A MAGIC PATTERN

WRITTEN BY JOHN HUTCHINSON

As the 1945 Bing Crosby song goes, with backing vocals by The Andrews Sisters, who naturally steal the show. If only the Magic Millions Racing Women’s Bonus had been in their time, ambassadors and all. The Gold Coast would rock to The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B.

Where was I? Okay. Over several weeks earlier this year, the great Pattern debate received a good deal of airplay over the Internet and other media outlets, as the antiPattern lobby fired the first salvo only for the pro-Patterners, a collective mix of breeders, bloodstock agents and concerned individuals, to return serve in numbers.

We will not be waltzing into that debate too far except to examine a couple of the points raised and hoping to take a pragmatic, rather than theoretical, approach to the subject.

That punters do not care about the Pattern is the first of those. Sure, backing a 10/1 winner anywhere returns the same as backing a 10/1 winner of the Melbourne Cup, although the latter scenario does come with far superior bragging rights for days, weeks or even years and, for some, a lifelong interest in the sport. And even the most hardened punter would surely admit to a heightened sense of interest once the major carnivals and the lead-up meetings come around - quality racing supported by the Pattern, both traditionally and annually.

A quote by bookmaker Mark Read years ago comes to mind. He noted that the path to racehorse ownership for many starts with having a bet, be it in the Melbourne Cup, Golden Slipper, Cox Plate, Magic Millions or The Everest I would add. History also shows that more than a few move on from their initial racehorse ownership to establish large scale breeding operations - Gerry Harvey and John Messara being prime, modern day examples among others.

So, a link from punter to owner to breeder can be made and, for the former group, the so-called lack of interest in the Pattern may not be quite as cut and dried in the long term, as we shall see.

And we shouldn’t leave trainers and jockeys out of the equation, after all they tend to pore over the Racing Calendar 24/7. One only has to listen to pre-race or post-race interviews to understand the importance of the Pattern in the programming mindset of every trainer with a horse considered, hopefully, good enough at that level. Black type success brings not only benefits to the horse itself in terms of its value and to its ownership group by way of prizemoney, but prestige to the trainers and jockeys concerned. How often have you heard the terms….Group One winning trainer or Group One winning jockey?

One of the most straightforward tasks when writing about the Magic Millions is you can always start with, and rely on, Snippets, from the first sale to his victory in the inaugural Fosters Magic Million (as it was called in 1987) and from there to a brilliant career both on the track and at stud. Three Group One wins in the AJC Sires’ Produce Stakes, The Galaxy and the Oakleigh Plate ensured the son of Lunchtime and Easy Date his excellent opportunity as a stallion. The value added to his CV by those elite level successes has been carried on down the years by a production line of outstanding colts sold by Magic Millions.

WHAT STARTED WITH SNIPPETS AS A MAGICAL RAINDROP DEVELOPED INTO STEADY RAIN SOON AFTER WITH LEADING STALLIONS GENERAL NEDIYM, TESTA ROSSA AND BRAVE WARRIOR ADDING TO THEIR MAGIC MILLIONS WINS WITH FURTHER BLACK TYPE VICTORIES OVER THE COURSE OF THEIR RACETRACK CAREERS.

Those showers did not pass over any time soon before developing into a torrent. If there is a barometer reading in which the selling agents can justifiably take pride it is the honour roll of brilliant colts and outstanding stallions to have passed through the Gold Coast sale ring. Apart from Winx that is, but most everything ran second to her.

Multiple Champion Sires Snitzel and Savabeel head the list but it was Written Tycoon’s time to shine in 2020/21. Sebring, Not a Single Doubt, Pierro, Zoustar, Spirit of Boom, Stratum…the list goes on and on and now includes the Golden Slipper/Magic Millions winner, Capitalist, a graduate of the 2015 Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Capitalist’s sire, Written Tycoon, a Group Two winner of the Todman Stakes when trained by Grahame Begg, broke the mould ever so slightly. The previous 30 Champion Australian Sires had been Group One winners but let it be said that Written Tycoon received his chance at stud by virtue of his win in the Golden Slipper lead-up.

If anything, since 2015, the tidal wave of Magic Millions graduates retiring to stud as stallions now looks more like the Great Flood.

Group One performers Invader, Pariah and The Mission will have their first runners this season while another, Lean Mean Machine, will have his initial crop of yearlings on offer in 2022. But it is the next few generations of stallions with their first foals being born this season and those commencing stud duties in 2021 and beyond which really promise to be the eye of the storm, supported in no small way, of course, by their top-class form under the Pattern.

The former group includes Greg Hickman’s evergreen warrior, Pierata, The Everest winner, Yes Yes Yes (yes, yes, yes, I know, The Everest sits outside the Pattern but Coolmore did secure the colt’s standing rights after his win in the Group Two Todman Stakes. Sound familiar?) plus Widden’s son of a gun, Zousain and the Guineas winner D’Argento while 2021 freshman stallions count Golden Slipper winner Farnan, dual Group One winner King’s Legacy, Blue Diamond victor, Tagaloa, Group One winner Prince Fawaz, Derby winner Levendi and speedsters such as Graff, Anders, Prague and Time To Reign among their ranks.

Even Noah’s bean-counters would struggle with such a deluge of talent coming on board with no sign of the rain easing up. Already this year’s Golden Slipper and Blue Diamond winners, Stay Inside and Artorius, both sold at the Gold Coast in 2020, have their stallion tickets stamped and no doubt they will be joined one day by the exciting Profondo, like King’s Legacy a Magic Millions sale-topping colt, Champagne Stakes victor, Captivant, and the brilliant Blue Sapphire winner, Extreme Warrior.

That the Pattern is put on for the sole benefit of breeders is another red herring. Certainly, selling a sibling to a stakes-winner can bring its rewards and breeding one would always bring a warm, fuzzy feeling but the game is never that simple. Breeders play a long game and any success coming their way can hardly be begrudged.

For the connections of the above glamour colts, the result is akin to Hollywood. All the enjoyment and financial returns on the track are complemented by the pot of gold at the end of (or somewhere over) the rainbow - Judy Garland this time. The Pattern, as even its most ardent opponents would stubbornly agree, clearly underpins the Australian bloodstock market forces on a domestic and international scale, which is the envy of the world, notwithstanding the pandemic. Without it, I fear we would end up racing for ribbons. However, it is not just the multi-million dollar stallion market that is the only major by-product of the Pattern. On that unique day of days, the opening session of the 2021 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, ten stakes-winning fillies and mares being sold off the track realised $18.15 million, almost $4 million more than this elite group had won when racing. Not forgetting that in 2020 Sunlight’s record-breaking sale added a lazy $4.2 million to her already very sizeable bankroll. Just as significantly, quite a few of the seven-figure fillies and mares were raced by large syndicate groups including Sunlight, Melody Belle, Greysful Glamour and Fiesta. Perhaps for many of those owners, their interest in horse racing began with that first wager. Tipping their votes would be well and truly in favour of the Pattern now.

And you can bet similar opportunities will be found at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. As I’m sure old Bing, who enjoyed a day at the races as much as anyone, would agree.