12/01/15
The Magic Millions race day at the Gold Coast last Saturday was just wonderful to sit back and observe, because it proved once and for all what a monumental stuff-up it is on the part of Racing Queensland, the governing body of racing in this State, to hand out an unknown amount of millions of dollars – that they won’t publicly declare – to Magic Millions to allegedly stage a $10 million race day at the Gold Coast in January next year.
After last Saturday’s Magic Millions race meeting one can only imagine that each of Racing Queensland, Magic Millions and the Sky Channel hangers-on will all be like a group of excited schoolboys who got away undetected with wagging school for the first time. But talk is cheap and to “a thinker” like me, one can simply walk away, count to 10 and smell the roses, then return and rationally shoot holes in the entire what I’d call “stupid concept”.
The biggest mistake that Racing Queensland has made is two-fold. Firstly the industry wants to know – and is entitled to know – exactly how much money is being given to Magic Millions without any strings attached. We as a society in Australia absolutely detest “smoke and mirrors” garbage like big final “Acceptance Fees” for Magic Millions race day or a governing body that is using racing industry money but who won’t address the industry on the exact details of same. Then secondly like I wrote last week, if Racing Queensland took the decision to give Magic Millions industry money – then seeing Racing Queensland held the purse strings when Racing Queensland came to the agreement with Magic Millions then why didn’t they advise that as a contra to the financial hand-out, Queensland based studs would get another 50 or 60 yearlings into the first five days of the sale? At least that way an outsider looking in could have seen some potential benefit, albeit minute, to help the Queensland industry out.
As the sun set over the horizon last Saturday afternoon following the Magic Millions race meeting, it’s blatantly apparent to anyone afforded a normal amount of grey matter at birth that these vast numbers of yearlings sold by Magic Millions annually seem to really lack “class” performers. After all it’s fair to assume that anyone who purchased a Magic Millions yearling and paid up the $3,300 (now $4,400) for that alleged equine athlete horse to compete on Magic Millions race days, would target the relevant race their horse was eligible for at Magic Millions Gold Coast each January. Yet of the 900-odd yearlings that were sold at Magic Millions Gold Coast last January that were eligible to be paid up and race in the Magic Millions 2YO last Saturday, we now know for sure and certain that most can’t get out of sight on a dark night. The winner Le Chef was written up here Friday night as one of only two horses of the 16 that were assured of a start – that had won over 1200 metres. So just 12.5% of these what I’d call “woeful bunch of excuses for 2YO’s” that made up the vast majority of the 16-horse field have no ticker at this point of their career, as both the overall time and last 600 of the race are abysmal and I’ve been reporting to my Sectional Times clients on the race for over a decade. I can assure you that none of last Saturday’s Magic Millions field will be lining up in a Golden Slipper – and can further advise that if they do they’ll get lapped, as there would have to be dozens of better 2YO’s around Australia than them. And if there isn’t then we need to close the thoroughbred industry down in Australia.
I ask like I did last week when I reviewed the subsequent racetrack performances of the 2014 Magic Millions 16 starters – how the hell can you draw 16 two-year-olds from a pool of say 1500 yearlings sold through Magic Millions yearlings sales conducted around Australia and finish up with such a bunch of slow horses?
However the Magic Millions 2YO from last Saturday looks like a Group 1 Golden Slipper field compared to some of the horses that won or were placed on the day in other races. And don’t forget that the older horses were the cream of the crop drawn from multiple years of yearlings sales graduates.
Check out the individual CV of some of the winners and placegetters on the day and you see how rarely these horses get to have their photo taken in the winner’s circle.
So it’s all well and good for Racing Queensland and Magic Millions and Sky Channel to run around like chooks with their heads cut off telling everyone how great this 10million day is going to be in January 2016, but the facts and realities are that just because you have a $10million race day – or $9 million in real prizemoney, or whatever the right figure is after taking that getting rid of this final “Acceptance Fees” nonsense out of the equation, you have to be able to prove that you can significantly increase TAB turnover on the race day to give industry stakeholders a return on parting with industry funds which they undemocratically didn’t have a say in.
Given how rarely some of these Magic Millions runners actually get around to winning a race, we need Magic Millions to step up to the plate and sell some, with “some” being the operative word, good yearlings that can develop into a headline 2YO or 3YO which will assist in creating some added betting interest in the race meeting to significantly increase turnover. This year we had to rely on Wicked Intent (2YO) and Hijack Hussy (3YO) as favourite for their respective race, so they were “the headline acts”, yet both had got rolled at their previous start at short odds – Wicked Intent at $1.40 and Hijack Hussy at $2.60 – and then both went missing is action last Saturday out on the racetrack of dreams.
Bolters and/or horses that are very limited and have no great future arrived one after the other during last Saturday afternoon which proved conclusively just how many bad horses Magic Millions must sell – given that these ones that raced last Saturday should be able to be called “the cream of the crop”.
Let me go through the day and explain.
Race 1 was a Maiden. The only decent horse I’ve seen in nearly 60 years on the planet that took a long time to win a Maiden, but who developed into a top Group 1 horse, was Reckless. He had 30-odd starts before he won a race. If any of those horses in that Maiden last Saturday at the Gold Coast that finished second inclusive, or further back, have an outstanding future – well their ability is certainly well hidden.
Race 2 came along and Tinto won and there’s no problem there as she’s a Group 1 winner. The handicapper tried to tell everyone that the rest of the field were all donkeys, as he weighted 17 of the 19 – or just 89.47% of the entire field – on the minimum. They’re real fools those handicapper blokes and were proven spot on yet again, as Tinto, the mare handicapped with 5kgs more than the limit weighted horses, beat them pointlessly.
Race 3 and Endless Shadow won after over-racing and going around the middle of the track, so it’s fair to assume she had “a class edge” on her rivals. Sadly that theory doesn’t hold water though, as when I researched her CV I discovered that she’s won just one race in the last 25 months and that was by a nose in a photo at the Gold Coast on 10/5/14. Endless Shadow had 24 starts between her wins, meaning that she had to wait to meet fellow ordinary conveyances which had been sold at a Magic Millions yearling sale at some point – just to win another race.
And those that chased Endless Shadow home win about as rarely as you find hens teeth, as second placed Anna Lizzie won’t have won a race anywhere for a year or more that next time she starts in a race, whilst third placed Champagne Cath hasn’t won a race in the last 15 months. So as you can see that race certainly exuded “class”.
Race 4 proved the lack of class theory spot on again as Straturbo won the race. His three wins in the last 12 months have been in two Benchmark 70 races and one Benchmark 75 race in Victoria in $40,000 total prizemoney races. So in other words he’s, on the balance of probability what I’d call “a mid-week horse that got lucky and won a Saturday city Magic Millions race”. And Straturbo’s having won three races in the last 12 months in fact meant he stood out like a beacon as surely the horse he beat in the race as the second horse Happy Galaxy hasn’t saluted for 23 months, whilst third placed Missy Longstocking hasn’t won for 14 months. Again this field cumulatively have about as much class as a Kings Cross streetwalker. And one could mount a case why Missy Longstocking should have won, so how pathetic would that have been that a horse first-up in 52 weeks should have won the race. That scenario simply doesn’t happen in eastern seaboard Saturday city racing in Australia, as per 12 monthly articles I penned in 2013 on the subject.
Race 5 was the 3YO Magic Millions and another 20/1 shot romped in here in the shape of Deiheros. He’d gone going missing in action and beat two home at his previous start behind Mywayorthehighway, on a rain-affected track.
Race 6 was the Magic Millions 2YO and it’s already been discussed above.
Race 7 saw Spurtonic win. He’s like me in that his best days are behind him – but he still beat this bunch of pretenders. He hadn’t won for 14 months before this day so must have had injury woes. But Spurtonic’s CV looks great compared to the horse that ran second – Strawberry Boy. That excuse for a racehorse has won just one race in the last 19 months. Third placed The Bowler has won two races in the last 19 months and they were firstly a Benchmark 70 mid-week event and secondly a Melbourne Saturday city race, so between the three placegetters in this race in the last 52 months (Spurtonic 14 plus Strawberry Boy 19 and The Bowler 19) they’ve won just three races (Strawberry Boy 1 and The Bowler 2). Good grief.
Then we got to Race 8 and Real Time was “classy” enough to come off a Sandown Benchmark 64 mid-week win and a Sale third placing in a Benchmark 70 race worth $30,000 in total prizemoney to win racing away. The second horse, Architect, has won just one race in his last 16 starts (6.25%) so his wins are a bit sparse.
So as you can see by this fully researched article the horses that are turning up to play on Magic Millions day in January each year at the Gold Coast in the last couple of years are a woeful bunch of pretenders and to be brutally honest the mind boggles at how Magic Millions can sell say 1500 yearlings a year and cannot even get one or two top class horses in a Magic Millions 2YO or Magic Millions 3YO.
How pathetic is it to think that ordinary conveyances that ran in the first two last Saturday like Endless Shadow (one win in 25 months by a nose), Spurtonic (no wins in 14 months), Happy Galaxy (no wins in 25 months), Strawberry Boy (one win in 19 months) or Architect (one win in his last 16 starts) could win a race on Magic Millions day next year or the year after when that race is worth some totally ludicrous amount like $1million when in reality they wouldn’t look out of place in a Gatton Cup or a Beaudesert Cup. Yet the Einsteins at Racing Queensland are looking forward to happily throwing millions of dollars annually to Magic Millions to endorse the mediocrity.
Later this week I’ll look at the protection option which Racing Queensland failed to think about wearing before they excitedly jumped in the sack recently with Magic Millions for an assured seven-year romp. I believe that not considering this easily obtainable protection method could have dire consequences in the long term.
Please be advised that rails bookmaker Lindsay Gallagher’s normal Monday bookmakers column will return next Monday.
Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there’s the What’s In A Name segment. On www.sydneyracing.com.au there’s the story on an upcoming bloodstock sale that isn’t run by Magic Millions or Inglis, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Matt Nicholls, who wrote that feature story on Le Chef last week, has his popular Monday Musings column. The educated drum around the traps is that Matt outlaid very little money to get a big return on Le Chef after taking 50/1 eight days before the Magic Millions 2YO. The horse had to win the day after he had the bet just to get into the field, let alone win, so he’s bordering on genius status after Saturday.