Cover image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
About this time each year, the issue attention cycle swings away from spring racing towards the Magic Millions carnival on the Gold Coast and, specifically, the $2 million spoils on offer through the R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic.
It’s a race that has steadily made the January carnival on the Gold Coast, and, first run in 1987, it has got richer and more important in the 35 years since.
Inaugurally won by Snippets, that great son of Lunchtime (GB), the very first 2YO Classic was called the 'Magic Million' and it was the first concept race of its kind in the world. The field was drawn from Magic Millions’ 1986 unreserved auction of 200 yearlings, in which Snippets was a buy-back for $22,000.
Snippets, winner of the inaugural Magic Millions 2YO Classic | Image courtesy of Sportpix
“To make it work, to get the million dollars for the race, we had to sell 200 horses,” David Chester, Magic Millions’ long-time sales director, told TDN AusNZ. “No more, no less, and it was done that way to give buyers a 200-1 chance of winning a million-dollar race. There were no better odds anywhere.”
That Snippets was the inaugural winner was an important factor in the race’s survival. The horse became a triple Group 1 winner in Sydney and Melbourne, and he was later an outstanding sire.
He proved that the new Gold Coast race wasn’t a pop-up, as did his fellow graduates when four horses of the 200 sold at that 1986 sale lined up in Marauding’s (NZ) 1987 Golden Slipper.
“If we’d had an ordinary lot of horses sold, I don’t think it would have worked,” Chester said. “It quietened the critics who had said the whole concept would die because 200 horses wouldn’t get a good field for a million-dollar race.”
“If we’d had an ordinary lot of horses sold, I don’t think it (the Magic Millions 2YO Classic) would have worked. It quietened the critics who had said the whole concept would die because 200 horses wouldn’t get a good field for a million-dollar race.” - David Chester
The ‘Magic Million’ did anything but die. In the last 35 years, it has blossomed into one of the most competitive juvenile events on the racing calendar as the Magic Millions 2YO Classic.
Its past winners include the likes of General Nediym, Testa Rossa, Dance Hero (Danzero), Mimi Lebrock (Show A Heart) and Karuta Queen (Not A Single Doubt), and that list doesn’t even include the big guns of the last few years.
Capitalist won in 2016, Sunlight (Zoustar) in 2018 and Away Game (Snitzel) in 2020. Exhilarates (Snitzel) won in 2019, Shaquero (Shalaa {Ire}) in 2021, and the brilliant Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) as recently as this year.
David Chester | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
“No one could have imagined it would have been so successful,” Chester said. “But it was and here we are, 35 years later.”
Order of entries pending
The 2023 Magic Millions 2YO Classic will be run on January 14, a $2 million event on a $12 million Magic Millions raceday.
The field is still coming to hand, with free entries closing at noon (local time) this Friday, and late entries closing at noon (local time) on December 16. Acceptances close on Monday, January 9, with the barrier draw, always a theatrical morning on the Surfers Paradise strip, at 6am (local) the following day.
In the lead-up, attention will fall on obvious horses likely to make the field.
At the moment, that’s the G3 Breeders’ Plate winner Empire Of Japan (Snitzel) for Peter and Paul Snowden, and the Busuttin-Young colt Sunsource (Zoustar), who won the R. Listed Magic Millions Ballarat 2YO Classic a fortnight ago.
Gallery: Horses likely to make the field for the 2023 R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic
Shortly, the Magic Millions Wyong 2YO Classic will occur, with its winner very likely to make the cut too, and the G3 BJ McLachlan S. in Brisbane is also an important qualifier on Boxing Day.
The final field, which is still to be confirmed as 16 dependent on the track’s redevelopment works, is based on prizemoney minus bonuses, and the order of entry will start to emerge from Racing Queensland in a matter of weeks.
The road for the fillies
So how did some of the race’s past winners get to their 2YO Classic victories? In these early days before the order of entry is released, it’s worth visiting.
This year’s winner was the very smart Coolangatta for Ciaron Maher and David Eustace. Raced in partnership by Ozzie Kheir, she was flawless from her very first start in the G3 Gimcrack S., winning that before winning the BJ McLachlan on Boxing Day.
Coolangatta, winner of the 2022 R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
Coolangatta had just over a fortnight between her second start into the 2YO Classic on January 15, and her victory was narrow (0.2l) over Russian Conquest (Russian Revolution). But she was an undefeated winner of the Gold Coast race and she has since been third in the G1 Golden Slipper and won the G1 Moir S. as a 3-year-old.
The only other horse to win the Gimcrack on their way to the 2YO Classic is Mirror Mirror, a daughter of Dehere (USA) who won both races in 2005. She didn’t win again in one further start, but Mirror Mirror is a broodmare at Strawberry Hill Stud and the dam of the stakes winner No Looking Back (Redoute’s Choice).
The only other horse (alongside Coolangatta) to win the Gimcrack on their way to the 2YO Classic is Mirror Mirror, a daughter of Dehere (USA) who won both races in 2005.
Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar), trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, was the winner of the recent Gimcrack in October and, as a $600,000 Magic Millions graduate, she’s eligible to compete in the upcoming field.
Coolangatta’s other path to the Gold Coast was via the BJ McLachlan, and that race has unearthed a few winners of the 2YO Classic. Before Coolangatta, Unencumbered won it in 2013, Driefontein (Fastnet Rock) in 2011 and St Jude in 1989.
Each of these was subsequently a winner of the Gold Coast race, and the 2023 BJ McLachlan S. will occur at Doomben on Christmas Eve.
Platinum Jubilee won the Grimcrack S. in October and is eligible to run in the 2023 R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
For the Snitzel filly Away Game in 2020, the road to her Magic Millions 2YO Classic came via the Listed Merson Cooper S. at Sandown in November 2019, and then the Listed Calaway Gal S. at Doomben in mid-December.
Away Game didn’t win the Merson Cooper, running fourth to Hanseatic, but that race has provided no winners of the 2YO Classic in 35 years. That doesn’t bode well for the latest winner, Little Brose (Per Incanto {USA}), who is a $200,000 Magic Millions graduate for Lindsay Park.
When it comes to the Calaway Gal S., however, it’s a little different.
That race has been in existence since only 2005 and, along with Away Game, it produced Military Rose (General Nediym) as its winner in 2009. Like Coolangatta, Military Rose was flawless heading into the 2YO Classic of 2010. She swept her first three starts before the Gold Coast win, and she went on to bring that tally to five straight by winning the G2 Reisling S. in March.
Military Rose, winner of the 2010 Magic Millions 2YO Classic | Image courtesy of Sportpix
The Calaway Gal S. will occur on December 10 at Eagle Farm and, as it is each year, it will be an important window into how the 2YO Classic might unfold.
Regarding some of the other fillies that have won the Classic, Karuta Queen also had a flawless winning streak through two starts at Rosehill and a win in the Magic Millions Wyong 2YO Classic. The Wyong race has provided a number of winners of the Gold Coast race, namely Capitalist, Unencumbered and Karuta Queen herself, and it will be run on December 14.
The road for the boys
Among the colts and geldings that have won the Magic Millions 2YO Classic in recent history, a path through the G3 Breeders’ Plate in October is a common pattern.
The most recent horse to win both races is Shaquero, who debuted in and won the Randwick race in 2020, then had two winless starts before his victory on the Gold Coast.
Capitalist was a little sharper on this path. He won the Breeders’ Plate on debut in 2015, then won the Wyong 2YO Classic before the $2 million version on the Gold Coast.
Gallery: Colts and geldings who have won the Magic Millions 2YO Classic in recent years, images courtesy of Bronwen Healy and Darren Tindale
Surprisingly, these are the only two winners of both races to date, making Empire Of Japan an interesting candidate this January. The latter has won only the Breeders’ Plate so far in a single start, but he was well-tuned this week when second in a Canterbury Park trial.
For Le Chef (Exceed And Excel), who won the 2YO Classic in 2015, the lead-up was via three Queensland starts into the Gold Coast race, and this seems to be an exception. Going further back, the race calendars have changed considerably, so that even Phelan Ready (More Than Ready {USA}), a winner of the Classic in 2009, had a very different path to the Gold Coast.
Testa Rossa, who won the race in 1999, is one of two winners of the 2YO Classic to have won the Maribyrnong Plate beforehand. Catnipped, a Rory’s Jester filly, had also done it the year before, and these are the only two to pull off that double. This year's Maribyrnong winner, Krakarib (Ribchester {Ire}), doesn't qualify as a Magic Millions graduate.
Testa Rossa... is one of two winners of the 2YO Classic to have won the Maribyrnong Plate beforehand. Catnipped, a Rory’s Jester filly, had also done it the year before, and these are the only two to pull off that double.
The road to the Magic Millions 2YO Classic is therefore a rich and varied one. There are a few traditional pathways, and those pathways have been much more obvious in the last handful of years than in the early vestiges of the concept race.
What this exercise does show is that the vast majority of winners of the Magic Millions 2YO Classic in the last decade or so have been fillies over colts and geldings. Since 2010, when Military Rose won the race, the fillies have won the Classic on nine occasions as against the boys that have won four.
