales are sophisticated the world over and I think at this one buyers will find quality at all ends of the market. I think breeders have given us a really good push this year and buyers will be impressed with the group of weanlings that will be on the Gold Coast next month." 

There are weanlings on offer from some of the best families in the Australian stud book, including a Parsons Creek-consigned colt by Written Tycoon , who is a three-quarter brother to multiple group 1-winning champion turned top-class sire Capitalist, while Yarraman Park will offer an I Am Invincible half brother to group 2 winner Valour Road. 

It will also be the first time buyers will get to see the foals by some exciting first-season sires, with weanlings by Admire Mars, Anders, Bivouac, Cool Aza Beel, Dirty Work, Earthlight , Farnan, and Fierce Impact  all represented at the sale

Further sires to have their first-crop foals feature at the Magic Millions weanling sale include Ghaiyyath , Graff, Hanseatic, King's Legacy, Lucky Vega , North Pacific, Peltzer, Prague, Russian Camelot, Tagaloa, Wootton Bassett , and Yulong Prince. 

With the yearling market solid and studs continuing to sign up exciting stallions to their rosters, Bowditch is confident the enthusiasm from the buying bench will carry through into the breeding stock sale series and he believes the catalog they have put together will appeal to buyers at every level, both globally and domestically. 

"At all levels, this sale stacks up better than anywhere else and gives good quality because, as we know, the traders and the breeders do really support this sale. I think the market continues to be strong here in Australia and the yearling sale market has held up phenomenally well," he said. 

"There are also plenty of stallions going to stud this year who will be demanding good support, and they will use the breeding stock sales where they source that support that they don't already have in their back paddock. 

"I think our domestic market has been really strong this year within Magic Millions and I feel as if we are gaining momentum again internationally. The Kiwis also have something to look forward to on the back of a good carnival and I think, all in all, it bodes well for our breeding stock sale. We have the stock now and it's all about supporting our vendors with the best buying bench we can put together."

Supplementary entries for the National Broodmare and Weanling Sales close May 5, while the catalog for the 2023 National Yearling Sale will be released online soon.