So Magic Millions has set the tone for the new year’s marketand not much has changed. It’s hot!
Some $228m of yearling horses sold, averaging near on $300k, the game is in again, very rude health.
Such sales are more theatre than Golden Globes, very much Critic’s Choice though.
Observing from afar you wonder who these big players are, you hear - James Dawson, Andrew Brown, Struan, Roz, Nicky Wong, Darcy (McGrath) who? Buyers?
No bid spotters. Steve Davis, auctioneer, perhaps sadly missed for a best supporting actor nomination at the above-mentioned awards, called them endlessly.
Never heard of them. What about Ed Corstens?
Everything at every sale is something that makes up the sum of all the parts.
By the end of the hefty catalogue, Ed, with a pedigree that would have shot him through Book1 became an unwanted focus and star that almost required an agent to handle his media requirements.
He is just 16. He is by Troy, by of Leon. That’s Corstens of course.
“Yes Sir” was his auditorium ring spotting cry.
“It was insane, such an adrenaline,” Ed says.
“I thought I’d just be in the stands or making coffee, it was such an experience.”
Starting year 11 at St Bernard’s College at Essendon, will hardly match taking $1.6m off Coolmore’s Tom Magnier as his bid for lot 427 the I Am Invincible out of Spright.
Bid spotting? What does that matter. Well ask Jonathan Darcy, now boss at Inglis, or Vin Cox, once boss Magic Millions now Godolphin, Barry Bowditch, Richard Haynes, Shane O’Cass, Bruce Slade. All one-time MM bid spotters, like young Ed.
But Corstens will back be at his Essendon school with mum Lauren’s guidance this year to harness all undergrounds of expertise that may see him earn a Godolphin Flying Start placement in the future.
Not that such things were associated with Ed in the modern world - just ask Troy.
And this is where is gets serious.
Troy, is a Corstens, and wants son Ed to experience all of racing before he lands where he wants.
Trot still resents the loss of his father Leon to Bart Cummings.
“He (Bart) stole my father,” says Troy.
“This won’t happen with Ed. I had a resentment my dad , when we moved over (to Adelaide) when he took the job with Bart,” Troy said.
While young Ed knows the ramifications of Fischer Parade and Leonard Crescent in the Corstens history, they are aiming to be kept for posterity which is forever.
As for Troy: “It was tough for us as kids when dad worked for Bart," he said.
“I watched how hard and how many hours dad worked but we always learned so much.”
That is what young Eds want now. The present, the future, the involvement.
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