Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
At this time of year, with Magic Millions just a handful of days away, it’s easy to forget that Katie Page-Harvey has another job. She is juggling all the balls of the events calendar on the Gold Coast this next fortnight, but she’s still the CEO of retail giant Harvey Norman.
“To me, they’re two very separate businesses,” she said, as she sat down for a chat with TDN AusNZ this week. “They’re not in any way connected, which is fantastic, but they’re two very big businesses.”
Magic Millions is one of the three leading auction houses in this part of the world. This week, bloodstock identities will land on it from all over the world, and the sale will generate copy space and broadcast time in racing precincts everywhere.
In contrast, Harvey Norman is a billion-dollar business with some 280 stores in eight countries. For Page-Harvey, it’s a never-ending corporate career that has no respect for Sundays and even less respect for sleep.
“To me, they’re two very separate businesses. They’re not in any way connected, which is fantastic, but they’re two very big businesses.” - Katie Page-Harvey
When Magic Millions rolls around each January, with what seems like a cluster-bomb of commitments for the businesswoman, it’s off the back of the manic Christmas and Boxing Day retail cycle, and things are just starting to settle down.
“Gerry and I love Magic Millions with a passion,” she said. “Its head office is at the Gold Coast, and that’s totally different to our life in Sydney. The people that come to Magic Millions from all around the world, all those people that gather here for two weeks, we’re all in the same boat. We’re coming together at a great time of year.”
Magic Millions is run with the typical precision you’d expect of Page-Harvey, but its advertising pitch is its weather, palm trees and kick-back attitude. It’s a destination sale.
Katie Page-Harvey and Gerry Harvey | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
“January on the Gold Coast is holiday time,” Page-Harvey said. “The sun is shining, it’s a very relaxed way of life and we make it as easy and as fun as possible for everyone joining us. We like to have that laidback, casual vibe and this is the one business and brand we can do that with.
“Everyone’s got stress in their lives, but when I go to sleep at night thinking about Magic Millions, I don’t want it ever to be so corporate that people think they’re turning up to their office. And when you look at the events that we do, you get an idea that we’re really trying to make this carnival a wonderful experience for everyone, not just for the person buying the horse. We want that person’s family to enjoy it as well.”
The Magic Millions carnival now encompasses the polo and show jumping events on the Sunday before selling. On the Tuesday, the barrier draw for the $2 million R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic occurs after the famous beach gallop after sunrise.
Dotted in between for the last few years have been cocktail parties, golf days and film screenings.
“Everyone’s got stress in their lives, but when I go to sleep at night thinking about Magic Millions, I don’t want it ever to be so corporate that people think they’re turning up to their office.” - Katie Page-Harvey
The carnival has been years in the making, and before that it was years in the thinking. The result is that entire families in racing and breeding have grown up on the Gold Coast each January, all under the auspices of selling and buying horses down the road at Bundall.
“It’s still a business,” Page-Harvey said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to present a sale and a raceday, and we’ve got to do everything we possibly can to make it the most successful ever because these are people’s livelihoods.”
The genesis of the carnival
Page-Harvey, alongside her husband Gerry Harvey, bought into Magic Millions in 1996. Almost immediately, they understood what needed to happen to facelift the company into the leviathan it is today.
“We bought this business in 1996 and it was broken,” she said. “At the time, Magic Millions wasn’t actually running its own raceday. The sales were going along okay but, like with any business, we had to look at it and ask about its future. Where did we want it to be in five years, 10 years and beyond?”
“We bought this business in 1996 and it was broken. At the time, Magic Millions wasn’t actually running its own raceday. The sales were going along okay but, like with any business, we had to look at it and ask about its future. Where did we want it to be in five years, 10 years and beyond?” - Katie Page-Harvey
Those were the days when John Singleton was still involved. Between them, the trio had a deep well of commercial experience and personal success to draw on.
“We knew that what we had was special if we could add events and make it a great place to be for two weeks, not just for the sale and the raceday,” Page-Harvey said. “We wanted to put a lot around those events, and it was about 2008 to 2010 that we really started tinkering around the edges of a carnival.”
One of the first things that happened was that Magic Millions took back control of its raceday, including the rich 2-year-old feature that had launched the company by way of a horse called Snippets.
Watch: Snippets win the 1987 Magic Millions 2YO S.
“We stamped a look and feel on the raceday for where we wanted it to go in the future, and then I looked at the barrier draw,” Page-Harvey said. “In those days, it was a bunch of plastic seats in the middle of the racetrack and that was it. It was horrific.”
Today, the barrier draw for the 2YO Classic is the noisy, sensory, post-dawn stampede down the sand of Surfers Paradise. It’s become an iconic event, and one that almost defies logic in this era of occupational health and safety, insurance and nanny governance.
Page-Harvey admits it wasn’t an easy thing to achieve initially. The Surfers Paradise strip is like George Street in Sydney; it’s always busy and closing it long enough to allow thousands of people to watch a bunch of charging horses had its red tape.
But over time, she pulled it off. It started with two horses the first year, and then climbed to many more in subsequent years.
Next week, there will be 16 horses galloping in the first run, 12 in the second and 20 in the final hurrah. It’s become the banner event of the Magic Millions social calendar.
The Star Gold Coast Magic Millions gallop | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“So many people want to be part of it,” she said. “If you look at just that one event, the vision to do it has become so important to Magic Millions.
“Pictures of the barrier draw go around the world, and they’re seen by people at home in the snow and cold of winter, nowhere near the sun and sand of the Gold Coast. So the barrier draw event has become iconic, not just for people in racing but for tourism.”
Let them come
If you talk to Page-Harvey long enough about the Magic Millions carnival, you’ll see quickly how far-sighted she is.
Each year, she factors highly among the ‘50 most powerful women in business’, but she’s brought to January more than just a professional touch to succeed. She’s brought an unprecedented welcome to it.
“In everything I do I ask, can we have the public?” she said. “How do we make sure the public is involved with this so that it’s not isolated to just people who are at Magic Millions to buy a horse or go to the races? I want the carnival to be for all people, not just a few.”
“In everything I do I ask, can we have the public? How do we make sure the public is involved with this so that it’s not isolated to just people who are at Magic Millions to buy a horse or go to the races?” - Katie Page-Harvey
As a result, the Gold Coast is home in January to a lot more people than just vendors, trainers, bloodstock agents and stud staff. It’s also home to their children, partners and friends for a while. Without doubt, this has been key to the success and year-on-year growth of the Magic Millions carnival.
“We’ve had different targets as we’ve gone along,” Page-Harvey said. “Early on, I wasn’t thinking about show jumping and polo, and those two events came along because they’re authentic to the horse, and they have slotted in perfectly.”
Page-Harvey’s initial exposure to polo came through her purchase of a former polo property, while her formative years as a mother were spent towing horse floats, ferrying her daughter Georgia to show jumping tournaments.
Now, the Magic Millions polo launches the carnival with such names as international star Nacho Figueras and his wife Delfina, and the show jumping arm, held on the same day at the same venue, is worth $1.45 million in just its second year.
This Sunday, Page-Harvey has organised for a big screen at the venue for a complete audience experience. It’s an idea she has borrowed from the Australian Open tennis event in Melbourne.
“People can be right among all the action now,” she said. “They can put out their picnic blankets, have something to eat and enjoy the day.”
From the outset, Page-Harvey pitched for 5000 people at the Magic Millions polo, and it’s largely hit that target each year. But as much as the polo and show jumping are events in their own right, pulling in notable ambassadors and aligning with the likes of Pacific Fair, they’re authentically equine-related.
“We’ve kept it all about the horse,” Page-Harvey said. “It’s all about horses and the love of the horse, and our ambassadors love horses. They’re involved with horses in their professional lives, and when you tie all of that together as we have, it’s incredible how strong the message becomes.”
“We’ve kept it all about the horse. It’s all about horses and the love of the horse, and our ambassadors love horses. They’re involved with horses in their professional lives, and when you tie all of that together as we have, it’s incredible how strong the message becomes.” - Katie Page-Harvey
Page-Harvey won’t be pressed on which of the Magic Millions events is her favourite because she genuinely loves them all. She has a tireless energy for each until it’s almost all wrapped up after raceday and she can hop into thongs and kick back with a coffee.
“I love them because they’re all so different,” she said. “I can’t wait for Sunday, for example. But then I can’t wait for Tuesday, and after that I can’t wait for the sale to start, and then I can’t wait for raceday.
“My barometer for anything is that if I don’t like it, it doesn’t happen. We’re all busy and we’ve all got things going on, so we shouldn’t have to turn up to something because we’re expected to. With Magic Millions, it will always be a great event that everyone wants to turn up for.”
“We’re all busy and we’ve all got things going on, so we shouldn’t have to turn up to something because we’re expected to. With Magic Millions, it will always be a great event that everyone wants to turn up for.” - Katie Page-Harvey
It’s hard to imagine that there’s anything else to achieve with the carnival from Page-Harve’s perspective, but then this is a woman with an enviable breadth of mind and ideas looking for harbour.
“I still have things up my sleeve,” she said, and that’s not surprising.
