Surge in bloodstock demand expected to continue at Premier
Victorian buyers are anticipated to underpin successful three-day Inglis sale beginning tomorrow
The Victorian marketplace is expected to underpin a vibrant Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale market when the state’s major thoroughbred auction gets underway tomorrow, with Victorian owners and trainers predicted to make up for lost time and continue the recent surge in bloodstock demand.
Records have tumbled at Australia’s four yearling sales held so far this year and there is no reason to suggest the momentum will not be maintained at Premier, with a significant number of Victorian participants either priced out of the Magic Millions Gold Coast auction or choosing to keep their resources for Melbourne.
Many of the state’s trainers, in particular those running boutique to medium-sized stables, also elected to bypass northern sales on the Gold Coast and the Inglis Classic in Sydney due to the uncertainty and complications of travel restrictions.
Relatively new Victorian vendor Northmore Thoroughbreds has a draft of ten yearlings selling during the three-day sale, which is highlighted by Written Tycoon (Iglesia) (Lot 363) and Capitalist (Written Tycoon) (Lot 63) colts.
Rodney Notman, who runs Northmore with his wife Tammy, took confidence out of the 2021 yearling market and believes his draft will find favour with a large cross-section of buyers.
“The sales have all been really strong, which with me pinhooking, I was a little bit hesitant in buying too many horses for this year. As a result, I have got a couple going to (the Magic Millions) June sale. I left them a bit later because we didn’t know what’s going to happen with Covid,” Rodney Notman said.
“But from what I have seen of the sales so far, I am pretty impressed with how people have come and supported (the industry). A lot of trainers are having trouble buying horses. A lot of trainers have gone to the Gold Coast thinking they would get a horse, but it’s been hard work getting one.
“I spoke to a couple this morning and they are saying horses are making over what they thought they would be worth, so it is making up for a couple of years ago when it was a bit hard for the studs (at Premier).
“What goes around, comes around. You have your good years and bad years.”
A farrier, Notman has plans in place to slowly transition out of shoeing horses. He and Tammy have bought a property near Murchison, in Victoria’s thoroughbred heartland, where they will relocate in the near future from Elphingstone, near Kyneton.
“We have purchased a property at Murchison, just north of Nagambie. It is a great little property. It has plenty of water, it has got irrigation on it, so it is going to be really good. It has new barns, new fences, and we will probably do a little bit of agistment as well,” he said.
“I am still shoeing horses, but I want to be able to do something else in the future. Prepping horses for other clients and we want to get to know people as it’s a great industry.
“I have been a farrier since I was 17 and I’m 48, so I have been doing it a long time, and I am going to have to slow down and have a second (career). Murchison is going to be a great little place. I wish we were there ten years ago.”
While Northmore Thoroughbreds is only in its infancy, Sun Stud is preparing to offer its last draft of 14 yearlings at Premier under its own banner, at least for the foreseeable future.
Among Sun’s draft is first crop yearlings by Group 2-winning sprinter Thronum (Snitzel).
“He is from the family of Shamardal and Street Cry, so it is a beautiful female family as well, and … we’re very impressed by what he’s thrown,” Sun Stud sales and nominations manager Phil Marshall said yesterday.
“He seems to throw a type that is neat, short coupled and very strong. There’s quite a lot of Snitzel in the colts that I have seen by him, so I have been rapt with what he’s put on the ground so far.
“There aren’t many. He’s had some well-documented fertility issues unfortunately at stud, which has meant his numbers are a bit lower than what we would have liked, but we’ve seen with Extreme Choice this year that horses with low numbers can still do the job, so we’re not going to accept defeat with him straight away because he is throwing really, really nice types.”
Marshall, whose employer Sun Stud will lease its Riddells Creek property to Widden Stud from April, expects there to be a vibrant atmosphere when selling starts at Oaklands Junction tomorrow.
“It is always hard to predict the sale market before the sale begins, if you look at the success of firstly the Gold Coast Magic Millions and then on to Classic, and even Perth and Tasmania were very, very strong,” he said.
“If we can take a page out of that book, there’s every likelihood that this will be a strong market as well. I am hearing strong vibes from the trainers and agents who are going around the traps, which is great to hear on inspection days, and I dare say come Sunday there’s going to be a lot of buzz around.”
Inglis general manager of bloodstock sales and marketing Sebastian Hutch revealed interest in the Premier auction had been building for months as graduates continued to make their mark on the racecourse.
“The opportunities were there for the majority of people to go to earlier sales and, yes, they were very competitive and very strong, but it just feels like a lot of people have become aware of the quality that is on offer at a sale like this and they have strategically targeted it as a consequence,” Hutch told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“It is not going to be easy to buy nice horses here and there will be good competition, but with a catalogue of 800 horses, I don’t think there’s any doubt that we will be reflecting in the days, weeks and months after the sale that there were horses here who were well bought.”
The Melbourne sale is often a strong source for Hong Kong buyers, while South Africa has also previously been a player at Premier, and a number of agents with overseas clients have been working the complex compiling shortlists of horses who could eventually end up on a plane.
Hutch reminded buyers that good horses can emerge outside the obvious, as past results have demonstrated.
“There is always value to be found if you are diligent and do the work and the trainers are the ones who benefit from that,” he said.
“They are quite happy to buy the progeny of a sire who isn’t quite the sexy stallion or out of a mare who has had a few goes, but she has a nice yearling.
“They are happy to be a bit more forgiving and I think there will be good opportunities in that sphere.”
The three-day sale starts at 10am tomorrow.