International investors to play prominent role at Inglis Ready2Race Sale
Middle market to hold the key to depth of the buying bench at Riverside Stables as juveniles go under the hammer
Inglis’ Sebastian Hutch is not making any bold predictions ahead of today’s Ready2Race Sale, Australasia’s opening two-year-old auction of the year, despite a large international buyer cohort being in Sydney for the first time in three years and the company offering its biggest catalogue since the format’s inception.
The catalogue of 289 lots, reduced to 222 as of last night due to 67 withdrawn horses, has seen a significant number of buyers from the key export markets Singapore and Hong Kong make the trip to Australia to attend the Ready2Race Sale in person.
Buyers utilising agents, as well as owners and trainers from Macau are also expected to compete against a large domestic contingent of Australia-based trainers for the recently breezed-up two-year-olds.
Although maintaining a cautious approach, Hutch, Inglis Bloodstock’s chief executive, said there was “a lot to be positive about” in the lead-up to the two-year-old sale.
“It’s a bit hard to know exactly what to expect. We’ve got significant representation from Hong Kong and Singapore, so the expectation is that they will be significant participants on the horses that meet their criteria,” Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“The criteria traditionally is very specific in terms of profile and vetting, so it’s not a case where they can buy a huge proportion of the catalogue.
“They can buy a very specific part of the catalogue, so I think there’ll be good strength to that part of the market, but it will be interesting to see what strength there is to the middle part of the market.”
Among the international visitors are South African Andy Williams of World Wide Bloodstock, Singapore-based trainers Michael Clements, James Peters and expatriate Australian Dan Meagher as well as Peter Ng, the father of rookie Hong Kong trainer Pierre Ng, and Caspar Fownes and Ricky Yiu.
While there is a strong contingent of international buyers at the sale, the depth of the domestic market is harder to quantify, with Hutch citing the sheer size of yearling trade in 2022 as a potential factor to be borne out at the two-year-old sales.
“Expenditure on yearlings this year is up by, my amateur maths says, $176 million on 2019 and turnover on yearlings in Australia has gone through $635 million for the calendar year through the five sales that Inglis runs and the six sales that Magic Millions runs,” Hutch said.
“When you compare that to the $430-odd million in 2019, that is extraordinary growth and that will take some of the liquidity out of the market for sales like this.
“It’s almost inevitable that will happen, but I think there’ll be enough strength to it to give us some good results, a good clearance and, ultimately, if we can send the vendors home happy, we’ll be happy.”
WBF Thoroughbreds’ Will Forrester has a draft of 15 horses by sires including Per Incanto (Street Cry), Toronado (High Chaparral), Capitalist (Written Tycoon) and Justify (Scat Daddy) on offer at today’s sale.
“Obviously, I am pretty new to the sales myself, being four years in and Covid being two of those, but I’d say this is the biggest contingent of international buyers that I’ve seen at the sales so far, so that’s fairly promising and support domestically as well,” Forrester said yesterday, holding hopes he can build on his reputation for selling high-class racehorses.
“It’s something that I’ve become quite passionate about and the team around the brand is working really hard to be known for bringing good quality horses to the sale who are well educated, well prepared and that there’s something for everyone.
“They’ve been prepared well and they’re here for sale.”
Trainers Mick Price, Kim Waugh, John McArdle, Bjorn Baker, Mark Newnham, Gerald Ryan, Edward O’Rourke, South Australia-based expatriate South African trainer Dean Alexander and Gawler-based Aaron Bain are among those domestic buyers on the ground.
Lindsay Park’s bloodstock manager Josh Rix. Danny O’Brien Racing’s bloodstock manager Luke Wilkinson, Simon Zahra’s racing and bloodstock manager Jackson Cook and representatives from the powerful Ciaron Maher Racing and Annabel Neasham Racing stables have also been at Riverside Stables over the past couple of days inspecting two-year-olds on behalf of their respective employers.
“I think there’s always the appetite and there’ll be lots of people here (today) looking for horses, it’s just a question of whether those horses can fall into a price bracket where they consider them to be value,” Hutch said.
“I think there’s going to be great demand for the really nice horses here and I think there’ll be plenty of people looking for value, but we hope to be able to marry buyers and vendors together to try and have their expectations align and hopefully we end up with a good clearance and some good results.”
New Zealand vendor Ross Mackay of Leanach Lodge has brought a draft of eight juveniles from his Cambridge base to support the Inglis sale, a deliberate decision in a bid to tap into the Australian buying bench.
Among his draft are colts by All Too Hard (Casino Prince) and Per Incanto and a final-crop filly by Cambridge Stud’s Tavistock (Montjeu), the only two-year-old by the late sire to be offered in Australia this year and the only daughter of the stallion in Australasia.
“We’re a bit envious by New Zealand standards of some of the results they are achieving over here, so we thought we’d bring some nice horses over,” Mackay said.
“We have a little bit of a mix, some classic Kiwi style staying horses and a couple of speed horses as well, which I think evens out the draft, and was the intention behind our bringing some of our New Zealand style horses to an Australian market because they’ve always done so well over here, that was our aim.”
Past graduates of the Sydney sale include Group 2 winners Forgot You (Savabeel), Lightsaber (Zoustar), the talented Prix De Turn (Turn Me Loose) and Hong Kong-based winners Wishful Thinker (I Am Invincible) and Allibor (All Too Hard), the 2020 Sandown Guineas (Gr 2, 1600m) winner.
Last season’s VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m) runner-up Douceur (No Nay Never), See You In Spring (Siyouni) and Malkovich (Choisir) have all emerged from Inglis’ two-year-old auction.
“Ultimately, the test for any sale is can it produce good horses for the people who come and support it? We’re in a fortunate spot where we have been supported with quality horses,” Hutch said.
“We’ve never had significant volume (of horses) as the catalogue has traditionally always been quite small relative to some of the other sales, but we’ve always had some nice horses in each of the catalogues and fortunately they’ve gone on to do well as racehorses.
“The performance of graduates of the sale, particularly the last three sales, stand up to the closest scrutiny particularly relative to the alternative breeze up sales and I think that’s given vendors confidence to support the sale and hopefully it’s given buyers confidence to come and buy horses at the sale.”
The Inglis Ready2Race Sale, with the biggest catalogue presented since the sale was established in 2013 as a competitor to the Magic Millions 2YOs in Training Sale and New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale, starts at 10am local time at Riverside Stables.
Lots to watch
Vendor
Lot 7 All Too Hard-Pentasia colt Leanach Lodge
Lot 19 Deep Field-Purr Itty Kitty colt Valiant Stud
Lot 27 Frosted-Reliable Dame colt Hannover Lodge
Lot 35 Akeed Mofeed-Saramenha colt Symphony Lodge
Lot 47 Russian Revolution-Silky Mover colt Glenville Bloodstock
Lot 55 Brazen Beau-Socialize colt Glenn Haven Thoroughbreds
Lot 58 The Autumn Sun-Sopraffina colt Cheltenham Stables
Lot 76 Russian Revolution-The King’s Widow colt Glenn Haven Thoroughbreds
Lot 82 Dundeel-To Be Sure colt Woburn Farm
Lot 110 Deep Field-Alderney colt Nolen Racing
Lot 136 No Nay Never-Boomex colt Baystone Farm
Lot 156 Capitalist-Denpurr colt Reid Racing
Lot 163 Per Incanto-Elusive Red colt Glenn Haven Thoroughbreds
Lot 164 Rubick-Emirates Comfort colt Woodpark Stud
Lot 167 Deep Field-Excess Love colt Ohukia Lodge
Lot 192 Frosted-Highchamp Dancer colt Esker Lodge
Lot 199 Deep Field-Invading Humor colt Blake Ryan Racing
Lot 200 Per Incanto-Ipanema Girl colt Sullivan Bloodstock
Lot 223 Dundeel-Lady Moura colt Baystone Farm
Lot 246 Per Incanto-Mandalonge Belle gelding Riversley Park
Lot 247 Per Incanto-Manon colt JCS Thoroughbreds
Lot 274 Russian Revolution-Myakka Park filly Cheltenham Stables
Lot 276 Deep Field-National Anthem gelding Riversley Park
Lot 286 Per Incanto-Ophelia Lee colt Leanach Lodge