On-track success sees vendor support surge for Inglis Premier sale
Stakeholders believe Melbourne’s reputation as value sale will attract strong buyer interest
Inglis is banking on the significant elite level success of its Melbourne Premier graduates to highlight the prospects available at Victoria’s major thoroughbred auction after yesterday releasing the catalogue for its 2021 yearling sale.
This spring, the Premier sale is responsible for producing two expensive stallion prospects, a star Group 1-winning filly, a pair of elite geldings and an exciting juvenile who has already paid for herself nearly three times over after just two starts.
In unveiling the 2021 catalogue, the three-day Melbourne sale, to be held from Sunday, February 28, through to Tuesday, March 2, at Oaklands Junction, comprises a 590-lot Premier Session and a 214-lot Showcase Session.
Inglis general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch believes the Premier sale is well placed to continue the momentum experienced at this year’s sale, which averaged $127,259 and a median of $110,000 at the Premier Session.
“There’s a massive surge in the turnover of the sale in 2020; the gross grew dramatically this year and, if you research the sales, you can identify that Melbourne is the best-performing of the elite sales in Australia in 2020,” Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“The results of the sale are fantastic and the metrics for anyone who is inclined to want to sell at that sale will give them real confidence in 2021, so when you combine that with the fact that graduates out of the sale have continued to enjoy spectacular success … going back to Starspangledbanner and Black Caviar.”
In backing Hutch’s statement up, in the past four months, Premier sale graduates Ole Kirk (Written Tycoon), North Pacific (Brazen Beau), September Run (Exceed And Excel), Gytrash (Lope De Vega), Hey Doc (Duporth) and Sneaky Five (Fastnet Rock) have all showcased their talent at the highest level.
Golden Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Ole Kirk has already been secured for stud duties by Vinery Stud and his Hawkes Racing-trained Group 3-winning, Group 1-placed stablemate North Pacific is set to stand at Newgate Farm when his racing career is over.
Hutch said: “These are showcase horses in any jurisdiction and they are all coming out of one sale, so it is no great surprise that there are huge compliments about the sale from vendors and buyers.”
The Premier catalogue is made up of progeny by 118 stallions including Victoria-based stallions Written Tycoon (Iglesia), Australia’s current leading active sire by winners and earnings, exciting three-year-old North Pacific’s sire Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) and Swettenham Stud’s Toronado (High Chaparral), whose powerful four-year-old Master Montaro remained unbeaten when scoring first-up in Hong Kong on Sunday.
I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit), Snitzel (Redoute’s Choice), Redoute’s Choice (Danehill), Fastnet Rock (Danehill), Exceed And Excel (Danehill), Not A Single Doubt (Redoute’s Choice), Pierro (Lonhro), Zoustar (Northern Meteor), Dundeel (High Chaparral), Savabeel (Zabeel) and Deep Field (Northern Meteor) are also represented, as are international sires Frankel (Galileo), Camelot (Montjeu), Lord Kanaloa (King Kamehameha), Into Mischief (Harlan’s Holiday) and Siyouni (Pivotal).
“I think the feeling of people who are more experienced than me in putting together catalogues for Inglis sales is that it is arguably the strongest catalogue that has ever been assembled for the sale on the weights and measures we use to identify appropriate horses for the sale, which is fantastic,” Hutch said.
“It’s a great endorsement of the sale and a credit to the people who are producing the stock and patronising the sale. We want a high-quality, well-diversified catalogue in terms of stallion representation and in terms of vendor representation and we feel we’ve achieved that very effectively.”
While a number of well-known interstate vendors are supporting the sale, the Victorian studs are also strongly supporting their local sale.
Maluka Thoroughbreds will have an increased draft of 35 yearlings on offer next year, while leading vendor Blue Gum Farm has 31 lots, and the expanding nature of Yulong is evidenced by the fact owner Yuesheng Zhang will consign 26 yearlings in 2021, up from 14 this year.
Rosemont Stud (30), Stonehouse Thoroughbreds (27) and Supreme Thoroughbreds (26) will also be strongly represented at the Premier sale.
Luke Anderson of Maluka Thoroughbreds said his operation would present an even draft next year, with the increased numbers on the back of the support of Cambridge Stud, and a number of other breeders from New Zealand, who have sent horses to Victoria to be offered at the Premier sale.
“Melbourne Premier is always a great, reliable sale to get your horses sold. We’ve had great success there, both through the ring and on the racetrack,” Anderson said.
“We’ve had eight individual stakes winners that we have sold through the sale. One year, we had a draft with Gytrash and Seabrook, both Group 1 winners, so it’s a sale we love and Inglis has always been good to us.”
Anderson revealed feedback from owners and trainers was also positive about their willingness to reinvest in new stock at next year’s sales.
“The prize-money has been continuing to flow in the main states, which has kept the confidence levels up for buyers to reinvest,” he said.
“The trainers always look for value and I think Melbourne Premier offers that because you get great results.
“When you compare the sale average to some of the other sales around Australasia, I think the race results are great.”