I had every intention of getting to a computer whilst down at the Coast, but amongst the endless number of people I had to catch up with, and the number of hours spent editing photos each evening, I didn't actually manage to log on to the Internet. To rub salt into the wound, none of the photos that I pored over on the laptop screen appear to be as good as the cameras that took them suggested they should be - shows all too well that the 'operator' remains the quintessential factor - that or my photography tutor is about to get paid a lot more money to teach me how to use Photoshop more effectively ! I confess that at times like this it also doesn't help having a professional photographer for a brother whose facial expression when he sees these pictures will no doubt sum up his unspoken thought "just stick to what you're good at sis, and leave the cameras to me".

It's been a rather huge week in the history of the Magic Millions. I won't bore you with what every other media outlet has already told you about the million dollar yearlings, huge increase in the average price, record turnover and crowd numbers at the Gold Coast track on Saturday, the traffic jams, heat, and general feeling amongst everyone you talked to that the market was very strong. Instead I'm going to take a slightly different route and give you a verbal/visual snapshot of what it was like to actually be at the sales grounds for those first 5 days (poetic license will, I hope, get me around any issues of a '24'-style coverage of the event).