MMGC story

2015 will be the 30th year that buyers have headed to the Gold Coast in January in search of that quintessential Australian creature, the brilliantly precocious racehorse that will return 12 months later to compete in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic.

During those three decades, the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale has produced its fair share of Classic winners, and older sprinters too – horses like Gallica, Melito, Redoute’s Dancer, Royal Descent & Wylie Hall, just to name five Group 1 winners by Redoute’s Choice.

Nevertheless, the Sale’s original concept remains as alluring and powerful as ever.

So one obvious question is: which studs & stallions most often weave magic at the Gold Coast in January?

Twelve stallions represented in the 2015 MMGC catalogue have produced a total of 17 top 3 finishers in the Magic Millions 2YO Classic over the past decade. Those 12 stallions stand at eight different studs.

Three Arrowfield stallions – Redoute’s Choice and his sons Snitzel & Not A Single Doubt – have sired two winners and five placegetters in that period. That record is rivalled only by Vinery Stud, with an outstanding record of three winners: two by More Than Ready, one by Testa Rossa.

The Arrowfield-sired winners are Bradbury’s Luck (Redoute’s Choice, 2005) and Karuta Queen (Not A Single Doubt, 2011). It’s a record that could have been doubled but for the scratching of Assail (by Charge Forward) on the morning of the 2013 race, and the stewards’ decision to relegate No Looking Back (by Redoute’s Choice) from first to second in 2012.

Snitzel, himself third behind Bradbury’s Luck in 2005, can be considered a little unlucky not to have posted a winner yet in the Magic Millions Classic, after two seconds and a third from from six runners since 2011.

It’s some consolation that one of Snitzel’s second placegetters, Sweet Idea has progressed to become one of Australia’s best female sprinters, with four Group 2 victories, four Group 1 placings and $2.1 million prizemoney on her record.