Anticipation is high ahead of the Magic Millions yearling sale, which gets underway on the Gold Coast Jan. 7. The auction house's managing director, Barry Bowditch, is confident the "deep" catalog will present buyers with a plethora of opportunity at every level of the market.
A total of 1,021 lots have been cataloged for Book 1, which will reach its crescendo Jan. 10 with 300 lots being offered at the inaugural Howden's Super Session, which Bowditch believes will provide the perfect entree for the $20 million Magic Millions race day Jan. 11.
"The way the catalog falls, I think there's great depth from lot one all the way through to 1021, but luckily we've got some fireworks late in the sale, which'll create a really, really good vibe here on Friday evening," he told ANZ Bloodstock News.
"I think the new formula with the super session is very exciting and the industry has embraced it," he said. "When we introduced it, we consulted our stakeholders—the vendors and buyers—leading into it and it wasn't a decision we took lightly, but on the whole it has been very well supported."
Bowditch said the sale presents an important barometer for the market early in 2025 and historically has set the tone for sales that follow in its wake throughout the year.
While revered stallions such as Hunter Valley powerhouses I Am Invincible, Zoustar, Snitzel and Victoria's leading stallion Written Tycoon will be well represented by some of the best-bred lots over the next four days of trade, some of the attention will also be focused on the new kids on the block as a host of sires with their first crops all aim to convert a wealth of racetrack success into brilliance in the breeding barn.
They include the likes of Coolmore's dual group 1 winner Home Affairs, who is the most represented among the new stallions, Newgate's 2021 Golden Slipper (G1) hero Stay Inside and intriguing shuttle stallions, including Coolmore's St Mark's Basilica and Darley's Pinatubo, the latter having already made a promising start to his career in the north.
Yarraman Park's I Am Invincible, Australia's reigning champion sire, could create fireworks during the opening session when a filly (Lot 182) by the stallion out of multiple group 1 winner Avantage (Fastnet Rock) enters the ring. Her filly by Wootton Bassett topped last year's sale when Te Akau Racing's David Ellis, who raced Avantage, purchased her for AU$2.1 million.
The graduates of this sale speak volumes for the quality that is offered year after year. They include Melbourne Cup (G1) winner Knight's Choice, top-class sprinting mare Imperatriz, the great Winx, Coolmore Stud Stakes (G1) winner Ozzmosis, and Militarize to name a small few.
The 2025 sale gets underway at the Bundall complex at 10 a.m. local time Tuesday, with Book 1 coming to a close Friday.
Following the Magic Millions Raceday at the Gold Coast Turf Club Saturday, featuring the $3 million Magic Millions 2-year-old Classic and the $3 million Magic Millions 3-year-old Guineas, Book 2 gets underway at 3:30 p.m. the following afternoon, with the final lots set to go through the ring from 10 a.m. Jan. 13.
