Quality stock the safest bet at Inglis Australian Weanling Sale
Cloud of uncertainty hangs over first foal market of the year
Vendors and speculators involved in the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale agree that horses deemed of quality will remain highly sought after, but the prevailing uncertainty ahead of the opening session has experienced stakeholders reluctant to make bold predictions about what will unfold once the auction begins.
The 385-lot sale, the southern hemisphere’s first public weanling offering this year, could at least provide some further insight as to what those willing to financially back their judgment by securing young stock believe lies ahead for the local industry heading into the 2021 Australasian yearling sale series.
Despite the absence of Victorian agents and their New Zealand counterparts due to restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the number of inspections at Riverside Stables yesterday was strong, and how far buyers are willing to go will be revealed over the next two days.
Pinhook Bloodstock’s Dave Mee, like most, is not going into the sale with a concrete plan but suggested a tried and true approach could serve he and his clients best.
“I am on both sides of the equation because I am managing clients who are selling and I have a couple of groups who are looking to buy,” Mee said.
“With one eye to the yearling sales, there’s still a lot of moving parts to it and the honest answer is no one knows how it is going to play out next year. So, broadly speaking, we are going to stick to quality and play the numbers game.
“I’ve come here with a strategy in mind for my clients, but having been here for several days digesting what everyone is saying about the industry and the outlook maybe it’s time to readjust a few things.”
For the past three years Fairhill Farm’s Mike O’Donnell has put his entire foal crop through the Australian Weanling Sale and he will do so again in 2020 with a draft of 28 which includes a Pierro (Lonhro) half-sister to Group 2 winner Fiesta (I Am Invincible) and a Vancouver (Medaglia d’Oro) half-brother to the Group 1-placed Trusting (Tale Of The Cat).
He plans to “play it by ear and we will have to assess how the market is going” when determining the reserves he places on his stock.
“We are all uncertain in these times but there has been enough inspections. People who are here are here to buy, they aren’t here for fun, so that’s a plus,” O’Donnell said.
“We are selling all of our crop, which makes a difference because they are all being sold for the right reasons. There are no culls.”
Jazcom Thoroughbreds’ Colin Branthwaite, who on Sunday sold a Toronado (High Chaparral) colt at the Riverside Stables Scone Yearling Sale for 18 times his weanling purchase price when bought by Hawkes Racing for $180,000, intends to back his judgment by reinvesting at the sale over the next two days.
He was at Riverside Stables yesterday looking for his next potential rags-to-riches opportunity, his confidence boosted by “the luck we’ve had in the last three years”, and he declared that he had not been turned off doing so despite economic downturn.
“The right horses will bring money and they will be well found, but the same people that you see at every sale are here and I am sure they will be buying horses if they like them,” Branthwaite said.
“That is where we will come into play down the bottom of the market where we can scratch through them, do our notes and wait in the ring.
“Basically, buying in our market, you have to find an athlete and then look at the legs. You have to forgive. You can’t be looking at legs if it’s not an athlete. A lot of people in the higher market just can a horse if it’s not 100 per cent.”
Branthwaite says more vendors may be willing to part with their foals for under what they previously would have expected to receive because of the uncertainty of the market.
“There’s going to be extra risk there for people wanting to buy because of the economic climate, but on the other side you have got vendors who pretty much haven’t been able to sell a horse,” he said.
“I am not saying they are bleeding or starving, but I am sure they are looking for a couple of bucks and they might let the odd one go for a few less dollars than what they usually would.”
Middlebrook Valley Lodge’s Verna Metcalfe, who is consigning a quality draft of weanlings by sires including So You Think (High Chaparral), Exceed And Excel (Danehill) and American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile), believes vendors will have to carefully consider their options if the depth of the buying bench is tested in the next two days.
“To me, we’ve got record inspections, so I think the good horses will sell well and people have just got to be realistic with reserves,” she said.
“People have to remember, there is going to be a heap of yearlings trying to get into the sales next year and there’s also horses coming from New Zealand who are going to get into next year’s sales, so the market is going to be flooded.”
Inglis general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch was optimistic that a competitive marketplace would occur with the company working closely with buyers who were unable to be on the ground but had expressed interest in participating in the market.
They include interstate and overseas investors, particularly from New Zealand.
“I still think we’re going to see a well diversified buying bench, but people are going to be inherently conservative given the circumstances we find ourselves in,” Hutch said.
“At this stage, the most commonly desired object on the salesground is a crystal ball to know what sort of market we’re going to be selling into in 2021.
“The facts are that there’s been over $400 million worth of yearlings in Australia this year and that’s a lot of money. So, even with a contraction of that market, there’s still going to be a lot of money in the market in 2021.
“Certainly, the pinhooker wants to have the opportunity to get a piece of that money and for end users there’s an opportunity to potentially buy some really nice horses at a discount.
“Graduates of the sale are evidence of that whether it’s Redzel, Begood Toya Mother or Spright and countless other examples.”
One aspect of the sale will be how the first season sires will be received and Hutch says the vendors have provided a quality representation of young stock by the new stallions.
“It’s particularly exciting to see so many good foals here by some of the sexy stallions, whether it’s Russian Revolution, Merchant Navy, Hellbent, there’s some very good Highland Reel and Invader foals here and there’s also Pariah, etc, etc,” he said.
“There’s also plenty of good foals here by the proven stallions as well. To have that great calibre of stock provides opportunity for us and, most importantly, for buyers.”
The sale starts at 10am today.