Capitalist on top as record spending continues at Classic
New benchmark set as Harron pays $600,000 for a son of his Golden Slipper gun during buoyant opening session
A record opening session of the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale yesterday proved that the immense demand for Australian bloodstock is showing no signs of abating and confirmed that the company’s first auction of the year has a growing reputation among the industry’s major players as a legitimate source of top-flight racing prospects after a new benchmark was set during a fervent day of trade.
A colt by Capitalist (Written Tycoon) became the highest-priced yearling to pass through the Classic sale when realising $600,000 at Riverside Stables yesterday afternoon, continuing a sparkling weekend for the Newgate Farm stallion, who on Saturday shot to the head of the first season sire and two-year-old tables through the deeds of his Inglis Millennium (RL, 1100m)-winning son Profiteer.
The previous sale record was held by a Murrulla Stud-consigned Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) colt, who was sold for $550,000 in 2019, but it was two leading industry figures with a close association to Capitalist, himself among a high-class generation of new stallions, who helped to set the new mark.
James Harron, whose high-end syndicate raced the son of Written Tycoon (Iglesia) to win the 2016 Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), signed for the session-topper after locking horns with another big admirer of the stallion, Newgate Farm principal Henry Field.
“When we went back and looked at our ratings and Capitalist is the hot sire on the block, there were going to be a lot of people on him,” Harron said.
“It’s a very strong market and there’s big demand for colts and you’ve got to aim up if you want them.
“He gave us all such an amazing ride. We still have a long way to go, but we’ve followed them all very closely and I think his yearlings will keep getting more expensive, so we will try and get as many as we can.”
Describing the highest-priced acquisition of his three-yearling haul, all by Capitalist, Harron added: “He is very mature with great size, strength and substance to him with a good back page and we so often see that (pedigree) coming back alive. He’s a lovely horse who is very forward.”
The colt, offered as Lot 182 by Davali Thoroughbreds’ David and Alison Hush, is the second foal out of the twice-winning mare Mystical Tale (Encosta De Lago), while his third dam, Polar Success (Success Express), won the 2003 running of the Golden Slipper.
Alison Hush was taken aback when learning that Davali now holds the honour of selling the highest-priced Classic yearling.
“He was a nice foal and he just grew the right way at the right time. We probably could have taken him to other sales but we thought this was the place to take him to be a standout and that was the way it turned out,” Hush said.
Davali Thoroughbreds is based on the Twin Palms Stud property at Luskintyre, which the Hushes lease from the Johnson family who also owned Polar Success.
“They have supported us with some really nice mares and backed us all the way through, so it’s awesome to have a great result for them,” Hush added.
With some of the biggest industry investors in the country at his disposal, Harron has the capacity to participate at the top of the market at all of the yearling sales, but he says the record of Classic sale graduates meant he had to be at this auction.
“We spend a lot of time doing our own research on the sale and we felt like we needed to be involved and make sure that we got some of horses we really like because it has been producing exactly what we are after in terms of good, precocious horses that go on and potentially find a home at stud,” he said.
“Fair play to the team here at Inglis as they have really done a great job to get the sale to where it is and the graduates are getting the rewards.”
Dual-hemisphere connections entrust Maher and Eustace with Almanzor colt
Buoyed by the almost insatiable appetite for the stock of first crop European shuttler Almanzor (Wootton Bassett), the two stud farms behind his dual-hemisphere duties yesterday combined to secure a $400,000 colt bred by one of New Zealand’s most respected nurseries.
Holding the honour as the leading first season sire by average at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and the overall title at New Zealand Bloodstock’s Karaka Yearling Sale last month, Almanzor has a select representation at Classic. French stud Haras d’Etreham and Cambridge Stud will race the second highest-priced youngster from yesterday’s session, who will be trained by Ciaron Maher and David Eustace.
Cambridge Stud chief executive Henry Plumptre called on Australian agent Jim Clarke for the final tick of approval before launching their bid.
“Henry spoke to me and said that they’d seen this horse on the farm in New Zealand a number of times and they really liked him,” Clarke revealed.
“I saw him on the farm (at Lime Country) a few weeks ago and Henry asked for my thoughts and he was a lovely colt and I saw him again here at the complex and I thought he was one of the nicest physicals in the sale.
“The stallion is very, very exciting and I was lucky enough to watch him race when I was in Europe and he was one of the standout performers of that decade. He has been very well received so far and this colt is one of the nicest horses I have seen by him this year.”
The colt was bred by James Chapman at Jamieson Park, a New Zealand farm that is a big supporter of Cambridge Stud and the local industry in general.
Catalogued as Lot 224, the Lime Country-consigned colt is the second foal out of Sydney winner Perfect Offering (Dubawi), herself a three-quarter sister to Listed winner My Country (Poet’s Voice).
“He is a big, strong-bodied horse but he is very athletic for a big horse. He is a really laidback customer, so he’s got all the credentials to be a really nice horse,” Clarke said.
“He looks like he’s got some precocity to get up and run early enough for a European-bred horse and he certainly has the scope to improve into his Classic year and beyond.”
NSW Southern Highlands-based Lime Country has stepped up to assist New Zealand vendors at sales over the past nine months and that was again the case with Jamieson Park and its Classic draft.
“We had two horses for them back to back. Lot 223, the Per Incanto colt, had a big opening bid of $200,000 and that probably checked the market and he made $225,000. Then the Almanzor colt, I just loved,” Lime Country’s Jo Griffin said.
“He was an outstanding colt, he was really something special, I would have loved to have owned him.”
She continued: “We sold for Jamieson Park up at Magic Millions and we sold for them here and they’ve got some very good horses coming to Easter as well.
“They are very good breeders and they are the sort of people you want to sell for. They have a beautiful farm and beautiful mares.”
After day one of the third southern hemisphere yearling sale of the year, European champion Almanzor is averaging $201,116 for his 46 yearlings to have changed hands.
Beauty Stable set to invade Australia with Moores at the helm
Hong Kong racing royalty, Simon and Patrick Kwok of Beauty Generation (Road To Rock) fame, could be about to make a significant mark on Australian racing, an investment that coincides with the return to Australia of the Asia hub’s legendary trainer John Moore.
The bold statement was made before lunch during yesterday’s session when Moore’s agent-son George went to $375,000 for a precocious colt by first season sire Invader (Snitzel), who is set to start his racing career at Rosehill under the tutelage of the trainer in partnership with his brother Gary.
The Kwoks launched a fleeting foray in Australian racing in 2018, including racing 2019 VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) fourth Beauty Bolt (Redoute’s Choice), but since then they have focused almost solely on Sha Tin and Happy Valley. However, when John Moore’s long Hong Kong reign came to an end last season, they elected to continue their association with the trainer in Sydney.
“They had quite a few horses in Australia. I think Grahame Begg had about five or six a few years ago, but (up until now) predominantly we haven’t bought too many yearlings for them,” George Moore said.
“I haven’t bought any good yearlings for them in Australia before, but I said, ‘instead of going over to Europe to buy horses who are going to take a bit more time, why don’t you come to Australia? The budgets won’t be too high’, even though we went over budget there.
“We are trying to target three horses from around $250,000 average, so I am just going to have to try and even it up with the next two yearlings.”
Reflecting on the colt’s price tag, Moore added: “He had 16 X-rays, so I knew there were quite a few people on the horse. I thought we were going to get him cheap at $200,000, but James Harron was in front of me and he started bidding and once that happens it is a bit of a bidding war.”
Catalogued as Lot 41, the youngster is the seventh foal out of Hussidora (Hussonet), making him a half-brother to the stakes-placed Schilladora (Artie Schiller) and Dreams Of Platinum (Dream Ahead). Vendor Bell River Thoroughbreds bought Hussidora carrying the colt from Stockwell Thoroughbreds at the Inglis Great Southern Sale in 2019.
Moore described the colt as fitting the mould he, his father John and uncle Gary were looking for.
“He had a great hip on him, he looks early, he has short cannons and he is a good mover,” he said.
“It’s a little bit of a risk being by Invader, an unproven first season sire, but at this sale you have to buy on type and even at the big sales you buy on type. He is a lovely horse.”
Bell River’s Ferguson family, who enjoyed success with Prophet’s Thumb (I Am Invincible) in the Rubiton Stakes (Gr 2, 1100m) at Caulfield on Saturday, continued their winning run with the sale of a So You Think (High Chaparral) colt for $250,000.
“(Saturday) was a huge day, but we had to get back to reality this morning, shovelling horse s**t, but we’ve had two big results already today and hopefully it continues,” James Ferguson said yesterday.
“We had $150,000 on him and we would have been happy with that after buying the mare for $62,000.
“This is one of the busiest sales we have ever been at and a lot of people had shown interest in him, but I didn’t know how much, so to get that is unreal for the family and the farm and all of our clients.”
Gilbert on a high after selling Capitalist filly
The sale of a Capitalist filly for $300,000 earlier in the day did no harm to the harmony of the Gilbert family after Highgrove Stud consigned the six-figure yearling on behalf of studmaster Ron Gilbert’s daughter, Vicki, and son-in-law, Liam Lourigan.
Gilbert’s decision to wait an extra three weeks to put the filly through a sale was vindicated with the price tag after prominent owner BK Racing and Breeding signed for her.
“When the Magic Millions increased the catalogue to 1200 lots, we reassessed our draft thinking the market wouldn’t be as strong as it is. She could have gone to the Magic Millions but I decided to spread them out and we brought her here because she was a standout filly and she has shown that by the price she made,” Gilbert said.
“Magics had a lot of good horses and there’s some good horses here as evidenced by the start of the sale. I think the good horses sell no matter where they are.
“We had a reserve well below the $300,000 sale figure but we were expecting her to make somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000 and she made the top end, so everyone’s very happy.”
Having gone through the ring in the first half-hour of the sale as Lot 13, the filly will be trained by Joe Pride at Warwick Farm.
Her dam, dual winner Gone To Paris (Duporth) – herself a half-sister to the six-times stakes-placed Aristocratic Miss (Foxwedge) – was sourced for the Lourigans by agent Sheamus Mills. He went to $230,000 for her from the Glenesk Thoroughbreds draft at the 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Broodmare Sale. She was then in foal to Astern (Medaglia D’Oro), with the resulting filly sold by Highgrove at last year’s Classic sale for $105,000.
Gilbert is a big fan of Capitalist, backing his judgment by sending Gone To Paris to the stallion in his second year at stud.
“I have been strong on Capitalist because of the first foals we had in his first season,” the Queensland-based Gilbert said.
“We have supported him strongly and this filly is a good example of what he can throw, so hopefully she can go on and match motors with horses who are already coming out by Capitalist.”
BK Racing and Breeding manager Ben Vassallo relied on Pride’s assessment before having the conviction to win a competitive bidding duel.
“Joe felt she was the standout filly of the sale and we thought we would have to come into the ring and go up against those big guys and that is exactly what has happened,” Vassallo said.
“These are sales where people pick a dozen or so classy ones out and you have to come in and fight for them. (Saturday’s) result with Profiteer probably didn’t help us much, but to get a horse by Capitalist into Joe’s barn is a good thing.
“Joe has put the writing on the wall with his horses this season to get them to the races at two. It’s such a progressive stable and they are always in form.”
Record trade on day one of Classic
After increased demand saw the average, median and aggregate soar at the Gold Coast for the Magic Millions sale last month, the trend continued at Riverside yesterday, with the key metrics up on the corresponding session in 2020.
The average of $106,030 was up 15 per cent on last year, while the median climbed from $80,000 to $90,000. A total of 235 horses were offered on day one, which resulted in 95 horses selling for $100,000 or more, up from 79 during the opening session last year.
Seventeen yearlings also made $200,000 or more, compared to nine last year, pushing the aggregate to $21.418 million, the highest total grossed on a single day of trade at Classic as well as being up 21 per cent year-on-year.
Respected agent John Foote, who bought ten lots yesterday for domestic and international clients, suggested the colts market was a major reason behind the increased trade, which led to a clearance rate of 86 per cent.
“Buying colts is really hard and you have to pay a little bit more than normal. The fillies are a bit more sensible, but the colts are hard to buy,” Foote said.
“The market at the Gold Coast was strong for a bit of everything really, but maybe the fillies don’t have the pedigrees here that they did at the Coast whereas with the colts, there’s a big demand for racing them here and in Asia.”
Sebastian Hutch, Inglis general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing, could not hide his delight about what transpired yesterday.
“We were cautiously optimistic coming into today. We had done the work. We were very pleased with the calibre of horses here, there was strong representation from buyers domestically and we worked hard to get international buyers involved,” he said.
“I don’t think any of us could have reasonably expected today to have gone as well as it’s gone. As we sit here, to have cleared 86 per cent, for the average to be up something like $20,000 on last year, It’s almost incomprehensible at this stage.”
Hutch credited the Inglis bloodstock team for compiling a desirable catalogue of horses in conjunction with vendors.
“It’s not easy putting three somewhat simultaneous catalogues together in Classic, Premier and Easter, but it’s something that I feel our team does really well,” he said.
“We put a lot of effort into it, working with vendors to identify suitable horses for each of the sales, so to get here on day like today, and for the results to be as they are, is a great reflection of the calibre of work that the guys in the Inglis team have done. It’s just really satisfying.”
Day two of the Classic sale begins at 10am today.
Sale statistics – day one
| 2021 | 2020 | |
| Catalogued | 270 | 270 |
| Offered | 235 | 247 |
| Sold | 202 (86%) | 193 (78%) |
| Aggregate | $21,418,000 (+21%) | $17,733,000 |
| Average | $106,030 (+15%) | $91,881 |
| Median | $90,000 (+12.5%) | $80,000 |
| Top Lot | $600,000 | $350,000 |