Inglis hope vendors well-rewarded for ‘quality’ Ready2Race offerings
Inglis are hopeful an accent on quality over quantity this year will ensure vendors go home happy after Tuesday’s Ready2Race Sale at Riverside.
A total of 196 two-year-olds have been catalogued, down from 226 last year and 290 in 2022, reflecting some tougher times in the yearling sale market earlier this year.
However, Inglis’s general manager of bloodstock sales Sebastian Hutch said the auction house was “very pleased with how the catalogue’s come together”, with most of the country’s leading sires represented including Exceed And Excel (Danehill), Written Tycoon (Iglesia), Capitalist (Written Tycoon), Harry Angel (Dark Angel), Maurice (Screen Hero) and many more.
The sale – which has hatched such stars as dual Group 1 winner Nettoyer (Sebring) and dual Group winners Democracy Manifest (Flying Artie) and Libertad (Russian Revolution) – will also showcase the first crops of stallions including Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), Farnan (Not A Single Doubt), King’s Legacy (Redoute’s Choice) and Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj).
“We’re very pleased with how the catalogue’s come together,” Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News. “We circulated the catalogue six to eight weeks ago in the belief it was the best group of horses we’d assembled for the sale, and now the prospective buyers’ feedback would be consistent with that.
“People are genuinely impressed with the quality of horses around the complex. That’s a testament to the work and the investment made by many of our vendors.
“This has been a progressive sale format for us for a number of years and it looks to be on a continued upward trajectory. Hopefully this year’s renewal will be an important part of that continued development.”
Hutch said Inglis was “comfortable” with the size of the catalogue, down 30 lots from last year’s sale – which yielded an average of $106,248, a median of $90,000, and a top lot of $400,000 – and down 94 from 2022, which had an average of $104,210, a median of $75,000 and a peak of $750,000.
“We’re comfortable with the size of the catalogue,” Hutch said. “The yearling market this year was still a good market, but was certainly more challenging than in prior years. It was still very difficult for traders to source the right sort of horses at the right value.
“Our vendors had to work really hard to identify and procure the right sort of horses for this sale, but now that we’re here, we feel like a lot of them have.
“There’s no disguising the fact there are still going to be challenges in the market. The softer economy domestically, and the lack of confidence in the domestic economy, affects people whose traditional model is to acquire stock and sell down shares.
“Our vendors are conscious of that and will be cognisant of that when they’re setting their reserves. Hopefully we’ll have a position where the majority of our vendors will be in a position to meet the market.
“And for those horses who are in the bullseye in the eyes of buyers, I think there’s likely to be a good premium to be earned through the day.”
Hutch said it was hard to forecast where metrics such as median and average would land.
“It’ll be very much contingent on the willingness of vendors to meet the market,” he said.
“We have good interest in the sale, but it’s likely to be selective. Typically, that’s not a recipe for strong clearance, but we’ll certainly be doing our best to get that number as high as we can.
“I think we can post positive figures in terms of gross and median, but where those numbers are likely to land is impossible to predict at this stage. A lot of our fate will be in the hands of the buyers and the vets. Hopefully we can send plenty of vendors home happy.”
Hutch said the sale had grown to encompass more of a domestic buying bench, after previously being “almost exclusively a focus for the south-east Asian market”. In Hong Kong, the sale has produced the winners of more than 200 races since 2018, Inglis says.
“While the investment by south-east Asian buyers will be particularly strong this year, I’m still expecting good participation from a select group of local investors as well,” Hutch said.
Among the likely choice lots of the sale, much attention is expected to be focused early as Lot 7 enters the ring, a strapping colt by Exceed And Excel (Danehill) who is one of two offerings from New Zealand’s Prima Park. He was a $240,000 buy from the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
The bay colt is out of Allez Bien (O’Reilly), a city winner of four races who’s a half-sister to outstanding Perth mare Inspirational Girl (Reliable Man) – winner of three black type races including the WATC Railway Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) – and to Listed victor Ruettiger (Duporth).
“He’s been very popular – he hasn’t been in his box all morning,” Prima Park’s Kelly Van Dyk told ANZ on Monday.
“He’s an exceptional horse, he breezed up very well, and we have a very big opinion of him. He’s very athletic, very well muscled, and looks like a ready-made racehorse. He’s built like a sprinter, but could stretch out maybe a bit further.
“He’s got a very good pedigree, being out of an O’Reilly mare and going back to Sir Tristram through his third dam. The Exceed And Excel over O’Reilly cross is proven, so he should tick all the boxes.”
Another eye-catching Kiwi is Lot 138 from Ohukia Lodge’s draft, a bay Capitalist colt out of Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) heroine Real Surreal (Real Saga), bought from the Magic Millions Gold Coast sale for $260,000.
Late in the auction, which kicks off at midday, another highlight is expected in Lot 166, a brown filly by the 22-year-old who’s still the sire of the moment, Written Tycoon, fresh from claiming Saturday’s Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) with Private Life, and two-year-old sires’ titles on both sides of the Tasman last season.
Offered through Baystone Farm’s draft, the filly is impeccably bred, being the seventh foal of Soriano (Savabeel), New Zealand’s Champion Middle Distance Horse of 2014-15, who included two Group 1s amongst sevens stakes victories. Second dam Call Me Lily (Just A Dancer) was also a stakes-winner, who threw two more. The filly was a $200,000 Easter purchase.
The leading vendor at the sale by numbers is Benalla-based trading veteran Tal Nolen, who has 15 lots, two more than fellow Victorian entity Baystone Farm.
“I hope it’ll be a good sale. I think the top end of it will be OK, and the bottom end might struggle a bit,” he told ANZ Bloodstock News. “Same goes for my draft.”
With impeccable timing, Nolen has two of the three lots by Ole Kirk, whose first runners King Kirk and O’ Ole respectively won the Breeders’ Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) and ran second in the Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) at Randwick on October 5.
Lot 127 is a bay colt out of Plaque (Medaglia d’Oro) Nolen bought from Inglis Classic for $50,000, while Lot 133 is a brown colt out of Rainy Daze (Commands) bought for $20,000 from Inglis Premier.
Plaque has thrown four city winners from four runners, and is a daughter of dual Oaks winner Zacheline (Zabeel). Rainy Daze is the dam of Group 3-winning gelding Vegadaze (Lope de Vega), and is from the same extended family as dual Derby winner Riff Rocket (American Pharoah).
“They’re both nice horses, and it’s nice that Ole Kirk’s hit the ground running as a sire,” Nolen said. “The Plaque is a big, strong horse, tall and with a good attitude. The Rainy Daze is a bit stouter but is a nice enough horse.”
Nolen also has another of the four Written Tycoons at the sale, a chestnut colt – like his dad – out of Salamati (Dubawi), whose second dam Sexy Lady (Danehill Dancer) was a dual stakes winner in Germany. Nolen bought the colt for $70,000 from Inglis Premier.
“He’s a big, strong colt, and it was certainly good timing Written Tycoon sired the Caulfield Guineas winner on Saturday,” Nolen said. “He’s a freak sire, really. He gets a good horse every year, and he’s done that for I don’t know how many years.”
Nolen was particularly keen on his bay colt by Zousain (Zoustar) out of Totally Sure (Not A Single Doubt), an $80,000 Inglis Classic pick-up, as well as his Zoustar (Northern Meteor) chestnut colt out of dual North American stakes winner Spring Venture (Spring At Last), who was a $120,000 Easter buy.
He’ll also offer the bay son of first-season sire Hanseatic (Street Boss) out of Musicmaker (All Too Hard) whose fourth dam is five-time Group 1 winner Triscay (Marscay). Nolen bought that colt at Premier for $35,000.
Valiant Stud offers the only lot by much-vaunted Coolmore sire Wootton Bassett, a supremely-bred brown colt, made to stay, out of New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) and Adelaide Cup (Gr 2, 3200m) winning mare Fanatic (Shocking). The colt was passed in at Easter.
AH Bloodstock offers Lot 100, a colt who’s the only representative of surging sire Too Darn Hot (Dubawi), Australia’s champion first-season sire of last season and a runaway leader on the sophomore list this term.
The colt, whose second dam was Group 3 winner Purde (Bahhare), was a $200,000 Easter purchase.
Hawkesbury’s Blake Ryan, well represented with 12 lots, is vendor for the sole offering by Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Farnan in Lot 151, a bay colt from Tasmanian Oaks (Listed, 2100m) winner Shady Hustle (Hussonet), bought for $70,000 at Inglis Classic.