Arrowfield’s $2.5 million Snitzel colt tops record-breaking Inglis Easter Yearling Sale session
Vinery also excels on day one with a powerful colt fetching $2.1 million as high demand continues
Two colts broke the $2 million mark and another nine yearlings made $1 million or more in a stunning opening session of the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, with yesterday’s trade the highest on a single day at a southern hemisphere yearling auction.
Setting the tone for a day of remarkable, yet predictable, competition from buyers at Riverside Stables, Vinery Stud sold an Exceed And Excel (Danehill) colt for $2.1 million less than 15 minutes after the sale started.
It was later eclipsed by a well-admired colt by champion stallion Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) from Arrowfield Stud who made $2.5 million, the most expensive yearling sold Down Under in the past two years.
Trainers Michael, Wayne and John Hawkes, who have been capitalising on their on-track reputation as “stallion makers” through the likes of Exceedance (Exceed And Excel), Brutal (O’Reilly) and the just-retired North Pacific (Brazen Beau), made the strong statement with the purchase of the session-topping yearling.
Ciaron Maher Racing pushed the Hawkes team to the eye-watering figure during a flurry of activity which showed no signs of abating through nearly nine hours of selling.
“He just oozed class. We got here last Tuesday and he was the second horse we saw Tuesday afternoon, and Dad turned to me and Michael, and said ‘we are taking this one home by hook or by crook’,” Wayne Hawkes said.
“He’s (John Hawkes) got such a great record of success out of buying from this sale and hopefully this guy can go on to be the one.
“He is probably more of a Snitzel type. We’ve had a bit of luck with them here. Just looking up on the wall at Estijaab, who was a top-priced Snitzel filly here, and so this guy will be heading down the similar path. She was an Oaks winner, Rising Romance, and we have got the full sister at home, who is very, very smart.”
On Yearning, the sister to today’s high-priced colt who was runner-up on the Kensington track on March 25, Hawkes said: “She’s only had one start and ran second the other day, but I think all the good judges realise that she was in the wrong part of the track and they came down the outside fence, and she was back on the inside.”
Despite the Hawkes’ high opinion of the two-year-old sister Yearning, the family-run stable made sure they weren’t unduly swayed by the fact they trained his classy sibling.
“Even though they are brother and sister, you have to like the individual,” he said.
“You don’t ever want to get caught up in buying the full-brother or sister for the sake of it, because Michael looks like an athlete and I don’t, it’s as simple as that.
“She looks more like an Oaks filly, and this guy is a dead-set two-year-old, He looks like the real deal and he’ll be going to get broken in on Monday and it’s 49 weeks to the Golden Slipper.”
The conviction the trio have about the colt’s credentials led to them running the phone for the past week to ensure they had the clients on board to support the high-priced purchase.
“We thought he’d be around the $2 million mark, but you never, never quite know. We are just lucky to have a good bunch of owners that have gone and had a crack,” he said.
“When John Hawkes turns to you the first time he looks at you and tells you this horse has got to go home. He’s the bloke that has bought a stack of Group 1 winners out of this sale. You have to make it happen, when he says that.”
The colt comfortably surpassed the reserve placed on him by Arrowfield principal John Messara. “We thought it was a sensible reserve of $1 million and that’s a lot of money in itself but it went straight past that,” he said on the top-priced colt.
“He was an ideal colt to be an early goer. He looks precocious even though he comes from a mare who got up to a mile and a quarter, so he’s going to be a twin-purpose, I’d say,” Messara said.
“His sister, who looks more scopey than him which John trains, is running in the Percy Sykes.”
Offered as Lot 45, he is the second foal out of Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) winner Rising Romance (Ekraar), making him a sister to the Arrowfield-raced Yearning.
She has a weanling colt by Snitzel and returned to the champion stallion last year.
“Rising Romance was bought by our Japanese partners (privately for about $900,000),” Messara said.
“We bought her for them and then she came to our breeding joint venture. She’s had Snitzel, Snitzel and she’s got a Snitzel again coming for next year, so we won’t be going far off Snitzel given these first two.”
Arrowfield also sold a Snitzel three-quarter sister to Group 3-winning, Group 1-placed sprinter Pariah (Redoute’s Choice) to New Zealand agent Dean Hawthorne for $1.05 million while a series of strong results helped the Scone operation to be leading vendor on day one, selling 22 yearlings for $11,725,000 at an average of $532,955.
At the close of day one, 175 horses changed hands for $64,470,000, which exceeded the day one figure of $61,790,500 achieved in 2019, at an average of $368,400. The clearance rate was 85 per cent.
“The expectation coming to Easter for anybody is that it will be a strong sale. It is one of the premier yearling sales in the world, so that is not unreasonable,” Inglis general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch said.
“We did a lot of work to prepare for the sale, but we were very confident that it would be a very fair and true market and that’s certainly how we felt like it played out.
“I think it is very satisfying to have such a diversity of buyers right the way through. I think it bodes well for tomorrow that there are so many people who seem to be disappointed to the point of frustration by the end of the day.
“People with significant money to buy horses have struggled to buy at the top end. On the flipside, there are people who walked out of her feeling like they have stolen horses. That’s the fun of Easter.”
Extraordinary day for Vinery with three million-dollar yearlings
The Easter sale also provided a milestone for Vinery Stud and Exceed And Excel when a powerful colt by the champion Darley stallion made $2.1 million just minutes into the auction, the first of three lots sold by the farm for more than seven figures on day one.
The Lot 5 colt, who was bought by Tony Fung Investments, is the most expensive yearling ever sold by Exceed And Excel and he is the highest-priced yearling offered by Vinery.
Tony Fung Investments’ bloodstock consultant Shane McGrath identified the colt, who will be trained at Warwick Farm by Annabel Neasham, as the clear “benchmark horse” of the sale.
“He is obviously by a fabulous sire and he’s a gorgeous individual who looks sharp and early. He really suited our mould as an early running two-year-old type,” McGrath said.
“That is our model is to try and source these colts and we’re fortunate that we have a great team behind the selection process. It’s a huge outlay, but at the end of the day, it’s risk versus reward, and if he’s a good colt, he’ll turn out to be cheap.
“As I said, I thought he was the best colt here and the best horse we’d seen for a couple of years at any sale.
“Full credit to Vinery, they are a great farm, and we’ve had a bit of luck buying Farnan out of there, so hopefully lightning can strike twice.”
Vinery bloodstock manager Adam White endorsed McGrath’s high praise for the impressive colt.
“He’s an outstanding colt, as good a colt that I have had anything to do with in any draft. It’s a good team of horses but we knew we’d start off really well with him,” White said.
“Just looking at our stats this morning, he was out more than any other horse in the complex (230 times). We knew all the right groups were on him, and he sold accordingly.
“I knew he’d be over the one (million) quite comfortably, but I wasn’t sure where he’d pull up after that. When you have got two to three large groups, some strong stallion farms on a horse like that, you are not really sure when they will pull up.”
He is the second foal out of Group 3-winning mare Peace Force (Bernardini), whose broodmare sire is responsible for 45 individual stakes winners. Peace Force is a half-sister to five-time Group 1 winner Eremein (Timber Country) and Ethereal Stakes (Listed, 2000m) winner Gliding (Flying Spur).
Owned by Encompass Bloodstock’s Steve McCann, a Vinery Stud shareholder, Peace Force was bought for $520,000 at the 2016 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. She has an unnamed two-year-old Snitzel gelding and a weanling colt by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) and she was covered last October by Vinery’s first season sire Exceedance (Exceed And Excel).
“We paid a lot of money for the mare off the track when she was racing. She’s a big scopey mare and by Bernadini, who we thought would make quite a good broodmare sire,” White said.
“But she’s a good running mare and we gave her a good go, sending her to Exceed And Excel in one of her first seasons at stud, and we got a great colt. Hopefully, he can go out there and do a good job.
“He was a lovely foal and even right through to the weanling stage. It sounds like a bit of a cliché, but you walk into the paddock and he was just a headturner, you’d just look at him and think, ‘wow, he’s a ripper’.
“We’ve been excited for a very long time to bring him to the Easter sale, and to sell him so well is tremendous.”
A List’s colt also makes seven figures
Later, Vinery Stud sold another Exceed And Excel colt on behalf of A List Stud’s Chris Lee for $1.05 million to Fung, as well as a $1.15 million Snitzel colt and an I Am Invincible colt to Coolmore’s Tom Magnier for $950,000.
The Exceed And Excel colt is the first foal out of the winning mare Sanity (Lonhro), a sister to Group 3 winner Trim, herself the dam of stakes winner Manicure (Exceed And Excel).
A List Stud bought Sanity for $800,000 at the 2019 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale from Godolphin, before sending her to the champion sire, yesterday’s leading stallion with four lots averaging $1.1 million.
The immense market sentiment experienced on day one was no surprise to McGrath.
“There’s some fabulous colts here, as you’d expect at Easter, and everything’s going so well here in Australia in racing and breeding,” he said.
“I think the breeders of these top horses will be really well rewarded, as they should.”
Trainers Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, after missing out on the top lot of the day, still made an impression after buying Vinery’s Snitzel son of Turbo Miss (Sebring), making him a three-quarter sister to dual Group 1-winning sprinter Russian Revolution, the young Newgate Farm sire.
“He’s an athletic colt by the right stallion and with a big page,” Maher said.
“He’s the type of colt that you expect to see here at Easter and we knew he would have a healthy price tag. He’s a quality horse and we are rapt to have got him.”
Vinery Stud sold eight yearlings for $6,530,00 at a sale-leading average of $816,250 yesterday and the return came after years of sustained investment in mares, stallions and the farm, according to general manager Peter Orton.
“It’s been a massive day. We’ve come along with a good draft, with a very sound draft and we are really proud of the horses we had. It’s one of those situations where you put a collection of horses together and you arrive at a market as strong as this, so we are having a good time,” Orton said.
“The market is all about playing the long game and you can’t sort of jump into it one year and expect to cash-in the next.
“Those who have been doing it at a right level for a time will get the right benefits when markets like this come along. We are under no illusions about that.”
Vinery’s record of producing high-class horses such as Exhilarates (Snitzel), Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) and Artorius (Flying Artie) was certainly recognised yesterday.
“Your brand is a very important thing, and the market has to respect the brand no matter what business you are in. The farm has got a great history of breeding strong horses and growing and presenting them all,” Orton said.
“Our horses are reared in big groups in big paddocks. They have all had the opportunity to be strong and be raised to their optimum, rather than be held back. They are genuine horses and we have had a great run. We have had a Blue Diamond, Golden Slipper and Magic Millions winners from the farm in the past few years.”
Widden’s high-priced mare play pays off with seven-figure I Am Invincible filly
Antony Thompson, whose Widden Stud sold an I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit) daughter of stakes-winning sprinter Vezalay (Shamardal) for $1.25 million to Hermitage and Coolmore, gave a rave review of the Australian racing industry, which he believes is the envy of the world.
“Across the board you can’t help but say this Australian market is where you want to be. You look at our industry at every level with what’s happening on the racecourses, in the sales ring, or whether it’s buying stallions or selling yearlings or mares, there’s just so much trade in this market and there’s so many opportunities,” Thompson said.
“There’s a lot of serious investors from around the world who have seen that and they are certainly taking notice and getting involved.
“Although they’re not here, it’s the place to be, so we look forward to welcoming the rest of the guys from around the world back down here and getting them back on the grounds (in the near future).”
Chris Waller’s agent Guy Mulcaster shortlisted the filly and she was given the tick of approval by the leading trainer when he saw her late last week.
“We saw her on the farm about three weeks ago and we really liked her and she’s just improved in the prep. We saw her here twice and then I took Chris to see her on Friday and he really liked her,” Mulcaster said.
“It was the top end of our budget, but we’re really happy to secure her.
“The sales have been very strong, but the prize-money’s so good here in Australia, so you have got to buy these quality fillies.”
Catalogued as Lot 149, she is the second foal out of the Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway) mare, who in turn is a half-sister to the mother of Listed winner Sir Frenchie (Choisir).
“We had very lofty expectations from the moment she was born, really, having paid so much for mum in foal and how she looked,” Thompson said.
“For it to all come together here was a great thrill. Obviously there was lots of competition and I know there will be lots of disappointed trainers and owners, but congratulations to Guy Mulcaster.
“He pegged her a long time ago. He’d seen her before on the farm and got the sense then that he had her as the best filly he’d seen in a long time. There was a bit of a sense she was a superstar. “
In recent years Thompson and his partners have dug deep at the mares sales to acquire high-class breeding stock and that has paid off handsomely this year.
The result with the Vezalay filly comes just months after selling a Snitzel colt, the first foal of Bonny O’Reilly (O’Reilly), for $1.9 million at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Thompson and UK agent David Redvers outlaid $1 million for Vezalay at the 2019 Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, after also paying $1.2 million for Bonny O’Reilly, carrying the Snitzel colt, at the same Gold Coast sale.
“There’s a lot of water under the bridge and you hold your breath for a long time, but it is another stunning result for ourselves and the team involved; Qatar, who are also in her with us, David Redvers who trusted me to buy her, there’s a couple of other clients in there, so it’s a great ride for those guys to be a part of that,” Thompson said.
“It doesn’t always turn out like those two, but those two are certainly very good and ones to savour.”
Harron keen to create lasting legacy after teaming up with Coolmore
Coolmore also partnered with the colts syndicate operated by agent James Harron to buy an I Am Invincible colt bred by the late Sheikh Hamdan for $1.15 million.
Harron, the buyer of dual Group 1-winning colt King’s Legacy (Redoute’s Choice) as a yearling who will stand his first season at stud later this year at Coolmore, yesterday outlined the new association.
“I’ve got a very long history with Coolmore. I had my first job there when I was 15 years old and I’ve known the guys for a long time,” Harron said.
“They bought into King’s Legacy this year and I’ve really enjoyed racing him together as a group and we thought it’d be a good idea to buy a colt or two together and he was the one we came up with and let’s hope it’s the start of something exciting for us.”
Catalogued as Lot 173, the Shadwell Stud-bred, Yarraman Park Stud-consigned colt is the second foal out of Zamzam (Redoute’s Choice), a Listed winner who was placed in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) at two. She is also a three-quarter sister to Lipari, herself the dam of Group 1 winner Levendi (Pierro) and Group 3 winner Marcel From Madrid (Sepoy).
“They have got to be able to run, but he has two-year-old written all over him. He’s a sharp horse and a fantastic pedigree,” Harron said.
“Hopefully he can have success on the racetrack and we’ll worry about the stallion part if that comes to fruition later on. We’ve been studying and analysing I Am Invincible as hard as we can and I thought he was in that Brazen Beau-type mould and hopefully he can be half as good as him.”
Chris Waller will train the colt.
Agent’s new client goes to $1.1 million for Fastnet Rock filly
Buying million-dollar yearlings is nothing new for Harron, renowned for his ability to source high-class colts, but yesterday was the culmination of significant groundwork after buying a Fastnet Rock (Danehill) filly for $1.1 million.
Harron signed for the sister to Sheikh Khalifa Al Maktoum-bred and raced Group 2 winner Anaheed on behalf of a new client whose identity has not been revealed.
“Fastnet Rock is having a really amazing season and, as a broodmare sire, he’s doing an incredible job. She’s a real collector’s item and a really classy filly,” Harron said.
“I’ve been working on this for quite a while for a new investor and it was great to get her.”
Harron’s client has owned other horses in the past, but the filly is the first selected by the Sydney-based agent who purchased her as a long-term investment.
“You have to look at this for eight to ten years and that you will eventually have a beautiful broodmare (after racing),” he said.
“We quite like buying them at this stage because you can see exactly what they’re like and, generally, we’ve had good success doing that.
“She obviously has a lovely family and, as I said earlier, Fastnet Rock as a broodmare sire does kick a lot of goals.”
Offered by Coolmore as Lot 53, who now own the filly’s Group 1-winning dam Rostova (Testa Rossa), she is her seventh foal, also making her a half-sister to the stakes-placed Farooq (Frankel).
A trainer for the filly has not yet been decided.
The extreme competition experienced between buyers on day one of the sale did not shock Harron.
“It’s been a serious start. There’s been big talk about this sale for a long time and I think it’s delivering in spades,” he said.
Victorian Alliance pulls up stumps after snapping up Snitzel colt
The newest player in the Australian high-end colts market, the Rosemont-led Victorian Alliance, ended its first year in operation at the Easter sale with three purchases headed by a Snitzel colt for $1.2 million from the Yarraman Park Stud draft.
The colt is out of the Shadwell Australia-raced mare Bulbula (Shamardal), a MRC Merson Cooper Stakes (Listed, 1000m) winner who is already the dam of Ottawa Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m)-winning juvenile filly Aryaaf (Epaulette).
“Shadwell have produced amazing horses for such a period of time, what an honour and privilege to be able to put one in our silks and have the opportunity to carry on that tradition,” said Rosemont Stud’s Anthony Mithen.
“He looks like a fast horse. He’s bred to be fast. He’s got great pedigree. We haven’t got a Snitzel but we have now, and I think we’ve waited till late and bought one of the best Snitzels on offer this season.”
A racing stable for the colt is still to be decided, while trainers for the Alliance’s other purchases yesterday are also yet to be determined.
The group also came away with a Shadwell-owned yearling from the Yarraman draft which was Lot 77, a colt by Written Tycoon (Iglesia) out of Shaaheq (Redoute’s Choice).
The group went to $200,000 for him and also secured Lot 213, an I Am Invincible colt from the Coolmore draft for $525,000. Offered as Lot 213, he is the first foal out of US-bred, Group 1-placed mare Beat The Benchmark (Speightstown).
“I think we are done. We bought three lovely colts. With the bidders that were here today, you really needed to be strong and so hopefully we have been smart and saved our best for last,” Mithen said.
The newly formed partnerships is a sign of the difficulty buyers had in being able to purchase their desired stock either outright or with small syndications, which has led to more people joining forces and Inglis’ Hutch sees it as a sign of the times.
“Sometimes I think it can be a source of frustration when they see big buyers partner up, but a lot of these people are not partnering up on cheap horses, they are paying a premium for the horses anyway,” Hutch said.
“I think it is a reflection of how hard it’s been to buy yearlings through the year. To be absolutely confident of securing an involvement in the horse that you like, you might have to dilute your equity and partner up with somebody.
“Everybody wants to race good horses, so if people want to race good horses in partnership, great, it’s good for the game. It keeps everyone interested. It might mean some of those guys go and buy more horses because their exposure is a little less, so there’s positives to it as well.”
Day two of the Easter sale starts at 10am today.
Sale statistics – day one
2021 2019
Catalogued 240 (+6.25%) 225
Offered 205 (+1.95%) 201
Sold 175 (+8.02%) 162 (81%)
Aggregate $64,470,000 (+4.1%) $61,790,500
Average $368,400 (-2.8%) $379,083
Median $260,000 (-7.1%) $280,000
Top Lot $2.5 million (-12%) $2.8 million
*2019 statistics have been used as a comparison owing to last year’s Easter sale being held as a virtual auction due to the pandemic