Gerry Harvey is advocating for one Australian two-year-old sale to be held each year, calling for his own Magic Millions auction house and rival Inglis to alternate conducting a singular annual breeze-up offering.
The Magic Millions owner’s recent approach to Mark Webster - a decade after the Inglis managing director made a similar Team Australia proposal to billionaire Harvey - has been acknowledged by both auction houses.
Inglis has increased market share over Magic Millions over the past five years, with the Sydney sale holding 25 per cent of the Australasian turnover in 2024. New Zealand Bloodstock's Ready to Run Sale, the last of the three two-year-old sales, was the market leader with 62.4 per cent.
The rise of the Inglis Ready2Race Sale, usually the first of the three two-year-old sales to be held each year, is in contrast to what has occurred at the Magic Millions 2YOs In Training Sale, which in 2024 achieved 12.6 per cent of total Australasian turnover.
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From 2014 to 2019, Magic Millions achieved greater turnover than Inglis, but from 2020 onwards Inglis has gained the upper hand, prompting a rethink from Magic Millions and Harvey.
“There's a thought that we should combine and do a sale for ready-to-run (horses) to match New Zealand. Inglis would do it one year and Magic Millions would do it the next year,” Harvey revealed to The Straight while on the Gold Coast earlier this week.
“That way, we would be a better competitor to the New Zealand business. But maybe we do that, maybe we don't.
“Mark Webster and I talked about it some years ago and I was talking to him the other day and I said, ‘maybe we should have another talk about it’. Whether we do anything or not, it's something that we should probably talk about.
“Neither of us probably want to do it, but if it's for the best interests of the racing industry, then maybe we should put away our fighting swords and try and do something together. That's something we want to talk about.”
Tim Rowe
Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch, who has been with the company since November 2018, confirmed Harvey and Webster held brief talks about the issue before Christmas.
“From what I understand, there wasn't any great detail discussed. From an Inglis' perspective, there is an interest in having a conversation to see what's proposed and obviously we’ll give due consideration to that in the context of the fact that we feel our two-year-old sale has been very progressive over a number of years,” Hutch said.
“It was the first Australasian two-year-old sale with a median of $100,000 in 2024. It also has a significantly progressive gross figure over the last four to five years and they're all things we'd be considering in any conversation with the context of those sorts of facts.
“So, it'd be interesting to see what Magic Millions have to propose and certainly something we'll have a conversation about in due course, I would expect.”
Inglis also headhunted Nicky Wong from Magic Millions last October, appointing him to the crucial position of international business development manager, in a bid to strengthen its foothold throughout Asia and, in particular, Hong Kong.
While the role is not solely focused on Inglis’ two-year-old sale, Wong’s extensive contacts throughout Asia will no doubt have an impact on strengthening the international buying bench participating at the company’s Ready2Race sales.
One of the obstacles for organisers of the respective Australian two-year-old sales has been their close proximity to each other, usually a fortnight apart, with Hong Kong trainers and agents in most cases being reluctant to attend both auctions due to the amount of travel involved.
Their participation is vital to the sale format’s success, no matter which of the three auction houses is running it, even more so since the demise of Singapore racing last year.
Bren O’Brien
In 2024, 29 juveniles sold at the Inglis Ready2Race Sale were bought by Hong Kong buyers while the cohort of owners and trainers from that jurisdiction bought five at Magic Millions. They also bought 72 horses at November’s NZB Ready to Run Sale, contributing $17.1 million of the total $38,593,500 spent at Karaka across the two days.
Webster told The Straight last October about his proposed Team Australia two-year-old sale, which he put to Harvey in 2014.
“It's difficult for Asian buyers to come down here (to Australia) twice, right? They've got to choose whether they want to travel down twice and some of them will go to New Zealand as well, so then that's three trips down,” Webster said.
“And it’s at that time of the year when they're all building up to the major carnival in December in Hong Kong and it's not really convenient to come down too many times.
“So, that's when I put a proposal forward. Gerry Harvey listened but he didn't want to work together.”
Tim Rowe
It could be argued that having enough horses deemed suitable for Hong Kong buyers in the catalogue, considering the Jockey Club’s stringent veterinary criteria and demand for quality, is a major factor on how many buyers travel to Sydney and/or the Gold Coast.
Hutch played down the “travel factor” this week when asked about its impact on the success or otherwise of the respective two-year-old sales in Australasia.
“I think you could apply that rationale to a lot of sales or to every sort of sale, whether it's a yearling sale, broodmare sale or a weanling sale,” he said.
“Again, we want to try and run the best business we can, so we’ve got to be open-minded about any proposal that somebody might have to try and do something differently and evaluate that on its merits.
“But it's a format that Inglis has invested a significant amount of time, money and resources in and certainly over the last number of years we feel like we've reaped dividends from that and feel like we'll continue to do so.”
Harvey is expected to resume conversations with Webster about a single Australian two-year-old sale in the coming weeks.
