Gai Waterhouse has two top fancies for Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic in early betting

Breeders’ Plate winner King Kirk drowned in a freak accident last week and Waterhouse and training partner Adrian Bott will attempt to win the Magic Millions in honour of the late colt.

Waterhouse is bidding for her sixth Magic Millions 2YO Classic and for back-to-back wins in the $3m race after Storm Boy won in dominant fashion on the Gold Coast in January.

Tempestuous, the Waterhouse and Bott-trained colt who finished a narrow second behind stablemate King Kirk in the Breeders’ Plate, is the clear $8 favourite on TAB fixed odds for the January 11 race on the Gold Coast.

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The $375,000 Magic Millions purchase may still be a maiden but earmarked that he could be something special in the Breeders’ Plate.

Waterhouse and Bott also have filly The Playwright, who has won her only start at Rosehill, as one of the top Magic Millions betting fancies as a $15 chance.

A notable hope high in the betting market is Hi Barbie, the Tony Gollan-trained Queensland filly who landed an emotional win on debut at Doomben last Saturday.

Hi Barbie, who was bred and owned by the late central Queensland cattle baron Alan Acton who died in a helicopter crash while mustering cattle last year, is currently the second betting pick at $11.

Hi Barbie can give champion Queensland trainer Gollan his second Magic Millions 2YO Classic triumph in recent times after he won the 2023 event with Skirt The Law.

Also prominent in the early TAB betting markets are another two fillies, Icarian Dream for Ciaron Maher and Memo for Peter Snowden, both on the $15 line.

In early betting on the $3m Gold Coast Magic Millions 3YO Guineas, Snitzanova and Bittercreek are the equal $8 favourites.

The pair ran first and second respectively in last Saturday’s Group 2 Sandown Guineas.

$3M GOLD COAST MAGIC MILLIONS 2YO CLASSIC

$8 – Tempestuous

$11 – Hi Barbie

$15 – The Playwright, Memo, Icarian Dream, Tycoon Star

Others from $26

Courtesy: TAB fixed odds

Originally published as Gai Waterhouse has two top fancies for Gold Coast Magic Millions 2YO Classic in early betting