Rag Queen salutes in style at Canterbury Park

Randwick conditioner David Payne could see a budding racing star when he paid a modest $15,000 for Rag Queen from her breeder Bowness Stud at the Inglis Gold Yearling Sale in Melbourne last year, the filly already returning $39,000.

Winning on debut, Rag Queen becomes the first crop juvenile winner for D'Argento, a handsome grey stallion which stands at Bowness Stud in the Young district.

Bowness will offer all nine youngsters by D'Argento catalogued at Australasia's first live auction of the year.

A son of champion stallion So You Think (by Sadler's Wells' early-deceased sire son High Chaparral), D'Argento was also a two-year-old winner and went on to take the ATC Rosehill Guineas-G1 at three.

Another second crop stallion that has Magic Million Sale representatives, and also has his first juvenile winner recently is Zousain, which stands at Widden Stud in the Widden Valley.

The Victress became the first Australasian winner for Zousain (a group two winner by Widden Stud's ace sire Zoustar), when winning his maiden race at Te Aroha in New Zealand.

A half-sister to two Australian winners, The Victress herself was a Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale graduate, fetching $250,000 when selling from Coolmore Stud.

Zousain has 29 second-crop yearlings on offer, nine of them via Widden Stud.

Dubious, a fast son of champion Redoute's Choice sire son Not A Single Doubt, is another sire which kicked off his sire record, when his first crop juvenile daughter Dubious Authority won at Mackay last month.

A dozen catalogued lots are on offer at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

Standing at Kitchwin Hills near Scone, Dubious, who stood his first three stud seasons in Queensland, was a $1.2 million earner. The BRC Champagne Classic-G2 in Brisbane and the ATC Breeders Plate-G3 in Sydney among the bay horse's three wins as a two-year-old.

He may have passed away last October, but long-time stallion Magnus is well recalled.

Recent stars include million-dollar earners King Magnus and Just Folk, which added new group wins.

Another is Front Page, a stakes-winning gelding which won his second successive $2 million The Kosciuszko at Randwick, underlining the loss of Magnus.

Among Victoria's most consistent sires of winners, 21-year-old Magnus stood at the same Riddles Creek regional farm all his stud life from 2008 - firstly named Eliza Park, which became Sun Stud in 2016, before being renamed Widden Victoria in 2021.

A son of Danehill champion Australian sire Flying Spur, Magnus raced in a golden era of elite sprinters, including Apache Cat, Miss Andretti, Gold Edition, Weekend Hussler and Takeover Target.

While Magnus won only four races, these included the AJC Galaxy-G1 and VRC Linlithgow Stakes-G2, he also had eight seconds, including three in group one races, three thirds including one group one race, as well as in the King Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, England, earning more than $1.2 million.

Magnus also demonstrated his brilliance in the Krisflyer International Sprint at Kranji in Singapore when narrowly defeated by Australian cult-hero Takeover Target.

At stud, Magnus became one of Victoria's most prolific sires, holding an outstanding 72 per cent winners-to-runners ratio.

He sired more than 530 winners, including 17 millionaires, with another recent dual group one winning star being Streets Of Avalon (winner of 10 races and $2.43 million).

Magnus is now leaving a legacy via his broodmare daughters, which includes group one winner Mizzy.

It should be noted that Magnus was produced from memorable and brilliant sprinting filly Scandinavia (by Snippets), which now hosts a wonderful female family that includes other superior racehorses, including Black Caviar, All Too Hard, Ole Kirk, Hanseatic, Semillion, and Tasmanian based young sire Lionhearted.