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It promised to be a day like no other and it delivered, so much so it prompted industry figures to label the May 25 opening session of the Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale as the most extraordinary they had witnessed in decades.
Eighteen mares sold for AU$1 million or more, 11 of them in the Shadwell Stud Australasia dispersal sale, and champion New Zealand mare Melody Belle could lay claim to being the head of the pack one more time when she topped the day at AU$2.6 million (US$2,011,760).
There was AU$68,888,000 ($53,302,400) spent on 210 lots in the race fillies and mares session, the highest single day's trade in the Southern Hemisphere at a breeding stock sale, at an average of AU$328,038 ($253,821), up 59% year on year.
The median of AU$145,000 ($112,194) was up 93% on last year and up from AU$70,000 achieved in 2019.
The clearance rate was set at 91% as breeders looked to cash in on the booming market after record yearling and weanling sales.
he figures, even taking into account the once-off Shadwell dispersal sale, could have been greater had Arcadia Queen been sold.
Onlookers were left stunned when Arcadia Queen (Lot 723), arguably the sale's biggest drawcard, was passed on for AU$3.4 million ($2,630,770) after her Western Australia owner-breeder Bob Peters was unwilling to part with his star homebred mare. Her reserve was listed at AU$4 million.
Further underlining the dramatic day, the sale was halted for about 45 minutes after a car crash nearby cut power to about 370,000 residents from the Gold Coast to Caboolture and also brought the Magic Millions sales ring to silence.