THE 2024 yearling sales season opened with a bang at the Magic Millions Gold Coast as four yearlings sold for A$1 million or greater on the opening day, that number growing to 13 at the conclusion of the third session.

The early ‘clubhouse leader’ was the $2.1 million paid by Te Akau’s David Ellis for the Wootton Bassett filly, the first foal out of the Fastnet Rock mare Avantage, a nine-time Group 1 winner for Te Akau. Avantage having created further history on retiring, selling for a world record NZ$4.1 million to Tom Magnier online via Gavelhouse in September 2021.

“She was the complete racehorse and I’ve seen her foal at the stud this year. She is a cracker and the mare is back in foal to I Am Invincible so it has got so much upside and we’re just so proud to have her in the stable to train,” said Ellis. “She’s an absolute dead ringer for Avantage. We’ll take her back to New Zealand. We’ll break her in, assess her and have her ready to race in November/December.”

After three sessions of the five that comprise Book 1, the sale has seen 409 of the 484 yearlings offered sold for a gross of A$119.803 million which translates to an average of $292,917 and a median of $220,000.

The top colt to sell after three sessions made $1.9 million. The Too Darn Hot colt out of the Redoute’s Choice mare A Time For Julie was the top lot of the second session selling to the bloodstock combination of Ciaron Maher and David Redvers. That price just shaded the $1.75 million Tom Magnier paid for the Snitzel colt out of the All Too Hard mare Warranty.

“He was a real quality horse, Peter O’Brien (Segenhoe Stud) has had this horse on top for a long time and when we saw him at the farm we liked him a lot and he’s been very professional here at the sale,” said Magnier. “Obviously this horse goes to Chris (Waller) and he will work his magic.”

At present the sale is on track to match last year’s extraordinary gross of $230,161,000 that resulted in 20 yearlings making seven figures amongst the sale’s overall clearance rate of 90% that resulted in an average of $291,343. To date 13 yearlings have made over $1 million with the sires represented being I Am Invincible (five yearlings), Snitzel (3), Wootton Bassett (2), Extreme Choice (2), Zoustar (2), Too Darn Hot, Ole Kirk and Frankel. The fifth and final session of the sale will be conducted after today’s Magic Millions raceday at Gold Coast racecourse.

FRANCE’S leading apprentice in 2018, Mickaelle Michel is set to begin her Australian adventure after being granted a six-month visa.

“I had a nice opportunity. Trainer Brent Stanley proposed to me to come and try to ride in Australia,” said Michel. “I’ve been riding in many, many countries and it’s one of the countries I want to do it, so I just said, ‘Yes, why not? Let’s go for a new adventure.’ I just want to learn again, something new and become a better jockey after that.”

Asked what she’d like to experience Michel responded; “I would say the Melbourne Cup, it looks crazy, how many people come to watch it and enjoy it.

“I can’t wait to see that because it’s something we don’t have in Europe. Unfortunately, people have lost this passion, but in Australia, it looks like they’ve kept it.”

AUSTRALIAN free-to-air television broadcaster Channel 7 has come up with an innovative plan that could quickly be adapted to future race carnivals should it succeed. On Magic Millions raceday select jockeys will wear AirPods pre-race and be interviewed directly by the channel’s raceday hosts. The riders will then dispense with the Airpods before the race starts.

It’s a plan backed by leading jockey Craig Williams, who said: “I think that anything that helps bring racing to a new audience is terrific, as long as the safety of horse and rider are never compromised.”

THE British-bred Melbourne Cup runner-up Soulcombe, formerly trained by William Haggas before his transfer to the Chris Waller stable in September 2022, looks set to have no more than a few starts in the autumn. “We’ll target the Australian Cup (2,000 metres at Flemington) and most likely it will be first-up in the race,” managing owner Ozzie Kheir said. “Then we’ll reassess. He loves Flemington and he loves the Melbourne way of going. We’ll have a look at the Queen Elizabeth (2,000 metres at Randwick in April), but it will be a very light autumn for Soulcombe.”