Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

The Magic Millions Gold Coast National Sale Series continues this week with two days of yearling sales taking place on Monday and Tuesday with 374 of the 422 entries due to make their way through the ring.

The sale comes at the end of a busy yearling sales season, one which has seen the top end of the market remain exceptionally strong which puts Magic Millions' Barry Bowditch feeling good.

“It is very hard to gauge where this sale sits in the market place,” he said, acknowledging that the National Sale is not top tier, “but I am very, very happy with the quality of yearlings we have on offer and I am feeling positive without being overly buoyant,” he said.

“This sale does come at the end of the season and a lot of trainers and syndicators have either already filled their quota or still have horses to sell so there is always a degree of trepidation.”

“But the foot traffic this week has been solid,” he said, particularly encouraged by the number of international visitors at inspections.

“We have buyers from New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia, Korea and Thailand amongst others so I think from an export perpsective we are in really good shape.”

Last year's sale was popular with international buyers who took home 63 yearlings.

Five yearlings by Extreme Choice

What also has Bowditch excited is the presence of five yearlings by Extreme Choice, a horse whose presence he says “adds a real fascination to the sale.”

“It's a new dimension to the sale really, he is an exceptionally special stallion and it rare to get the chance to sell his yearlings.”

Three of those have been bred to northern hemisphere time whilst the other two are late foals with Bowditch giving credit to Newgate Farm for “having the vision to have him serve mares through the year” and to Baramul Stud's Gerry Harvey for “being open to sending him mares later in the season.”

“You would think that the Extreme Choice yearlings will attract both local and international attention,” he said.

The Extreme Choice yearlings are certainly a well related bunch with Lot 1263 a half-sister to the stakes-placed All Sassed Up (Shalaa {Ire}) from the prolific Palatious (Semipalatinsk {USA}) family whilst Lot 1282 is a half-brother to Aquis Farm's dual Group winning new boy Prost (Snitzel).

Lot 1334 is out of the Listed ATC Cup winner Telepathic (Mossman) whilst Lot 1458 is out of a half-sister to the Listed winner Centre Pivot (More Than Ready {USA}) from the family of Catbird. And Lot 1296 is a half-sister to the stakes placed Shamurt (Murtajill).

Bowditch is also happy with the rest of the catalogue, noting an overall “increase in quality” with 65 vendors selling horses by 119 different stallions with 19 of those horses being represented by members of their debut crops.

Gallery: Extreme Choice yearlings at the 2025 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Sale, images courtesy of Magic Millions

Last year's sale saw 197 of the 273 (72.16 per cent) of the yearlings on offer sold for an average of $42,551, a median of $27,000 and a gross of $8,382,500.

Baramul back in action

Baramul Stud, who this time around take 35 yearlings to the sale, were the biggest sellers 12 months ago with 14 sold for an average $89,214 and a total of $1,249,000.

They had three of the top six sellers including the most popular duo, a $400,000 Zoustar x No Evidence Needed (Shamardal {USA}) colt purchased by David Ellis (BAFNZ) and a $350,000 filly by the same stallion out of Fit And Ready (More Than Ready {USA}).

The sale topper, named Cease And Desist on the back of good trial form was well fancied when making his debut at Wanganui in March, spelled after racing greenly. Meanwhile the highest priced filly has been named Lucci and is a yet to race member of the Stuart Kendrick stable.

Gallery: Baramul stud's top seller by Zoustar at the 2024 Gold Coast National Yearling Sale, images courtesy of Magic Millions

Successful at their first sale, Riverstone Lodge were second by aggregate last year, selling 19 horses for an average of $50,553 and a total of $960,500. Represented by seven yearlings this week, they had the second and third best sellers in 2024.

Those two being a $260,000 Zoustar x Hell Or Highwater (Not A Single Doubt) filly purchased by Omen Bloodstock/Wilbert Tan and a $200,00 Zoustar x Ladybeetle (Fastnet Rock) colt bought by Australian Bloodstock.

Bjorn Baker has the yet to race filly who has been named Hell Of A High whilst the colt called Coccinella is with Kris Lees.

Table: Top 10 vendors by size of catalogued draft

The sale has declined in averages over the last few years with the 2021 result of $56,860 the best in recent times; as was that's aggregate of over $15 million and its catalogued size of 432.

Table: Aggregate and average purchase price comparison across recent editions of the sale

Champion sires well represented

It's an interesting variety of stallions represented this week including the Champion Sires I Am Invincible, Snitzel, Written Tycoon, Exceed And Excel and Lonhro.

The two by the latter hail from that superstar racehorse's final crop of 20 live foals; Lot 1450 from the Blue Gum Farm draft being a son of the speedy stakes winner Desert Lashes (Reward For Effort) and Lot 1107 from Waylon J Stud a filly out of the ten time winner Five Stars (Hotel Grand).

That filly boasts the honour of being Lonhro's final foal.

Gallery: Images courtesy of Magic Millions

Current leading sire Zoustar has five yearlings who are bound to prove popular; Lot 1329 out of he multiple city winner Strome (Smart Missile), Lot 1123 out of the stakes placed imported mare Gone Glimmering (USA) (Tapiture {USA}), Lot 1229 out of the dual Listed winner Night Raid (Vancouver), Lot 1311 out of the Listed winner So Far Sokool (NZ) (Showcasing {GB}) and Lot 1331 from the Eight Carat (GB) (Pieces Of Eight {Ire}) family.

Ole Kirk is leading the way in the first season sire chart and he has seven to be sold including Lot 1181 out of the eight time stakes winner Lady Lynette (Ladoni {GB}) and Lot 1310 out of a daughter of the Group 1 mare Hurtle Myrtle (Dane Shadow).

Table: Top 8 stallions by numbers of progeny

First season sires always attract attention at yearling sales and horses from a variety of sire lines from studs around the country are represented including Home Affairs and Noverre (NZ) who have enjoyed such good results already this year as well as the locals (the Queenslanders) Barbaric, Glenfiddich, Jonker and The Odyssey.

Table: Top 10 first season sires by numbers of progeny