By Bren O'Brien
Managing Director Barry Bowditch remains cautiously optimistic that this week's Magic Millions 2YO in Training Sale has the right horses and the depth of international and local buyers to prove a success.
The sale kicks off at 5pm on Monday with the first 100 catalogued lots, before the remaining 172 lots go under the hammer on Tuesday.
The breeze-up sale has traditionally been dominated by international buyers, with 96 of the 132 horses purchased through the sale last year bought by overseas interests, including 27 of the top 29 lots.
Magic Millions Sales Director David Chester and his team have been busy working with potential buyers in Asia in recent months and Bowditch is confident the right people will be on the Gold Coast buying bench this week.
David Chester (right) and his team have been busy working with potential buyers in Asia in recent months
"It’s always an interesting sale this. We rely a lot on our international market. We think at this stage, we've got reasonable numbers coming into the sale from all over Asia," he said.
"The numbers at the inspections have been more than reasonable. We’ve got plenty of people around and we've got tomorrow (Monday) as well, which is generally our busiest day leading into the sale, which starts at 5pm."
"The numbers at the inspections have been more than reasonable. We’ve got plenty of people around." - Barry Bowditch
"David Chester is a bit of an institution for us over in Asia and he's worked very hard over the last two or three months over there to market this sale and get as many buyers in as possible.
"If all the buyers that are on our list and booked in turn up, we are in a good place. This is a sale, where we are usually cautiously optimistic that we can get the result we want."
Catalogue strength
Bowditch said there was a strong focus on the strength of the catalogue to ensure money wasn't left on the table and both international and local buyers had plenty of options.
The top of the market, a strength through all Australian thoroughbred sales over the past 12 months, is expected to be bullish.
Bowditch said there was a strong focus that both international and local buyers had plenty of options
"We think this year that the commercial horses that are bred right, have breezed right and have looked right. So given that, you’d expect that top group of horses will be particularly popular," Bowdtich said.
"Fingers crossed, not only the top end, but the middle and lower end are good as well. We've got buyers at all levels."
While the international contingent will make up the bulk of the buying bench, Bowditch said the local market should be encouraged by the successes to have come out of this sale in the past few years.
"That's a market we do work hard with. We do want as many people here from the local market, whether that be from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria or elsewhere in Australia," he said.
"This isn't a market that have taken to the sale easily but each and every year we keep on building that. Having graduates like Capital Gain, who is a Group 1 winner and the likes of Victorem, the Kosciuszko favourite, it shows you there are quality horses out of the catalogue that do go on and race here in Australia."
Victorem when selling at the Magic Millions 2YO In Training Sale in 2016
Bowditch said the success of the sale will be in ensuring the quality horses on offer end up fetching the price their vendors want.
"I just think a healthy market is a craving for the right horses. The more quality horses you have that are well bred that sell well, that's a great barometer for the sale," he said.
"Clearance can be tricky at this type of sales and fingers crossed we can have a healthy clearance rate. We want the horses that deserve to, to make good money and make the vendors happy."
