GREAT SOUTHERN OPPORTUNITY
The date of Inglis’ Great Southern Sale is expected to help drive demand for weanlings over the next two days, but the selectivity that is increasingly evident in the bloodstock market is predicted to remain at Oaklands Junction.
More than $35 million has been spent on foals so far year – firstly the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale and Magic Millions’ offering on the Gold Coast two-and-a-half weeks’ later – and it’s the 435-lot Victorian offering which provides the final Australian chance for pinhookers to procure stock ahead of the 2025 yearling sales.
That overall figure is $120,000 shy of what had been spent to the same stage in 2023. There was $9.825 million invested at last year’s Inglis’ Melbourne weanling sale.
While buyer interest has been strong, the conservative Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch suggested that the fact that there was more supply in the Melbourne market this year at a time when buyers were as discerning as they’ve ever been could hamper the level of trade.
“This year, the way the catalogue has fallen with scratchings, etc, it looks like we’ll offer in the region of 67 more foals than what we did 12 months ago,” Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“That has the capacity to represent a significant challenge in the current climate. We had a good sale here last year – there was a record price for a weanling filly in Australasia – but the bottom end was a challenge and we cleared 71 per cent, which was short of where we wanted to be, but I suppose in the context of the market it was probably OK.
“With extra foals to sell this year, again clearance will be something we’ll be encouraging vendors to be conscious of in terms of setting their reserves.”
That said, Hutch believes the number of quality foals available at Great Southern provides pinhookers and end users with enough to choose from with progeny of exciting first-season sires such as Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) and Pinatubo (Shamardal) and proven sires Zoustar (Northern Meteor), Frankel (Galileo), Street Boss (Street Cry) and Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice).
“This is, for all intents and purposes, certainly in Australia anyway, if you want to buy a weanling with the intention of participating in the select sales next year, this is where you’ve got to shop,” Hutch said.
“We’re in a fortunate spot where vendors are cognisant of that where vendors have chosen to support the sale with plenty of nice stock.
“We have some foals here that are of a level that maybe ordinarily we wouldn’t have had from particular vendors [previously].”
End users have played an increasingly important part of the buying bench at the weanling sales, and that again played out in Sydney and on the Gold Coast this year, and Hutch believes many of those owners and trainers with a longer-term approach will be active in Melbourne.
“This sale has always attracted a reasonable degree of participation from end users and that’s positive, but they don’t have the capacity to absorb all the foals that don’t meet the criteria of pinhookers,” he said.
“There’s going to be a gap between supply and demand at that level and it’ll be something we’re going to have to work hard with vendors on.
“In the case of some of them, they’ll operate through proxies, in the case of others they will be here in person. I think the pandemic made people comfortable with doing business when not being on the premises.”
The number of inspections taking place since Monday had pleased many vendors, but they were aware of the fact that a lot of those looking had already featured on the buyers’ sheet in 2024.
“There’ll be some buyers who are non-participants here because they’ve done their shopping, but when you do the maths and see how turnover year-on-year compares, the turnover on weanlings across the Australian weanling sale and the National Sale on the Gold Coast is $35-odd million,” Hutch said.
“It’s within $120,000 of what it was 12 months ago with 23 fewer weanlings having been offered this year.
“That says to you that the market for the right stock is strong, it’s just a case of judging as a vendor whether you’re getting the feel for which is the right stock that will sell well.
“If you don’t, it’s just harder and that’s where buyers look to take advantage of the opportunities.”
The sale starts at 10am (AEST).