Buyers to hold Premier position
Hutch believes graduate record of Inglis Melbourne Premier sale to stand up again
The long-standing reputation of the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale can hold Victoria’s major market of the year in good stead, but buyers’ activity is expected to remain subdued.
Ahead of tomorrow’s opening session of the 800-lot Oaklands Junction sale, Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch suggested that Premier commanded the respect of the leading industry figures but cautioned that it was unlikely that Melbourne would buck the trend set at earlier sales on the Gold Coast, Sydney and Auckland.
Hutch said the level of interest from Victorians, interstate and international buyers, including from Japan and Hong Kong, who were searching for the next Think About It (So You Think) had been positive leading into tomorrow’s first of three days of selling.
“I think there are a certain number of sales on the calendar that major or every buyer takes very seriously and this is one of them, and justifiably so. I think all the right people will be engaged in the sale,” Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I am not apprehensive about interest in the sale because the interest and engagement in the sale has been excellent. Obviously, as is the case with any sale, trying to move the money around and make sure people land on a variety of different horses as opposed to a smaller group of the same horses is a challenge.
“We ended up with what we felt was a very good sale at Classic with a good clearance and good numbers, but it wasn’t simple, so to speak.
“Vendors had to work hard and, to their credit, those who passed in horses got them sold afterwards in most cases.
“So, we’re under no illusions that there’ll be parts of the market that will be difficult because that’s just been the nature of the market all the way through the year.”
Glentree Thoroughbreds’ Luke Simpson, whose boss Bruce Wilson is offering four colts at Premier by Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice) (two), So You Think (High Chaparral) and Blue Point (Shamardal) respectively, is feeling “reasonably buoyant” ahead of the Premier sale.
“We’ve been busy enough down there the last few days and hopefully that’s the trend for all of the vendors here at Melbourne Premier,” Simpson said.
“There’s been a good influx of people through and all the usuals, the Victorian trainers are out and about, along with the interstate and internationals, so hopefully it’s a good sale.”
Hutch, however, conceded that last year’s downcast Premier sale results, which came on the back of consecutive record years of turnover at Oaklands Junction, had made some regular Victorian sellers reconsider their options with some of their 2022-born crop of yearlings.
“We had two consecutive interest rate rises in the months prior to the sale, the stock market hit what was a low for the year two weeks before the sale. Sentiment was very guarded at that juncture and it undoubtedly had an effect on the sale,” the Inglis chief executive said.
“It’s probably compromised the catalogue to a slight degree from the point of view of certain vendors just making different choices around some of their horses.
“We have had good support for the catalogue, but people have mixed things up a little bit this year.
“Ultimately, it’s been a year where it’s been very much an advantage to the buyers, the market’s been selective and I expect it’ll be much of the same here.”
Hutch believes the top end of the market will be better served at Premier than what it was at Inglis’ Classic sale three weeks ago.
“I think there are dramatically more high-profile horses in the catalogue, horses that are going to go on and sell really well than what was the case at Classic,” he said.
“At Classic we just found ourselves short of horses at that top end and then similarly there are horses in the Premier catalogue that are going to represent good buying for people for not a lot of money, particularly on the third day of the sale.”
Mailbag Bloodstock’s Jack Dickens is a relative newcomer to racehorse syndication, but in his brief involvement so far his business has raced Group-winning tried horses Just Folk (Magnus), Wednesday’s Hellova Street Stake (Listed, 1600m) winner Keats (Galileo), while they also own promising three-year-old fillies Until Valhalla (Snitzel) and Grouse Mountain (Vancouver) and two-year-old buy Shiny New Deel (Dundeel).
“You just don’t stop learning on this side of the game and I think we got pretty lucky, to be honest, with the yearlings that we purchased when we started,” Dickens said.
“But the process we’ve got in place now is completely different and a lot more detailed, so we’re getting [Victorian trainer-cum-bloodstock agent David] Butch Bourne to inspect every yearling at every sale and then from shortlist I’ll come and have a look, which is what we’re doing today, and then we’ll try and identify a handful of horses that we want to vet and also run data through.
“So, the tried horses are very much data-based, using benchmarks and form, and the yearling side of the data is very much stallions, what they’ve done recently, mares, the farms and overlaying Tom Wilson’s Racing² biomechanical data.”
Dickens also revealed Mailbag’s price point in the $100,000 range had proven successful so far this year.
“We bought a Yes Yes Yes colt and a Churchill colt at Magic Millions and we had no real trouble moving them around the $100,000 mark,” he said.
“So, that price point seems to be OK for us. It’s hard juggling what you think is a great bet on a horse and then what’s sellable on a horse – the sexy stallion versus what you think is value.
“It’s something we’re figuring out as we go. The truth is, you’re going to end up holding a chunk of a horse that you buy eventually, so we’re not going to just buy a horse that we think we can sell, we’re going to buy horses we want to race and then try to sell them on.”
The first of three days of selling starts at 10am tomorrow.