Seven days in … breeding and bloodstock – Digital competition about to heat up

In this edition:

• Bryce Bevan appointed to Magic Millions digital role 
• Run The Numbers – The glow of perfection 
• Rowe On Monday – Plans for one of racing’s quiet achievers, a timely Breeders’ Plate success, French G1 adds to Asfoora temptations 
• A year on from supposed peace talks, Racing NSW and key breeders remain divided 
• Taking Flight – Frankel’s largest southern hemisphere crop to date ready to make their mark 
• Group 1 breakthrough for Coolmore’s St Mark’s Basilica
• Mamadou, an Uber dash and another European Group 1 for Asfoora 

Among the merry-go-round of the Everest slots before and after Saturday’s racing in Sydney and Melbourne, and Ka Ying Rising’s barrier trial at Randwick on Tuesday, it was easy to miss another big-name “selection” made in the bloodstock space last week.

While Inglis lost its Everest representative Skybird to injury, then picked up Yulong-owned mare Magic Time on the same day Zhang Yuesheng’s number one Everest seed Private Harry’s hopes were dashed, the sale’s company’s former employee Bryce Bevan re-entered the thoroughbred arena after three years working in real estate.

Magic Millions appointed Bevan, a Godolphin Flying Start graduate and former auctioneer and bloodstock consultant at Inglis, as its head of digital as it re-enters the $100 million-plus annual Australian online thoroughbred marketplace.

It’s been an arena dominated by rival Inglis, which turned over more than $82 million through its Digital platform last year.

Magic Millions’ first attempt at online sales were plagued by IT problems, forcing it to abandon ship and undertake a large-scale investment in new technology and personnel, headlined by Bevan.

Based out of Magic Millions’ Sydney office, Bevan starts next week with the first online sale scheduled for October 24 to 29 with another sale in November and December before going twice monthly from January on alternate weeks to Inglis. 

The competition can only be a good thing for buyers and sellers, with the option to trade bloodstock online effectively every week in the New Year.

Bevan wasn’t at Inglis when an imposing daughter of The Autumn Sun entered the floodlit Riverside Stables sales ring in Sydney in April 2023, but Arrowfield’s John Messara was.

Messara suffered “white line fever” that day in the sales ring, bidding to unprecedented levels (for him) to land the filly out of South African Grade 1 winner Via Africa for a sale-topping $1.8 million. 

The now four-year-old is seven from seven for trainer Chris Waller, Messara and Hermitage Thoroughbreds, who raced Autumn Glow’s sire The Autumn Sun.

On Saturday, after having her three-year-old spring and autumn campaigns cut short by injury and illness, Autumn Glow won her pre-destined Group 1 in the Epsom Handicap at Randwick.

She joins illustrious company as an undefeated Group 1 winner, as Run The Numbers discovered.

Bernie Howlett is 86 and like Autumn Glow also a Group 1 winner.

The now retired jockey, trainer and breeder won two Sydney Cups in the late 1950s and early 1960s, well before the Pattern was established, while he also trained the winner of the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 in the mid-1990s.

And he also bred Brazen Beau, I Am Invincible’s first Group 1 winner. Howlett, after more than a quarter of a century at his Hall property near Canberra, is selling up but he still loves the racing game as much as ever, as he tells Rowe On Monday.

After Autumn Glow’s Epsom Handicap victory, Waller appeared to be caught up in the moment and almost a little flustered when interviewed by Channel 7’s Emma Freedman.

There was a lot going on – Waller had the Turnbull Stakes at Flemington just minutes away from jumping – and so when indicating where Autumn Glow could race next, he seemed to hint that the Golden Eagle was top of the agenda even though it doesn’t carry Group 1 status, or at least it won’t for this year.

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys is persuasive, but we’re told the Asian Pattern Committee isn’t budging.

Australian breeding heavyweights continue to lobby Racing Australia for genuine Pattern reform, and it’s become the number one issue for them over the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, Frankel didn’t add to his Group 1 tally in Saturday’s Flight Stakes – that was left to another remarkable sire in Extreme Choice whose daughter Apocalyptic continued her rapid rise – but Sir Delius did add to the Juddmonte champion’s Australian legacy in the Turnbull. Frankel also has the numbers on his side to make an impression with his Australian-born progeny over the next year or two.

Coolmore shuttler St Mark’s Basilica did get off the Group 1 mark in France on Sunday with two-year-old filly Diamond Necklace maintaining her unbeaten record by winning the Prix Marcel Boussac at Longchamp, the same day Asfoora became the first Australian-trained horse to win a Group 1 in France by taking out the Prix de I’Abbaye.

Enjoy your week whether you’re going racing, breeding or attending Thursday’s Magic Millions Horses in Training Sale on the Gold Coast.

Regards

Tim Rowe

Senior Journalist

The Straight