SALE OF DREAMS

MAGIC Millions bloodstock sales owner Gerry Harvey says they’re not just selling racehorses on the Gold Coast from today: “We’re selling a dream.”

The annual yearling sale at the Bundall auction yards kicks off this morning at 10am and will see those with big chequebooks mixing it with the hobbyists and syndicates of mates.

Sydney-based couple Glenn and Viva Williams (pictured) are back prowling the yards and its 1000-plus lots this week, having pulled off one of the single greatest buys at the sale in recent history.

The couple in their 60s shelled out $30,000 at the 2010 sale for a filly by stallion Not a Single Doubt.

Named Karuta Queen, it amassed $1.9 million in prizemoney including winning the Magic Millions feature $2 million race, the Two Year Old Classic, the next year in 2011.

Mr Williams, who had worked most of his life in insurance, told the Bulletin week that at the time they snagged Karuta Queen it was their second Magic Millions and “we were really just newcomers”.

He can still remember sitting in the auction auditorium when the “little chestnut filly with the white blaze” was paraded for auction.

“It was a fluke. I hadn’t inspected her, we just bought her on spec,” Mr Williams conceded but said he had been impressed by the horse’s pedigree. He hired Neville Layt as trainer who called soon after to report Karuta Queen was a “flying machine beating all the other horses by the length of the straight”.

Magic Millions owner Gerry Harvey said the January sales week was all about selling a dream.

“We are selling a dream. That’s exactly what it is, it’s not just a horse, it’s the dream on offer,” he said.

Bloodstock consultant James Dawnson, who helps compile the Magic Millions yearling sales lot book, said the Karuta Queen success elevated the reputation of Not a Single Doubt as a stallion and bloodline.

“To buy a good Not a Single Doubt now you need $250,000 whereas back then you could get them for $30,000 and it shows how your stocks can change in this business,” Mr Dawson said.

“The beauty of this game is Glenn and Viva Williams can come along with $30,000 and change the game a wee bit. That’s what makes this game so great, everyone has got a chance.

“Glenn and Viva went from the battlers walking around the sales ring who people might not have known to being instant celebrities.

“That’s the sort of thing the Magic Millions can do. It can change your address.”