3 minute read
WORTHWHILE, NECESSARY & INCONVENIENT
CASSANDRA SIMMONDS
In the year of 2020, as the world we live and do business in was turned on its head beyond comprehension, the thoroughbred industry showed it can adapt.
FOR BLOODSTOCK AGENTS, ATTENDING SALES THROUGHOUT A PRE COVID-19 WORLD WAS AS REGULAR AS GETTING YOUR DAILY MORNING CAFFEINE FIX. POST COVID, ATTENDING SALES PRESENTS A FAR MORE COMPLEX, ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT AND WAIT FIVE MINUTES, EVER EVOLVING LANDSCAPE.
Leading Victorian based Federation of Bloodstock Agents Australia (FBAA) member Sheamus Mills had to exhibit a resolute level of adaptation to attend this year’s Magic Millions National Sale.
An auction which has grown to be the largest breeding stock sale in this part of the world, the National Sale is traditionally held in the late May/early June timeslot. However it soon became apparent that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Government imposed travel and gathering restrictions, would prevent the conduct of this sale as planned.
In April the company announced the National Sale would be rescheduled to July to provide every opportunity to hold the sale in the live auction format. The Magic Millions team set about creating processes to facilitate the inspection of mares on farm, for mares on early covers to be sold in absentia and the development of a COVID Safe event plan for Queensland Health including the implementation of a contact tracing app for use by all on the complex.
Viewed by the broader industry as an essential sale for the trading and sourcing of stock ahead of the breeding season, bloodstock agent Sheamus Mills was one of a number of FBAA members who were determined the auction could not be missed.
In the final weeks leading up to the rescheduled sale, COVID-19 infection rates in Victoria increased and the Queensland state border was closed to those who had been in Victoria for the prior 14 days.
Mills, who represented significant clients selling broodmares as well as purchasing weanlings and yearlings, was required to spend two weeks in NSW in order to be permitted entry to Queensland.
“Worthwhile, necessary and inconvenient,” Mills described the 1,715 kilometre road trip from Melbourne to the Gold Coast that he undertook with his assistant Rochelle Adams and good friend Dean Harvey, proprietor of Baystone Farm.
At times the breeding and racing industry is competitive as it gets but there’s also a unique comradery and respect amongst participants. The journey for Mills and co to make it to the National Sale was made easier due to the hospitality of Darley, who housed the trio at their Kelvinside property.
“We got lucky. Darley was unbelievable, above and beyond what you could hope,” Mills enthused.
As the group travelled closer to the Queensland border armed with their border passes and statutory declarations, another new hurdle appeared with the Queensland Government declaring a COVID-19 hotpot in the City of Liverpool in NSW where numerous vendors and buyers had been in the week prior. Magic Millions was forced to reschedule the sale for a second occasion, this time a further delay of one week.
By this time Mills and his co-pilots were safely on the Gold Coast but away from family and friends for over three weeks before the sale had even begun.
For Mills, the investment in time to attend the National Sale evidenced his belief that nothing can replace the live auction environment. He sees online sales as an important backstop to trading but not a replacement for the atmosphere a live auction creates.
“Being there is so important, you’ve got to see the horse. Your client doesn’t fall in love with a horse in the middle of the day in an office or at home. If he/she is there and sees the horse with you and hears your opinion, it creates that atmosphere to bid,” Mills tells.
The emotive game, as Mills describes it, has done a remarkable job to survive amidst the economic uncertainty of the pandemic. The morale of racing continuing in Australia has filtered into the business of bloodstock.
Despite COVID, with the prospect of good buying Mills will be approaching the 2021 yearling sales season with a strong belief of being active.
As Mills plans his hopefully less eventful journey back to a sale that he purchased this Spring’s Group One Thousand Guineas winner Odeum, he reflects on why it’s imperative for him to be on the Gold Coast in January.
