Course célèbre
Racing thrills and fashion met on the field for the most glamorous day on the Gold Coast calendar, the Jeep Magic Millions Race Day, writes Toni Mason.
Racing thrills and fashion meet on the field for the Jeep Magic Millions Race Day.
On a scorching day
when the mercury soared towards 40 degrees more than 25,000 people braved the heat to attend the country’s richest race meeting.
The Jeep Magic Millions Race Day at the Gold Coast Turf Club, the first in the country to offer a total purse of $10 million, is the highlight of the Magic Millions Racing Carnival, the culmination of more than a week of prestigious thoroughbred sales.
Magic Millions co-owner Katie Page-Harvey hosted a star-studded crowd in the Magic Millions VIP Marquee, including Zara Phillips, the eldest granddaughter of the Queen, and her husband,
Mike Tindall, both Magic Millions ambassadors.
The theme for the marquee was flowers en masse, the vision of Page-Harvey, realised with aplomb by Sydney event management company Kat & Co. The space was festooned with flowers in myriad shades of purple, giving a royal flourish to a day all about the so-called sport of kings.
Clusters of monumental floral spheres were suspended from the ceiling, made up of more than 1,500 stems in 20 shades of violet. The Moët & Chandon Champagne Bar presented an interlude of white with more than 300 phalaenopsis orchids massed around the shelves.
The walls were lined with a frieze of Ashley Woodson Bailey “Storm” wallpaper featuring a Rorschach-like leitmotif of delphiniums, punctuated with large floral works by Sydney photographer Jamie Murcutt.
While the Moët flowed, so did the procession of dishes from Sydney caterer Cook & Waiter. Canapés of Queensland spanner crab sandwiches and crostini with carpaccio of beef led the field (the beef came courtesy of Gerry Harvey, chairman of Harvey Norman and fellow co-owner of the Magic Millions with Page-Harvey).
The buffet included oysters with mignonette, roast chicken with asparagus, and roast sirloin with salsa verde along with roast chat potatoes, salads of iceberg and chives, and lemony peas and feta, and rounds of burrata with sunny nectarines and tomatoes.
On the track the big prizes went to Houtzen, who won the Two-Year-Old Classic, and Flying Jess, winner of the Three-Year-Old Guineas, bagging two magic million apiece. The races weren’t the only action.
The Myer Fashions on the Field was hotly contested by frocked-up fans for a $10,000 first prize.
Despite the sweltering day, all remained cool inside the marquee. “The heat wave definitely challenged us,” says Katerina Grant of Kat & Co, “but we have an amazing team of Queensland suppliers who pulled out every stop to make sure we all stayed cool.”