Magic Millions and Inglis court buyers in Kentucky

For Barry Bowditch, his trip to Kentucky each November involves wearing multiple hats.

Primarily, he’s in America’s Bluegrass as auction house Keeneland’s Australasian representative, bringing as many southern hemisphere breeders to Lexington as he can, but he’s also there in his capacity as Magic Millions managing director.

While domestic buyers, made up of owners, trainers and syndicators, will largely drive demand at the Gold Coast in January, the level of international investment is important.

“You’re always trying to create relationships wherever you go in the world and ensure they understand Magic Millions is a great place to come and do business, have fun and buy nice horses,” Bowditch says.

“So, whether it be buyers from America, Europe, the Middle East, whilst I’m at Keeneland, I have the opportunity to have those discussions.

“Again, this year, we had a good time, but we’re hopeful that there could be some good international participation come January.”

Vendors will certainly notice new or returning international faces when inspections start at the Bundall complex in January.

International buyers (excluding New Zealand) last year spent $11.2 million on Book 1 yearlings at the Gold Coast, with Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Japan the most active of those overseas investors.

Of course, Bowditch is not alone in courting international buyers.

Inglis counterpart Sebastian Hutch has also been in Lexington for the Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland sales, no doubt hoping to repeat the US investment he and his colleagues conjured at this year’s Easter Yearling Sale.

The Flying Dutchmen’s Payton Boersma and Hunter Rankin attended the Easter sale for the first time, buying two yearlings, a daughter of Frankel and an I Am Invincible filly out of Shoals as their introduction to the Australian industry.

Both fillies are being trained by Chris Waller.

One name that Bowditch and Hutch will certainly be chasing to get involved in the Australian market is Al Ruwais Stables, owned by Saudi Arabian Saleh Al Otaibi.

Agent Bertie Butler was the man charged with doing owner and breeder Al Otaibi’s bidding in Kentucky, and that he did.

On behalf of Al Otaibi’s Al Ruwais Stables, Butler signed for 11 lots, two from Fasig-Tipton and nine from Keeneland for a combined US$9.74 million (A$14.074 million).

The most expensive of those was Eve Of War, the dam of Pennsylvania Derby winner and Breeders’ Cup Classic runner-up The Puma, for which Al Otaibi paid $2.24 million.

“We came with another (horse) in mind, but he (Al Otaibi) wants to build up a good broodmare band and good horses to race, basically for big races around the world,” Butler told US bloodstock media at Keeneland.

“He’s a very nice man, a very good man, and wants to be in the game for the right reasons.”

With the Breeders’ Cup meeting held at Keeneland this year, on the same weekend as Derby day at Flemington, international thoroughbred industry players in Kentucky for the races and the sales were taking more than a cursory interest in what was happening in Melbourne.

“They’re watching the Coolmore, they’re seeing what Phil Cunningham’s achieved (with The Next Episode), they’re watching the Melbourne Cup and seeing a horse that was the King’s and the Queen’s, do what he did,” Bowditch says.

“So, there’s good engagement, there’s understanding of the sport, so it’s a good time to be having those conversations. It’s just a matter of what their appetite is to race horses in the southern hemisphere and more importantly in Australia.

“And that’s the next step to the conversation, but I think engagement and interest is there.”

Rebel Racing’s Cunningham, a major investor in the UK who has a private stable at Newmarket under trainer Richard Spencer, hit the jackpot in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes via The Next Episode.

The son of Snitzel, who is trained by Ciaron Maher, has turned his $2.8 million Magic Millions purchase price into an estimated $30 million in the space of seven starts.

Can Cunningham’s experience spur on other major overseas owners to participate in the Australian market?

“It doesn’t hurt, does it?” says Bowditch.

“I think the fact that he’s come in, he’s bought an expensive horse, but what probably an American or a European sees as not as an expensive horse, they have many a yearling in each book make a hell of a lot more than that.

“So, to come to Australia and buy what’s perceived as the best horses is probably far more accessible for the international player.

“With the bang they get for their buck when they look at the prize money they can earn here compared to what it is in most other parts of the world, Phil Cunningham’s story tells that better than any other.”