In the lead up to the 2026 Magic Millions Yearling Sale we’re going back to the beginning of one of the great stories of bloodstock and how a bargain yearling changed the face of the Australasian racing and breeding industry forever.
Read Part 2 Snippets – The Very First Magic Millions Champion
Meanwhile, Snippets had retired in a blaze of glory to Mike Willesee’s Trans-Media Park where his barnmates were the legendary Cox Plate winner Rubiton, Golden Slipper winner Sir Dapper, and Sir Tristram’s champion son Sovereign Red.
Willesee had bought into the colt at the end of his 2YO season, joining John and his then wife Jane Augustine, John Izon, former Wallabies player Edward Morey and Tony Milne.
Like his dad Lunchtime, Snippets was a sweet natured soul and easy to handle as a breeding stallion.
But unlike his sire, he was a compact horse with a true sprinter’s conformation standing just under 16hh, a rich bay with one neat hind sock.
Trans Media Park at Cootamundra (now Twin Hills Stud today) was a bit of a Yulong of its time. Media mogul Willesee had spared no expense in setting up the lavish facility and stocking it with the best stallions and mares he could get his hands on.
By 1993 however, it was dispersing. as Willesee became one of many high fliers who scaled back their sprawling thoroughbred interests when the glory days of the ‘80s financial boom gave way to the thud of the ‘90s recession- and Snippets would find his new home at Arrowfield.
Right from the start Snippets was a brilliant stud success, paving the way for the notable Magic Millions winning sires that would come after him.
They included St Jude, the sadly short-lived Brave Warrior, General Nediym and mighty Testa Rossa.
2016 winner Capitalist (Written Tycoon) is the only colt to ever sweep the rare and coveted Millions / Slipper double and unsurprisingly has proven to be a top class sire. Geldings Dance Hero (2004) and Phelan Ready (2009) are the only other two horses to achieve the feat.
Glamour Justify colt Storm Boy (2024) is the latest Magic Millions Classic winning colt to go to stud and has been given every opportunity by Coolmore to put his stamp on Magic Millions history.
From the very beginning, the Magic Millions race has wielded an influence over juvenile racing in Australia that has only increased in the decades since Snippets rocketed to his famous victory, and - primarily through his daughters - the son of Lunchtime has appeared in countless juvenile stakes winning pedigrees.
But Snippets was no one trick pony at stud. While he had limitless speed to impart to his foals, like all great sires he provided plenty of stamina to support its expression on the track over a range of distances.
Certainly he sired the slew of brilliant stakes class two year olds expected of him - dual G1 winning filly Hasna was the best performed of them - but many of his progeny improved at three, some were best at upwards of a mile, and a number of his daughters who went on to become elite producers were only briefly raced.
Top class WFA performer Casual Pass collected the G1 Yalumba and Mackinnon Stakes, and Akhenaton won the Doomben Cup.
For the girls, bonny mare Sky Cuddle saluted in the G1 Emirates ( now VRC Champions Stakes) at the mile to become, after Hasna, the second of Snippet's two G1 winning daughters. Significant that both won a major at the classic distance.
There were pure blazing speedsters aplenty too, with 3 x G1 winner Spartacus ( Oakleigh Plate, Manikato and Australia Stakes) leading the charge. The gelded Suntain won the G1 Doomben 10,000 and star colt Snowland romped in the G1 Galaxy at three after collecting a raft of stakes victories as a two year old.
Unfortunately the brilliant Snowland, who looked like the heir apparent, suffered limited fertility, but he got his G1 winner in the great filly Absolute Glam who became a black type producer and left seven daughters - all her foals - to pass the Snowland baton on, almost as if she knew she had a job to do!
Off all his sons that went to stud it is his G1 Australian Guineas winner Pins that went on to become a champion sire, enjoying huge success at Waikato Stud where he formed one prong of the famous nursery's Savabeel / O'Reilly / Pins stakes producing juggernaut.
He commenced stud duties in 2000 and earned multiple titles (or was runner up( throughout a long stud career, including Leading NZ Sire (twice) Champion Sire in Hong Kong (twice) and Champion Broodmare Sire NZ
Pins left 84 stakes-winners headed by Cox Plate hero El Segundo and three stallion sons (G1 Caulfield Guineas winner Econsul, Listed winner Keano and El Segundo's full brother El Hermano) that all produced at least one stakes-winner.
As to be expected, Pins daughters became breeding gems - producing the likes of champions I Wish I Win and freakish mare Probabeel to name but two in a long list.
Snippet's greatest son died in 2018, having emphatically proven that his sire could tick that box and get a stallion as good as himself, no small feat for a sire descending from Menow / Tom Fool, a line associated far more with excellence via females.
You'd expect then, that Snippets daughters would be absolute genetic powerhouses and that's what proved to be the case!
Let's look at three of them - two can be called breed-shapers without any hint of exaggeration.
SCANDINAVIA was foaled in 1995 after her dam, the unraced Vain mare Song Of Norway, was purchased for $40,000 by breeder Rob Crabtree in foal to Snippets, from Kingston Town's breeder David Hains the year before.
Crabtree raced the filly named Scandinavia in partnership with trainer John Sadler - and she was out of the blocks smartly with a win in the Blue Diamond Prelude for fillies, eventually retiring as a G2 winner but desperately unlucky not to have a big G1 Sprint to her name.
Scandinavia had been beaten by a lip in the Salinger by the champ Flavour and placed in the Goodwood, Lightning and Newmarket. In the Newmarket she was a head third to the rampaging Magic Millions graduate General Nediym.
It was Scandinavia’s second foal, an unraced Desert Sun filly named Helsinge, that heralded the beginnings of a remarkable family dynasty.
Helsinge was bred through a foal share arrangement with Lee Fleming and later sold by him at the 2006 Inglis Broodmare sale to Rick Jamieson's Gilgai Farm.
For Gilgai, Helsinge produced two superstars - no, we can’t call Black Caviar a mere superstar. More like a supernova!
If Black Caviar was the only foal Helsinge ever produced she was already installed in the breeding hall of greatness, but she had more to come.
Her handsome colt by the under rated sire Casino Prince (Flying Spur) was named All Too Hard and won four G1 races before commencing a stellar stud career of his own at Vinery.
Helsinge’s daughter Naturale left all the racetrack glory for her sister Black Caviar, but she was not to be outdone in the breeding barn! Her son Ole Kirk is yet another fine sire from this immediate family stemming from the Snippets daughter Scandinavia, while another Helsinge daughter in Brigite produced G1 Champagne Stakes winner Nepotism.
Scandinavia lived to the age of 25. Her greatness and contribution to the breed was honoured in the traditional way at her burial - standing up, facing the morning sun.
LEGALLY BAY was a twice G1 placed, a very fast daughter of Snippets that founded a dynasty for breeders Chris and Jane Barham.
She produced three stakes winners, among them the exciting Royal Ascot-winning G1 sprinter Merchant Navy and her G2 winning filly Jolie Bay (Fastnet Rock), who is dam of the great 3 x G1 winning sprinting mare Joliestar (Zoustar).
Ever more stakes winners are popping up descending from Legally Bay, who is at the source of a family that will be producing topliners far into the future!
SNIPPETS' LASS came into this world in 1993 and was among the final Snippets foals to be born at Trans Media Park.
She was a talented sprinter with two Listed wins to her name -but the daughter of the imported Storm Bird mare Snow Finch (IRE) proved to be a producer beyond anyone's wildest dreams.
For breeder Francois Naude she would produce her gift from the equine gods, Snitzel!
She was also the dam of the excellent racer and sire Hinchinbrook (Fastnet Rock) and fillies Viennese, Snitzel's G3 winning full sister, and stakes placed Wiener (More Than Ready) who have bred on successfully.
Also tracing back to Snippets' Lass are 2023 G1 Epsom Handicap winner Rediener and evergreen sprint star Private Eye, who has banked an astonishing $12.8million in prizemoney.
