Magic Millions has altered the format of its flagship January yearling sale on the Gold Coast, electing to do away with the traditional Saturday evening session and have its $14.5 million race day as a standalone event.
Racing Queensland and the Gold Coast Turf Club announced earlier this month that it would scrap the planned Friday night race meeting and instead conduct a twilight card the previous Saturday, January 4, in order to protect the newly renovated but trouble-plagued racecourse.
The move paved the way for Magic Millions to make changes to its sale schedule, allowing it to abandon its Saturday evening session, the last of five Book 1 days of selling, and instead offer about 300 horses on Friday over ten hours.
The change also allows the auction house to bring forward the start of its Book 2 sale from Monday to Sunday afternoon, shortening the period of time vendors, owners, agents and trainers need to be on the Gold Coast in order to conduct their business.
The seven days of selling, which starts on Tuesday January 7, will now finish on Monday, January 13, one day sooner than initially scheduled.
The boosted $6.05 million twilight race meeting on January 4 will feature the inaugural running of the Magic Millions Sunlight, a $3 million three-year-old slot race, a week out from the running of the $3 million 2YO Classic and 3YO Guineas on January 11.
Magic Millions managing director Barry Bowditch said the change in the sale schedule would not jeopardise the carnival atmosphere the Magic Millions sale and races were renowned for.
“When the changes to (race) programming were made it seemed a logical move and what it does do is give the rest of the week a lot of normality,” Bowditch told The Straight.
“The sale still finishes at the same time, if not earlier, on other days it still gives clients that opportunity to network and go out for dinners and have fun post-sale, but then gives us the opportunity on the Friday to create a really fun environment leading into the Saturday race day … and not have to come back and do it all again after the races.”
Warwick Barr
The Saturday night session could often prove polarising with vendors and buyers fatigued and their budgets exhausted after a long week of selling and a big Magic Millions race day in between.
Whether that was proven to be the case or not, Bowditch admitted some vendors actively tried to avoid having their horses catalogued in the Saturday session.
“When you analyse it, some years it's up, some years it's not, and I think it's case by case depending on the quality of the horses there and the depth in the market for the four days that lead into the Saturday night,” he said.
“But we felt like some vendors were looking to avoid the Saturday night within reason and not support it wholeheartedly. You don't like to risk the fact that you might lose a horse or two here or there.”
Magic Millions has catalogued more horses for its January sale in the past two years as it tried to capitalise on the advantage of being the first sale of the year. There were 1468 lots catalogued for this year’s sale.
"We felt like some vendors were looking to avoid the Saturday night within reason and not support it wholeheartedly," - Barry Bowditch
Logistically, it has meant that all Book 1 and Book 2 horses could not be on the Gold Coast sales complex at the same time, leading to the 2024 secondary book being delayed until Monday and Tuesday after the Saturday night session.
However, the extended Friday evening session will allow buyers to conduct inspections of Book 2 yearlings on Saturday and Sunday morning ahead of the afternoon start.
Bowditch stopped short of suggesting that the format would remain as it is heading into 2026 if the Gold Coast track is deemed capable of hosting back-to-back Friday night and Saturday race meetings.
“I will wait and see, to be honest, but what I will say is, from speaking to our clients leading into the schedule change, the feedback we've got since we let our clients know this morning has been almost all positive across the board,” he said.
“We're selling Book 1 yearlings over those first four days and then people can either enjoy the race meeting, enjoy the Gold Coast and then come back and look at yearlings and ready themselves for Book 2.”
Magic Millions is expected to release the catalogue for its 2025 Gold Coast sale in November.
