Industry clouds won’t shake Magic Millions’ sunny view ahead of Perth Yearling Sale

On Wednesday night David Houston, Magic Millions’ Western Australia manager, will stand in front of a captive audience of local and interstate buyers as well as vendors ahead of the Perth Yearling Sale. 

The venue for this year’s annual cocktail soiree, a sale-eve tradition, is Fraser’s Restaurant, providing diners at the Kings Park eatery with uninterrupted panoramic views of Perth’s CBD as the sun goes down. 

It’s to that picturesque backdrop that Houston will use to extol the virtues of the state’s Magic Millions sale, imploring buyers to back the local product and wish breeders the best of luck.

The location may have changed – most recently it’s been held at Optus Stadium and the Art Gallery of Western Australia – but Houston’s and Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch’s message will almost certainly be the same.

The cost of entry into horse ownership in the West is considerably less than it is on the east coast, in part due to lower service fees, while the state’s isolation is also deemed an advantage in that the majority of the horses are locally bred.

Effectively, they race against themselves and compete for lucrative Westspeed bonuses, the equivalent of other states’ VOBIS, QTIS or BOBS incentive schemes.

Since 2021, the first of the post-pandemic era Perth yearling sales, trade at the WA February sale has risen by as much as 47 per cent to $20.62 million in 2024. While last year’s edition came off that peak, the $18.8 million traded is still up 34 per cent in a five-year period.

The rise of stallion Playing God, whose 2026 yearling crop were conceived off a $33,000 (inc GST) service fee, has helped demand as has reinvestment by breeders in new stallions including Lightsaber, Aysar and Marine One, three first crop stallions with stock at the Perth sale.

But there is an argument that the once optimistic tone of Western Australian racing industry has shifted as a state government review of Racing and Wagering Western Australia gathers momentum and prominent trainers press management of the regulatory body over longer-term funding levels for the thoroughbred code.

Then there’s the state’s premier stable of Grant and Alana Williams facing a prohibited substance charge which saw them stood down by Racing WA stewards pending the outcome of an inquiry.

Late on Monday, they won a reprieve with a stay of proceedings put in place until their case is heard next month, allowing the trainers to return to the races and barrier trials immediately.

“How do you want me to answer that?” Houston pondered when asked about the issues facing the state’s racing industry.

After a pause for thought, Houston responded: “I think on the review, it certainly needed to be done. There’s a working group now liaising with the state government on that review and (the outcome) can only be positive. 

“You would think that it will be helpful for the whole industry. That’d be my thinking on it anyway, and surely it won’t go backwards. 

“Certainly, for this other circumstance with the Williamses, it’s unfortunate that it hasn’t been able to be sorted.  

“Whether they choose to be active at our sale or not is in their hands at the moment, but, look, there’s still plenty of activity around to hopefully take up any slack (if they aren’t buying).”

Despite those clouds hanging over the industry, Houston believes demand at this week’s sale, which comprises 358 lots across two days of selling at Magic Millions’ Swan Valley complex, will remain strong.

The clearance rate over the past five years has been between 85 and 90 per cent, underscoring Houston’s confidence that supply and demand will ensure a competitive buying bench.

“These guys are racehorse trainers and they’ve got plenty of people around the state that love racing horses, so they do need (to buy) horses,” Houston said. 

“Our racing’s been very good the last however many years, so there’s a lot of interest in it (locally) and there’s a lot of interest in it from interstate as well.”

Those interstate parties include representatives from Ciaron Maher Racing, syndicator First Light Racing, China Horse Club and agents Craig Rounsefell, Sheamus Mills and Damon Gabbedy.

“This year we’re also getting a good amount of people coming over to have a look through the catalogue and hopefully they take something away, but you know, certainly the locals have been poking about,” he said.

“We’re not a big state, we haven’t got massive numbers of people, while it might look on the ground to be different to, say, a Gold Coast sale, I can’t name anyone that hasn’t been around looking at them or hasn’t shown interest or hasn’t spoken to us, so I’m confident that way.”

For that reason, Houston will be able to give rise to a toast on Wednesday evening at Fraser’s Restaurant, incidentally the same venue of his first pre-sale talk as Magic Millions WA state manager in 2013.

The sale starts on Thursday at 11am (WST).