Spending $1 million on anything is an eye-watering thought for most people but for those in the horse racing industry, it's an investment in a horse that could be the next big thing.  

Every January, the spotlight shines on the Gold Coast where some of the best-bred young thoroughbreds enter the sale ring at the Magic Millions.

This year the sale grossed a record $242 million, and now the yearlings are settling into their new homes to hopefully be race-ready by spring.

Coolmore Stud in the Upper Hunter picked up six colts, with a combined price tag of more than $5 million.

One of those horses cost $1.9 million.

At the other end of the price scale, Scone trainer Rod Northam picked up two five-figure buys, including one of the most affordable horses of the sale, which cost just $10,000.

But despite the differences in price, these horses could hit the same track in under a year.

What do their futures look like?

Sired by some of the best in the business — I Am Invincible, Justify and Snitzel — the colts at Coolmore are bred to run. 

But so are Rod Northam's purchases.

Coolmore's racing manager Rob Archibald says a good horse has a "combination of breeding and conformation".

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"We have a team that look in-depth at the pedigrees and do a huge amount of research ... [to] identify 50 to 60 colts that could potentially fit the mould of what we're looking for," Mr Archibald said.

"As they go through and inspect them, that list obviously gets shorter and shorter.

After the sale, many of the horses returned to the racing heartland of the Hunter Valley — just to a new studs.

"They were bought off a lot of local farms actually. Emirates Park, Newgate, Yarraman Park, so it's funny how it works," Mr Archibald said.

"We probably should have just done the deal here in the Hunter Valley," he laughed.

What makes a 'cheap buy'?

Mr Northam admits his interest in a filly by an "unfashionable stallion" played into his bargain buy.

"She's by Astern, who I think is going quite well but probably just not the flavour of the month," Mr Northam said.

"I got the heads up that the owner was selling at whatever price so I thought that I'd be there at the ring in case she got missed and I could get her at the right price.

"And she was quite a cheap buy ... I thought I got her at [a] really good price."

As for the future, Mr Northam says "every trainer's got their dream".

"Until you take them to the races [it's hard to know].

"You get barrier trials which are a good indication, but I've had horses that have trialled terribly and then come to the races and been quite good.

"You get ones that look like Phar Lap [during trackwork] of a morning and get to the races and they have nothing."

On the track by spring

If the young racers want to return to the Gold Coast next year, they will need to start building a prize pool in the coming months.

Any horse bought from the Magic Millions sale is eligible to return to compete in million-dollar races.

"The top 18 in prize money get into the field," Mr Northam said.

"Obviously everybody that buys horses at the Magic Millions has got the dream to win the $2 million race.

"We'll aim towards the Magic Millions race in January, but being an Astern, she's probably not a real two-year-old type, she's probably more a three-year-old."

If the horses aren't ready, they will go between the paddock and trainers until their time on the track comes.

The "beauty of the Magic Millions", Mr Northam says, is the horses can keep racing at the event for the rest of their careers.