Australia’s world-renowned sales company has enjoyed great success in the last decade and more with a ground-breaking bonus scheme focussing specifically on female involvement in the sport
Not for nothing has the Australian-based Magic Millions has become a byword for innovation across a racing world constantly seeking new ways to engage people.
One of the sales company’s most successful efforts in this area has been a concerted campaign that since 2013 has aimed at increasing the participation of women in the sport.
Alongside her husband Gerry Harvey, Katie Page-Harvey bought into Magic Millions in 1996. In 2012, she created an initiative which has seen the largest prize-money payouts in Queensland racing history. All in the shape of bonuses; all for women.
Named Magic Millions Racing Women (MMRW), the scheme kicked off 11 years ago with a A$500,000 (£257,000/$338,000) bonus placed on the Magic Millions 2YO Classic at Gold Coast Turf Club – a race nowadays carrying A$3m in prize-money. The bonus money was to be shared between the first four wholly female-owned horses home.
Since that inaugural bonus scheme, all-female-owned horses have won the race on five occasions – and such is the interest generated by the concept that since it kicked off 1861 two-year-olds have been registered with 100% female ownership. Moreover, current statistics show that half of the registrations for the bonuses each year are horses with first-time owners.
More than A$20 million is being spent at the Magic Millions yearlings sales each year and there are of flow-on effects from the increased female participation, with breeders and trainers benefiting. Over 80 stables across six states have all-female-owned horses in their care.
MMRW began well in 2015 with the It’s All About The Girls syndicate (founded by Elaine Lawlor and Anna Seitz) purchasing Global Glamour for just A$65,000. She went on to amass over A$1.5m with her five wins including two prestigious Group 1 events for three-year-old fillies in Randwick’s Flight Stakes and the Thousand Guineas at Caulfield.
Trained by the Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott partnership, the filly had 40 owners across seven countries. She returned to the Magic Millions sales ring in 2019, sold at the National Broodmare Sale for A$1.55m to Coolmore.
Other Group 1 winners raced under the MMRW scheme include Foxplay, Sunlight, The Mission and Madame Pommery.
Significant bonuses have been added to other races across Australia in recent years and the company has also been keen to recognise individual women for their achievements with star trainer Gai Waterhouse and leading syndicator Denise Martin inducted into a Racing Women Hall Of Fame, while Lindy Maurice, founder and CEO of Thoroughbred Industry Careers, received the 2024 National Racing Woman Of The Year Award.
Passionate equestrian
An ambassador and patron is in place for MMRW, she being Zara Tindall MBE. Meeting that passionate equestrian was a thrill for Debbie O’Toole, the Brisbane-based school teacher who is one of those to benefit from the MMRW bonuses.
Her horse Miss Coota was the second eligible horse home in the 2023 Magic Millions, finishing a game eighth off a wide run from a tricky outside gate.
“My husband Gerry gave her to me, naming her after my home town,” Debbie explains. “He loves horse racing and he did it to get me more involved in it so we could enjoy it together.“
Using the prize-money won from that first successful venture, another two horses were purchased and the family are obviously good judges with those two both making into the Magic Millions field with Poster Girl winning the bonus finishing sixth.
The O’Toole family’s involvement with horse racing began with a share in a provincial winner six years ago and the passion for the sport has increased since.
“My interest has really grown and I became really involved when Gerry started buying fillies instead of colts,” explains Debbie.
She has thoroughly enjoyed the experience of having runners in the big race, describing it as “nail-bitingly exciting!”
Catching up with Gai Waterhouse and Zara Tindall was particularly exciting for Debbie who described those two as “They are incredible female role models,” she says, adding: “I love all that excitement and the fuss of choosing the barrier, getting interviewed and meeting celebrities,” she adds.
Huge gang
Although it is Debbie’s name solo in the race book, she is by no means alone when she enjoys the Magic Millions. “There’s a huge gang of us,” she says. “We make a whole week of it – and winning the bonuses was the icing on the cake, an experience I will never forget.
“I think the bonus has been great at drawing attention to all the fabulous women involved in racing,“ she goes on. “Women are certainly making their mark in what could be seen to be a very male-orientated industry.“
Another successful MMRW participant is the scheme’s most prolific supporter Christine Cook, who has enjoyed high-level racing success with her husband Frank, cheering home the likes of the 2022 Melbourne Cup hero Gold Trip and fellow big-race winners such as Lasqueti Spirit, Unforgotten, Preferment Zougotcha, Foreteller and Fierce Impact.
Christine has also raced two MMRW scheme Group 1 winners in Foxplay and Madame Pommery. Neither raced in the Magic Millions 2Y0 Classic but Christine has raced, as part of the syndicates she has established, three horses who have taken home bonuses.
In 2016 the cleverly named Faraway Town (out of London Calling) was the first MMRW horse home in the big race, getting back from a wide gate and finishing off well into sixth. Two years later Christine was there in support of Meryl who, despite finishing well back, earned a bonus as the third of the all female-owned horses over the line.
And this year she cheered on another nice horse in Trifling, who was the second eligible bonus horse home in the Magic Millions 3Y0 Guineas as well. With her husband she also races Arabian Summer, fifth home in the showcase race as well as winning another two special Magic Millions races.
Bringing new women into the sport in a number of stables, Christine is a passionate supporter of all things racing and has been excited by the MMRW scheme since its inception.
Fresh and proactive
“I love how fresh and proactive Magic Millions is,“ she enthuses. “There is certainly nothing stale and staid about the company – they are always trying to think of something new.“
The Cooks had their interest in racing sparked while attending the 40th birthday of a family friend three decades ago. “Frank was always interested in regards to having a bet but it was when he met a trainer at that party that he began to think of racing horses,” explains Christine.
What followed was a case of beginners’ luck as the Cooks’ first horse, Warning Siren, passed the post in second place on her debut in a Listed race at Randwick in 1993 – only to be elevated to first place on protest!
And so the couple got their first taste of success and an addictive one it has become, Christine laughing as she recalled her husband’s interest flourishing.
“Frank has never been a big reader but he kept disappearing for hours,” she grins. “I thought he was getting into War And Peace but it turns out he was studying catalogues!”
It was in the early days of ownership that Christine noticed a bias towards men, one day told that she needed a letter from her husband to access his owner’s ticket.
Disgusted
“It was very rare back then to see a woman’s name in the race book,” she says, adding that she was “disgusted” by her treatment that day. “It was assumed that our only interest in racing was in the social aspects,” she recalls.
Which is one of the reasons why Christine is now so passionate about her all-female syndicates, bringing together groups of women to race nicely-bred fillies on lease. “If the horse is no good we roll those owners into another horse and this is a system that has worked well for us,” she says.
Christine enjoys all her wins, whether it be the feature events or a maiden at Wyong. “The same amount of effort goes into each horse and you have to appreciate that,” she says.
When Faraway Town ran sixth in the 2016 Magic Millions, Christine and her fellow owners were cheering so enthusiastically that the camera operators assumed they were the winners and it was a big thrill to end up on the podium.
“Katie [Page-Harvey] made it clear that only we women were to be up there,“ she says, recalling the organiser’s disappointment when a previous winner had been represented by an owner’s son.
Passionately involved not only in racing, but also in breeding and the aftercare of Thoroughbreds, Christine loves that horses are such a big part of her life. “I have been incredibly lucky and I am so very grateful every day to be living this life, to be part of it all,” she says.
She loves her one-on-one time with the horses. “They’re basically big puppies,” she laughs. “They just want to please people – they’d sleep on the end of your bed if they could!”
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