Western Australia's premier yearling auction returns to the Swan Valley this week, with 358 lots cataloged for the Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale, which gets underway Feb. 19.
The two-day auction brings together a broad cross section of yearlings by proven Western Australian stallions with a wave of emerging sires. A total of 79 stallions are represented, headed by champion local sire Playing God with 52 yearlings.
Youngsters by group 1 winners Artorius, Paulele, State of Rest, and Stronger feature among the offerings, alongside local newcomers Aysar, Lightsaber, and Marine One.
Inspections have drawn a strong local and interstate buying bench, with trainers Grant and Alana Williams, Neville Parnham, Simon Miller, Luke Fernie, and Dan Morton among those on the ground; while visitors from the Eastern Seaboard include Sheamus Mills, Calvin McEvoy and Damon Gabbedy, Annabel Archibald, Johnny McKeever, Andy Makiv, and First Light Racing.
Interest in the sale has no doubt been bolstered by its leading graduates, a roll of honor which has been added to this season and includes 2025 Railway Stakes (G1) winner Watch Me Rock and group 2 winners King Of Light and Super Smink.
Among vendors who were generating significant attention during inspections was Mogumber Park, whose graduate Maria Lucia landed the Magic Millions WA 2YO Classic at Pinjarra Feb. 14. The Bullsbrook-based operation will offer a draft of 22 yearlings.
Mogumber Park, operated by Colin Brown and Fiona Lacey, will present 14 yearlings by their resident first-season sire Marine One, and Brown said the son of Capitalist's progeny had been well received throughout inspections.
"From an industry perspective, it's really nice to have three first-season sires, and it's really nice for each of them to have a good number—they're all in and around 20," Brown said.
"One of the major things apart from how they look—in terms of strong shoulders, deep girth, nice hindquarter, they walk nicely—but they've got Marine One's personality. All of them are easy to work with. They're smart horses and they want to learn. The ones that came down here, you can see they've all settled in nicely."
Despite the depth of Marine One's first crop, Brown admitted Lot 145 carries the strongest emotional attachment for the farm.
He is the final foal from Clarecastle, the granddam of stakes winners Do I Feel Lucky and Maria Lucia. The group 3-placed mare produced 10 foals to race for nine winners, including listed winner Castle Road and the stakes-placed trio Specialism, Royal Strata, and More Special.
"He is probably the one we have the most emotional attachment to because we call him Omega. He's the last of the Clarecastles. She's got a 2-year-old that's starting on Saturday, and that's the only one that she's bred that's gone to the races that hasn't won a race yet, but she's only having her third race start.
"They all win, and many are stakes-placed. We lost her (Clarecastle) last year, so emotionally, she might have left the best to last. He is a super horse and a lovely family. We'll be sad to see him go. He's the one that there'll be a lot of tears for when the hammer goes down."
The draft also features Lot 68, a filly by the late Coolmore Stud stallion So You Think from group 3 placegetter Rocket Fuel, who was picked up by Mogumber for AU$130,000 carrying the filly at the 2024 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale.
"There's been good interest in her," Brown said. "It doesn't matter whether people pay $100 or $1 million for a horse; they'll talk about its walk. This filly would be the nicest, naturally walking horse on the complex—she's a standout, a lovely filly."
Based on the atmosphere around the complex, Brown said he remained optimistic heading into the sale.
"We always move into a sale optimistically. If you go in 'glass half empty,' you're in the wrong business. But I believe there's been more foot traffic this year than last year. I haven't looked at my cards from last year, but the complex has been constantly busy. There haven't been any low spots or dead spots.
Magic Millions Western Australia manager David Houston echoed that optimism, confident the sale would continue to deliver strong results.
"Three of the last four years, we've had the biggest clearance in Australasia," Houston told ANZ News. "It dropped away a little bit last year. We've been one of the very few, maybe the only sale that's had an upward spiral through those three or four years. We've come a long way for a small sale in a small jurisdiction to get to where we have."
The sale gets underway at 11 a.m. local time.
