Six Of The Best – Inglis Easter 2025
Here, in lot order, is a guide to six yearlings likely to be among the top picks at next week’s Inglis Easter sale.
Lot 70
b f I Am Invincible – Missile Mantra (Smart Missile)
Yarraman Park
DOB: 10-10-2023
This Yarraman Park filly has been turning heads at Riverside all week, and is widely tipped to land among the top few lots by the farm’s super stallion I Am Invincible.
She’s the second foal of Missile Mantra, a dual stakes winner who was second in the Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) and a half-sister to Team Hawkes’s well-performed Group 2-scoring filly Makarena (Snitzel).
The dam’s colt first foal Missile Magnate (Capitalist) scored a timely win in a Gosford maiden at start two on March 15 for the Annabel Neasham and Rob Archibald stable, and Yarraman are confident this filly – bred on a cross that’s produced three winners from four runners – will be keenly sought.
“We’ve got a good group of fillies, and she’s our most popular one,” said Yarraman’s Harry Mitchell.
“She’s out of a well bred mare, and she’s a cracking type – what you want them to look like.
“She’s got a magnificent head, a lovely girth, she’s a good size, and she’s the second foal of a multiple Group-winning mare who was Group 1–placed. She’s got a lot of ticks.
“We expect Vinnie will be as popular as ever, and this filly in particular should go well.”
Lot 76
b c Snitzel – Ms Bad Behavior (Blame)
Arrowfield Stud
DOB: 01-10-23
This colt has been eagerly awaited for a long time – ever since his brother fetched $1.5 million at Easter 2023 and is now better known as Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Switzerland.
Arrowfield’s Jon Freyer bought the dam Ms Bad Behavior at Fasig–Tipton for US$600,000 with a mind to put her to the farm’s super sire Snitzel, and has so far carried out the plan without skipping a beat, with five consecutive matings.
After Switzerland – who could give this sibling a timely boost in Saturday’s TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) – the now two-year-old colt Decorum fetched $550,000 last Easter, and is awaiting his first start with Michael Freedman.
But the 2023 model could be the pick of the brood.
“He’s a ripping colt, and he’s what you’d expect,” Freyer said. “He’s beautifully made, just the right size, has a lovely shoulder, a gorgeous head and a great walk.
“I think he’s better at a similar age than Switzerland was. He’s a horse with a lot of presence and a lot of character about him. He looks the sort of horse you could see standing in a stallion barn one day.
“He’s all class, all quality, and he’s been like that from day dot really. He was a stand-out foal, and he’s a stand-out yearling.”
Ms Bad Behavior won four races up to 1600 metres, including at Grade 3 and Listed level in the US, while her dam Cumulonimble (Stormy Atlantic) was also a dual black type victor, who’s thrown three stakes winners in total.
Lot 158
b c Home Affairs – Shout The Bar (Not A Single Doubt)
Coolmore Stud
DOB: 22-08-23
Coolmore’s exciting first season sire Home Affairs (I Am Invincible) landed with a bang when his filly out of Sunlight (Zoustar) topped this year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast, selling for $3.2 million.
And the young stallion is likely to end up near the top of the tree at Easter with this imposing colt.
He’s the keenly-awaited first foal of outstanding mare Shout The Bar (Not A Single Doubt), winner thrice at Group level including of the VRC Empire Rose Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) and the ATC Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m).
Inheriting some of the scope of his mother, blended with the explosiveness of Home Affairs, the colt has been in high demand at Riverside this week.
“He’s one of the nicest physicals we’ve brought to an Easter sale in a long time,” said Coolmore’s racing and bloodstock manager John Kennedy.
“He’s a stand-out, and he has been from day dot. He’s been extremely popular, he’s a great start for the mare, and he’s definitely a horse who’ll likely feature in the top side of the sale.
“He’s a lovely blend of Home Affairs and Not A Single Doubt. He’s got plenty of scope, and the whole picture is very appealing in terms of what you’d like to buy in a precocious yearling.
“He’s very athletic, has a great mind, and is handling it all extremely well.”
Lot 162
b f I Am Invincible – Sierra Sue (Darci Brahma)
Vinery Stud
DOB: 15-09-23
Vinery has high hopes for this filly, the first foal from quadruple stakes winner – and dual Group 1-winning heroine – Sierra Sue and by the great I Am Invincible.
The stud appropriately went to the top for the first mating for the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and Futurity Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) winning Sierra Sue and Vinery’s Adam White said they were so delighted with the outcome that the mare now also has a weanling filly by I Am Invincible as well.
“She’s the first foal of a dual Group 1 winner, so she’s very exciting,” White said.
“The filly’s a typical I Am Invincible. He rarely lets you down. She’s got lots of quality, and is a very strong solid sort of filly who looks like she’d get up and get to the races early.
“She’s a good mover, with a great attitude and a strong page, and she’s handled herself really well in the parades this week.
“Her main feature is just her strength – great strength through the shoulder and hindquarter, with a lovely quality head on her. Everything’s in proportion; she’s balanced well and moves well.
“We were really pleased when she was born. She was a good size for a maiden foal. Once Sierra Sue foaled this filly, it gave us the confidence to go back to Vinnie.”
Lot 217
b f Zoustar – The Actuary (Sebring)
Widden Stud
DOB: 31-08-2023
Another possible sale-topper, this filly, who is closely related to star mare Zougotcha (Zoustar), has been setting tongues wagging at Riverside all week.
A daughter of Widden flagbearer Zoustar (Northern Meteor), who’s currently second and closing on his first general sires’ title, she’s the first foal of The Actuary (Sebring).
That mare is a Brisbane Listed victor who’s a half-sister to two more stakes winners in full siblings Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale-bound Zougotcha – the Widden-bred winner of three Group 1s – and Persuader. Third dam Crystal Wit (Distorted Humor) was another stakes winner who threw one more in Crystal Dreamer (Stratum).
The Actuary’s first foal is this filly’s full brother Algorithmic, who in three starts for the Yulong-Hawkes axis has earned a fifth in the VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and a fourth on debut in Randwick’s Lonhro Plate (Listed, 1000m).
“I’ve had a lot of people tell me she’s the best horse in the sale,” Widden boss Antony Thompson said of the filly.
“People say the old cliche – she’s a queen – but when you see her you’ll believe it. She’s been turning heads from day one.
“She’s an incredible filly, great depth of girth, a stack of quality, great presence, great balance – just an absolute stand-out of a yearling.
“She’s been one of the highest rated horses on our farm for a long time, and that says something. She’s very, very special.
“And being a very close relation to Zougotcha, who’s been an incredible filly for Chris [Waller] and us and everyone who’s been involved with her, means a lot to us. She’s by Zoustar, and we bred The Actuary, so to have this filly here at the Easter sale being admired by everyone is a very proud moment for us.”
Lot 326
b f Extreme Choice – Cicatrix (Violence)
Newgate Farm
DOB: 10-09-23
From Newgate’s deep ranks of American speed mares comes this powerfully built daughter of the farm’s sensational sire Extreme Choice.
Boasting five Group 1 winners from just 114 runners at 4.38 per cent, and 14 stakes winners at 12.28 per cent, the sub-fertile star stallion ranks as one of the hottest on the planet – hence his service fee rise for 2025 to an equal Australian record $330,000 (inc GST).
And this muscular filly looks typical of his stock.
She’s the fourth foal of Cicatrix (Violence), who claimed her only two starts in the US, over 1200 metres, including in Listed level at Gulfstream Park, to win a rising star award before her career was cut short.
Cicatrix’s second foal is Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott’s Mayfair (Fastnet Rock), a winner at two who’s been placed three times at stakes level, including a close third in the ATC Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m).
“This is about as good an example of an Extreme Choice filly that you’ll see,” said Newgate’s managing director Henry Field. “She’s really a stunning filly.
“She’s medium-sized, really well put-together, and has beautiful quality and great muscle tone.
“She looks like she’ll be up early and be fast, but also with enough scope to train on to be a really nice three-year-old, just like her brother Mayfair.
“She’s by one of the best sires in the world, she’s been very popular this week, and we’d expect her to sell very well.”