The McEvoys go on a spending spree as the Inglis Classic sale gets underway
Tony and Calvin McEvoy were the hardest hitters on day one of an Inglis Classic Yearling Sale which resoundingly defied fears of a downturn when the father and son duo snapped up the day’s two highest lots in a $400,000 colt by boom sire Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) and a $360,000 filly by I Am Invincible (Invincible Spirit).
The purchases, along with two more that took the McEvoys’ day-leading aggregate to $1.22 million, came in a session which delivered an average – which stood on Sunday night at $99,952 – comfortably eclipsed last year’s mark of $94,929, despite many vendors’ anticipation of a difficult, soft sale.
Day one’s median was unchanged on last year’s $80,000, while the aggregate of $17,691,500 was down from $18,707,000 for the first session of 2024, but with only 177 lots sold compared with 197.
That reflected what for Inglis was the only downside of Sunday – a clearance rate of 73 per cent compared with 83 per cent on last year’s opening day.
Still, many vendors reported the clearance was stronger than they had feared, given the country’s ongoing economic tough times which were shown in difficulties in the bottom half of the market at the Magic Millions Gold Coast and New Zealand Bloodstock’s Karaka sales last month.
“It’s a more than satisfactory day,” said Inglis’s CEO of bloodstock sales Sebastian Hutch.
“There’s only so much you can do in advance of a sale in preparation. We thought we had a strong group of buyers lined up, but to what extent they were prepared to participate was always going to be an unknown.
“But we were happy with the group of horses here, happy with the group of vendors here, so we were cautiously optimistic the sale would function well, and I would say it feels like the sale has functioned really well today.
“The clearance rate has been short of where we’d like it ideally but by the same token it’s solid in the current climate.”
Hutch said the demand for quality horses “felt really strong”, partly buoyed by the work of Inglis personnel to draw overseas buyers.
“The breadth of participation was very encouraging,” he said. “We have a huge cross-section of people participating.
“We knew we were going to have a good representation of overseas buyers. [Inglis’s Victorian bloodstock manager] James Price and [international business development manager] Nicky Wong have done a lot of travelling in the last number of months, and that’s reflected today in the nature of participation from buyers from Hong Kong and Malaysia in particular.
“That’s really pleasing. It’s reward for effort.”
Malaysian buyer Captain Tan was the day’s fourth-ranked investor, snaring four lots at an average of $108,750, finishing the first day with an aggregate of $435,000.
Hong Kong trainer Ricky Yiu bought the day’s third top lot – a $350,000 Star Turn (Star Witness) colt from Vinery Stud’s draft – while fellow Hong Kong trainer Francis Lui purchased the sixth-top yearling, a $260,000 Farnan (Not A Single Doubt) colt from Riverstone Lodge.
I Am Invincible was the top-averaging stallion of more than three lots sold, with his three yielding an average of $253,333 and – as of late last night – came Wootton Bassett (three at $216,667) and The Autumn Sun (Redoute’s Choice), whose five sold lots averaged $200,000.
By averages, I Am Invincible’s home stud Yarraman Park was leading vendor, with five lots sold at $212,000, ahead of New Zealand’s Waikato Stud, whose four yearlings sold for an average of $172,500.
On aggregates, Arrowfield Stud ranked first with $1.22 million – from nine sellers averaging $136,111. Next came Widden with $1.11 million for 11 lots at $101,182, Yarraman with $1.1 million, and Riverstone Lodge who sold seven for $865,000.
Hutch said vendors had appeared to react to lessons from the Gold Coast and Karaka, where high pass-in rates were particularly evident in the bottom end of the market.
“It felt like the experience of either being part of or observing sales earlier in the year has helped condition vendors to understand the challenges in the market,” he said, “and that really, there’s an advantage to getting your horse on the market. Vendors on the whole were very understanding of that, and I feel that’s reflected in a clearance rate that was solid relative to the equivalent stages of some other sales.
“Hopefully that’s something we can build on tonight and tomorrow [Monday] and into Tuesday and the days after.”
Tony McEvoy needs no convincing of Classic’s merits.
At the 2022 edition, the trainer – in conjunction with long-term partner Wayne Mitchell and Damon Gabbedy’s Belmont Bloodstock – bought future Group 1 winners Coco Sun (The Autumn Sun) and Veight (Grunt).
On Sunday, McEvoy and Mitchell and Belmont were understandably back in force.
In the early afternoon they had the new high water mark, going to $360,000 for Lot 114, Yarraman’s I Am Invincible filly out of six-time winner Choose (Starcraft).
A couple of hours later they eclipsed that, going to $400,000 to secure the day’s top-priced yearling in Lot 183, a colt by Wootton Bassett out of Elegant Air (So You Think) from the draft of Glenn Burrows’ Willow Park Stud. The triumvirate beat out determined underbidders Star Thoroughbreds, with Japanese owner Kazutaka Hosaka third in the race for the richly-coloured brown.
“Quality is expensive,” said McEvoy, who first approached his Japanese rivals in his search for owners.
“He’s a beautiful horse. Wootton Bassett is a leading international stallion and they’re a hot ticket item here in Australia, so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to purchase him.
“But I think at the end of the day he’ll be pretty good shopping once Easter comes around.”
So impressed was McEvoy with the colt by the Coolmore shuttler on everyone’s lips, he happily excused one supposed flaw.
“He’s a little bit back at the knee, which doesn’t bother me at all,” he said. “I thought it might put a few people off, but I trained many a stakes-winner by Danehill and they were all back at the knee. It never bothered them at all and it won’t bother this horse.
“He walks so fluently and balanced, and he’s just a quality colt. I looked at him four or five times and he kept growing on me. I’m so pleased to have him.”
Burrows was delighted for client John Hawkins, “a terrific fella” who followed his tip by paying up for Wootton Bassett for his mare Elegant Air, a half-sister to ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Go Indy Go (Bernardini) and two other Group winners.
“The horse was heavily inspected all the way through,” Burrows said. “We went in with a very low reserve, of $150,000. We had that many people interested – why muck it up with a high reserve?
“I’d been bullish on Wootton Bassett as soon as Coolmore’s Colm Santry rang me and said he’d be coming to Australia. I booked ten nominations in his first season, and backed up in his second season, which has produced this colt.”
McEvoy kept looking for reasons to mark down Yarraman Park’s Lot 114 by I Am Invincible but could find only positives, leading to her purchase for $360,000.
“I looked at her five times, and I just upgraded her every time I saw her,” McEvoy said. “Normally, you’re downgrading them, but she just kept putting herself in front of me. She’s got a great page, she’s a quality filly off a great farm. She only lacks one thing – an owner.”
The filly is out of Choose (Starcraft), a thrice Group-placed multiple Melbourne city winner with two victors from two foals to race, including this filly’s also three-time stakes-placed sister I Choose You (I Am Invincible).
“The dam has done the job. It’s a nice page, and why won’t it upgrade with a quality filly like this?” McEvoy said.
“She’s by the champion but I just loved her attitude, her purpose, her willingness. She’s a sweet mover – light on her feet.
“We valued her at about $300,000, but she kept going so we had to keep going.”
The McEvoy-led team also paid $260,000 for Lot 144, an Arrowfield-consigned filly by their resident stallion The Autumn Sun, and $200,000 for Lot 249, Riversdale’s colt by Hellbent (I Am Invincible).
Yiu claimed the day’s third-highest purchase in paying $350,000 for Lot 122, a Star Turn colt out of dual Sydney city winner Cocoexcel (Exceed And Excel). The colt’s third dam Eire Hostess (O’Reilly) won three races on end at two including Flemington’s Talindert Stakes (Listed, 1100m), and also produced dual Group 2 winner Brando (Savabeel).
Yiu will be hoping Classic history repeats. At the 2020 edition of the sale, he bought the colt who’s become his triple Group 1 winner Voyage Bubble (Deep Field). Back then, his $380,000 price was enough to make him the sale-topper. Yiu’s new colt fell short of Sunday’s top price, but he was happy with his shopping.
“I believe Star Turn is an up and coming sire, especially for Hong Kong,” Yiu said. “This colt is out of an excellent mare. I believe he’s a runner; he’s a real athletic type.”
The youthful brains trust behind exciting unbeaten three-year-old Private Harry (Harry Angel) – Kurrinda Bloodstock’s Sean Driver and Newcastle trainer Nathan Doyle – had the early clubhouse leader when they paid $320,000 for Lot 88 from the Widden Stud draft. A son of the stud’s Portland Sky (Deep Field), he was the top-priced lot of the day by a first-season sire.
The colt traces to an intriguing South American family. Dam Cailini (Smart Missile) is a two-time winning daughter of Estatuilla (Southern Halo), a sprinting mare who won four Grade 3s in Argentina, and whose half-brother Estambul (Kitwood) won four stakes races up to 1200 metres there, including two at the top level.
Well credentialed though the family might be, Driver employed largely the same type-based philosophy he applied in buying Private Harry, also from Classic in 2023, for $115,000.
“He was the pick of the colts for us. He’s out of a Smart Missile mare, I liked the cross but just on type he was a standout. He was a proper athlete,” Driver said.
“At this sale, that’s what you’ve got to buy – you’ve got to buy on type and we just felt that he was the one for us.”
The colt is from the 69-strong first crop of Widden’s Portland Sky, who dead-heated for first in the Oakleigh Plate (Gr 1, 1100m) and won two sprinting Group 2s, and who stood last year for $19,800 (inc GST).
But to be blunt, while declaring himself a fan of the breed, Driver was a lot less concerned with pedigree than appearance.
“As soon as I got him out of the box I didn’t care who he was by. This fella was an athlete,” he said. “No disrespect to the sire, but for me, it was just a bonus that the Portland Skys are all nice well balanced horses.”
The day’s fifth-top yearling was Lot 67, Yarraman Park’s I Am Invincible colt out of the stakes-placed Black Champagne (Denman), who went to Pat Kearney Racing et al for $270,000.