'He will handle the pressure': Magic Millions 2YO Classic reaches boiling point

Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

On Saturday afternoon, 16 juveniles will line up at the Gold Coast Turf Club with the hopes of securing a slice of $3 million in the R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic. Based on what has come before, some have a greater chance than others of scoring in the grand final, but who will be truly bringing their best this Saturday?

Table: Final field and jockey assignments for the 2026 R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic

Double chances for Munce duo

The 2025 edition of the rich juvenile race was the closest that Chris and Corey Munce have gotten to taking home the trophy, when Vein Girl (Blue Point {Ire}) finished fifth by a touch over three lengths behind O’ Ole (Ole Kirk). This year, they line up with the number one saddlecloth on their leading chance Zip Lock (Hellbent), and they have snuck another runner into the field with number 16, Double Cool (Cool Aza Beel {NZ}).

The father-son duo have engaged the services of Martin Harley - who won the R. Listed Magic Millions 3YO Guineas two years ago on Abounding (Rich Enuff - to ride their unbeaten G3 BJ McLachlan Stakes victor, and are pleased with the colt drawing barrier three for his summer grand final.

“Martin is the right man to have on any horse in a big race and is the perfect rider for a grand final,” Corey Munce told racing.com on Tuesday. Harley was on board for Zip Lock’s debut victory at Doomben in November and trialled him ahead of his BJ McLachlan win, and the colt draws barrier three for Saturday.

“He gets it right most times and he gives you a good assessment of a horse, even after one barrier trial. It’s also a privilege to have Damian Lane on Double Cool.

“Martin was doing backflips after Zip Lock’s work today and after the barrier draw.”

Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) and Storm Boy both used BJ McLachlan wins as a springboard to victories in the Classic, and Munce hopes that Zip Lock can replicate the effort.

“It was a strong win in the Bruce McLachlan and, being a colt, he only does what he has to,” he said. “The Magic Millions is a high-pressure race so he should only be a couple of pairs back in the run.”

Having the top seed has softened the blow slightly of the team’s boom 3-year-old Cool Archie (Cool Aza Beel {NZ}) missing out on the Magic Millions carnival due to injury.

“It is bittersweet, but this horse, we feel, is doing a little bit more than what Cool Archie did at the same point in time and all I know is that this horse will run a heck of a race next week,” Munce said.

Double Cool enters the race a maiden, having run second on two occasions, most recently splitting fellow Classic hopefuls Shiki (Too Darn Hot {GB}) and Tigroni (Tiger Of Malay).

“She went super and was only doing her best work late, so the extra trip will suit her,” Chris Munce told racenet.com earlier in the week. “Happy with how she's going and provided she gets some luck, she won't disgrace herself.”

The filly is one of two runners for her sire - one of only two stallions with multiple runners in the final field (excluding emergencies), as Cool Aza Beel (NZ) also has BJ McLachlan third Leaves Of Lorien engaged. The other stallion is Too Darn Hot (GB), represented by Shiki and second seed Tornado Valley.

Tulloch Lodge launches four-pronged Classic attack

Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott first tasted success in the Restricted Listed race two years ago with the aforementioned Storm Boy, and they bring four - the most of any trainer - to the Gold Coast on Saturday in an attempt to recreate the result. Waterhouse has won the race five times in total, three times before it received black-type status.

Knightsbridge (Farnan) and Shiki are last start winners coming into the race, whereas $250,000 Magic Millions The Debut winner Lumbini (Russian Revolution) was second to antepost favourite Warwoven (Sword Of State) at her most recent hit-out at Eagle Farm. By Choice (Written By) was audacious in her debut win before finishing fifth to Shiki.

“Lumbini might have been a touch disappointing on face value,” co-trainer Adrian Bott said to Racing And Sports on Thursday afternoon. “But she still ran very well behind the favourite (Warwoven), and her first up win was explosive. I thought she's improved off that run.

“Similarly, By Choice was excellent first up. She had no luck behind Shiki there the other day, she was wide and covered ground and just sort of lost her balance around the turn, but she was good late so she can easily bounce back."

Last-start winners have the best track record with the Classic; of the 11 editions run as a Restricted Listed event, only G3 Breeders' Plate victor Shaquero (Shalaa {Ire}) and last year's victress O' Ole did not win the start before their Classic victories. Shaquero did also run second at that prior start behind Finance Tycoon, who was soundly beaten in sixth in the grand final.

“You can make a good case for each of them going into the run," Bott said. "I won't sort of put a top seed, but we've probably taken confidence off the horses that have won their most recent runs.”

Bott described the win of Shiki in last Saturday’s $150,000 Gold Pearl QTIS as “good timing”. In the running, Shiki beat a number of Classic hopefuls, including Double Cool, Tigroni, stablemate By Choice, Inhabit (Stay Inside), and first emergency Iransofar (Better Than Ready).

“She looked to do it very well,” Bott said. “She looked very sharp, so a lot to like about that.

“Knightsbridge is a horse I've always had an opinion of. Things didn't work out for him in the spring. I thought he really came back and stamped his authority there at Randwick (first up). It's (going from) 1000 to 1200 (metres), but I think that'll suit him.”

Knightsbridge carries the green and gold colours of James Harron and his colts partnership, and Harron is hoping for a repeat of his experience a decade ago with Capitalist, who went on to win the G1 Golden Slipper Stakes - a race also captured by Knightsbridge's sire Farnan.

“I think a lot will come down to how much this horse has improved,” Harron told racenet.com earlier in the week. "He has come back bigger and stronger and in a good frame of mind. I would say he is a player in this race.

“He will handle the pressure and he gives the impression he will handle the big day well.”

All up, it’s a combined $1.84 million of horseflesh being sent out by Waterhouse and Bott - $100,000 more than the first prize in Saturday’s grand final.

Maher hunting for third Classic with talented pair

Ciaron Maher has won the 2YO Classic twice, both in partnership with David Eustace, with Away Game (Snitzel) and Coolangatta. He returns to the Gold Coast on Saturday with G3 Maribyrnong Plate winner Tornado Valley and eye-catching Caulfield victor Unit Five (Supido) in the hopes of securing a third edition of the race.

The latter is the only runner in the field with only one start under his belt, but the first place prize from the $250,000 Magic Millions VIC 2YO Classic was enough to guarantee him a spot in the field. No horse has won the Classic off of a last start in Victoria since 1991 - over two decades before the race was given Restricted Listed status - but his follow-up Gold Coast trial has Maher feeling confident about the son of Widden speedster Supido.

“He landed on debut, he’s trialled on the track, he sat in the box seat when he trialled, so he’s reasonably adaptable,” Maher told racing.com on Tuesday. “But he’ll be on speed somewhere and I thought it was pretty good.

“I thought anywhere inside (barrier) 10 would be ideal and he's drawn nine, so that's not too bad.”

Blinkers have been added to the gear of Tornado Valley, who was second to top seed Zip Lock in the BJ McLachlan last start, and Maher hopes the addition will help the colt focus on his summer grand final.

“I'm very happy with his preparation, it was the plan that we set out, and he's definitely still very much on the up and will come on from his run the other day," he said. "We've put the blinkers on just to help him focus that little bit. He is pretty casual, so I think we'll get a twist there.

“I thought (barrier) five was ideal for him because you need to be very quick away if you’re down on the inside, so I thought five just gives him that wiggle room.”

Tornado Valley draws just to the inside of antepost favourite Warwoven, and Maher will bring in-form Victorian hoop Thomas Stockdale up to partner Unit Five again after their success in the VIC Classic.

Warwoven bidding for big win for first season sire

Bjorn Baker’s unbeaten Warwoven has staked his claim at the head of the betting with two decisive victories; the first at Randwick, where he won by over two lengths, and again at the turn of the new year, where he dominated Eagle Farm with a three and a third-length victory.

“He had a nice gallop this morning,” Bjorn told Racing And Sports post Tuesday's draw. “He had a good gallop towards the end of last week, and this morning it wasn't so much about running time. It was just about finishing off nicely, following a horse, and he looked really good that last bit.

“He looked to recover well, I think he's fit and ready to go.”

To racing.com, he said, “definitely it doesn’t matter how good you are when you’re covering ground, if you draw deep, it can be very hard.

“In saying that, sometimes we can over analyse gates, but I think gate six is ideal, he’ll get into gate five (after emergencies are out) and he’s got good tactical speed, he’s very laidback and casual, so I think you can put himself in the first half dozen comfortably enough.

“Hopefully, that’ll allow him to be strong at the finish.”

It is the colours of Ridgmont’s Mitch Cunningham that Warwoven carries on raceday and the Queenslander told racenet.com on Wednesday that he felt quite confident that the colt could deliver on Saturday.

“When we purchased Warwoven, the ownership group's commentary on the horse was that he was a little clone of Storm Boy,” he said. “To see him take a similar early path to what Storm Boy did is a vindication of the yearling selection process we had last year.

“Both horses are similarly framed, they cover a lot of ground and have big hindquarters and deep girths. Warwoven is an incredibly imposing physical specimen, but to get up and run as a 2-year-old, you've got to have the brain, and he's got a really calm mind and loves work.

“It was a thrill with Storm Boy and winning the Magic Millions was huge for our business and being Queenslanders, it was something you dream of.”

Warwoven will be hoping to score a huge victory for his first season sire, Cambridge Stud’s Sword Of State. The stallion is currently $15,000 clear of his nearest rival at the top of the first season sire tables, and, amongst the first season sires, only Extreme Choice sons Tiger Of Malay and Stay Inside will have also runners in the race. If any of their runners could score fifth or better, the first season sire table would be in for a huge shake-up.

Table: Current top five in the Australian first season sires' premiership

Sword Of State has a faultless record with his offspring in Australia so far, with two runners for two winners. His daughter Torture (NZ) was victorious in the Listed Debutante Stakes and it is intended that she will cross the Tasman to contest the R. Listed Karaka Million 2YO race on January 24 during the New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale.

Tigroni enters the race a maiden, which could be an emphatic victory for her sire Tiger Of Malay, should she score, and she has never finished further back than third in three starts. Inhabit was a debut winner at Murray Bridge before her travels north, and while she was disappointing in her last start behind Shiki, she could redeem herself with a victory here to give Stay Inside a second Australian stakes winner.

Inhabit is also one of just three runners eligible for the lucrative $500,000 Magic Millions Racing Women's Bonus for majority female-owned horses. If she is the first of the trio home, she nets connections $333,000 regardless of her place.

"Unless there is a reason for me not to run her on Saturday from a physical point of view, she can go around and get some money," trainer Michael Hickmott told Racing SA on Thursday. "Effectively, we’re looking at it as a three-horse race."

Baker will also saddle up Masvingo (Zoustar) in the race; the filly jumps from barrier 12 and also wears the Ridgmont colours.

“She went within a whisker of winning the Gimcrack Stakes and we will ride her with cover,” Cunningham said. “She will be finishing off really well and we expect her to be very competitive. She is the forgotten one in the betting market.”

Best of the rest

Michael Freedman, last season’s Slipper-winning trainer, sends up Exceed And Excel filly Mystical to his Gold Coast base to contest the race. Mystical is another who arrives with two seconds under her belt, first in the $160,000 Max Lees Classic Seeiaye (Russian Revolution) and again in the R. Listed Magic Millions Wyong 2YO Classic behind Paradoxium (Extreme Choice), who misses the race due to contracting pneumonia before Christmas.

Another multiple placegetter is Magritte (Better Than Ready), sent across from Toowoomba by Stephen Kirkwood. The filly was twice placed at metropolitan level before being launched into the Listed Phelan Ready Stakes, finishing second. She didn’t get into the mix during her next start in the BJ McLachlan, finishing near the tail of the field, and she meets several rivals from that race again in the grand final.

Tony Gollan won this race with Skirt The Law (Better Than Ready) three years ago, and he returns with one runner this year, the Phelan Ready winner Itchintogo (Sun City). The gelding split Zip Lock and Magritte on debut, then beat the latter again in the Phelan Ready, and added another win last Saturday in the $150,000 Gold Nugget QTIS on the Magic Millions Sunlight card. He was a powerful winner that day, with a four and a half-length margin and a half-second quicker finish than Shiki in the following event.

Gollan utilised the race to take some of the “freshness” out of the sprightly gelding, who had a month between runs.

“A lot of horses have won the week before then won the (2YO Classic),” he said after Itchintogo’s win last week. Exhilarates (Snitzel) and Sunlight (Zoustar) are two such examples of the feat, and Gollan reckons it puts him firmly in with a shot. “The stats on the Saturday are just as good.”