Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

A packed catalogue of 350 lots from 36 vendors will be offered on Thursday and Friday at the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale, including the progeny of 83 individual sires.

Among them, first season sires will be represented, led by Splintex, who sits second on the general sires’ table by number of offspring catalogued with 36 - just one less lot than WA Champion Sire Playing God. Colts are the most represented in the catalogue, with 185 on offer, as well as 158 fillies and 7 geldings.

“The main thing that sets the Perth catalogue apart is we have the best of what the state has to offer,” David Houston, Western Australia manager for Magic Millions, told The Thoroughbred Report. “Yearlings haven’t been sent away to other sales, so it has always been a strong sale. Everyone gets access to the best of what the state produces.

“The locals here know the product well, so that gives them a lot of confidence to come and buy from the families here and from the farms that they are familiar with.”

For the first time in over a decade, Darling View Thoroughbreds lead the vendors by draft size on their own; previously, they have prepared a draft in collaboration with Einoncliff Park and Westbury Park under the Western Breeders Alliance umbrella, which catalogued 43 yearlings last year. This year, their own draft numbers 28, whereas Westbury Park will offer 15 and Einoncliff Park have catalogued 10.

Table: Top 10 vendors by size of draft in the 2025 catalogue

In a pleasing spread, 17 vendors have entered 10 or more lots into the sale, which follows in the footsteps of 18 vendors last year. Mogumber Park, who sold both of the winners of the Magic Millions feature races at Pinjarra Park last weekend, will present the third biggest draft of the sale, with 19 lots.

“Our graduates have been very successful,” Houston added. “We breed good, tough horses over here, they race for a long time in all sorts of conditions, and when they travel interstate, they are very competitive as well.”

A sale on an upwards spiral

The Perth sale has seen steady growth over the past five years; whilst the catalogue size has expanded slightly, the sale’s aggregate has grown year on year with an increase of greater than 55 per cent since 2020. The average has grown similarly, from $51,147 in 2020 to $73,383 in 2024.

Whilst this latter number was no doubt bolstered by several record-breaking lots, it was only a small increase from 2023, suggesting that values have remained healthy in the western state. It is worth noting that the difference in catalogue size from 2020 to 2024 was only 21 lots, and in fact the 2023 sale’s catalogue went to print four horses smaller than its 2020 counterpart, so the strides that have been made in both aggregate and average remain significant.

Table: Aggregate, average, and book size comparisons across the previous five editions of the sale

Clearance rates for the sale have remained high since a record spike in 2021 of 91.76 per cent, with last year demonstrating the first real dip in clearance, but still not falling below 85 per cent. It remains to be seen if the trend continues, or if there will be any similarities to the 2025 sales that have preceded it.

The 2024 edition of the sale saw the largest variety in buyer location in the last five years, both within Australia and internationally; five lots were purchased between buyers from Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom with an average purchase price of $146,000, which is almost double the general sale average. Buyers from Victoria spent even more, spending an average of $150,733 on 15 lots, whereas New South Wales shoppers averaged $132,500 for six lots, and one was purchased for Tasmania. The remaining 254 lots stayed within their home state, for an average spend of $65,983 per yearling.

“We do get a few interstate visitors buying Ready To Run sale horses, and they have done very well, and we have also had graduates be succesful in the east, like Portland Sky and Silent Sedition,” said Houston. A $45,000 graduate of the sale when purchased by Aqua Trained Thoroughbreds in 2014, Silent Sedition (War Chant {USA}) would sell for $1.5 million as a broodmare four years later. “They’re proper racehorses, and they haven’t been expensive either.”

Part of that Victorian average has Lot 41 from Mungrup Stud to thank - a full sister to G1 Railway Stakes winner Bustler (Playing God) was purchased by Sheamus Mills Bloodstock (FBAA) for $625,000, which smashed the previous record price for the sale set in 2007, when a daughter of Elusive Quality (USA) was sold by Yarradale Stud for $365,000. The filly now named Fight For Life received another pedigree update in April when half-brother A Lot Of Good Men (A Lot {USA}) won the G2 Western Australian Derby. She has yet to be assigned to a trainer.

A new colt’s record price was also set last year, also by Yarradale Stud who sold a son of Brazen Beau to China Horse Club, Williams Racing, and Suman Hedge Bloodstock (FBAA) for $375,000. The previous record was set by a son of Beneteau in 2015, when he was purchased by Neville Parnham Racing for $340,000.

“We're not expecting quite the same patronage from the east as previous years, that's just the way the economy has performed across some of the other sales,” Houston said. “But it is a shame, because they're probably missing out on the good quality horses that we produce.”

Playing God still rules the roost

Playing God reigns supreme in the catalogue yet again, and Darling View offer 10 of the 37 yearlings catalogued for their super sire. These yearlings are part of his second biggest crop so far, totalling 73 foals - only beaten by his 2024 crop of 90 foals reported to date - and it is with good reason that breeders continue to flock to the rising 18-year-old.

From 359 foals of racing age, he has had 218 to race for 156 winners (71.6 per cent), of which 22 are stakeswinners. Operating at 10.1 per cent stakeswinners to runners is an impressive figure, particularly given the smaller number of stakes races on offer in Australia’s largest state. Six new stakeswinners in 2024 boosted his fee for last season to a well-deserved career high of $49,500 (inc GST).

This crop was bred off of a $27,500 (inc GST) service fee and they will no doubt be as popular as ever. Last year’s sale saw 39 sold for an average of $119,423, bred off of a $15,000 (ex GST, for comparison) service fee, averaging a 7.96 times return for breeders.

Alwyn Park Stud offer a particularly interesting son of Playing God in Lot 15, out of Clear Blue Sky (Sessions), a half-sister to Portland Sky, who now stands at Widden Stud. Greenfields Lodge have another tantalising prospect in Lot 69, a colt out of Lady Alaska (Reset), making him a full brother to G2 Western Australian Derby winner Alaskan God and stakes performer Alaskan.

There will be a good opportunity for trade for the offspring of several resident West Australian sires; Awesome Rock will be represented by 22 per cent of his foal crop, Maschino will see 24.3 per cent of his crop in the sales ring, and Rommel has 38.5 per cent of his 2023 foals in the catalogue.

Table: Top nine most represented stallions and the percentage of their 2023 crop of foals in the 2025 catalogue

Buyers will be pleased to see that some of the country’s other leading sires will be represented at the sale; Ridgeport Holdings offer one son of Zoustar (Lot 73), Forest View Farm have a daughter of Champion Sire Written Tycoon (Lot 170) among their draft, and there are two opportunities to purchase a yearling by Champion First Season Sire Too Darn Hot (GB) in Lot 3 and Lot 148. Among the other leading sires represented are Dundeel (NZ), Tassort, Pride Of Dubai, Capitalist, and the late Lonhro. Opportunities abound to purchase progeny by the exciting Ole Kirk, Bivouac, and Farnan.

“We have a majority local catalogue, but we also have a really great spread of eastern commercial stallions and that’s what we have tried to build up over the years,” Houston said.

Some of these sires are available via the 11 pinhooked weanlings in the catalogue that were purchased across five different sales in 2024.

Splintex injects new blood into the WA breeding landscape

Splintex, who stands at Darling View alongside Playing God, is the most represented first season sire by a mile - in fact, he is the only one with numbers in double digits. The son of multiple Champion Sire Snitzel has been an exciting injection of eastern speed into the western breeding population, and has been well received by WA breeders, with 71 foals in his first crop and almost exactly half of them heading to the Perth sale.

A star in the stable of now Hong Kong-based Mark Newham, Splintex won the G2 Arrowfield 3YO Sprint Stakes and G2 Bobbie Lewis Quality, as well as the G3 Hall Mark Stakes, amongst his seven wins, and beat Vinery Stud’s Exceedance at Rosehill Gardens at his third start.

His Arrowfield Sprint success holds particular merit, beating the great mares Flit (Medaglia D'oro {USA}) and Anaheed (Fastnet Rock), as well as Cosmic Force, on a Heavy 8 track. As a spring 4-year-old, he suffered heartrenching defeats at the hands of some of Australia’s best sprinters, beaten 2.1l in the G2 The Shorts by Classique Legend (Not A Single Doubt) and beaten just 1l in the G2 Schillaci Stakes by Dirty Work. His Bobbie Lewis win came as a 5-year-old, and he has appealed to everything that West Australian breeders value; a tough racehorse with great results over a lengthy career.

“There are very few stallions who go to stud these days with that sort of record,” Houston said. “Especially given that he raced against Nature Strip, Eduardo, those kinds of horses. He didn’t run in easy races, he was competing with the best of them.”

His offerings are highlighted by Lot 185 from Alwyn Park Stud, a colt out of G3 Sires’ Produce Stakes winner Bantry Bay (Tale Of The Cat {USA}), making him is a half-brother to eight winners, including dual Listed winner All Banter (I’m All The Talk). Forest View Farm will offer an attractive filly by him in Lot 118, the first foal from stakes performer Royal Strata (Stratum).

Other first season sires represented hail from three of the eastern states, led by Newgate Farm’s Tiger Of Malay. He has seven yearlings catalogued, and is one of two sons of boom sire Extreme Choice with offspring in the catalogue, along with one yearling from Rosemont Stud-based Extreme Warrior.

Table: First season sires with offspring in the 2025 catalogue

Ensuring WA racing remains an enticing investment

Buyers will be pleased to note that 339 lots are either Westspeed Breeder Nominated or Westspeed Platinum, and 83 lots are BOBS eligible. There are 50 lots eligible for VOBIS schemes, and seven are fully paid for QTIS, ensuring that interstate buyers can be handsomely rewarded for investing at Perth. The West Speed bonus in particular makes it a “very profitable exercise”, in Houston’s words, to patronise West Australian racing.

The Magic Millions Race Series also provides over $20 million in prize money spread across 28 races in all six states of Australia, that all sales graduates are eligible to be paid up for.

Houston is realistic about the trade conditions this year, particularly with three large yearling sales having already served as barometers of the industry’s economic status this year.

“We've been, I believe, the only sale in Australia to be continuing to be on an upward spiral,” he said. “I'm hopeful of something similar this year, but I have to be realistic.

“If we can maintain our performance, given the climactic conditions, that would be ideal. It's certainly very well supported by the locals and I'm hopeful that they'll do the same again.”