Momentum Continues as Records Smashed in Perth

The 2018 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale has been declared the best ever with strong prices continuing during Book Two of the auction on Tuesday.

The sale across both Book One and Two produced a 24% increase on the 2017 auction with records across the board led by a 96% clearance for Book One and 91% sold rate overall.

Today's Book Two sale was a great success and was topped by the Snippetson half-brother to exciting juvenile Assetro at $100,000.

Assetro's trainer Adam Durrant outbid his rivals to secure the filly who was presented at the Belmont Park based auction by Scenic Lodge as Lot 254.

"I train the half sister Assetro and I have a big opinion of her," Durrant said. "I thought he was one to target."

"He looks like he will run early. I was hoping to get him a bit cheaper but there were obviously a few people on him."

"It's been a really strong sale," Durrant added. "The nice horses have had plenty of people on them and you've really had to fight for them if you liked them."

Durrant wasn't the only local buyer among the action, with Trevor Andrews also following on from his strong bidding yesterday to secure Book Two's second top seller, the Oratorio-Haste filly for $90,000.

That filly, catalogued as Lot 219, was presented by Western Breeders Alliance, as agent for Woodbridge Thoroughbreds.

"We really like the filly," Andrews said. "We had a really nice Oratorio filly win on Saturday called Private Dancer and I bought this filly for the same connections."

"I didn't expect to be paying the amount of money for the horses that we had to. If you don't meet the market and step up and pay more you're not going to go home with the horses you want."

Leading local trainer Neville Parnham said the sale turned out a great success for both buyers and vendors and was hoping to unearth many stars from his purchases.

"I got the feel about three days ago that it was much stronger than we had here last year," Parnham said. "We are very happy to buy the nice WA bred horses as we know they can produce horses like Black Heart Bart, Playing God, Scenic Shot, Scenic Blast etc etc."

Another leading local stable who was very active was the brother combination of Ben and Dan Pearce, who this season have joined forces in a new training partnership.

"We're pretty happy with the result of the sale," Ben Pearce said. "We came here with a plan to buy a dozen nice horses and we've done pretty well."

"The two Hinchinbrook colts, we thought they were standouts in the sale and we were thrilled to secure them," Pearce added.

The sale exceeded the optimistic predictions of organisers and returned a record average, median price and clearance rate.

"It was another great day of selling today," Magic Millions Managing Director Barry Bowditch said. "Obviously after yesterday's phenomenal sale, which is now clearing 96%, today just went on from that."

"All the way through today's Book Two sale there was strong interest. This is the most positive sale we've had here in the west for a long, long time."

"Last year we grossed $9.3 million and to have it up over $11.6 million, an increase of over 24%, is a tremendous result any way you look at it."

"Congratulations to the vendors on the presentation of their drafts and I hope they now have the confidence to reinvest and continue to improve their product."

"The revised selling format has been an extraordinary success and is the blueprint for Perth going forward."

"It has been a massive team effort and we can attribute a lot of the success of this sale to David Houston and Cassie Norris," Bowditch added.

To view the results of the sale and to make an offer on a passed in lot click here. To view a video review of today's sale click here.

The Magic Millions focus now switches to South Australia for the 2018 Adelaide Yearling Sale at Morphettville on March 13 and 14.

BOOK TWO TOP SELLERS

$100,000 – Snippetson-Ortessa colt (Lot 254)
Vendor: Scenic Lodge / Buyer: Adam Durrant (WA)

$90,000 – Oratorio-Haste filly (Lot 219)
Western Breeders Alliance (As Agent) / Trevor Andrews (WA)

$75,000 – Oratorio-Deb's Delight filly (Lot 203)
Mungrup Stud / Harvey Racing (WA)

$72,500 – Universal Ruler-Dark Rock filly (Lot 202)
Scenic Lodge / Jim Taylor (WA)

$67,500 – Playing God-Ribotor filly (Lot 271)
Mungrup Stud / Millfields Park (WA)

BOOK TWO STATISTICS

Lots Catalogued: 155
Lots Sold: 122
Lots Passed In: 19
Lots Withdrawn: 14
Sale Gross: $3,205,500
Top Price: $100,000
Average Price: $26,150
Median Price: $20,000
Sold %: 87

COMPLETE SALE STATISTICS
(2017 in brackets)

Lots Catalogued: 302 (368)
Lots Sold: 254 (254)
Lots Passed In: 25 (84)
Lots Withdrawn: 23 (30)
Sale Gross: $11,644,000 ($9,359,000)
Top Price: $210,000 ($325,000)
Average Price: $45,842 ($36,846)
Median Price: $36,000 ($26,000)
Sold %: 91 (75)