Crippled by losses and operating under control of an administrator, the Gold Coast based Magic Millions company ran an annual sale which attracted vendors and horses denied entry to the "big one" - Inglis' Sydney Easter Sale. Although the Gold Coast sale was always a great social occasion, the really big money was spent at Sydney. However, an impressive array of stakes race winners such as Mahogany, had underlined that fact that quality horseflesh was available at Magic Millions and demonstrated the sale's potential.

Things changed in 1997, when Magic Millions was purchased for $6.5 million by Gerry Harvey, John Singleton and Rob Ferguson. After providing much needed capital and credibility to the struggling organisation, the new owners enthusiastically set about expanding it to be a serious player outside of the Gold Coast. In 1999, it acquired Goodwood Bloodstock in Western Australia, followed by ABCOS Bloodstock in Adelaide.

During this time, the vital pedigrees for its sales were provided by New Zealand Bloodstock. More recently, New Zealand Bloodstock's pedigree department has become a seperate company, Arion Pedigrees, who supply both Magic Millions and New Zealand Bloodstock as major clients. At least in part, the move to outsource pedigree production to Arion was due to the realisation that Magic Millions would be increasingly unhappy about its pedigree requirements being provided by another bloodstock sales company.

General Manager David Chester claims that the main emphasis of Magic Millions during the past two years has been the encouragement of Asian buyers. "We are very happy with the growth in sales from both Western Australia and Adelaide to Asian buyers" he said.

Magic Millions denies that the injunction preventing it from sourcing computerised pedigrees for sales in Victoria and New South Wales has been unduly restrictive. "The company has run a few sales by vendors when someone invites us in" explained Chester. He went on to say that "we've run sales for Bellerive Stud in New South Wales and The Independent Stallion Station in Victoria. The presence of the injunction has made it a bit more difficult to do the catalogues by hand".

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