Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions
Next Monday, Magic Millions will host its Gold Coast 2-Year-Olds In Training Sale, and the catalogue is popping with 126 horses by 77 individual sires for 20 respective vendors. Traditionally, the Sale has been a stronghold for the Asian market, and past graduates include this year’s Macau Gold Cup winner Star Of Yiu Cheung (Casino Prince), along with Singapore hero Lim’s Lightning (Lope De Vega {Ire}).
This year, COVID has affected an international buying presence on the Gold Coast once again, and so too an interstate presence. A number of New South Wales and Victorian vendors will be selling in absentia, and one of those is Tamworth trainer Mel O’Gorman.
Last year, O’Gorman topped the 2-Year-Olds In Training Sale with a $500,000 colt by Mikki Isle (Jpn), which sold to Hong Kong-based Gary Moore. The colt had run a slick 10.26s during his breeze up.
Charity Heart (Mikki Isle {Jpn} x In The Clear) as a 2-year-old | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
In 2018, the trainer again topped the Sale, this time with a pair of horses that sold to Thailand and Hong Kong for $320,000 and $300,000 respectively, so, without question, it’s a Sale that’s been very good to O’Gorman.
“I think if you look at the escalating prices of the top-selling horses over the last few years, it’s a good indication of the strength of this Sale, that the money is there if you take the right-quality product,” the trainer said. “I think the buyers will always be confident if you’re presenting the right horses, and I feel I’ve got four really nice colts by four well-performed or up-and-coming stallions. It’s a smaller draft this year, but it’s a quality draft.”
COVID in play
O’Gorman Racing Stables will present four horses at next week’s Sale, four individual colts by Star Turn, Capitalist, Churchill (Ire) and Invader. O’Gorman herself is unable to cross the border, so each of her juveniles will be handled by the Queensland-based Robin Wise when they arrive at Magic Millions on Friday.
Gallery: Sires of the colts in the O'Gorman Racing draft
“There are a lot of wonderfully experienced and very capable Queensland vendors that have offered to help everyone out this year,” O’Gorman said. “Each of mine will be selling under the banner of O’Gorman Racing, but Robin will be taking care of my colts once they’re in Queensland.”
This is the first year that O’Gorman has had to sell in absentia, and she said it’s been surprising that, this far into the pandemic, she and others in her position have found themselves locked out of Queensland.
“Who would have thought this time last year, when we were there at the Sale, that we’d be where we are 12 months on,” she said. “It feels like we’ve gone backwards a bit, doesn’t it?”
“Who would have thought this time last year, when we were there at the Sale, that we’d be where we are 12 months on?" - Mel O'Gorman
Last year, the trainer sent an eight-horse draft to the 2-Year-Olds In Training Sale, and she said she probably would have sent a similar number this year if COVID weren’t still hampering international travel.
“Last year, we didn’t have any of the Asian clients able to fly in, so I decided against taking a big team this year,” O’Gorman said. “I also cut my buying back a bit until we can get international flights coming in, but it’s starting to look good again. I’m already looking at next year’s draft and hoping that we can have some Hong Kong clients fly in again, which would be wonderful.”
The draft
O’Gorman’s first colt into the ring will be Lot 2, the Star Turn youngster from the Mutawaajid mare Rather Sweet. This is the same family as recent stakes winner Sirileo Miss (Pride Of Dubai), who won the G3 Ladies’ Day Vase at Caulfield last month.
O’Gorman picked up the colt from Vinery Stud’s draft at this year’s Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale for $40,000, and she said the fact of the colt selling so early in Monday’s Sale wasn’t something she’s too concerned about.
“When I’m a buyer, and I like something that’s very early or very late in a sale, it doesn’t seem to make it any easier,” she said. “I’m sure if he’s the right horse, the right people will be on him.”
“I’m sure if he’s (Lot 2) the right horse, the right people will be on him.” - Mel O'Gorman
O’Gorman said Lot 2 was a horse that will improve with time, and his being from a mare that was fourth to Astern in the G2 Silver Slipper suggests an early running career.
“He’s handled the preparation really well,” O’Gorman said. “I thought he was a good buy out of the Melbourne Sale, and I didn’t pay a lot of money for him. I think he might be a great purchase for someone in that $80,000 mark.”
Lot 26 is the next colt for O’Gorman, a Capitalist horse and first foal from the Northern Meteor mare Solar Burst. He turned out the best of the draft’s breeze-ups, clocking 10.43s at Newcastle on October 21.
His dam was a three-time winner in town and, further along, his second dam was an unraced half-sister to Myboycharlie (Ire). This is also the family of the wonderful breeder Snowdrift (Fr) (Polish Precedent {USA}), the dam of stakes winners Portillo (Red Ransom {USA}), Snippetson and Snowland.
Gallery: O'Gorman Racing's draft for the Magic Millions 2-Year-Old In Training Sale
Lot 26 was picked up by O’Gorman at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale last January. She paid $90,000 for him from the draft of Murrulla Stud.
“I bought him out of Book 2 at Magic Millions, but I’d seen him at the farm in December when I did some early pre-Christmas inspections,” O’Gorman said. “I liked him then, and I kept going back to him at the Sale. He really took my eye, and I could see some potential there as he developed.
"You always need a bit of luck with racehorses, but since I bought him, Capitalist has gone along in leaps and bounds.”
"You always need a bit of luck with racehorses, but since I bought him (Lot 26), Capitalist has gone along in leaps and bounds.” - Mel O'Gorman
The trainer said Lot 26 was a tidy, balanced colt that had breezed effortlessly, and the Capitalist factor was significant.
“You can’t go to a sale now and buy one for under $400,000,” O’Gorman said. “And this horse has a fabulous temperament to go with it all. He’s like an old head on young shoulders, and he’s done everything effortlessly.”
Immediately after him, Lot 27 will enter the ring for the stable, a bay colt by Churchill from the Darci Brahma (NZ) mare Southerly Breeze (NZ). He clocked 10.65s in his breeze up at Newcastle.
“This one is a really nice horse,” O’Gorman said. “He’s an interesting one because the stallion is doing good things overseas, and he’s a lovely, well-balanced horse with great size for his age. I think he will mature into a lovely 3-year-old colt.”
Highlight lot for Invader
O’Gorman said the obvious highlight among her colts is the final horse of the four, Lot 59 by Invader from the Lonhro mare Article (NZ). The latter is a half-sister to the twice Group 2-winning stallion Sound Journey.
O’Gorman picked up Lot 59 at the 2021 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale when he was sold to her from the draft of JJJ Thoroughbreds for $70,000.
“He gives me the impression he’s a ready-made 2-year-old,” the trainer said. “He’s very forward and very balanced, and he loves his job. From the minute we put a saddle on him, it was like he’d been here and done it all before.”
"From the minute we put a saddle on him (Lot 59), it was like he’d been here and done it all before.” - Mel O'Gorman
Lot 59 comes from the second crop of Aquis stallion Invader, who was a winner of the G1 ATC Sires’ Produce S. in 2017 before his retirement to stud for 2018. Invader was second to Gunnison (Not A Single Doubt) in the G2 Todman S. also, and equally second to Aquis barnmate The Mission in the G1 Champagne S.
O’Gorman said she was unsure what the other Invader progeny looked like, but Lot 59 was a good advertisement in her eyes.
“If this one is any indication of the breed, I’m certain they’ll start to feature in some early 2-year-old races over the next 12 months,” the trainer said.
