Reputation to provide reloading impetus in selective market
Graduate success key to stimulating buying bench at Inglis Australian Weanling Sale
A professional buying bench, many of whom rely on the foal market as an important income stream, are in Sydney for the Inglis Australian Weanling Sale but they are expected to implement risk-averse investment strategies.
On the back of a subdued yearling market across the first four months of 2024, Inglis Bloodstock chief executive Sebastian Hutch expects the market to be “very selective” over the next two days.
However, the chief executive believes that there is enough depth to the catalogue, and the sale’s growing reputation, led him to have a sense of optimism about the Sydney weanling sale’s place on the national schedule and its prospects this week.
“The sale itself has had a spectacular season effectively. To have had Kimochi, Hayasugi, Straight Charge, Master Fay and Live To Tell, etc, come out of the sale all in recent years, it’s really fantastic and probably a byproduct of the momentum the sale has generated,” Hutch said.
“This sale lost its way a bit sometime ago and it’s been steadily building up again to the point where we have a significant catalogue of foals to sell on Monday and Tuesday.
“Whether it’s pinhooks or racehorses and that’s momentum that’s only going to continue this year.”
Hutch tempered any suggestion that the Riverside Stables sale was likely to buck the overall sentiment in the bloodstock economy.
“I have no doubt in my mind that there’s an appetite for good quality stock and inspections reflect that, but even before inspections started, as sure as night follows day, it was not hard to work out that buyers will identify the horses that they really like,” he said.
“They look to hone in on them and that feels like the way it’s playing out. There are always surprises, it just takes two people to create a competitive auction environment, but I think there’ll be a significant disparity between the horses that are perceived to be commercially desirable and those that are not.”
Bloodstock agent Shane McGrath proved he is no fair weather Irishman as he prepared to tackle the predicted heavy rain at Riverside, even if much of it didn’t eventuate, in the lead-up to Monday’s opening session.
Acting for Hong Kong-based Harbour Racing, McGrath is one man who two years ago made the most of the Australian weanling sales, unearthing this year’s Blue Diamond (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Hayasugi (Royal Meeting) and the $1 million The Showdown (1200m) winner Stanley Express (Starspangledbanner).
Both trained at Cranbourne by Clinton McDonald, Hayasugi was a $47,500 purchase out of Mike O’Donnell’s Fairhill Farm draft from the 2022 Inglis Sydney sale, while Stanley Express cost $110,000 from the Magic Millions National Weanling Sale a couple of weeks later.
On the advice of Inglis, McGrath ventured to Sydney last Thursday, a day earlier than intended, to undertake inspections of the Australian Weanling Sale catalogue.
“You are looking for the diamond in the rough and crystal ball a little bit with a weanling,” McGrath told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“You obviously have more of a finished product when you come to yearling time and then there’s the potential for developmental issues you’ve got with the extra six to nine months when owning a weanling compared to the yearling sale.
“From a vetting perspective, it’s a little bit trickier, so they’ve got to be perfect for me as trade horses as weanlings.”
Hayasugi is already an incredibly valuable filly, being a Blue Diamond winner, but Stanley Express remains a trade prospect with his future laying in Hong Kong, a plan which will most likely come to fruition after a shot at the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in the spring.
“You can sometimes can find those colts that aren’t ideal for pinhookers who breeders are looking to cash and turn some stock into cashflow and that presents opportunity,” McGrath said.
“You’ve got to have a system in place with how you rear them, to breaking them in and then putting them into that trade program.
“You’ve got to work out what it’ll cost you from weanling up to trial stage and then work out whether you think there’s a margin.
“At the end of the day, they still have to be able to run. It takes a fair horse now to trial well in a metropolitan area to do the job.”
Hutch said there will be considerable opportunities for end-users and pinhookers in this week’s weanling market despite the economic downturn.
“The reality is, when you sit down and do the maths of the market in 2024, there’s still been a lot of money in the market,” he said.
“While it’s been a more difficult year for trading purposes, it’s still been a very healthy market and while there’s been some scepticism around it, I think people who are involved in it professionally look at it and say, ‘If that’s the sort of market that’s going to be in place again in 2025, it’s a market I’m happy to be involved in’.
“No doubt there’ll be instances of people being apprehensive about the market but the same time that presents opportunities for buyers to take advantage of.
“I think for people who do their work, keep their lists long, and do plenty of research on a broad cross-section of horses, there’s going to be good buying.”
How active someone of McGrath’s profile is likely to be remains to be seen.
He and his partners’ level of investment at the preceding yearling sales has been significant and that could be a contributing factor to how aggressive they are over the next two days – and at the Gold Coast.
The bloodstock agent said his group had purchased up to 45 yearlings so far this year, the majority of which will be trained by McDonald.
“There’s obviously a gap in the [amount of] genuine proven sires in Australia, unlike we had eight to ten years ago, so that makes it a little bit tricky and predominantly the trade market wants sires that they recognise,” McGrath said.
“With the second and third season sires, that’s the case, too, but then again you’re buying them at a discount as well. I have often felt that if you like a first season sire, you can probably buy them in their second season at a 40 to 50 per cent discount.
“There’s so many professionals in the game and their livelihoods depend on pinhooking, so you’ve got to be very careful.
“You don’t want to step outside of your comfort zone, that’s for sure.”
The opening weanling sale session starts at 10am.