By Adam Corndorf
It was down to the serious business of selling horses in the ring at Magic Millions Wednesday and I found the auction process very comparable with American sales, apart from a few choice expressions by the auctioneers. For example, “this one's selling as cheap as old boots” might be a good addition to the patter at Keeneland!
The general atmosphere is also quite different–you tend to find in U.S. sales, except perhaps for Saratoga, that the auction ring is fairly quiet. Here there's a real buzz, there's a huge crowd of people and it's very exciting.
From what I saw on the first day, the market is similar to what we see in the States where the top horses sell very well, but the middle market is less consistent, which opens up good opportunities for buyers. The final figures for the day confirmed that everyone is here to do business with an 80% clearance and the average up on last year's opening session.
I was very pleased, though not surprised, to see the lovely Animal Kingdom–Cat By The Tale filly make $A310,000. She's been bought by New Zealander Roger Blunt, who is developing a Thoroughbred enterprise alongside his dairy farming interests.
I spent some time today walking around the sale complex, and visited with U.S. agent Marette Farell, who bought Milburn Creek's Snitzel–Crystal Choir filly for $A320,000 with Gai Waterhouse. Owned by John and Trish Muir, Milburn Creek also bred Hampton Court, who is shuttling to Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky this year.
It was interesting to inspect yearlings by Uncle Mo, who is doing so well in the States, and by champion Australian sire Redoute's Choice, who has his first European-bred crop of 2-year-olds run this year. I also saw the new sale stalls, which would work very well in racing for us because they're very open-aired.
I was asked how I manage young horses, which made me think about what I like to do with them. My philosophy is that you go on with all of them until they show they're not handling it. Even if they're very backward, they still need to go through that early process, because if you don't go on with them then, they'll have the same issues a year later. For me, the key with 2-year-olds is backing off when they're not handling it. You get into trouble when you ignore the signals!
See TDN Europe/International for more Magic Millions coverage by Kelsey Riley.
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